Jackson restaurants featured on Food Network
Several Jackson restaurants have been featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” over the past few months, causing a big spike in business.
Host Guy Fieri and his production crew rolled into Jackson in June to shoot segments with 6 different restaurants. The segments with Cafe Genevieve, Sidewinders Tavern, Pinky G’s Pizzeria, Nora’s Fish Creek Inn and Pica’s Mexican Taqueria have all aired over the past few months. An episode featuring Lotus Cafe will air Oct. 3.
The episode featuring Cafe Genevieve aired Friday, and business has already increased. Manager Sarah Rowe said just over the past few days, the dish’s featured in the episode have been ordered 10x more.
“Guy definitely told us to prepare for that,” said Rowe. “He has a lot of really loyal followers.”
The management team at Cafe Genevieve had just weeks to prepare for the popular show. After a series of lengthy interviews, Fieri chose a few dishes from the menu to prepare on camera with chef Josh Governale.
“He was pretty entertaining,” said Governale. “Definitely a fun guy to work with in the kitchen.”
As fun as Fieri is, Governale said he was all business when it came to the food.
“To me it was very important, because the food here is really good,” said Governale. “There’s a lot that goes into that, and he realized that we put a lot of time and effort into it.”
Each Jackson restaurant’s segment was no more than 10 minutes, but filming took a whole lot longer.
“These producers were here for three days straight, making recipes and remaking recipes three times, four times, five times to get all the close up shots,” said Rowe. “Just every little shot takes so much work. These producers worked so hard.”
While Cafe Genevieve braces for an even busier future, Sidewinders Tavern is in the thick of it. Sidewinders was featured on the show in July and immediately received inquiries from Triple-D fans. Server Duncan Williams said the tavern received a very unique call following the episode’s debut.
“He says, ‘Hey what’s the address? I’m down here in Dallas and just saw y’all’s TV show. I want to come down to Sidewinders and have your chicken Pot Pie,’ and we told him the address,” said Williams. “He says, ‘alright well tomorrow morning I’m hopping in my car, see you guys in 12 hours,’ and sure enough he came, had the chicken pot pie and he loved it.”
If you’d like to learn more about the restaurants featured, you can visit the websites below:
