Lights . . .
camera . . .and eat!

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Eating breakfast at the Dining Car is part of Ken McFadden’s daily routine.
Some days, a bowl of crispy cereal with banana suits the widowed East Torresdale resident just fine. On other occasions, it’s a steaming plate of sumptuous sausage and eggs that gets him going.
And chatting with the smiling waitresses is just the ketchup on McFadden’s hash browns.
"I come in here for the tasty food, but what I really like about the place is it’s like eating with family," said McFadden, whom staff affectionately call "Irish."
But on Monday morning, McFadden found himself engaged in anything but normality as he sat over his steaming plate of cream chipped beef and described the finer points of scrapple to Food Network star Guy Fieri.
"Is this a doughnut?" Fieri, a California native, asked when presented with the Philadelphia breakfast staple.
The TV chef, known for his spiky white-blond hair and feistiness, hung out at the Dining Car to tape a segment for his show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The series, which airs Monday nights on the Food Network, travels the country to carve up the best of the best of the local dining scene.
Fieri, who started his TV career after winning The Next Food Network Star in 2006, spent the morning viewing the Dining Car’s operations and chatting with customers. He planned to help chef Larry Thum, who’s worked in various positions at the diner for the last four decades, prepare some signature breakfast dishes later in the day.
Fieri, 39, said that he covers the food, the people and the facility in every establishment that he visits, but that each one requires a different approach. He gets hundreds of e-mails a day about eateries around the country wanting to be featured on the show, but only one in 75 gets some type of follow-up response.
"We’re getting places we’ve never heard of before," said Fieri, a married father of two sons. "It’s so hard (to pick)."
The Dining Car, located at 8826 Frankford Ave., opened as the Torresdale Diner in 1960. Owner Joe Morozin Sr. handed down the business to his three children, Nancy and Joe Morozin and Judy McCormick, who continued the tradition of providing family recipes and a homey atmosphere to patrons.
Some of the Dining Car’s specialties include its chicken croquettes, meatloaf parmesan and cheesesteak royals. There’s also a bakery on-site that specializes in fresh sweets like Jewish apple cake.
The Dining Car serves between 10,000 and 12,000 customers each week and is among the few local diners that are open 24 hours a day. For a business that gets most of its patronage from word-of-mouth praise instead of advertising, being highlighted on the Food Network is overwhelming.
"It was so exciting for us," said co-owner McCormick, adding that the Food Network contacted the diner about a segment for the show roughly a month ago. "We’re a neighborhood business. I think it’s nice for the customers. They’re the ones who spend their money day in and day out."
As of mid-morning on Monday, Fieri had deemed the Dining Car "bananas," his synonym for "awesome." He was impressed that the diner makes most of its items and ingredients on the premises.
But Fieri said it was the atmosphere and friendly staff that took the cake for him.
"It really is a community epicenter," he told the Times. "Everybody knows each other, everybody’s hospitable. This is a second home to a lot of people. There’s a love, there’s an energy, there’s a philosophy. It’s all here, you can just see it."
Fieri and his crew kept a laid-back attitude while filming, sitting and cracking jokes with patrons as the chef’s 10-year-old son, Hunter, collected boxes of cookies from the bakery to bring to his mom back home.
Hollis and Harry Hancock attempted to snap a picture of Fieri from afar before the chef called them over to chat face to face. The siblings opened their mouths in shock when the TV crew began filming the trio sitting at a table.
"I told him to order an omelet," said Hollis, 17. "He was amazing. It was really cool."
McFadden, the Dining Car daily breakfast eater, admitted that he hadn’t seen Fieri’s show before, but he was happy to be included in the filming.
"I feel like a celebrity," he said.
Despite his confusion over scrapple, Fieri got his start in the food industry in his native California by selling one of Philly’s other famous foods, the soft pretzel. He went on to study abroad in France, where he began fine-tuning his finesse with food.
Back in the States, Fieri worked in various positions in the food industry before he and a colleague opened their own restaurant, Johnny Garlic’s. Two more locations sprung up before Fieri opened Tex Wasabi’s, a sushi and southern-style barbecue joint, in 2003 and Russell Ramsay’s Chop House in 2004.
In 2006, Fieri added TV to his resume when he won The Next Food Network Star and debuted his own show, Guy’s Big Bite, that June. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives just premiered in April.
Executives expect the episode featuring the Dining Car to air some time in September or October. For more information, visit www.foodnetwork.com ••
For more information on the Dining Car, visit www.thediningcarandmarket.com
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com