The buzz around Ocean City started when customers found the popular Piccini restaurant closed on Columbus Day.
It increased when the trademark Camaro of celebrity chef Guy Fieri was spotted in the Piccini parking lot at 13th Street and West Avenue on Tuesday.
Crews from Fieri’s Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” just finished two days of filming at the Ocean City restaurant, and a segment on Piccini is expected to air sometime this winter.
Among the restaurant’s 40-or-so different wood-fired pizzas and 40 different entrees, a bacon-cheeseburger pizza, apparently, is what caught the attention of Fieri and his researchers, according to restaurant owner Dave Cates. The show also will feature a vodka chicken entree.
Since 2007, Fieri’s show has traveled the world in search of great regional food at small independent “diners, drive-ins and dives.” The program provides great exposure for the restaurants it features.
A 2011 Food Network series based on the extended family running it made Crazy Susan’s Cookies in Ocean City a household name.
Cates said researchers first contacted the restaurant about two weeks ago, and he didn’t know the filming was definitely a go until last Wednesday evening.
He said crews filmed for about 10 hours on Monday and five on Tuesday. A production crew of about 10 people were easy to work with.
Cates said he was happy to see chef Mike Falcone and pizza chef Billy Castiglione (whom Cates hired as his first employee 21 years ago) featured as part of the show.
Cates invited about 20 friends and loyal customers to be part of the filming on Sunday and another 15 or 16 on Tuesday. Fieri, who owns Chophouse at Bally’s Atlantic City, brought some of his own friends and family, including the Chophouse chef, who attends St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Ocean City and happens to be a regular Piccini customer anyway.
Cates said he directed production crews to the beach and boardwalk for location shots and tried to give them a sense of Ocean City’s reputation as “America’s Greatest Family Resort.”
“It was a neat experience,” he said.
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