But at least one Denver restaurant owner is looking forward to his five minutes of fame.
Sam Armatas, who co-owns Sam's No. 3, at 1500 Curtis Street, is closing the joint to the public on Sunday -- Halloween -- so that the production crew can take over the comfort-food emporium, which will be featured as a "viewer's choice segment" on the show. "I got a phone call a few weeks ago from a production guy who said they were coming to Denver to film for the show, and apparently they received a bunch of e-mails from our customers asking for us to be featured," says Armatas, who had to undergo a telephone interview and answer questions about his food processes. "I did the interview and got a phone call a few days later with good news and bad news: The good news was that we were going to be on the show, and the bad news was that we'd have to shut down all day for filming."
But Sam's No. 3 isn't the only local restaurant that's being pimped on Fieri's show. Steuben's, 523 East Seventeenth Avenue, is reportedly on the taping agenda, too, and while exec chef Brandon Biederman will only say that Steuben's is closed to the masses on Sunday morning and early afternoon "for a Food Network filming," we're guessing that means the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives production convoy will be setting up cameras there, too.
We also got wind of a possible stop at the Bagel Deli, 6439 East Hampden Avenue, although manager Jared Kaplan will "neither confirm nor deny" that rumor. Other restaurants that are allegedly on the filming docket include Bang!, 3472 West 32nd Avenue; Tocabe, 3536 West 44th Avenue; and Boulder's Foolish Craig's Cafe, 1611 Pearl Street.
Assuming the scuttlebutt on the street is actually fact, we're wondering if you agree with the picks, especially since many Cafe Society readers -- 63 to be exact -- had strong opinions on where they'd send Fieri when we announced back in July that Page Productions, the show's producer, was considering Denver as a possible contender for an upcoming episode.
