America’s Best Restaurants’ Danyel Deyomo, right, sits with Sarken El Hirechi and his wife, Leila Skander, during a recent filming of the show at El Hirechi’s second location of Garibaldi Trattoria in Garner. Facebook Photo/Garibaldi Trattoria
By Emily Weaver
Dunn Daily Record
Four local restaurants joined the list of “America’s Best” when a crew from the YouTube show, “America’s Best Restaurants,” wrapped up filming on Tuesday.
Upcoming episodes, slated to air early next year, will feature The Garden State Grill in Lillington, Ed’s Family Restaurant in Angier, Meadow Village Restaurant in the Meadow community and Garibaldi Trattoria with its third location planned in Dunn.
Customers nominated the hot spots for best dining to get these local restaurants on the show.
“It’s a nice honor to have. It’s nice to know that other people are thinking about us and just to even nominate us to be part of a program like this … it’s a great opportunity,” said Ben Lipetz, owner of The Garden State Grill.
He first connected with the show about six months ago. The film crew came on Tuesday. Before they arrived, though, Lipetz said they polled their customers to help determine which dishes to share on the show.
“We put out a poll on Facebook to kind of ask my audience, ‘Hey, what are your favorite dishes? What dishes would you like to see featured?’”
The audience responded with a slew of suggestions. Extra support went for the grill’s shrimp and grits, “The Costanza” Reuben sandwich, boardwalk fries, meatballs, crab cakes, the filet mignon and pot roast. Meatball marinara, The Costanza and a dry aged bone-in pork chop made the cut.
The show’s Danyel Detomo mentioned the dishes in a Facebook post that bragged on the restaurant’s use of fresh ingredients.
“The visit was awesome,” Lipetz said. “It was a great crew. We had a lot of fun filming.”
The Garden State Grill celebrated its third anniversary of business in July.
“The community is treating us well and we’re trying to pay it forward,” Lipetz said.
Garibaldi Trattoria’s new location in Garner was filmed on Monday. The restaurant’s first location in Fuquay-Varina remains another hot spot.
“America’s Best Restaurants travels the country visiting restaurants you should eat at on a weekly basis, and we definitely think you should be coming to Garibaldi Trattoria,” restaurant owners, Arken El Hirechi and his wife, Leila, said in a Facebook post Wednesday.
El Hirechi opened Garibaldi’s second location in Garner last month with plans to open his third location in Dunn, across from The Daily Record office on Broad Street, in the months to come.
There are no concrete plans for when the Dunn location will open, he said, but renovations to the building continue.
The Italian-with-a-touch-of-French restaurant also polled its customers on best dishes and received a heap of responses. Tortellini di’ Torino, chicken marsala, chicken Francese, tiramisu and creme brulee won out for the film crew.
Meadow Village Restaurant agreed to do the show in August in celebration of its 40th anniversary, according to an Aug. 3 Meadow Village Restaurant Facebook post.
Follow the restaurants on Facebook for upcoming announcements of when the shows will air.
