Downtown Durham-based burger joint Hop + Grind was within the highlight after being featured final Friday on Meals Community in a takeout version of Man Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” 

The brand new episode aired on Friday, Might 1, and enlisted the assistance of just a few cooks which have beforehand appeared on reveals with restaurateur and Meals Community presenter Man Fieri. They despatched parts of a few of their newest dishes to his residence kitchen, for him to prepare dinner, eat, and choose himself. 

The chef with the most effective dish on the finish of the episode would get their title on a $500 greenback donation to the Restaurant Worker Reduction Fund (RERF), created to assist restaurant trade staff in want of economic help throughout the extenuating circumstances of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. 

Amongst these chosen cooks was Bobby Marcotte, government chef and proprietor of two Hop + Grind places, in Durham and Peabody, Massachusetts, and government chef of Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery in Raymond, New Hampshire. 

Marcotte introduced on Facebook live he could be featured on the brand new takeout episode final Tuesday, and likewise took the chance to thank each Meals Community and Fieri. He mentioned in an e-mail to The New Hampshire that Man is “CRITICAL” in occasions like these. 

“Man has at all times targeted on the little guys however it’s not JUST the little guys. It’s the mother and pop joints who do it proper, are targeted on high quality but in addition help and are supported by their communities. These are the eating places which are going to dig us out of this,” Marcotte mentioned. 

With the restrictions on eating places being loosened within the coming weeks, Marcotte mentioned he doesn’t assume having them opened with restricted capacities is a lot better than leaving eating places of their present state. “I feel it might truly get more durable earlier than it will get simpler,” he mentioned, as a result of meals provide chain being so “out of whack.” 

Though it “might sound loopy,” Marcotte mentioned balancing Tuckaway Tavern and the Hop + Grind places throughout this hectic time has been “FUN.” He mentioned he thrives on stress, and the circumstances have pressured him and his workers to assume and improvise, “precisely what we’re skilled to do on this trade.” 

Fieri launched “Bobby the butcher,” with a mass unboxing from the butchery at Tuckaway Tavern. Along with what was despatched for the present, Tuckaway Tavern has despatched the identical packages to over 100 individuals to get pleasure from and prepare dinner alongside throughout the episode. Fieri obtained a lot meat that he exclaimed, “it’s like Christmas!” after which started on the primary dish of the episode, certainly one of Marcotte’s Hop + Grind burger creations, the “Karate Pig” burger. 

Hop + Grind is understood for its “funky infused patties,” as Fieri mentioned. The “Karate Pig” is an Asian dumpling themed burger with a pork base, topped with soy glaze, spicy and salty home made “dojo sauce,” and Marcotte’s “quick-like-ninja kimchi.” Fieri’s first response to the completed product was “dynamite, man.” He mentioned the burger does job of capturing comparable flavors, and that the “Karate Pig” is a “stir fry, Chinese language takeout, all in a burger combo.”  

“We knew that ‘Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives’ takeout was going to be loopy,” Fieri mentioned throughout the episode, “this simply solidified the complete motive we did this. Excellent.” 

Marcotte appeared via video chat with each his “Triple D All-Star Event” and “Triple D Triple G Event” championship trophies within the background, in every of which he beat one of many different cooks that includes within the episode—Chef Peter Campbell from Crimson Wagon Pizza Firm, and Chef Domenica Catelli from Catelli’s Restaurant respectively. 

Marcotte mentioned the aggressive nature between him and the opposite cooks has helped him “professionally and personally,” the challenges maintaining him “motivated and hungry.” 

When the time to determine a winner got here, Campbell mentioned “he’s [Marcotte] acquired sufficient trophies Man.” Fieri gave Campbell the victory for his Cuban sandwich impressed pizza, to which Catelli mentioned, “at the least it wasn’t you, Bobby.” 

Marcotte mentioned his greatest success is his workers. “I couldn’t be extra pleased with the fervour all of them deliver to carry out each day for all of our companies. They’re actually the most effective, which in flip solely places us on prime as properly. EXTREMELY proud and grateful for each certainly one of them!” 

Rylee Saunders, a sophomore biomedical science main on the College of New Hampshire, has been working at Durham’s Hop + Grind since August of 2019 and mentioned it’s “principally like a household.” In response to Saunders, they “all have a ardour for what we do, and what we’re all about at Hop + Grind.” 

What they’re all about is the meals expertise, and it says so on their web site. The meals at Hop + Grind is all scratch made, “how grandma used to do it.” The creations at Hop + Grind “push the bounds” of the kitchen surroundings to make artistic choices for patrons to get pleasure from, just like the “Karate Pig” and lots of extra acquainted favorites in burger type just like the “Parma Sutra” (hen parmesan fashion) or the “Bomb Diggity” (steak bomb fashion).  

Marcotte mentioned his most ceaselessly requested query is how he comes up together with his concepts, and it’s the “lamest” reply he may give. “They only come out of the blue very similar to when artists instantly seize an easel and begin portray. An concept hits and I run to the kitchen,” he mentioned. 

Hop + Grind and Tuckaway Tavern are actually targeted on transport and takeout, in keeping with Marcotte. Curbside pickup is obtainable at Hop + Grind day by day from 12-Eight and Tuckaway Tavern is providing in-store pickup in addition to door to door transport.  

To assist the already eight million restaurant employees and extra in the uswho have misplaced their jobs because of COVID-19, go to the RERF web site to donate or discover out extra.