The Best Desserts We've Seen On Diners, Drive-Ins, And Dives
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It feels like anytime you turn on Food Network, a new episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" is playing. That's probably because the show has been running for a whopping 15 years and has become one of the flagship shows of the network, according to The New York Times. For almost two decades, host Guy Fieri has been driving across the continent in his signature red Camaro, highlighting small businesses and self-taught chefs who have created places where people gather to eat their favorite comfort food. He's shown that you don't need a Michelin star to make great food that resonates with restaurant patrons.
While many of the dishes featured on "triple D" are diner and dive classics like massive burgers, biscuits and gravy, or incredible pancake stacks, there's an entire category that deserves a spotlight: the desserts. Over the years, Guy Fieri has introduced us to some of the most over-the-top, memorable spins on classic, beloved diner treats you could imagine. Keep reading to see the very best desserts featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Warning: you're gonna want to high tail it to your closest diner as soon as you're done reading.
Blueberry goat cheese pie
What happens when a waitress and a line cook fall in love, then buy the restaurant where they met? That's how the 3 Sisters Cafe in Indianapolis was born. In this episode, Fieri takes us to this Midwestern joint that looks more like a Victorian house than a restaurant. Inside this unlikely diner, Chef Alex Munroe shows Fieri how they make their iconic blueberry goat cheese pie. Yeah, that's right. This pie has goat cheese in it and it works incredibly well with the dish.
A melange of sweet and savory, this pie begins with a classic butter crust. Then Chef Munroe throws together a quick base of heavy cream, brown sugar, tangy goat cheese, an egg, and even chopped basil. And of course, a ton of blueberries. Top the pie with a crunchy topping of sliced almonds and sugar, you've got yourself a truly unique pie. Or as Guy Fieri put it: "Dude. Whoa. That pie rocks."
Pecan butter crunch donuts
Pies 'n' Thighs is an iconic fried chicken and pie shop in an unlikely place: Brooklyn, New York. This homage to all things Southern is famous for its fried chicken and biscuit sandwich. But this is a dessert round-up so we're here to focus on its other most iconic food. No, not pies — it's the pecan butter crunch donut.
The process starts with making toffee from scratch. Melted butter and sugar caramelize together, then harden into a crisp, smokey sweet toffee. The toffee is then chopped up in a food processor and mixed with finely chopped pecans. The donuts are made with a yeasted dough and deep fried to fluffy perfection. Then the donuts are dipped in glaze and coated with the homemade toffee-pecan mix, prompting a "You've gotta be kidding me!" from Guy Fieri. Only in New York can you find Southern-inspired desserts this delicious.
Sweet potato crunch pie
Sweet potato pie is a Thanksgiving table classic, but what if you could have it year round? Turns out you can if you're lucky enough to live near Mahony's Po'-Boy Shop in New Orleans. After serving Guy Fieri the restaurant's famous po'-boy sandwiches, Chef Benjamin Wick whipped up his iconic sweet potato crunch pie.
Instead of using sweet potato puree like your aunt usually makes it, Wick uses big chunks of roasted sweet potatoes mixed with brown sugar and pie spices. The thick crumble on top of the pie gives it its "crunch" name and it consists of mostly whole pecans and brown sugar, which is "kinda like the topping you get on coffee cake," according to Fieri. But what really kicks this pie up a notch in the flavor department is that it's topped off with mini marshmallows that have been blow-torched to toasted perfection. Because what's a sweet potato pie without marshmallows? Just a root vegetable in an all-butter crust, basically.
Maple Bacon Donut
Despite its obsession with green juice and Botox, Los Angeles is home to a plethora of donut shops. In fact, it's the donut capital of the United States, according to National Geographic. So it's no surprise that when Fieri stopped by the iconic Nickel Diner in Downtown Los Angeles, he was served the famously sweet maple donut with a very savory bacon crunch on top.
The pastry chef at Nickel Diner starts off with a yeast-based donut dough that has to rise for a full 24 hours. Then she beats the pillowy dough with a rolling pin, cuts out donuts and donut holes, and fries them to golden brown perfection. Next comes the maple glaze, which is a simple mix of confectioner's sugar and maple syrup. Each donut is hand-dipped in the glaze and then rolled in some crushed-up and very crunchy cooked bacon. It's a complete breakfast all wrapped up in one delicious donut.
Banana cream pie
Guy Fieri stopped by the Duluth Grill in Duluth, Minnesota, a classic diner in a blue-collar neighborhood that serves up all the local favorites, like pancakes and meat pasties. The best-seller at the Duluth Grill is an old-fashioned diner staple, the banana cream pie.
We've all had our fair share of banana cream pies, so what makes this one special? The Duluth Grill manages to put its own spin on this classic dish. It all starts with the shortening-based crust, which chef and owner Tom Hanson mixes by hand. He then rolls the dough out into seven-inch rounds. That's right: When you order a banana cream pie at the Duluth Grill, you get your very own personal pie. Each individual crust is blind-baked, then filled with freshly sliced bananas and homemade vanilla custard. Topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce, Fieri summarized this pie in one word: "Dynamite."
Hot blueberry crunch rollers
Darby's Cafe in Olympia, Washington is a funky, health-conscious spot that serves unique food. So what exactly is a hot blueberry crunch roller? Described by one patron as a tortilla "full of granola and fresh blueberries," this dessert is as original as the cafe.
It all starts with a homemade maple bourbon granola. Obviously, any dessert whose first ingredient is a bottle of Jack Daniels is gonna be a slam dunk for Guy Fieri. Once the granola is baked and ready to go, the chef heats up a tortilla on the grill, then adds a smear of cream cheese frosting, and tops it with the maple bacon granola and some fresh blueberries. Roll it up like a burrito, and you've already got yourself a delicious dessert. But she doesn't stop there. Nope, she plops that whole thing in a deep fryer, then tops it off with a big scoop of ice cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar, prompting Fieri to exclaim, "I thought this was a healthy joint!"
Apple grape pie
In the episode where Fieri stops by Meal Ticket in Berkeley, CA, he meets Chef Jimmy Carter (no relation to the former president.) In a city known for marching to the beat of its own drum, Chef Carter isn't afraid to put his own spin on a dish as classic as apple pie. His secret ingredient? Grapes. For some reason, grapes are the one fruit you rarely see in a pie, but it really works in this context.
Chef Carter makes the all-butter, cinnamon-flavored pie dough by hand. Rather than tossing fresh fruit in the unbaked dough, he sautees some apples and grapes in some butter along with sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla, which must smell heavenly. That sauteed pie filling is added to a blind-baked crust, then topped with a simple sugar-flour-cinnamon topping. The result is a perfect pie that celebrates both the sweet-tartness of the apple and the bright fruitiness of the grapes. Are you drooling yet?
Grammy's giant cream puffs
Grammy's Goodies was founded by a family that started in the fair business and then opened a restaurant. So it should be a surprise to literally no one that its specialty is a one-pound cream puff. That's right: A cream puff that is one whole pound of dough and whipped cream. Time to bust out the stretchy pants.
The chef makes homemade cream puff dough, then pipes it into delicate yet massive piles and pops it in the oven to bake. Next comes the family's whipped cream recipe, developed by Grammy herself. When the cream puffs are done baking, they're sliced in half and filled with a massive mound of whipped cream. Topped with the other half of the cream puff, more whipped cream, and of course a cherry, this is a dessert so decadent, so huge, that even Guy Fieri himself proclaimed, "I do not know what to do with it." Luckily, he found a way to eat it and declared the cream puff pastry super light and the whipped cream not too sweet. Basically, the perfect dessert.
Mocha Donuts
At the Depot Diner in Chicago, Illinois, Guy Fieri gets served a truly decadent dessert ironically developed by a doctor-turned-chef. Sadly, the Depot Diner is no longer open, but its mocha donuts live on in our memories, forever etched in the Triple D hall of fame.
These scratch-made to order mocha donuts came with a side of homemade mocha dipping sauce. The dough sits for at least thirty minutes after it's mixed so the gluten can relax and create a fluffy, delicious donut. Then the dough is scooped into little donut balls and dropped directly into a deep fryer, where all food goes to become even more delicious. The perfectly browned, fried donut balls then get dropped into a cinnamon-sugar mixture while they're still hot from the fryer, then topped with powdered sugar for good measure. As if that's not delicious enough, they're served with a side of homemade mocha dipping sauce, which is a mix of heavy cream, chocolate, and coffee. Wow. One patron calls them a "sugar explosion," and if that's not a ringing endorsement, we're not sure what is.
Aunt Mary's pain perdu
Serving Southern-style comfort food like biscuits and gravy and po'boy sandwiches, Aunt Mary's Cafe in Oakland, CA is also dishing up a classic New Orleans-style pain perdu, which is essentially a fancier french toast. "Pain perdu" translates to "lost bread," and it's often made with bread that's a few days old. But there's nothing old about this updated take on a pain perdu. In fact, at Aunt Mary's, they even make their own "Pain Juice" sauce.
So what's in a Pain Juice? Turns out, a lot of wine. The base is made with red wine and white wine and some mulling spices. And because one boozy sauce isn't enough, there's also a whiskey cream to soak the slightly stale baguettes in overnight. The next morning, the chef sears the not-so-lost soaked bread on the stove top, then sticks them in the oven to finish. Top it with "Pain Juice" and some fresh strawberries and powdered sugar, and you've got yourself one truly decadent breakfast.
Jimmy's caramel pecan rolls
Idaho's own Jimmy's Down The Street has been doing comfort food for over 50 years. This '50s-style diner dishes up its fair share of biscuits and grits, but the main thing that keeps people coming back? It's the monster caramel pecan rolls.
It all starts with a yeasted dough for the rolls, which the baker mixes by eye, with not a measuring cup in sight. Once the dough has risen, she rolls it out into a massive sheet and covers it in melted butter and a brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Next, the dough gets rolled up into a giant tube of deliciousness and cut into roll portions. The secret to that gooey caramel pecan topping is that it is actually cooked on the bottom. The pan gets lined with a homemade brown sugar caramel sauce and a ton of fresh pecans before placing the sliced rolls on top. Pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, then while they're still piping hot, invert them out of the pan so the melted caramel and pecans drip all over the rolls. The hardest part for Fieri was waiting for them to cool down enough to eat them.
O-Towner Donuts
Everyone loves donuts. Everyone loves croissants. This is why everyone double-loves a cronut, or a donut-croissant crossover. Lucky for you, at the Art-Is-In Bakery in Ottawa, you can get yourself a giant cronut known as the O-Towner.
It starts with a traditional yeasted donut dough which is then laminated. No, not that kind of lamination, but rather it's a process where butter is folded into a dough over and over again to achieve the classic flakey layers of a croissant. This recipe has about 100 layers of butter, to be exact. When popped into a deep fryer, the O-towners immediately puff up, revealing all the flakey layers. The chef rolls the heaping cronuts in cinnamon sugar, and you'd think he'd be done, but no. Next, he pipes in some of his homemade pistachio-based pastry cream and then tops the donut with raspberry cream and raspberry pearls. This towering confection looks as good as it tastes, although with a donut this big, there is no way to eat it without making a huge mess. Fieri calls it, "A destination donut. One of the best I've ever had."
Whiskey and cola bread pudding
In this episode, Guy Fieri is hanging with Chef Brian at South of Beale in Memphis, Tennessee. Inspired by the classic Jack and Coke cocktail, this place has managed to put a glutenous, and gluttonous, spin on a classic drink by whipping up a whiskey and cola bread pudding.
The first step in this over-the-top dish is to make the custard to soak the bread in. But this is no ordinary custard. No, this contains cola syrup, made by cooking down and reducing Coca-Cola into a thick glaze. which is mixed into the custard base. Chef Brian also uses a mixture of breads, both hoagie rolls and Hawaiian sweet rolls, which he dumps into the cola custard before popping it all into the oven. While that cooks, it's time to bust out the ice cream maker to whip up a quick homemade whiskey ice cream. Top a scoop of bread pudding with some whiskey ice cream, add a drizzle of cola syrup, and you've got yourself a bread pudding that would make a bartender shed a tear.
Bistro Deep Dish Pumpkin Pie
Back Street Bistro is sadly not a second career for the Backstreet Boys. But lucky for us, it is a bistro in Santa Fe, New Mexico where you can get a classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie every fall. And not just any pumpkin pie, but a signature deep-dish version. As one patron puts it, "It's just like Nana used to make."
It starts with a classic all-butter pie crust, which is blind-baked to avoid sogginess. Any pumpkin pie lovers know that this pie is all about those pumpkin spices, and they do not skimp out here: ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar are the stars. The chef blends those spices with some freshly roasted and pureed pumpkin, adds some eggs for texture, and then drizzles in some molasses and evaporated milk to really make this pie something special. Top it with homemade whipped cream, and this is a pumpkin pie so good that even Fieri — a self-proclaimed pumpkin pie skeptic — declares it a truly delicious pumpkin pie that isn't overly sweet.