Celebrity chef Guy Fieri has visited well more than a thousand restaurants in his show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” which raises the question: What’s the best one he found in every state?
Anyway, it raised that question for the foodies at mashed.com, and they settled on a joint with a view of Mobile Bay as Alabama’s best contribution to Flavortown. In a fresh best-of list, the site ranks Sunset Pointe at Fly Creek Marina, in Fairhope, as Fieri’s tastiest Alabama find.
The food site’s blurb: “Relax in the casual atmosphere, gaze out at the ocean view, and be sure to check out the Eastern Shore Bouillabaisse, loaded with Gulf Coast shrimp, mussels, and leeks; and the Gulf Snapper Throats bathed in garlic butter.” (For the uninitiated, the term “snapper throats” refers not to offal but to a boneless cut of flesh from the forward belly portion of the fish, around the pectoral fins. It’s rightly considered a delicacy.)
RELATED: 68 must-try Alabama dishes (including Rick Bragg’s “Ode to Grouper” Sandwich at Sunset Pointe)
Though the article doesn’t go into it, the deck was stacked. Sunset Pointe is owned by “Panini Pete” Blohme, who has appeared on several of Fieri’s shows and collaborated with him in other ventures. Of the four Alabama venues visited by Fieri in all his seasons of “DDD,” two are owned by Blohme and all four are in the Daphne-Fairhope area.
And how do we know that? Because the mashed.com article turned us on to www.dinersdriveinsdiveslocations.com, a fan site that meticulously documents the eateries visited on the show. That’s more than 1,350 places over 36 seasons, it says.
If you want to go where Fieri has been, it’s a site that provides plenty of food for thought. But in Alabama the trail doesn’t go any farther north than Manci’s Antique Club in Daphne.