Diners, Drive-ins and Dives recap: Hey Meatball edition

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives recap: Hey Meatball edition

(Image: Food Network Canada)

Ever since Guy Fieri came to town to shoot segments for his cult Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, we’ve been curious about how Toronto would come off. The verdict: not at all badly. The first Toronto segment aired on Friday in an episode on “Eurocentric” restaurants, with Hey Meatball getting the most screen time (the other two places were in Syracuse, New York and Tacoma, Washington). Fieri was his usual over-the-top self, spouting cheesy one-liners (e.g.: “Hey Meatball uses fresh, local ingredients and meats to make…wait for it, wait for it…exactly. Little round orbs of joy!”). But for our money, he got out-Fieried by Hey Meatball chef and owner Rodney Bowers, himself no stranger to food television. Below, a quick recap of the segment:

The Place: Hey Meatball
The Chef: Rodney Bowers
The Food Porn: Bowers walks Fieri through the process of creating two dishes: his ginormous meatball sandwich, dubbed “The Rodfather,” and his chicken meatballs, served with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy.

Best Quotes:
• Fieri on the Rodfather: “You’ll have to pry this out of my dead hands”
• Bowers introducing himself: “I call myself the 300 pound Nonna.”
• Bowers, spreading pesto: “Here’s where the pesto comes in, and this is kinda like the Karate Kid: wax on, wax off.”
• The obligatory endorsement from a customer: “When it comes to meatballs, they’re really the only game in town!”