Pepe & Mito’s in Dallas gets its spotlight moment on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives

Plus, fresh dirt on when other Dallas restaurant segments will air.

DALLAS — Pepe & Mito's in Deep Ellum got its 15 minutes of fame when its appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives aired for the first time on Monday night.

The episode, which filmed in December, shows chef-owner Pedro Rojas displaying how to make albondigas soup and flour tortillas to enthusiastic host Guy Fieri.

Pepe & Mito's segment is the second in the show, following a how-to on fried ravioli by Baltimore restaurant Joe Squared.

"Whenever I come into the Dallas area, I am always thinking about Tex-Mex," Guy begins in his introduction, as he climbs out of his flashy red car, right after the camera has panned over the Deep Ellum art park and Malcolm X sign. "Well then I hear about this joint down here in Deep Ellum, and they say, 'No, we're not Tex-Mex, we're Mex-Tex -- we've put a little flip on it'."

Cut to a closeup of flour tortillas being flipped on a griddle.

"Pedro Rojas found a place where he can put his Mexican roots first -- especially when it comes to his mom's homemade Mexican soup," Guy says.

They run through the recipe. First the soup broth: white onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, minced garlic, black pepper, cumin, and water, simmered for 20 minutes. Then the flattened "meatball" patties, bound together with scrambled egg, and then the flour tortillas, made to order, whose texture Guy pronounces delicious. Then the soup. Slurp slurp.

"That soup is gangster," Guy says.

The next dish they make is Pepe & Mito's tacos nortenos, consisting of grilled bottom skirt steak with red onions, tomatoes, and dried chipotles stewed in a combination of red wine and white zinfandel -- "which you don't see get cooked with often," Guy wryly notes.

On Mondays, Pepe & Mito's closes at 3 p.m. A manager said that the restaurant had no viewing parties planned.

Pepe & Mito's was one of seven restaurants around Dallas-Fort Worth that were filmed in December 2011 by Guy Fieri's crew, and that also included Cane Rosso, Pecan Lodge, Maple & Motor, Afrah, Chop House Burgers in Arlington, and A Taste Of Europe in Fort Worth.

The show schedule displays only the current week but the restaurants were told they'd be given four weeks' notice of air date. However, this link sure seems to imply that Maple & Motor's segment will air on April 9, and Chop House Burgers will air on April 16.