HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Food Network chef and host Guy Fieri is going to New York on Wednesday night to be on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and he’s taking a little piece of Huntington with him.
Fieri called Hillbilly Hotdogs owners Sonny and Sharie Knight on Monday afternoon to see if they’d make six of their 15-inch chunked, covered and smothered “Homewrecker” hot dogs to use during his appearance on the show.
Fieri, who’s best known these days for his Food Network show “Guy’s Big Bite,” will be on “The Tonight Show” at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, alongside guests, actor Zac Efron and musician Sarah McLachlan.
“Guy called and said he was in New York and was going to be on the Jimmy Fallon show the next night and wondered if we would send him six Homewreckers,” Sonny Knight said. “He said he was going to try and get Fallon to eat one.”
Sonny Knight said he and Sharie are flying up to deliver the dogs in person and to spend a few days in New York City.
“Guy’s a great person, and it’s another blessed thing that happened to us because of the show and he keeps on giving because he’s that kind of guy,” Sonny Knight said of Fieri, whose dad is from Wheeling. “He’s like us, he likes to help people out … and he is still humble for where he is at.”
Fieri first shone a light on Hillbilly Hotdogs in the spring of 2008 when he brought his hit show, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” to Lesage, the original Hillbilly Hotdogs location, to film some of the culinary creations of Sonny Knight, who is from Lesage, and Sharie Knight, who like Fieri is from California.
Since then, he gave the couple’s restaurant at Lesage a four-page spread in his cook book, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip with Recipes,” and spotlighted them on a Best of “DDD” show as well.
Sonny Knight said Fieri’s original battle with The Homewrecker was an epic struggle he hasn’t forgotten…
