TV's Alton Brown visits Washington-Wilkes, gets 'Good Eats' at Phil's The Biscuit Place

The Food Network's Alton Brown (l) enjoys a bite with Phil Tanner. When a popular Food Network host rolled into Washington looking for honest American Mom-and-Pop road food, he went straight to Phil Tanner's now-famous The Biscuit Place.

And Phil kept him waiting.

Alton Brown, creator of the cable network's show "Good Eats" and commentator on "Iron Chef America," has been riding his motorcycle with friends across America, taping material for episodes of "Feasting on Asphalt," a four-part show which will air this summer.

"It's a cross-country motorcycle tour," Brown said, "four of us on motorcycles going coast-to-coast looking for the current condition of American road food. It's always been a particular passion of mine, and we ate in people's homes, at church dinners, we ate at general stores, just to get off the freeway and find out what's out there."

The cross-country tour had started in Savannah, had been through the Smoky Mountains and all the way out West to Arizona. After a gravelroad crash put him out of action for a few weeks, the Atlanta-based Food TV star decided to visit a few more places closer to home in Georgia. Brown had heard of The Biscuit Place from someone near Statesboro, and thought it would be a good place to showcase breakfast in the South.

A three-man crew caught the action as the Food Network personality interviews Washington's biscuit guru in the shade at W-W Middle School. After locating The Biscuit Place through the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, Alton mounted his now-battle-scarred BMW bike last Wednesday and rode from his home in Marietta to Washington. A three-man video crew followed in an equipment-filled truck.

And when big-time TV guy Alton Brown called Phil on his cell phone, Phil hung up on him.

"I thought somebody was pulling my leg," he said. "I was mowing the practice field, and this guy calls up and says he's Alton Brown from the Food Network and he wants to come to the Biscuit Place. Now my family knows I'm always watching him on the Food Network, so I figure they're playing a trick. I hung up on him. More'n once."

When the video crew showed up at The Biscuit Place, Phil's sister, Jennifer Sanders, went over to the field to tell Phil. "I still thought they were kidding, and I kept cutting," he said.

Alton Brown pretends to kick back and take a full-belly nap on his motorcycle as Phil Tanner sings the praises of Wilkes people, family, and home made sausage biscuits. Finally, another call from Alton Brown convinced Phil that they were for real.

They shot video of Biscuit Place employees - Phil's mother, Debbie Smith, his sister, grandmother Betty Shedd, brother Jason, and cousin Lauren Guinn - as they made biscuits and other breakfast items. They interviewed customers about how wonderful the food was, and Phil about the history of his restaurant and his customers. "I stressed to him that our success was because of the people of Wilkes County, not because of anything we did."

After filming Phil and his family at The Biscuit Place, the video crew followed him to his other job, mowing the Tiger athletic fields. They shot a segment in the shade in front of the Washington-Wilkes Middle School, with Alton relaxing (and eating biscuits) on his bike, and Phil relaxing on his big field mower. The scene fit in well with the show's theme, Alton said. "Football is important to me, and stadium food and tailgating are a big part of road food."

After the shoot was done, Alton and his video crew came downtown and looked around, if briefly. He was attracted to artwork at The Purple Palette, where he surprised co-owner (and big Alton Brown fan) Wanda Trimm.

"I know you!" she said, "You're on the Food Network!" With Wanda's help, Alton browsed through the store's collection of Leonard Jones' primitive Southern artwork, and picked out a few to take home.

"I've got to come back here to Washington with my wife," he said. "She'll love these."

The first episode of the four-part show will premier on the Food Network Saturday, July 29 at 9 p.m. with episodes following the next three Saturday nights - August 5, August 12, and August 19, all at 9 p.m.

So, after Phil hung up on him and kept him waiting an hour, was this "Good Eats" fella Alton Brown a nice, genuine guy, or was he one of those ... TV people? "Naw, he's a helluva nice guy, and

it was a pleasure meeting him after we've enjoyed his cooking shows so much. He even invited me and my

family to be in the studio in Atlanta when they shoot a program," Phil said.