Guy Fieri Eats Real-Deal Southern Comfort Food in GA | Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives | Food Network

So there's a time in your life when a family tradition becomes kind of like the cornerstone of your food foundation. For me at a young age, it was simple. Grits, ham, and red-eye gravy. And as an adult, it's still the same. So back in 2008, when I found a diner in Atlanta, Georgia that was plating that, you know I had to stop in for breakfast. By the way, they have lunch, too, and desserts. This is the silver skillet. Country-fried steak. Diner's drive-ins and dives is perfect for the silver skillet because the food is great. You can tell that it's homemade. Sausage and eggs. If you want great comfort food with Southern flavors, this is the place for you. Pork chops, lima beans, and white gravy. I grew up on this type of food, so I know it well and love it. Well, lots of folks grew up on this food, since Teresa Breckenridge's dad started serving it back in 1967. My father had the restaurant for 20 years. Diner's drive-ins and dives started, what season were you? Do you remember? It was 2008. It was places like yours that got people to go, wait a second, they're authentic in what they're doing, and they're authentic in the way they've done it, and they're really staying true to who they are. You kept doing it the way it was done. It ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah. That's the beauty of it, because people need consistency in this world. Silver skillet burger. Of course, the food is great. I get the country ham red-eyed gravy grits. Do you like grits? Love grits. This is the ratio? Yes. Serious. Next on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives, it's bobbing for margarine in a hot pot of boiling water. A little salt. Now we add the grits. Now go to a simmer and cover. That's right. This is the lid for this pot. Circa? 1956. I just wanna taste them in their natural state. Okay. Mm, these are tasty. I love grits. Now we're gonna do ham. Each piece we do this to? Every piece, hand-trimmed. So it's hand-to-ham combat. They have to have the bone in them. Bone in for country ham. Soy sauce. Wow, a little salty. Then that's brown sugar? Light brown sugar. Paprika. This is a secret sauce. That's cool. Ham now is gonna go in the magic mixture. Marinates overnight. Gonna drag that over my titties? How do we make the red-eyed gravy? We take the juice and our hot coffee. And that is the red-eyed gravy? That's the red-eyed gravy. Red-eyed gravy, a bowl of grits, good to go. Mm, I'm really happy that you used the side with the bone. That's the best. Let me just try the gravy now. Mm, you can tell I don't like this at all. At that point, you were really day-to-day locals only. All of a sudden, these Triple D people come in. Yes. What was it like? It's just amazing the people from all over the world and locals didn't even know we were there. It was just awesome. Everybody hungry? At this point, I think I've probably had nearly everything on the menu and there's yet to be anything I didn't like. Nice potato gravy. We were talking about the menu and I said, how's the menu? They said, it's the same. You know, they changed a couple things. They put meatloaf on. Meatloaf, red sauce. We have ground beef, add breadcrumbs, milk, onions, peppers, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, oregano, eggs, and we mix it all together. We'll form it in a loaf pan and bake it at 350 degrees for one hour. We serve our meatloaf with our house homemade red sauce. We boil diced tomatoes with salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley flakes. After it's simmered, we add ketchup and blend it up. Meatloaf with the red sauce. The meatloaf is moist and tender. In the South, we tend to like more of a soft meatloaf that really brings the flavor out. You can really savor it. The red sauce is much better than the standard ketchup that you'll get anyplace else. Much better than mom's. Meatloaf for the Triple D Nation. Everybody that comes in, they wanted to know where you sat, what you ate. They come in and they said, we saw this. That's why we're here. All good? Yes, ma'am. All right. How old were you when you took it over? 33. Where you got it from and where you've taken it to, did you ever think this is what you would be doing? No. Country fried steak. It's classic diner food. It's a homey atmosphere. Tank is going down. It's a connection to the kind of food I grew up with, whether it's breakfast or lunch, either way. I need that burger going, please. This has a good Southern food. Mac and cheese, side. Order up. The mac and cheese is phenomenal. We start by making our roux with butter and flour. We'll season with some paprika, salt, and pepper. Then we add warm milk in half and half. And finally, we add the cheese. Then we'll boil off our pasta al dente. Strain the pasta, add the cheese sauce, and even add more cheese. And it's going to be transferred to a hotel pan. Top it off with more cheese. Bake it off in an oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Then an additional five minutes uncovered to give it that nice crust. Mac and cheese, out. Mac and cheese is very creamy. You get a lot of cheese flavor out of it. Fantastic. It's like my mom used to make growing up. Oh, mac and cheese, love it. You can't beat this one. Lemon icebox pie. Icebox means it's kept cold. Right. OK, but it gets baked. Yes. Eggs, sweetened condensed milk. Lemons. I got it. Squeeze them by hand. You still have one lemon left. You've been playing around, and I've been working. You're not going to win. Ah! It's going to fit. It will fit. It's like you've done this before. A few times. And now we're going to hit it with what? Little vanilla wafers. Now we bake it? 20 minutes. Then you let it cool down. Now we hit it with a little cream topping. Oh, I like that. A little crunch on top. You know what would be nice there is a little lemon zest. But, you know, different day, of course. With a piece that big, I'm going to have to push the Camaro to my next diner. Mm, it's not overly sweet. No. Good little amount of citrus. Just enough tart to kind of. It does a little bit. It lets you know it's there. A little pucker. Hamburger, fries. That's what started Triple D. So you're really a pioneer, my friend. We couldn't have done it without you. OK, pork chops. Silver Skillet is often very busy, but everybody waits because it's worth it. What's the future? Who's going to take over for you when you want to go on to vacation? I don't know. I just signed a 10-year lease. If I can make it 10 more years. If you can make it 10 more years, you make it look easy. Well. That's awesome. I'm glad there's 10 more years coming.