Photograph by Andrew Doench
Friday, June 20, Flavortown met the Queen City, as Guy Fieri’s long-running TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives stopped by East Walnut Hills’s Café Mochiko. The visit was filmed for the show’s 12th episode of its 41st season, and according to the official episode description, features “a husband-and-wife duo [dishing out] the-bomb BBQ pork bao and real-deal ramen.”
Elaine Uykimpang Bentz and Erik Bentz opened their brick-and-mortar location in 2021 after a few years of running a successful pop-up. The bakery/café serves a variety of pastries by day and Asian cuisine by night.
Erik Bentz says that the show reached out via email, and from the start, they jumped at the opportunity. “[Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives] said that they were coming to Cincinnati and that there were quite a few restaurants that they were looking at,” he explains. “I grew up watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and my sister is a super fan. That was actually kind of our big reason for doing it.”
After initial contact, the owners were then invited to a vetting interview. “You have to talk to them, tell them your passions, and describe some recipes,” Bentz recalls. “They want to make sure that you care about your product, and that you’re sourcing all of your ingredients and materials ethically.”
He says that these questions are part of the show’s effort to emphasize a shift in the food industry towards healthier eating and product sourcing. “They want to promote things that aren’t mass produced,” adds the chef. “They prefer restaurants that don’t just buy commodity ingredients. They want people that really look into what they’re buying and what they’re serving their customers.”
And Café Mochiko certainly fits these parameters. Starting out as a series of pop-ups before eventually getting its own location, the establishment is, as waxed lyrically by its website, “a love letter to Chef Elaine [Bentz]’s experience as an Asian American.” Bon Appetit named it one of its 50 Best New Restaurants in 2022, and Elaine has been nominated for several national awards, including a nod from the James Beard Foundation, which hosts the coveted James Beard Awards.
But even for chefs with this array of accolades, the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives experience involved a lot of hard work. Café Mochiko’s portion of the episode, “Funky Flavors,” was filmed in early May, and was a “tough, two-day process,” Bentz says. “There were a lot of things that we had to do,” he notes. “I’m used to doing small things with friends and people that I know who work in social media. This was a much larger endeavor, and there were a lot of things that needed to be shown in a specific way on the show.”
However, Bentz says that the people involved with the show made the filming experience as smooth as it possibly could have been. “It’s all very, very regimented, which was helpful,” he adds. “And everyone was super nice.”
The owner was full of praise for Fieri. “Because he’s the star of the show, there’s certainly some intensity, and nobody really wants to mess around when he’s there. But it also seemed like he really wanted to make the restaurant look good, and shed a really positive light. I appreciate that they have a lot of care for this. I like that they’re not just there to make their show and get out.”
Bentz is already seeing the impact that Fieri’s visit has had on the café. “We’ve had some Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives fans stop by who must’ve found out somewhere that we were featured on the show [before it premiered],” he says. “Some of these people drove from around six hours away to get here before anyone else. So I’m assuming we’re going to have quite a bit of traffic after the episode airs. We’re all very excited to watch it.”
“Funky Flavors” first aired last Friday, but will air again at 11 p.m. on June 28, and 2 a.m. on June 29. Additionally, it will be available for streaming on Discovery+ and HBO Max.
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