This week\u2019s episode of CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Detour with David Chang\u201d (10 p.m. Oct. 10) got its start when Chang, a chef and restaurateur, omitted Pittsburgh from a list he created of \u201cThe Five Best NFL Cities for Sandwiches.\u201d<\/p>\n
When this news was shared with Plum native Pat McAfee on his show, McAfee\u2019s response was not positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe completely roasted me,\u201d Chang said in a phone interview this month.<\/p>\n
Chang had visited Pittsburgh once before, but it had been years.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, Pittsburgh\u2019s been in my blind spot,\u201d Chang says in this week\u2019s episode that features actress Gillian Jacobs (\u201cCommunity\u201d), who grew up in Mt. Lebanon and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s acting program. Jacobs accompanies Chang as she shows off her hometown.<\/p>\n
Chang said Jacobs appeared on a previous food show he shot in L.A., Netflix\u2019s \u201cUgly Delicious,\u201d and he also knows Jacobs through her partner, screenwriter Chris Storer, who created food-centric Emmy winner \u201cThe Bear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chang met Jacobs in Point State Park to begin three days of filming in March. In the episode, she tries to teach him Pittsburghese with assistance from locals they encounter at the Point who are clad in Penguins jerseys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t help myself, I\u2019m a tortured Washington Capitals fan, and the Pittsburgh Penguins owned us for years, and I had to make a comment. I thought for sure it would rile them up, but no, they were very, very cool about the whole thing,\u201d Chang said of his interactions with locals that led to the conversations included in the episode. \u201cThat moment was funny because they were just random people and Gillian was talking about all the crazy slang that Yinzers use.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the fans at the Point offer menu tips, Jacobs and Chang head to Primanti Bros.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the guys told me I had to get the sausage and peppers (sandwich), and I was like, \u2018Sure, of course, I\u2019ll get that sandwich,\u2019 not thinking I\u2019d ever see him again \u2014 and we get (to Primanti\u2019s) and they were eating there,\u201d Chang recalled. \u201cThat was a really funny moment and I was like, this is exactly how the show is going to go down.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a stop at Primanti\u2019s may feel like a prerequisite for any food show visit to Pittsburgh, after that, \u201cThe Detour\u201d lives up to its title. This show feels more spontaneous, more seat-of-the-pants and less produced than most food travelogues.<\/p>\n
While dining at the now-shuttered Stunt Pig in Squirrel Hill, co-owner Cody Maze mentions he knows Jacobs\u2019 mother is a fan of Dave & Andy\u2019s Homemade Ice Cream in Oakland.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend works at Dave & Andy\u2019s, and her mom\u2019s in the ice cream store all the time,\u201d Maze tells Chang in the episode. \u201cShe\u2019s very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s gonna make me cry,\u201d Jacobs says before they discuss the ice cream shop\u2019s brief closure and subsequent 2024 rebirth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the edit (of the episode), and it seems like that was all played and staged, but that was not,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n
After their meal, they head over to Dave & Andy\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of real moments of learning about somebody growing up in a place,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n
But spontaneity is a big ask for a TV production that relies on pre-planning to make for a smooth shoot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that nobody enjoys it,\u201d Chang said of the production crew\u2019s reaction to the show\u2019s spontaneous detours. \u201cYou got to get permission, get all these signatures of people who are in the background. It just changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other first-season \u201cDetour\u201d episodes took Chang to South Florida with comedian Eric Andre and to Texas with comedian Cristela Alonzo.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh episode includes a stop at Apteka in Bloomfield, and Chang and Jacobs also shop for Pittsburgh sports team jerseys.<\/p>\n
\u201cNinety-five percent of everybody has some kind of sports paraphernalia on,\u201d Jacobs tells Chang in the episode. \u201cI was the one not in the jersey. This was my life as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs emerges from the store wearing a Paul Skenes Pirates jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took coming home with you to make me a real Pittsburgher,\u201d Jacobs says.<\/p>\n
While detours in planned filming add to the show\u2019s spontaneity, sometimes the crew can\u2019t get spur-of-the-moment permission to film in some establishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Detour\u201d includes a stop at Sheetz but not at Wawa as Jacobs and Chang drive from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to Wawa too, but they wouldn\u2019t give us permission (to film),\u201d Chang said. \u201cFrom the get-go, I told production and (executive producer\/director) Morgan (Neville), I don\u2019t want to be disrespectful to the hundreds of hours of work that went into (planning) this (episode), but this is just a placeholder because we\u2019re going to go off script.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chang said he learned a lot about Pittsburgh from his visit with Jacobs, and he was impressed by its layout, topography and the prominence of meds and eds in the city\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had these dynastic families that have helped shape America, but they were part of Pittsburgh,\u201d Chang said. \u201cIt helped shape an infrastructure and that is pretty awesome. It just was a cool town. The food was really good, and people were really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLegitimately, if you called my wife and you ask her, \u2018Which city has David talked about the most?\u2019, she would say Pittsburgh,\u201d Chang said. \u201cI send her (Pittsburgh) properties on Zillow. She thinks I\u2019m joking but (Pittsburgh) feels like what a lot of cities are trying to engineer now. Pittsburgh has a community \u2014 just like it does with its fan base for sports teams \u2014 for the restaurant industry. The neighborhoods and people that support it really support restaurants, and I think that\u2019s just the coolest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week\u2019s episode of CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Detour with David Chang\u201d (10 p.m. Oct. 10) got its start when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-303094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}