Tell us where Fieri should go

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Win a seat with Fieri

We are offering a chance to win two tickets to see Food Network star Guy Fieri during his roadshow performance Nov. 21 in Raleigh.

Here's the deal: Fieri hosts a show called "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." So we want you to devise a list of three must-eat locations for Fieri if he were to bring his show to the Triangle. (He has never been, and we have noticed!) Now, I'll let you go east because I know some of you will want to send him to those barbecue meccas outside the Triangle, but I don't want you sending him farther west than Burlington. This is the Triangle, and you are not only entering for a chance to win tickets, you also are helping me create a list of diners, drive-ins and dives for adventurous Triangle eaters. I will share the final list with readers.

So here's what I want you to do: Write no more than 250 words on where Fieri should eat and why. Send entries and contact information to andrea.weigl@newsobserver.com . Put "Guy Fieri" in the subject line. Or mail your entry to Andrea Weigl, Food

TV star Guy Fieri coming to Raleigh

Food Network star Guy Fieri is bringing his roadshow to Raleigh on Nov. 21. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Fieri is the only winner of The Next Food Network Star competition to become a lasting presence on the network. He won during the show's second season. He hosts four shows: Diners, Drive-ins and Dives; Ultimate Recipe Showdown; Guy off the Hook; and Guy's Big Bite.

Fieri will perform at the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.

And the winner of the Guy Fieri contest is ...

Keith Mason of Coats won a pair of tickets to see Food Network host Guy Fieri's traveling roadshow Saturday at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh.

N&O readers had so many excellent recommendations for their favorite diners, drive-ins and dives (like the show that Fieri hosts) that I had to narrow the entries and choose the winner at random.

Mason's recommendations were Sadlack's in Raleigh, Backyard Barbecue Pit, which has two locations in Durham, and Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. About Sadlack's, Mason wrote, "The ambience and quirkiness mean it's probably the only place where Guy's hair would seem normal."

Not your average Guy

Guy Fieri and his "Kulinary Gangsta" crew took the stage in Raleigh recently as part of his traveling road show.

Fieri, 41, is the winner of The Next Food Network Star competition who has had the most success on the network. He has hosted four shows, "Guy's Big Bite," "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," "Guy off the Hook," and "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" and written two books. He co-owns five restaurants in northern California, where he lives with his wife, Lori, and two sons, Hunter, 13, and Ryder, 3.

The spiky blonde host, who wears shorts and skater shoes, is hard to miss. Before he went "off the hook" -- as he loves to say -- in front of hundreds of fans in Raleigh, Fieri sat down to talk about his roadshow, life on the road and his family.

Beloved drive-in rises from ashes

A year after the big screen the old Starlite Drive-In burned to the ground, cars and trucks lined up Saturday as the last pink clouds faded in the west and the sky drew dark.

"Tonight is going to be like a big reunion," said owner Bob Groves, his eyes misty as he strung 35-mm film through the ancient projector, his nimble fingers getting reacquainted with the work.

The movie was "The Dukes of Hazzard," not that it much mattered to the sell-out crowd. They came, young and old, to reclaim a lost experience.