You know, people are asking me all the time,
"Hey, Guy, that one joint you checked out
in that one city when you were doing Triple D, how they doing?"
You know, I don't know. We should check it out.
Over the years, I've seen and tasted it all...
This is ridiculous, dude.
...but it turns out, it was only the beginning
'cause Triple D joints have been blowing up,
and we're going back to see what's cooking,
like on this trip.
Classic plates... Great flavor. It's outrageous.
...are spinning new tastes.
Did you say it's really yummy?
-For my tummy. [laughs] -[family laughing]
Bleeding brisket and chicken.
[Guy Fieri] There's soul foo Jersey-style, in Atlantic City...
It's almost like a warm hug.
...bruschetta gone country in Lansing, Michigan.
Right on.
Chorizo, french-fried onions...
Oh, me likey.
And Palm Desert, California
What level of, "That's not gonna be so hot, it's ridiculous?"
Whoo.
[Guy] Fresh fries, and a burger with an Italian accent.
-Says who? -Well...
-Says me. -Tuscany burger here.
[Guy] Familiar faces, new places, and more off-the-hook flavors.
This is Triple D Nation.
So I'm here at Palm Desert, California, just about 20 minutes from Palm Springs.
I'm here to check out a joint where a family of four
is serving up some classic and not so classic burgers.
And when I was there in 2017,
I got my hands on a few.
Cut to now, and the family's still there
the burgers are still there and the crowds are coming in hot.
This is Grill-A-Burger.
Devil's Revenge ready to go. [rings bell]
I have been coming to Grill-A-Burger for about 15 years.
They have such a variety of hamburgers, it's like traveling the world.
I made a great choice in coming here.
[customer] It's my number on stop I go to once a week.
It blows every restaurant in town away.
Farooq and his wife, they are just making their restaurant
better than it was originall
[Guy] That's right, Farooq and Salima Nurani,
may not have started this joint, but since buying it in 2012,
they've made it their own.
Hey, we've got a number eight.
[Guy] And they've got their sons, Zayd and Case, helping 'em out.
How we doing, guys?
My broker actually said, "I got this weird little restaurant.
I think you guys would be perfect for it."
I just got the Grill-A-Burger, gorilla burger.
-[Salima Nurani] Ah. -[Guy] Just got it.
Wasn't always the first one to raise my hand in class.
At least everybody wore their logos correctly.
How are you, brother? Nice to see ya.
-[Zayd Nurani] Good seeing you, man, -Look at you guys.
-Was it really five years ago? -Five years.
How old are you boys now?
-Twenty-two. -Nineteen.
How old were you then?
-Fourteen. -[laughing]
Well, the math is not always my best suit.
Five more minutes on Buddha Burger.
On the original episode, I had the Buddha Burger, which I love.
You don't see too many burgers that have curry on it, but I just love it.
-Where we at? -We're gonna make the Buddha Burger.
-So we're starting off with ground turkey. -[Salima] Yeah.
Salt and pepper, curry powder, some cumin.
This has a little bit of an Indian flair,
-I'm taking it. -Kind of Zen.
-Kind of Zen? -Yeah, it'll make you feel good.
Soya sauce, chopped garlic, fresh ginger, garlic chili sauce,
chopped red peppers, cilantro, green onion.
-Then we'll let this marinate together? -Yep.
[Guy] So let's, uh, patty it up and get it on the front top.
[Salima] We're gonna cook it for about 10 minutes.
-Comes with a sesame bun. -Says who?
-Well... -[Guy] Says a me.
-Says me. -Sesame.
-Uh-huh. -Gotcha. You're good.
We're gonna take the slightly toasted bun
and spread sweet chili mayo on it.
-All right. -Okay.
[Salima] Then we're gonna top it with the napa cabbage,
-slice of tomato... -[Guy] Uh-huh.
-...and then we'll do the burger. -[Guy] There we go.
There we go. Ah, ah, ah!
[Salima] Bean sprouts, fresh red pepper, and some springs of cilantro.
There you go.
-[Guy] That's a gorgeous looking burger. -[Salima] It is good.
It's got texture, but it's not heavy.
-That is a delicious, spot-on burger. -Aw.
[Guy] Well done.
-[Salima] The Buddha Burger has become our feature burger. -Right.
I mean, it has been off the charts.
How many different styles of burgers do you guys make?
[exhales] Over 30 signature burgers.
So if it's formed into a patty...
We're gonna make it rock.
-Ready to roll? -How many now?
[Salima] Um, we have a few more.
Any hot sellers these days?
[Zayd] Tuscany burger, it's really yummy.
Did you say it's really yummy?
-[family laughing] -It's yummy for my tummy.
-[family laughing] -That airs without question.
[laughing] Oh no!
Tuscany burger here.
The Tuscany burger combines two of my favorites,
the American burger with the taste of Italy.
We use ground 80/20 chuck, seasoned only with salt and pepper.
While the burger is cooking, we're gonna get some olive oil
and fresh garlic spread on the ciabatta bun, add in some parmesan flakes
and then we're gonna toast it on the griddle.
We do the top and the bottom bum.
We're gonna move our burger to the flat top,
and then we take our fresh marinated bruschetta...
...which is red and yellow heirloom tomatoes.
Fresh minced garlic, garden basil,
extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic glaze.
We're gonna marinate it for at least a couple of hours,
and add it to the top of the burger.
And then we add the mozzarella,
melt it a little bit, and start with the base of the lettuce.
Our burger, melted cheese, add a little bit more fresh bruschetta on top,
finish off with a little basil mayo.
Drizzle with balsamic glaze, and this is our Tuscany burger.
[waiter] Tuscany burger.
The Tuscany burger, right now, it's currently my favorite burger. [laughs]
The bruschetta is just the perfect complement
to the meat that's on that grilled bread
[man] They toast the garlic on the bread, so you take a bite,
you get all those flavors. It's one great experience.
[Guy] And coming up next...
"Yummy for my tummy." The little Winnie the Pooh over here.
-Things are getting heated.. Whoa. [coughs] -Back up.
...but those avocado fries, they'll save ya!
[waitress] Avocado fries.
You know, they melt over your tongue.
Oh, dynamite. When we go to a commercial bump,
it'll come back yummy for my... It's gonna...
-[family laughing] -Yummy for my tummy.
[Guy] I'm at Palm Desert, California, hanging out with Grill-A-Burger,
where there's only one way to describe the food.
-Yummy. -Mmm. That was really yummy.
-"Yummy for my tummy." -[family laughing]
All right, so give me the update. What's been happening?
Nothing. It' was great.
-Nothing has been happening. -[family laughing]
Two minutes on the grill.
Enjoy the rest of your meal, guys.
"Yeah, five years happened, and that was it."
No, we, um, it blew up.
[Farooq] Our business probably went up by about 25%.
-Still got your same chef over there? -Yep. Jorge's still there.
[Guy] He's still there.
Get some avocado fries going.
[Guy] That's Jorge Martin, who's been there since the original owners.
Devil's Revenge for the bar.
All right, Chef, what are we into?
-We're gonna our habanero relish. -Our habanero relish?
-Habanero. -Habanero.
I love hot and spicy, so you know I had to get
the Devil's Revenge at least one time.
Whoo.
If it's too spicy for Guy, it's probably too spicy for me.
-[Jorge Martin] Garlic, habanero. -There's more?
-[coughs] -[Jorge] Back up.
-[Guy coughing] -It's spicy. [laughs]
-Chopped tomato, onions... -[Guy] 'Kay.
...salt, pepper, crushed red pepper.
-[Guy] Lime juice? -Lemon juice.
-Lemon juice! -Limon.
Limon! Eh! Okay.
-[Jorge] Cilantro. -[Guy] Fantastic.
That's not not spicy.
-That's hot. -[laughing]
It was good spice. It wasn't overwhelming spice.
No problem.
[Jorge] Now we're gonna put some olive oil,
serrano peppers, jalapeno peppers and habanero.
-You're giving me a free t-shirt if I finish it? -Yes, sir.
Salt, pepper, lemon juice.
[Guy] Then those go on the burger?
-Mmm-hmm. -Fantastic.
[Jorge] Now we're gonna make the patty.
We're gonna go to a flat top.
-[Guy] Okay. -[Jorge] Chipotle onions and a pepper.
[Guy] I like that.
Chipotle ketchup, pepper jack cheese, bacon, we're gonna steam.
[Guy] Okay.
[Jorge] Now we're gonna buil our Devil's Revenge.
-You ready for this? -[Guy] I am.
We're gonna add some sriracha mayo.
[Guy] And a little bit of the habanero salsa.
All right.
Enjoy.
What level of "That's not gonna be so hot, it's ridiculous?"
You do all these little things that add to it,
so you get this nice, really well-rounded heat.
-Mmm. It's a dynamite burger. Nice job, Chef. -Thank you.
The Devil's Revenge is a very good burger.
It's very spicy, the flavors, the textures, everything about it is perfect.
This is, like, gourmet burgers, this is, uh, family run.
How do you describe it to people?
-Gourmet, family, kids-- -I just said those things.
-You have to say different things. -Oh.
[customer] Grill-A-Burger is known for their burgers,
but they also be known for their sides.
I like the fries, I love the avocado fries.
-[Salima] The avocado fries. -Avocado fries, that seems to go with a burger joint.
Avocado fries, they are avocados that are actually deep-fried.
It gives a lot better flavor than it would a regular French fry.
Let's start with the beer batter.
Flour, seasoning salt, baking powder, honey powder,
Cajun seasoning, paprika, cayenne, cumin,
and salt and pepper, and then we gonna add light beer,
and we're gonna mix it up.
So now we can add eggs.
We have our fresh California avocados,
we're gonna dip into our beer batter.
This is going to our red panko.
Make sure it's all covered.
We're gonna deep-fry avocados about three to five minutes, 350 degrees.
We're serving with chipotle ranch and cilantro lime sour cream.
[waitress] Avocado fries here.
I love the avocado fries. Crunchy on the outside.
Bite into 'em, and the fresh avocado inside, it's really delicious.
They just melt over your tongue, uh, amazing.
-They're doing a good job? -Yeah, they're excellent.
Mmm.
I'll look forward to making it back and coming to see ya,
and, uh, I wanna know when these two take over,
-when "Yummy's my tummy's" working here. -[laughs]
'Kay? I'm gonna make sure that's when I show up for sure.
And coming up in Atlantic City...
Good idea on the clean part.
...a gamble to serve Southern staples up north..
Collard greens, fried chicken, pig feet.
...totally paid off.
Ah! That's delicious!
Gotta love coming down to Atlantic City.
Always a good time down here,
and I'm about a mile away from the boardwalk
to check out what I hear is a real-deal Southern restaurant,
and since I was there in 201
their two locations are stil hitting the jackpot.
This is Kelsey & Kim's Southern Cafe.
Greens and coleslaw, cabbage and mac!
We got three pork ribs ready to go.
Southern-style food to me means, like, home,
and that's how I feel when I eat Kelsey and Ken's.
Southern food is food cooked with love.
I saw them on Triple D, and it just looked so delectable.
I said, "I gotta be there."
[Guy] And he's not the only one,
people from all over are flocking to experience
Kelsey and Kim Jackson's Southern soul food...
-Hello, folks. How's everything today? -Oh, everything is perfect.
[Guy] ...and Southern hospitality
You don't go a lot of places that offers that home cooking, you know,
Southern cooking like we do, and people like that.
How do you describe soul food restaurants to people?
Food that you was raised up on like collard greens, fried chicken, pig feet.
Gonna have some pig's feet on Triple D.
[Kelsey Jackson] Trotter platter!
That's what they call pig's feet, trotters.
There we go. How do you do it?
First you start off with some clean pig feet.
-[Guy] Good idea on the clean part. -[Kelsey] Gotta clean 'em.
-[Guy] How long they gonna go? -Imma cook 'em like this for, like, 45 minutes to an hour.
-[Guy] Drain the water off. -[Kelsey] Yeah.
-So that takes out all the impurities out? -There you go.
-[Guy] Got it. -[Kelsey] So now we gonna start off with some
nice ham stock, add some celery in there, little chopped garlic
little crushed red pepper, little onions,
we gonna throw in some green peppers, and then finish off with some vinegar.
And we gonna let these cook for, like, another hour, try to get us tender.
Bam, they ready.
Was that a "Bam" you just did? Imma call 'em real.
[laughing]
Mmm. Ooh, you're just loading it up.
Out of all the things on my menu, he chose pig feet,
I'm like, "All right, that's what you want? That's what imma give you."
There you go.
Jump in there.
[Kelsey] That piece right there.
-Oh! They're delicious. -Yes, they are.
-[Guy] Tastes like pork butt. Kinda got that same texture. -[Kelsey] Mmm-hmm.
They're dynamite, man!
-[waitress] Trotters. -[customer] Everyone that grew up in the South
loved the pig feet, but everything here is definitely delicious.
Ribs are looking great.
It's just a nod to Southern, traditional type cooking,
where people use certain herbs and spices and variations of flavor.
You got ribs, but then you g Kelsey and Kim's ribs, totally different.
We make our own dry rub,
smoked paprika, granulated garlic, onion powder,
white sugar, brown sugar, chili powder,
some cayenne pepper, some black pepper,
dried oregano and a little thyme,
some salt, mix it in real good, now we can season our ribs.
We gonna coat both sides, now we ready for the smoker.
We smoke our ribs at 250 for two and a half to three a half hours.
We cool them down a little b so we can get a little char on 'em.
Imma cut 'em down, imma put 'em in a saute pan with some of the sauce.
We gonna sweat out some onions, got a little chili powder right here,
little cumin, then going a little crushed red pepper,
little black pepper, then we going with our chicken stock,
little white vinegar, apple cider vinegar,
some Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, little molasses and some yellow mustard.
A little liquid smoke, some granulated garlic,
some white sugar and some brown sugar.
We got a little tomato puree, then we got some ketchup here.
Honey, cooked in sauce for about a good hour and a half.
Kelsey and Kim's Southern style ribs.
-[waiter] Southern style ribs. -The ribs were delicious.
They were tender, it just comes off the bone.
So much flavor, you're getting a little bit of that spice,
but more so that sweet goodness. It's almost like a warm hug.
Did you see that? Did it shove up my mouth like that?
What's the ETA on that meatloaf, baby?
Triple D definitely made a difference.
And then like, two years later we branched off and opened up Kelsey's supper club,
where we have a 200 seat restaurant.
They started off small, and now they're growing,
and they just continue to grow.
We have the Southern style chicken for you.
A lot of other restaurants here in Atlantic City,
and it's so much competition out here, we gotta go the extra mile.
-[Guy] But I think that's just how you are as a person. -That's me.
Good man. Enjoyed it, man.
Coming up... [whistles]
It'd be a shame not to try that.
...a barbecue joint in Lansing, Michigan...
That's just melted completely.
...smoking meats and dropping beats.
Mmm, ugh, ah.
-I appreciate the jam session. -Yeah. [laughs]
I'm here in the Old Town area of Lansing, Michigan,
-where an old school heavy metal rocker... -Whoo-hoo!
...is smoking anything he can get his hands on,
meat, that is.
It's his band, it's his way and from what I hear,
everybody comes back for the encore,
including me, because since I was there in 2017,
his audience has only gotten bigger.
-[crowd cheering] -This is Meat BBQ
When I saw Meat BBQ on Triple D, I had to rush down here and try it.
What I love is they combine barbecue styles from all ove the country.
Smoked turkey plate.
-Chorizo on the grill. -My favorite restaurant of all time. It never disappoints.
It's savory, it's spicy, comfort food.
You need to get here early, things will sell out.
[Guy] Which is music to musician turned pitmaster Sean Johnson's ears.
I wanted to be a professional musician. That didn't work out,
-so I was like, "Okay..." -Well, so did I,
-but my lack of being able to play... -[both laughing]
[Guy] So what kind of barbecue do you do?
I just pull from all the different regions that are out there.
I don't have a particular favorite.
Blade and brisket and chicken.
Being an area like this, you don't really have to stick to a particular style.
You can do whatever you want.
Pork belly Reuben.
[customer] The pork belly Reuben sandwich is by far my favorite.
It is amazing.
Give me the breakdown here.
This is our basic house rub that we apply to just about all of our cuts of meat.
Granulated garlic, kosher salt,
black pepper, white sugar, chili powder.
-Okay. All over the brisket? -[Sean Johnson] Yep.
There's our fat old brisket.
[Guy whistles]
[Guy] It'd be a shame not to try that.
Mmm. That's just melted completely.
[Sean] Take some of that brisket, toss it on the, uh, bun there.
Take our pork belly, add this kraut.
This is a house-made Thousand Island. There you go.
It's great, really good pork belly.
I like that you cut it a little bit with the brisket.
Mmm.
How many pounds of brisket are you going through a week?
In a week, on average, over 2000 pounds.
-Two-thousand pounds? -Mmm-hmm.
After that show aired, we were starting to do 2500 to 3000 pounds a week.
Mind-boggling to me.
-That's fantastic. -Thanks man.
[cook] Brisket plate with mac and beans.
-Whole chicken for Tina. -Pork's in the window, let's get it.
There is no meat that Sean and his group can't master.
Ribs, turkey, wings.
Smoked wings in the cherry bomb sauce.
I mean, that's like when you're lucky enough to get one of those wings
off that roasted chicken that your grandma made.
That's that wing. Great flavor, it's outrageous.
The smoked wings are awesome, but I always gotta get the Trailer Park Bruschetta.
[waitress] Here's the Trailer Park Bruschetta.
Potato skins, chorizo, French fried onions, sauce, you can't beat it.
We're gonna make our chorizo sausage, which is going
to be part of our Trailer Park Bruschetta.
We're gonna start with some Anaheim and guajillo peppers,
and bay leaves that we've been steeping for a few hours in some water.
We're gonna add those to a blender.
Black pepper, thyme, oregano, margarine, cayenne pepper, granulated garlic,
minced garlic, cumin, all spice,
crushed red pepper, smoked paprika, coriander, kosher salt,
a couple bay leaves, apple cider vinegar for some moisture and some tang.
And then we're gonna add the slurry to our ground pork.
We're just gonna mix this all together,
putting it on our flat top grill over here and cooking that off.
We're gonna take our potato skins,
and we're gonna drop these in the fryer for about five minutes
until they're nice and gold and brown.
Take our pimento cheese, scoop it into there.
Now we're gonna take our chorizo sausage,
crispy fried onions, diced jalapeno,
and then top the whole thing with cherry bomb sauce.
We're gonna start with some cherries here,
ginger ale, little ketchup, chipotles in the dough boat...
-Word to that. -...Michigan cherry preserves,
little bit of apple cider vinegar.
Simmer for about a half an hour,
and then we're gonna run it in just a regular, old blender.
Oh, me likey.
Trailer Park Bruschetta in the window!
There's so much flavor, there's so much texture.
[customer] The perfect amoun of spice in there too.
It makes you rethink potato skins.
Eh, yo, Carl. We got a full house, we got tickets coming back. Whoo.
This place is never not packed...
Chicken wings.
...they've expanded many times.
[waitress] Is everybody doing okay over here?
We built more dining space, we took over more of the building we're in.
We went from 85 seating capacity to 140.
[waitress] Full rack of ribs with the pit beans and spicy cream corn.
Ugh, mmm, ah, ah.
-I appreciate the jam session. -Yeah. [laughs]
[all] Triple D Nation!
I got three chicken and hog for all day!
But I know what you're asking, you're saying, "Hey, Guy,
what are all the other Triple D joints up to?"
Full rack of ribs in the window!
A little lime on the side?
I don't know, we'll have to find out.
Got a lean brisket plate here with our pit beans and mac and cheese.
[customer] Thank you.
Next time on Triple D Nation
And it's healthy.
Right? See, I'm speaking for your wife.
She called me and said, "Make sure..."
She said, "Keep him." She didn't say anything else.
-She just said, "He's yours." -[chuckling]