Fans of Guy Fieri’s Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” will see a familiar face acting as co-host on Friday’s episode.

Local celebrity chef “Panini” Pete Blohme, a “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” (Triple D) alumni, acts as Fieri’s co-host for a visit to Mobile’s The Noble South restaurant.

Fieri was in the area back in June to film at restaurants in Mobile and Baldwin County and attend the grand opening bash for the newest restaurant in the PP Hospitality stable, The Waterfront in Daphne. Fieri also made a stop at Havana Rey’s Cigar Shop & Lounge in Mobile to promote his cigar collaboration with Erik Espinosa called Knuckle Sandwich.

Blohme said Fieri filmed three restaurants on the Monday he was in town and three on Tuesday before he flew to Atlanta. According to Blohme, the six restaurants are The Noble South, The Hummingbird Way, Roosters, Meat Boss and Front Yard Tacos in Mobile and Southwood Kitchen in Daphne.

The first of the Coastal Alabama “Triple D” episodes airs on the Food Network at 8 p.m. central time Friday, Oct. 20. The episode summary reads:

“This trip, Guy Fieri’s going all over the country for some prime-time pit stops. In Mobile, Alabama, a farm-to-table joint is cooking up killer crawfish etouffee and chicken-fried quail. In Greenwich, Connecticut, a pizza joint is putting out real-deal pie and off-the-hood Philly cheesesteaks. Then in Cody, Wyoming, a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean spot is serving up stellar sandwiches and a lights-out lamb flatbread.”

Blohme said he had a lot of fun being on the other side of an episode.

“It was an awesome opportunity after all these years of getting to hang out with Guy to then get an opportunity to stand next to him and co-host was pretty incredible,” Blohme said. “It was a neat opportunity and certainly was exciting.”

He did admit that when he initially heard Fieri was coming to Mobile to film episodes he thought he would be featuring Squid Ink, but Blohme is excited for his fellow restaurateurs and what this will do for the South Alabama food scene.

“To me, it is going to continue to up our food game as a destination because there are a lot of great chefs here,” he said. “That’s why Southwood being shown and Chris over at Noble South and Jim at Hummingbird Way, these are guys that have been doing a great job and putting out great food and been around for a long time working for other people and coming up through the ranks and then having their own place.”

While he was disappointed his Mobile restaurant wasn’t the star of an episode, he is excited to sit back and watch the ride these restaurants are about to embark on.

“Typically, you don’t feel like anything is going to change,” Blohme said. “You are already busy and putting out killer food. That is why he came. Little do you know he has got this legion of fans and local people. There will be local people that will say they never knew these restaurants were here and they will take a day trip and check it out. There will be people now coming out of their way, driving down the I-10 corridor saying oh my God there are Triple D’s here and they are going to pull over. They have been doing for over a decade for me and now we have become a hub.”

Before these new episodes, Blohme said there were four Triple D spots in Alabama and Blohme was two of them, Panini Pete’s and Sunset Pointe. The other two; The Gumbo Shack closed many years ago and Manci’s is still open but has changed hands since it was featured on the show. Now the area will have six more locations for Triple D fanatics to visit.

According to Blohm, the Southwood Kitchen episode will air Friday, Oct. 27, and the Rooster’s episode will air Friday, Nov. 17. Beyond that he said he hasn’t heard when the remaining episodes will air.

If you want to try The Noble South, The Hummingbird Way, Roosters, Meat Boss, Front Yard Tacos and Southwood Kitchen before the legions of Guy Fieri and “Triple D” fans act fast.