We hope you were able to catch Sidewinders on Diner’s Drive-Ins and Dives last week. If you haven’t had enough of seeing delicious dishes made in Jackson on national television, there is more to come tonight.
At 8 p.m., the beloved pizza spot, Pinky G’s, will air on the show, with the episode titled, “Old Standards, New Styles.” A few months ago, Guy Fieri contacted Pinky’s to see what they’ve got going on in the small, 1,100 square foot joint, as Fieri often refers to restaurants.
Pizza enthusiast and Pinky G’s owner, Tom Fay, knows what he is doing in the kitchen. Having won best pizza three years in a row according to Best of JH 2012, 2013, and 2014, it’s obvious Fay and his Pinky’s team well-deserved Fieri’s phone call.
After an intense four to five hour phone interview and various tests from different researchers for the show, Pinky’s was informed they had passed all the requirements to be filmed; the main requirement to be on DDD is that at least 80 percent of the designated restaurant’s food has to be homemade.
No sweat for Pinky’s.
With only a seven day heads up, Fay and his crew had to clean up the place and get the kitchen ready for the producers to roll into Jackson and film the show. They filmed for a couple of days, with different segments of the episode being filmed at different times.
Fieri picked out two of their specialty pizzas to cook and film with Faye: the Funky Chicken (oven roasted chicken, artichoke hearts, red onions, ricotta cheese on house-made fresh basil pesto), and the Abe Froman (spicy sausage, buffalo mozzarella and fresh chopped basil).
Fay says the reason Fieri picked these two is because he was very fond of the pizzas’ witty names; Funky Chicken was a song that Fieri’s aunt used to sing to him, and Abe Froman is the sausage king of Chicago, according to Ferris Bueller.
Fieri and his producers told Fay if they were to be aired on the show, it’d be anywhere from three to six months, and that they would give them a month’s heads up. Well, that time has been cut in almost half almost; the Food Network team called Fay about two weeks ago and told him that not only would their show air, but it would do so today.
“I am still shocked and honored that Guy called us, a small pizza place in a small town, to be on his show,” Fay said.
