There are times when it seems that Guy Fieri's voice is heard more often in my house than mine is. That's cool with me, as we are unabashed "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" fans, and have been since the show came along in 2007. If you're a fan too, you may or may not know that there have been multiple Illinois restaurants featured on the show.

If you're not familiar, here's the premise for "Triple-D:" (from Wikipedia)

Each episode generally has a unifying theme (such as burgers or comfort food) with the host visiting multiple restaurants to sample the food that corresponds to this theme. The program focuses on small, independent eateries featuring traditional American-style, sometimes Canadian, cuisine (such as barbecue, smoked meat, hamburgers, deep-fried food, pizza, steak, and bacon-and-egg breakfast), regional styles, or ethnic specialties. Most often, the chosen restaurants use fresh ingredients, home-style recipes, and gourmet culinary approaches to what is usually not considered gourmet food. The host interacts with both the customers, to get their opinion on the food, and with the kitchen staff, who demonstrate how to prepare one or more of the dishes.

In a nutshell, Guy hits these cool food joints, laughs it up with the proprietors, chats with the clientele, and helps in the kitchen, all in a fairly fast-paced family-friendly tone.

So, which eateries has Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives visited here in Illinois? Let's take a look, along with the specialty of the house at each spot:

  • Charlie Parker's, 700 North St Springfield, IL- "The Horseshoe: huge combination of anything you can think of on 2 pieces of bread."
  • Dell Rhea's Chicken, 645 Joliet Rd. Willowbrook, IL- "Chicken." Wow, never would have guessed that Dell Rhea's Chicken would specialize in...chicken. Thanks, Guy.
  • Chuck's Southern Comfort Cafe, 6501 W 79th St Burbank, IL- "a bbq joint brings southern cookin' to the locals with favorites like cajun meatloaf and chicken fried chicken."
  • Vito & Nick's, 8433 S Pulaski Rd Chicago, IL- "Stuffed crust Italian-style pizza."
  • Garifuna Flava Caribbean Cuisine, 2518 W 63rd St Chicago, IL- "a Belizean place serving classics like king fish in gravy with mashed plantains."
  • Nana, 3267 S Halsted St Chicago, IL- "a family-run restaurant putting a twist on biscuits and gravy - with free-range duck."
  • Paradise Pup, 1724 S River Rd Des Plaines, IL- "Off-the-hook hamburgers and hot dogs."
  • The Shanty, 38995 N Us Highway 41 Wadsworth, IL- "Traditional American fare."

You can check out the full list of the 30-plus Illinois joints that have been visited by Guy and company by visiting TVFoodMaps. We're still waiting for a Rockford visit.

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