Guy Fieri Visits LEGENDARY Breakfast Spot in Phoenix | Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives | Food Network

When you're in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, you just gotta check out this little joint called Matt's Big Breakfast. Now, this dude digs breakfast so much, he devoted an entire restaurant to it. I just gotta meet this cat, Matt. You don't become an egg general that easy. I'm so excited the hands are flying because I have a breakfast special today. This is so good. Eggs and pork chop. It is very good. The atmosphere is tiny and squished and compact. That's what's great about it. It's the best breakfast in town, hands down. It feels more like you're eating breakfast at home. Is my mom here? I would say the specialty is quality. It's not your regular breakfast. It's breakfast basics done the right way. It's squeezed a lot of oranges. Totally from scratch. Breakfast isn't really complicated. Keep it fresh. Made with the best ingredients. The bacon here is so thick and peppery. We don't even own a freezer. We don't own a microwave. There's no microwave and no freezer in this joint? No microwave, no freezer, no. Waffle? Waffle's perfect. They're really light, very delicate. Because making them Matt Poole's way means making fresh batter 3 times a day. You want to help me crack or should I just do it all? I've never cracked in tandem before. In jazz hands. We've got 2 cups of sugar here. We're going to put some butter in there, put it in melted. Now you're not worried about kind of poaching those eggs a little bit with that hot butter? We worry if I didn't start whisking. The flour and the whole milk, we're going to add them in alternate doses here. Wah! Wah! Careful. Hey, hey, hey, hey! We do have a mixer here, right? No, no, no, we don't have any mixer. There's no room for a mixer. Then we add the baking powder. It's just a teaspoon of salt. Looks like cake batter. That's it right there, put that down, give it a flip. And it only takes about a minute until you flip it back over. It's like a hiking boot just walked on a pancake. Look at that thing! That's a hot frisbee of fun. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Granny's kettle on the flat top all day is actually hot syrup. It's hot syrup, ready to go. You don't want to put cold syrup on a hot waffle, that'd kind of ruin it. It's got a really nice crust to it. Look at it inside that. You see how nice and light and airy? Really good. I'll eat that waffle again in a heartbeat. I got to tell you, man, you could convert non-breakfast-inners. That's why we're here. Actually... He already has. Now what will the wait turn into like on an average weekday or a weekend? Hour and a half. To get in? It's worth the wait for sure. I'm going to take Gregory, party of 2, please. Gregory! We drove all the way from North Scottsdale to have breakfast here. It's really, really, really good. What do you like about it here? My daddy owns it. I still remember going to a little coffee shop. My dad loved coffee shops, he always sat at the counter. I just figured there were people here that would appreciate just kind of old-fashioned mom-and-pop-run restaurant. So 3 years ago, he and his wife Irania... Hi, how are you? ...got a counter of their own. I'm here almost every other day. It filled up quick. Enjoy the same thing each time you come in? No, I like the waffles or the omelets. The waffles with the real maple syrup. And it's that real thing that's keeping this joint packed. Every piece of my breakfast is so good. We get all of our pork from a little local butcher shop. They don't deliver, and I pay retail. It's the craziest thing in the world. Once you have the bacon here, you'll never eat bacon anywhere else your whole life. This is kind of wine-tasting to me. I'm gonna cleanse my palate with the bacon. It's as thick as a ham steak, great texture to it. Whole-grain bread. You know that they make this stuff sliced. I don't like the uniformity of bread. The man has an issue of uniformity of bread. And then we serve it with a little bit of homemade local preserve. Mmm! It's like an open-faced jelly donut. Most of it's all the way out here. There you go. And Matt's putting fresh rosemary in his home fries. Kind of melt in your mouth. Cooked in tons of butter, just like the hash browns. Butter the grill, we lay out the hash browns, we butter it on top, and then we just keep flipping them. Oh! Those are killer. The salami scramble is made with sopressetta, brought in special from San Francisco. He's even making fresh pesto for his breakfast pork chops. We make a pesto marinade. We put the garlic in there first. It's about 1 1⁄2 ounces of fresh basil. Pine nuts. Made a red bell pepper pesto with macadamia nuts. For a pasta or for...? I just put it facial. I wear it as a mud mask at night. That's the secret? Great. Sea salt, pepper, and then extra virgin olive oil. And you just kind of do this by sight. Look at the color in that! I've got some chops here. Toss them around. Is that like the bowl, Mom? It's all yours. Money! How long does it marinate? At least 3 hours or so. It's gonna get a nice little crust on it. Looks like it's time to flip. Those bad boys got it. You want to give them a shot? You can just see the juice coming out of it. Fantastic. You know, you get the little pesto, get some of the bite of the garlic. I love that you do fresh cracked pepper. That's my biggest thing. The food has a lot of love in it, and you can always taste it when people cook with love. Already, people are starting to develop this sort of generational thinking where they can picture their kids coming here 50 years from now, 20 years from now. The special is today corned beef hash with poached eggs. Thank you. Welcome. I want it to be like a Midwestern-style diner. Window, please. Thankfully, people recognize it. Well, the food's always great. You can tell that whoever made this food is an artist. They're the sweetest people. It doesn't make you feel like you're part of the family. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming in. On our next stop at Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, where do you want to go? I'm cruising through Scottsdale, Arizona to check out a joint where, get this, the wife is a second-generation Albanian. The husband is an immigrant from Mexico. Together, they get this breakfast and lunch joint where the scraps make up about 95% of the menu. This is Perk Eatery. Anytime we want to go for breakfast, everyone in the family lets go to Perk. Fabulous food. Pancakes, fresh fruit, order up. It's easy to get a good breakfast. It's hard to get a great breakfast. That's why restaurant vets Pauline and Carmen Martinez created this place. We used to go out for breakfast all the time, and we could never find something like what we would make at home. So they decided to share their unique take on breakfast. We call it classic Americana with a Southwest kick. She throws in what she likes, he throws in what he likes. The result, a menu full of dynamic dishes like this one. The enchiladas are being plated. It's really good. Even though it's got that one ingredient. These breakfast enchiladas are going to involve the E-G-G word. What's E-G-G? Oh, eggs. I'm sorry. It does have them. It doesn't have them in there. Oh, okay. Not in there. On or around them. Give me the rundown. First up is going to be the spicy New Mexico chili sauce. Chilies with the seeds. Hot water. Salt. Cayenne pepper. Black pepper. Fresh garlic. Honey. Chicken base. Then we have chipotles and adobo that have already been pureed. And now we're going to come together and do a little... A little blend up. I'm going to try this. Mmm. A little yum. A little spice. A little heat in that. So now we're going to work on the pork. Spice rub is the first thing we do. And we're going to start with seasoned salt, fresh ground nutmeg, paprika, cumin, dark chili powder, spicy cayenne, granulated garlic. So we just roll it around a little bit. Then from there, we're going to top it with our house-made cilantro jalapeno sauce. This is the spicy version. Now we're going to add cola. And we're going to let this sit overnight and marinate. Then roast it. 350 for about 4 1⁄2 hours. Dig it. So we're going to pull this out and we're going to slice this. Is that money or what? Do not go and take my lines. Look at that. It just breaks apart. So now what are we going to do with it? Now we're going to take it from here and we're going to grill it on the flat top so it gets a nice little caramelized crisp on it. And then we'll put it into the enchilada. Yeah. Great. We're going to slice it up so it makes it a little easier to eat. And then we're going to take these tortillas, a little bit of homemade chipotle, ricotta, zesty black beans, and then the slow-roasted pork goes right on top. And we're going to top them with that spicy New Mexico chili sauce. And two incredible edible eggs and top it with a little bit of fresh cilantro. Mmm. The New Mexican chili enchilada sauce is right on point. A little bit of heat, a nice little sweetness to it from that honey. Call it a breakfast enchilada, call it a breakfast burrito, call it whatever you want. Just don't call me late for it. Those eggs are a complete waste of time. The food is mine. Just by itself. So I'm here in Wilmington, North Carolina in the Porter's Neck area about a mile and a half from the beach. Now, you won't remember that. What you will remember is that there's this little mom-and-pop joint where they're serving up some North Carolina favorites with their own funk and their own twist. This is the Cast Iron Kitchen. All right, boys, here we go. Stripping grits up. A little bit of classic southern with a new style twist. Got another dirty going through the window. It's things that you've probably had before, but you haven't had all those components together. And it's all put together by Josh Petty. He owns this down-home spot with his family, who helped out at the restaurant... Good morning. ...and with the inspiration. It's food that I learned from my grandmothers and my mom. You're born and raised here? Yes. Okay. So the whole premise was make North Carolina shine. Use the purveyors, the farmers. And that local flavor stands out in this pumped-up classic. The dirty south biscuit. The sausage gravy just reeled me in. Add the bacon, the chicken. It's perfect. Tell me about biscuits in North Carolina. I mean, I think that's what you get judged by in life, isn't it? It's your biscuit. Like, can you make a good biscuit or not? We like to use really good buttermilk. Flour mixed with baking powder, some butterflakes. We try to put a little bit more shortening in ours to make them a little bit more tender. Because you're not necessarily the doctor. Right. I'm the chef. Powdered sugar and baking powder. Together again for the first time. A little iodized salt. Work that by hand until we get the dough to the proper consistency. Okay. Roll them out next. Don't overwork it. And if there's some cracks, that's okay. No one said it had to be a pretty biscuit. Throw them in a 335-degree oven. Not 340. Not 340. 335. For about 18 minutes. Then we're gonna make our country sausage. Start to sparty. A lot of kosher salt. Red pepper flake. Onion powder. Dried sage. Sage and sausage. Coarse. Isn't that a ban? Sage and sausage. It should be. Coarse black pepper. Fresh sage. White pepper. And then the kitchen soap. And fresh rosemary and thyme. The country sausage is done. We're making the gravy. A little oil blend. What was that again? Oil. Oil. That's how you say it in the South. Oil, butter, onions, chorizo. Our country sausage mix. Hit it with cayenne, sage, heavy cream, and then we're gonna add our thickening agent, some culinary cream. It's got some emulsifier in it. Whole milk. They also own the gym next door. Have a man cave in there for them, too, to relax. There you go. Just keep it going. Get a bar next to it, and then a B&B. We're gonna let it simmer, and then we're gonna add some green onion, black pepper, kosher salt, and dried sage. Did we think about putting any sage in this dish? I've got a lot of sage. Sage advice. We're gonna let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Next up, fried chicken. We're gonna go with some North Carolina buttermilk. Hot sauce. And then salt and pepper. Whisk that up. Then we put our chicken in there. That goes for a day. Now, what are we gonna bread this in? AP flour, coarse ground pepper, white pepper, salt, and a little garlic powder. And what kind of oil are you running? Canola. After it's fried, we're gonna put a piece of pepper jack and mustard cheese and put it in the broiler for about 30 seconds. Where's that cheese from? Is that from Herman? Herman Mustard. Here's our homemade biscuit of applewood smoked bacon. Most people want to have an egg right now, but those of us that don't, they just get to have an extra scoop of gravy. Yep. If you want to use your hands, you can. No, people don't really pick it up. I've seen a few. I can't say I'm that much of a biscuit aficionado, but this is nice and light and fluffy. Nice crust on top. Here we go. So the gravy's not really big and heavy. It's a lot lighter than I thought it would be. When you come to North Carolina and you think that you're gonna have a gravy, bacon, chicken, cheese, biscuit meal, that's the kind of dish you fall asleep in. That's right. Dirty South, up to the window. Let's get it. So I'm just like you guys. I mean, not just for Triple D, but for me and for my family. I'm always looking for great restaurants. I'm always on the hunt. So a few years ago, I was in Truckee, California. Everybody tells you about this place. You gotta get the sandwich here. So I did, and it was Dynamite. Well, now I'm in Reno, Nevada, and I find out these dudes have got a second location. I gotta check it out. This is Full Belly Deli. Sicilian on parmesan. Absolutely lives up to its name. Definitely Full Belly. These guys are all about creating a great sandwich. They're passionate about it. You got a biscuits and gravy burrito. Their biscuits and gravy breakfast burrito is like two breakfasts in one. They have the biscuit and the home-fried potato in there. If you're looking for all your breakfasts, just come get this burrito. Let's see it. What's your game plan? We're making a chorizo sausage gravy for our burrito. Olive oil. And you're making the chorizo? It's made from a local company here in town. Got it. Breakfast sausage, all pork. Once the meat's cooked down, add organic AP flour, paprika, granulated garlic, onion powder. Cook that flour out. Half and half in whole milk. Let this come to a simmer, and salt and pepper, and it'll be ready to serve. This next step of making biscuits for one dish, it's impressive. Organic AP flour here, sugar, baking soda, baking powder. Just give this a quick pulse here. We have our extra cold butter. Give it a good pulse to get it about pea-sized. The idea is breaking that butter up so it just sits there suspended between the flour. So when it cooks, you really develop all of those layers. Correct. It means everything in the world of making a good biscuit. Incorporate the buttermilk slowly, and it's gonna kind of look a little dry. But he's got more butter than we typically see, so this is gonna make a nice, light, flaky biscuit. If we can get it to stay together, because right now it just looks like we're trying to make a sandcastle out of dry sand. We're going for a square here. Could be a triangle for all I care. Roll this out. We're gonna cut this. You brush it with a little bit of buttermilk. We're gonna finish with salt and pepper. Okay. You go in the oven how long? 25 minutes at 350. That is beautiful. Drop the tortilla on the flat top to warm it up. Hash brown coming out of the fryer there. Gonna take our biscuit. Slice this up. Seems sacrilegious. We're gonna add a little cheddar cheese to this guy. Crispy hash brown. Biscuit there. And then we've got our gravy. Oh, so it's for the whole family, I see. You roll it up. Can you help me lift it up? That's ridiculous. We're gonna take that over to the panini press, and then we are ready to go. High carb, meat carb. I'm gonna tell you, first thing, as scared of it as I was, for some reason, the way you've made it, the way you've seasoned it, it really is not overly heavy. It's delicious. The biscuit is light and flaky in there. The crunch of the hash brown inside is really nice. But the kicker for me is the gravy, bro. Can I just have a bowl of gravy? This is a ski-bum delight. 101. Well done, man. Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate it. We got a biscuits and gravy burrito. It blows my expectations out of the water. The chorizo in the gravy has so much flavor. The biscuit is soft and delicious. I'm here in Modesto, California, about an hour south of Sacramento. You're gonna love this story. Two high school buddies that live in separate parts of the state decide to move back to Modesto because it's a great place to raise their families. And they also decide, hey, why don't we open up a craft beer joint and make scratch-made food? You gotta love the American dream. This is Commonwealth. I get cravings of this place all the time. Barbecue nachos. I'm here multiple times a week. Beer is often the draw, but the food will keep you here. Which is exactly how owners Jeff Brown and Blake Humble drew it up. Kind of started as a craft beer bar, but we wanted people to leave saying, damn, that food's good. So they signed up chef Brian Lean. You got the meat for tacos yet? Another hometown dude who turned Jeff and Blake's dream menu into a reality with dishes like this trifecta. Order up, craft tacos. A bami taco, barbecue pork taco, and a buffalo chicken taco all piled on, you got it, one plate. Honestly, I can't decide which one to start with. Loving it. Absolutely off the charts. How long on that waffle? It is a combination of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Waffle madame. It's just amazing. All right, chef, tell me about this wonder waffle. First we're gonna mix up our dry ingredients. All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, kosher salt. Okay. Now for our wet ingredients. Eggs, buttermilk. So far this just looks like a regular waffle, chef. Well, it's the sandwich that's most impressive. Vanilla. We're making a sandwich out of the waffle? We are making a waffle madame sandwich. Cut. Melted butter, adding our dry to our wet. You're making waffles all day? Yeah, the customer favorite. You make the waffle to order? To order, and then we build the sandwich. It's gonna cook for two minutes. All right, our waffle's done. We're gonna cut it in half. Swiss cheese. We're gonna cook our home fries with maple mustard butter. So that's just the butter, the maple syrup, and the whole grain mustard. Whole grain mustard. And our ham. If waffle's not good enough for you, let's just cook your ham in some butter. Those eggs better not be going on there. And our eggs. All right, our ham's hot. Move that over to our waffle. And our other half. And your favorite right on top. So, Chef, I know that you're a big fan of the eggs, so I'm gonna just pull this right over here and just allow that to be yours. Is it supposed to be eaten like a sandwich? I don't think I've ever seen anybody do it. Well, it's only about 17 pounds of food. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, boy. The waffle should be illegal. It actually is. You should have to weigh in before you can eat that thing. Nice job, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.