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SALT LAKE CITY -- Several Utah restaurants have been featured on The Food Network over the past year. Just how big of a boost are they seeing from that?
"Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is one of the most popular shows on The Food Network, and it's a show the owners of Salt Lake's Red Iguana had concerns about doing.
Owner Lucy Cardenas said, "'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.' I thought, ‘We're not really a diner, we're not a drive-in [and] we're not a dive,' but people have referred to us as a dive."
But Cardenas now is glad she did the show. Her already busy restaurant has seen a noticeable increase in business.
"I would say it has definitely helped at least 10 percent. At least 10 plus," she said.
Show host Guy Fieri apparently does know how to make food sound good. Cardenas says people come in from out of state simply because the restaurant was featured on "DDD." She says, "People do go on these trips and they will take his recommendations."
Reruns are a good thing
Cardenas adds, "The cool thing is, there are repeats, repeats, repeats, and every time there's a repeat, there's a heightened interest, and that's when I hear more people come in and say, ‘Hey! We just saw you on TV.'"
The reruns are a cash cow for the Burger Bar in Roy. Since the original airing last year, its episode has been shown 14 times. Manager Jessica Fowler says, "Last summer was insane."
She says interest in the Big Ben, as well as the buffalo and elk burgers has more than quadrupled. Overall, the restaurant has seen a 35 percent increase in business.
Also, there's a new record at the Burger Bar. Since the airing, one customer ate a burger with 17 quarter-pound patties, as well as fries.
What does Guy Fieri like?
"We get four or five questions a day [about the show]," says Ruth's Diner owner Erika Nelson. These questions range from what shooting was like to what Host Guy Fieri eats.
Restaurant owners say there are several months of communication between them and the show's producers before Fieri even comes to town. They want to know what's being served, and what won't be accepted.
Somehow, producers agreed with the Red Iguana to serve Mole Negro, which has chocolate in it, even though Fieri reportedly doesn't like chocolate. Fieri had no complaints.
It's great exposure, but it's kind of a pain
It took two days to shoot everything the show needed from the Red Iguana, but it took three days at Pat's Barbecue in South Salt Lake. On the first day, crews shot 14 hours worth of video then an additional nine hours when Fieri was in town. All this happens while the restaurant has to stay open for regular customers.
But owner Pat Barber has no complaints after seeing his episode air. He says, "It's been very, very, very, very busy. Did I say, ‘very'?"
Sales have really boomed at Pat's. Before the show aired in January, it was feeding roughly 300 people a day. That has jumped to nearly 1,200.
That episode was noticed by more than just hungry viewers. Barber says a production company saw it, and he's in negotiations with it to host a cooking show pilot that could be shopped around.
Other restaurants featured on the show include the Blue Plate Diner and Moochie's Meatballs.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
