Wilmington’s Bardea to be featured Monday on Today Show

Bardea’s chef Antimo DiMeo and co-owner Scott Stein

Wilmington’s popular Bardea restaurant will be featured in a live segment Monday, Aug. 16, on “The Today Show.”

The segment, which will follow chef Antimo DiMeo preparing two dishes in a “Make Ahead Monday” cooking segment, will run about 9:15 a.m. during the NBC morning show’s third hour.

Scott Stein, co-owner of Bardea, said the segment will broadcast from inside the restaurant, not outside as was planned earlier in the year before bad weather put a lid on that.

Stein said he’s happy to represent the success of Wilmington’s food scene.

“Wilmington has been on the map growing with the food Renaissance, and I think it just continues bringing attention to all this amazing stuff that’s going on in downtown Wilmington,” Stein said.

Stein said the James Beard-nominated restaurant was not allowed to announce what recipes DiMeo will demonstrate. They will be familiar to restaurant patrons and fall in line with its plans to open a steakhouse on Market Street in 2022, he said.

The recipe also fits in how the restaurant workers live, Stein said. Their schedules often run counter to mainstream jobs. Because they are off on Sunday and Monday, they often prepare food ahead at home so they and their families have something ready to go.

DiMeo had a practice run Thursday, and it went well, Stein said.

He’s been a lifelong fan of “The Today Show.”

“I’ve grown up watching that show,” he said. “Every morning it’s always on, and it’s kind of like a personal childhood dream come true.”

He does not recommend people come to the restaurant to see the broadcast. They won’t be allowed in, and it will hard for them to see anything inside by looking through the windows, he said.

Stein hopes the broadcast will be exciting for his customers.

“It’s nice when we get to do a national show like this,” Stein said. “You know we have a lot of customers that are from New York, Boston, New Jersey, all over the East Coast, so it’s exciting.”

Betsy Price

Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.