by Margaret Merrill

Created on: July 09, 2008

How can anyone not fall in love with Guy Fieri and his show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives? As he worked his way through Food Network's show "Next Food Network Star," we all began to love him more and more as he began to show not only that he could make mistakes, but that he could be funny and human, too, in working around them. His spiked platinum hair, with the goatee, and the trademark sunglasses hanging backwards on his head, Guy was totally unlike any other candidate on the show. Guy's infectious laugh always managed to make even the most serious of the judges laugh.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives usually covers three different restaurants in each episode. And none of the restaurants are ever in the same city, or the same state. However, there was an exception in the episode where Guy went to visit Duff Goldman, a funny pastry chef, who happens to be the host of the Ace of Cakes, another Food Network show based in Baltimore, Maryland. That day, all three places Guy visited were in the Baltimore area.

Guy always drives his red 1968 Camaro, with black stripes and convertible top, on each episode. He arrives at each restaurant, across the street, and briefly describes what the restaurant sells. But he describes it so that your mouth waters, and not only do you think you smell the food, you practically drool all over yourself, too.

Would you like to go eat at a Dive In that is a couple of busses set together in West Virginia? Guy's going to take you there, and tell you all about the menu. And while he's there, he's going to sample the menu himself, on air, too. I don't honestly know how he does it all the time, except that he absolutely loves food from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Or how about the Diner at the Big Ten University that has a plate named after a quarterback? Then, of course, there's the Diner in Gilbert, Arizona that he featured just the other night that literally uses vegetables fresh from their huge backyard garden in their restaurant. Guy gives his honest opinion of the food, and only once or twice has he not liked the food that he has tried.

None of the places that Guy has chosen to take his television guests to visit are ridiculously priced. He asks the guests that are actually visiting at the many places that he chooses to go what their opinions are, not only of the place, but of the food, of the value, and a lot of other things. Guy gets into his job as the host, and does a wonderful job of it. You sit there watching him interacting with the owners, the guests, as well as the employees and desperately wish you were there yourself. He gets into learning how to cook the foods himself, the way the Diner, Drive-In or Dive makes it, exactly.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is one of the best food shows I think I have ever seen, and will make you hungry for more.

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