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NAPLES — Colorful TV chef personality Guy Fieri made a surprise stop at Pazzo! Cucina Italiana Saturday night, taking pictures with staff and guests and signing menus and autographs.
Fieri, who won the reality TV show contest The Next Food Network Star in 2006, hosts several food-themed shows and owns several restaurant brands. His shows include Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games.
Pazzo! Cucina Italiana is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Owner Skip Quillen operates three other brands in Southwest Florida: Chops City Grill, Yabba Island Grill and the Saloon; there are two Chops locations, one in Naples, one in Bonita Springs. Quillen, in a tangible step to combat the loss of business in the pandemic, recently began handing out a thank you note to every customer. “They are our heroes,” Quillen said in an interview last month with the Business Observer. “They are coming out and still supporting us.”
Fieri’s Oct. 18 stop at Pazzo! wasn’t Quillen’s first brush with a food/TV celebrity: Anthony Bourdain was a classmate and acquaintance of Quillen’s at the Culinary Institute of America.
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