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Hey, everybody.
I'm Guy Fieri, and we're rolling out
looking for America's greatest diners, drive-ins, and dives.
This trip...
That was quiet.
That's the loudest thing we do here.
...I'm taking my Vitamin C, mom,
'cause it's chicken, chili, and chowder.
All right, let's make this.
In Toronto, Canada, the real-deal smokehouse...
Anything you don't want to eat in your lifetime,
smear that on it.
...doing the funky chicken
right next to a burger loaded with butter.
Brother, that is the balance.
In Burbank, California...
He put his finger in it. Did you see that?
...the old-school chili house.
You're gonna say this is...
Number one.
...rocking a 65-year-old recipe.
I don't think I've had it offered that way.
And in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
the shot bar turned gourmet hot spot
cooking up a chowder with an Italian surprise.
Wow!
That's all right here, right now,
on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
So I'm right between downtown and midtown in Toronto, Canada,
in the Hillcrest Village area of St. Clair Avenue West
to check out a joint that's serving up the kind of food
you'd expect in these parts -- a smokehouse.
This is The Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder.
One barbecued beef brisket.
The best barbecue I've ever had.
It's insane.
It's not your typical Southern cuisine.
We need to drop fries and the green tomatoes, please.
MAN: It's unique. It's Tom's take on those flavors,
but he does it in his own way.
FIERI: That would be the Tom Davis way
developed on the runway...
Back in the day.
...and tweaked in his own kitchen.
Order up! Two Butter Burgers!
DAVIS: One of my dreams
was to open up my own sort of smokehouse and diner.
I was smoking in my backyard.
People just started digging what I was doing.
In '09, he went from catering to his own brick and smoker.
He puts his heart and soul into everything that he does here.
Hot, hot, hot!
Everything on this menu is brilliant.
Giant chunks of fried chicken and griddle-cooked hamburgers
done right.
Butter Burger -- best burger I've ever had in my entire life.
Out of all the burgers you've had in your life?
It's sin on a bun.
We're gonna make the Butter Burger.
Butter Burger. With bone marrow?
With bone marrow.
These are veal marrow bones.
So, line them up?
This is like chess in Flavortown.
Put this into the oven for about 45 minutes at 425.
Very cool.
So, these have all cooked down,
and how are we gonna get those out?
We're gonna use a handy cocktail spoon.
They should come out real easy.
That fatty, delicious...
Fatty beauty.
So now that we've got all the marrow out, next step?
Red-wine reduction,
unsalted butter, our blue cheese.
And then we combine all the ingredients together
till you start sweating.
The warm marrow is melting everything.
Kind of help tying it all together.
That is killer.
Anything you don't want to eat in your lifetime,
smear that on it.
A good glob.
Roll it up like a sausage,
and we put those into the fridge to let them...
Congeal and harden.
So, special grind with the hanger steak.
Six ounces.
Kosher salt right on the griddle.
Custom-made burger smasher.
Hold down for one second.
Helps create a nice, beautiful crust on the burger.
Salt that.
About three minutes per side.
Our butter roller.
Put a nice browning on the bun.
Shall we do the flip?
Do you see the juice?
Very nice.
Look at that really nice crust on that.
Nice.
Nice toast.
...color on that.
Just put down butter lettuce.
Whoa.
And then we top it off with the fried onion.
Yeah, please do.
The bun is just soaking up the butter.
You may need one of those.
That's the kind of napkin you need
with a burger like this.
It's so decadent.
It's got this smooth, silky, velvety appeal
with these rich flavors, and then, all of a sudden,
Crunch, right.
You get the crunch and the texture.
Thanks, brother.
So I had to bring in a real authority,
someone that is from Toronto,
someone who's a chef, someone who knows how to cook,
someone who's got all that insight.
This is my friend Eden.
So, Eden, give me the rundown here.
Mmm.
Just so buttery.
I love that blue cheese because that blue cheese
gives it that tanginess and that crust on the meat.
[ Speaks indistinctly ]
Everything you put in your mouth here is good.
I mean, sandwiches -- some of them are meats that Tom smokes here.
Another Bat Sandwich Combo.
I'm having the Bat sandwich today.
FIERI: Tom's Southern-fried take on the BLT.
WOMAN: Bacon, arugula, and fried green tomatoes.
We're making our bacon cure.
Kosher salt, brown sugar, and our curing salt.
So we'll rub it down, let it sit for 10 days.
FIERI: Then it hits the smoker.
What in the...?
How many racks, ribs at a time?
We can go about 60 racks in there.
What temperature does this hold really nice at?
We're cold smoking, so we're about 100 degrees --
let this go for 10, 12 hours.
Then we'll bring the temperature up a touch.
Okay.
Okay, homey. I love fried green tomatoes.
Cornmeal.
Onion powder. Paprika.
Cayenne. Garlic powder.
Oregano. Sage.
Okay.
In the flour.
Egg and buttermilk wash.
Over to the cornmeal.
And what temperature are we gonna fry that at?
About 375.
You got it.
And then it goes together.
Yeah, this just came out of the smoker.
Okay, so this is how thick you make this.
How many planks of this are they getting?
Two on the Bat.
All right, let's make this.
So we only toast this bread on one side.
Okay, so you don't just kill the top of your mouth
That's right.
That is our lemon crème fraiche.
Arugula.
Lay down our two strips of Stockyards' thick-cut bacon.
Dude, that's ridiculously thick-cut.
Topped with fried green tomato.
And now...
Mm.
I had to get a big bite out of that.
The herbaceous side of the arugula,
a little bit of that acid coming through from the crème fraiche,
the salt, the crunch of the coating of the green tomato,
the richness or a little bit of that smoke --
That real deep undertone coming through from that bacon
makes this just an unbelievable sandwich.
Brother, that is the balance.
So, speaking of what a great sandwich that is,
the only chance I'm gonna give you to beat that is with the fried chicken.
So when we come back, we're hanging out at the Stockyard,
and this man Tom is off the hook.
We'll see you in a little bit.
Thank you, brother.
[ Sizzling ]
All right, so "Triple D" is back,
and we've gone international.
We're in Toronto, Canada, in the Hillcrest Village area
at The Stockyards, and what are we gonna make now?
Stockyards' fried chicken.
And I hear it's the bomb.
The fried chicken is the best you'll ever have in your life.
MAN; It is just juicy and crispy
and all delicious all at the same time.
It's beautiful.
So we've broken it down to 10 pieces. Next step?
We have to make our brine. Salt and sugar.
A little bit of warm water.
Okay.
Fresh thyme.
Dig it.
Allspice.
Whole peppercorns. And red onion.
Fill that with ice-cold water.
I like the direction this is all going.
And we'll just fill that baby up.
Bobbing for chicken, huh?
[ Laughs ]
So into the fridge, 24 hours.
Next step is a marinade. Cayenne.
Paprika. Lemon pepper.
Nice touch.
Kosher salt. And ground pepper.
Mix in our lovely buttermilk.
It's combined nicely.
You see the nice little color in that.
We'll take drum, half a breast.
There we go.
Wing.
Okay. So, that comes together.
Tie that baby up.
Goes back into the walk-in for 24 hours.
The marinated chicken is going into the seasoned flour.
About 315.
Yes.
And what are we frying in -- what kind of oil?
Canola oil.
How long does this batch go?
13.
And you know when it's done 'cause it's gonna start dancing.
The chicken dances in the fryer.
Oh.
That's the one right there.
Finish it with some fries...
and some of our Thai bird chili hot sauce
and house-made coleslaw.
I'm a wing man.
Mmm. But look at that chicken.
All the things that fried chicken should be.
Seasoned a little bit, but balanced.
You get the notes of the pepper and the salt and the hot.
That's how barbecue sauce is supposed to go with chicken.
It's not super-over-the-top hot
that's gonna burn your palate out.
If you don't come and try it with the hot sauce,
you're missing it.
Thank you.
Awesome, man.
This beats mama's fried chicken.
[ Laughs ]
Forgive me.
I love this place. Absolutely.
The Stockyard really does something special for my soul.
This is as good as it gets. You ain't gonna get better.
You get it from Larry himself.
FIERI: Every time we come up to Canada, we find really great food,
but this, man,
you'd be hard-pressed to tell me
you weren't coming from North Carolina.
Oh, that's a compliment.
Thank you.
Brothers hug.
FIERI: Coming up...
We're headed west to Burbank, California...
So here at the chili dome...
...for a decades-old institution...
I'm like Bubba and Forrest Gump
are having a talk right now on the bus.
...giving a class on chili.
[ Imitating Bubba ] Chili and spaghetti,
chili and beans...
So I'm here in Burbank, California.
Now, when most people think about Southern California,
they think great weather,
dynamite Mexican food, and health food,
but do they think
like old-school chili joints from 1946?
Well, they will after they visit this place.
This is Chili John's.
It kind of feels like a 1950's diner.
[ Cash register dings ]
This is like a "Happy Days," you know.
This is so old school,
the recipe for the chili came with the building
when Debra LoGuercio and her husband
bought the joint more than two decades ago.
Now her sons Anthony and Alec are serving up the same recipe.
We're an old-school Italian family,
and this chili has garlic in it, so we can cook it.
If it has garlic in it, you got license to do it.
And they took that license
to start dishing out some of their own chili recipe.
We have chili dogs.
Chicken chili.
Vegetarian chili.
I'm like Bubba and Forrest Gump
are having a talk right now on the bus.
[ Imitating Bubba ] Chili and spaghetti,
chili and beans,
[ Laughs ]
But the staple around here
is the original Texas-style beef chili.
Pot's hot.
We're gonna take our ground-beef suet.
So the suet, this is the beef fat.
Best you can buy.
All right, so we cook this down.
Got it.
And then we will render out the cracklings.
Here's our cracklings.
So this is the little bit of meat that was in the suet.
This is going to go into our grinder.
We're gonna grind this down with our garlic.
So we have the hot tub of liquid fat.
What kind of beef?
This is just peeled beef knuckle.
Okay.
So we'll stir this for a good four hours
before we're ready to add any of our spices.
So when we know it's ready, we're gonna do the smush test.
Ah, the smush test.
If it mushes,
it's almost cooked down to where it melts in your mouth.
Yes. Ready for the spices.
We'll start with cumin.
Oregano. Thyme.
Our salt. Remember those cracklings?
With the garlic.
There's a lot of flavor in the cracklings.
Now we stir.
This will sit for half an hour,
and then we'll add our chili-powder blend.
But eating that... Whoo.
Dummy put his finger in it! Did you see that?
This has to stir for half an hour.
The final spice -- hot cayenne.
Let this go for another half an hour,
and then we put it on the steam table.
Okay. I love it, man.
So here at the chili dome, how can I have it?
However you want.
Some beans... Some spaghetti...
Some hot chili... Some cheddar cheese...
Some onions.
I have done it up with the majority of the ingredients.
Mmm.
Yeah, there's nothing like that extra suet.
I don't think I've had it offered that way.
Nope. Nobody makes it like this.
Mmm. Not too spicy.
I like the mixture of the beans to the spaghetti.
Nicely done, my friend.
I can't keep shoving it in my mouth fast enough.
It's good, man.
It's the best chili I've had in California.
Well, 65 years speaks pretty well for it.
I don't think we have to really get into much more detail, do we?
You can tell it's all homemade with heart and love.
FIERI: Have you guys changed any of the recipes?
ALEC: Only addition, no changes, no subtractions.
Out of all the chili joints you've got in California,
Number one.
This is the place that you will kick yourself, Burbank,
that you've been driving by for this many years
and you've never tried it.
You got to come check it out. Thanks for having me.
FIERI: Up next, We're Philly bound...
This is awesome.
I like this method.
...making my kind of chowder.
Clam chowder and gnocchi?
I'm here at a great "Triple D" town -- Philadelphia --
in southwest Center City -- to check out a joint
that for 60 years was just a shot-and-beer place.
Now it's three stories of upscale bar food.
This is Sidecar.
And that's also a sidecar.
Pork nachos up!
It's a neighborhood joint.
And the food is fantastic.
Some of the best that I've ever tasted.
You just feel like you're a part of something.
[ Engine turns over ]
FIERI: Yep, part of Adam Ritter's midlife crisis.
I was working in sales.
I was selling forklifts and warehouse designs.
I wanted to become a chef. I wanted to open up something like this.
Whoo!
So he cut to the chase
and picked up this property in 2005.
Next think I know, my wife and I own a shot-and-beer bar.
No.
That's when he leaned on Brian Lofink,
a local who is a culinary grad.
MAN: It's an incredibly original menu.
Everything that they come up with is a twist
on something that I know.
But don't be expecting your mama's burger...
Piggy burger up!
...or your granny's clam chowder.
WOMAN: They actually have potato gnocchi in there,
and it's so heavenly good.
Oh, to die for. [ Laughs ]
Yep.
It's our little spin on a clam chowder.
Let's roll.
Hot potatoes.
We're going to cut these in half.
You got to do it right away.
Otherwise, the potatoes get real gummy, and it makes a really poor product.
I take it we're gonna just kind of rice them through this?
Take it right here, pop them right out.
Now with this spoon, we push them right through.
I like the method, man.
Yeah, it works out pretty good.
And at this point, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna season it
with freshly ground black pepper.
Some salt. Butter.
Some extra-*** olive oil. There we go.
I'm gonna crack two eggs in here.
Going pretty rustic on this one.
It's what we do.
This is awesome.
Then we're gonna mix all this up together.
Okay. All with a bench knife.
That's it.
Everything's all mixed together and happy now.
Then we add in our flour.
We're just gonna cover the top of it here.
We don't mix it all together
'cause it creates too much gluten.
We're gonna cut this baby in half,
and we're just gonna keep folding over top,
pressing it and pressing it.
Kind of almost in the biscuit theory.
Exactly.
I don't think I've ever done the cut and stack.
This has got to be some nice and light gnocchi, huh?
Yeah, it pretty much just melts in your mouth.
I like this method.
So after we get it all mixed together,
we're gonna let it sit for about a half-hour.
It had a chance to rest, so we take this off.
We just dust this with a little bit of flour.
Cut a little edge off like that.
Okay.
We roll it out nice and light. We be gentle with it.
Then we just kind of come to the edge here and cut down.
Yeah.
Sprinkle some bench flour over top of it.
So they don't dry out. Scoop them up.
Beautiful.
All right, so now we're gonna go and make the clam stock?
We're gonna take our clams -- littleneck clams, by the way.
[ Rattling ]
That was quiet.
That's the loudest thing we do here.
We're gonna take our onions, add them in.
Carrots. Celery.
So the mirepoix.
Little bit of garlic. Fresh thyme.
Fresh parsley. Bay leaf.
Whole black peppercorns.
We just cover this with water.
Yep.
Cover this with foil.
Fire it up, let them go 10 minutes.
You'll strain it.
These are the cool clams
that we're gonna pick for our clam chowder.
We're gonna assemble the whole clam chowder right here.
So we got applewood-smoked bacon here.
We're gonna get it nice and crisp.
Add in our shallot, garlic. Get our light toast on this.
Add in our clams. Clam stock.
We drop our gnocchi.
These gnocchis are rising,
so we're gonna add these to our pan.
The starches from these gnocchi
is gonna help thicken the sauce.
Now a little cream.
Mount it with a little butter.
Season with a little bit of salt,
a little bit of black pepper.
Tighten it up.
And we're ready to plate.
That's ridiculous.
Take some of our crispy shallots here.
Oh!
[ Laughs ]
And we finish it with a little celery-leaf salad.
Very nice.
The gnocchi's delicate -- depth and flavor,
and you get a little bit of the clam and the creaminess.
But it's not the creaminess in the sauce,
it's the creaminess in the gnocchi itself.
Mmm. And then the salad on it.
[ Sighs ]
The salad on the top is what makes it. Wow!
This is literally one of the best gnocchi dishes I've ever had.
Oh, awesome, man.
Amazing.
Clam chowder up!
The gnocchis are so light and fluffy.
The salt and the cream ratio is like just right.
And that little celery salad on top?
Very nice.
Forget about it.
It's excellent.
It's ridiculous.
Real food. Nothing pretentious.
Inventive and interesting.
Thank you, sir.
I'm telling you. You won it.
You got Jenny, you got the sidecar,
and then you named the joint.
The big winner, huh? Chicken dinner.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Watch out for this guy.
So, that's it for this Flavortown road trip.
But don't you worry.
There's plenty more joints all over this country.
I'll be looking for you next time
on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."
That butter is in -- Oh.
[ Laughs ] He's watching out for me.
No, you have some -- There you go.
Okay, you're almost good.
Yeah, I'm here for you.
Just go for another bite.