This new reality show "The Restaurant"

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Anyone watching this? Speaking as a sometimes food writer & semi-reluctant reality TV obsessive this may be the best TV show ever.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'm looking for people with a smile in their hearts"

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

wait that's not right

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'm looking for people with a smile in their hearts... and the willingness to work for $2.13 an hour."

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

But does it have Lynda Carter? Or Robert Conrad?? I think not.

― Larcole (Nicole), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Both of them would be glad to get jobs paying that much these days, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

This Rocco character looks a hell of a lot like Chris Klein.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

This show is great! Wow, that was really really entertaining.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes but is it my restaurant? No. I want a reality TV show to come and film the tedium of polishing glasses for hours, maybe following it up with a blockbuster special watching me argue with the people who clean our towels for HALF AN HOUR FOR FUCK'S SAKE

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 21 July 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe if your name was Rocco.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I could change my name to Aircraft Carrier, it still wouldn't make trimming candles entertaining.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 21 July 2003 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

or candling trim, for that matter.

Actually I really liked "The Restaurant," lots of tension and fun, and that Brazilian waitress is going to make everyone hate her and desire her too. But all this forced product placement is FUCKED UP. "Go out and get all these people a Coors!" Lingering shots of "his" Mitsu station wagon, followed by a commercial for Mitsu, followed by a guy saying "a guy named Rocco who looks like that in a car like THAT!" Come on, dudes, that's worse than "American Idol."

But that station wagon did look pretty fuckin' dope, though.

― Neudonym, Monday, 21 July 2003 03:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved it but Neu. is right on. The product placement almost made me change it.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh and I forgot to add that Rocco was totally hott.

What the hell was up with the outfits the servers had to wear?

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

They couldn't be as bad as the ones I had to wear for a while - heavily starched shirt, floor-length apron, vest AND PANTS. I've never worn anything that uncomfortable. And I haven't had a stitch of clothing starched since then.

(They were all heavily starched - I wasn't just upset about having to wear pants, period.)

I'll choose ugly-as-hell to uncomfortable and itchy any day.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:01 (twenty-two years ago)

they were hipster, tight, faded jeans, italian soccer shirts with the restaurant's name on it and garish nameplate belt buckles. bizarre.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Is this restaurant owned by Vice Magazine?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

haha

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It's sealed if the kitchen staff wear trucker hats.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

But all this forced product placement is FUCKED UP.

I didn't mind it so much. It added a level, almost, since one of the main characters in the show is the investor, and one of the main worries is, where will we find the money to do this? Well, from Coors, that's where. The don;t talk about it directly, but it's obvious enough. What would you do if you were Rocco? "No. Get out of my restaurant, you big-money-offfering scumbags." Come on. I'd sell my left ass cheek to start my own restaurant.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Adn it's a very entertaining show. So lighten up.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

You just made Naomi Klein cry, Kenan. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I said I liked it Kenan. I just hate product placement.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

What the hell was up with the outfits the servers had to wear?

Better than the penguin outfit I've always had to wear when waiting. Green is nice.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I said I liked it Kenan. I just hate product placement.

I was talking more to Neu than you. But if the product placement makes the show possible, and there'sa no bones about it (which I feel there aren't), I don't mind.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

That Coors money might mean the difference between success and closing in the first year, like 75% of Manhattan restaurants. And plus, he needs all the boost he can get, since according to one NY friend, the location he got stuck with is one of those damned locations that house a new failed restaurant every month.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd sell my left ass cheek to start my own restaurant.

Maybe I'm missing the backstory here, but Rocco Dispirito certainly didn't start Union Pacific for this show. He's been cooking at a high level in NYC for 10 years at least (becoming prominent at Lespinasse under/after Gray Kunz?), and has owned his own place for more than half that.

Anyone been there? It's the celeb-chef place I've most wanted to go since getting back here (some non- or less-celeb places would come first), but it hasn't happened yet. And the reality-tv thing does not fill me with hope. Persona probably less impt when it comes to chefs - I don't need to like you to like your food (ok, that's sometimes true w/ music too), but I wonder what this will do to his audience, as it were. < /food snob>

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

They better not be serving only Coors at that restaurant. Or Rocco might be in trouble.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

a cursed location! But do you think the product placement money is going towards the restaurant or, rather, the production/advertisment of the show?

No he's still running Union Pacific during this show. The new place is italian and called Rocco's.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:27 (twenty-two years ago)

No one will order the Coors. They just want adspace.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"I'll have the Mediterranean spring frittata... and a Coors." No, that's not going to happen.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

He's been cooking at a high level in NYC for 10 years at least (becoming prominent at Lespinasse under/after Gray Kunz?), and has owned his own place for more than half that.

A new restaurant is a new restaurant. Especially in Manhattan. I don't think any ideas of "selling out" apply here.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The Coors, I just realized, is for the staff.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

A celebrity chef is a celebrity chef. Especially one with a network (?) tv show.

I'm not talking about selling out. It could actually be exciting in a way. I'm just saying this is totally artificial. What's the location?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Alls I'm saying is, whoring yourself to Coors and network TV AND making your mother the head chef kinda cancel each other out.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:35 (twenty-two years ago)

and being hott. don't forget that.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:35 (twenty-two years ago)

For me, the hottest guy on the show is the back house manager, the one that was like, "I've tried being a badass..." and Rocco interrupted him and said, "You look like you'd be a very good badass." And he will be. Goddamnit, he's going to have to be. We will see this man get very surly in the very near future, mark my words.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:38 (twenty-two years ago)

BUT... I fear he won't get surly enough. Has anyone worked in a restaurant before? Or read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential? It's an ugly scene behind those swingin' doors, lemme tell ya. From Amazon's synopsis:

Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase.

A show that showed THAT woulde be the best show ever. A show that had people who were loud and disgusting and nasty, a show that featured unappreciated backhouse geniuses like my old friend Dave, who was tattooed, smelly, gross, unrefined, hick-ish, completely without formal education or taste in popular culture, but could make a yellow gazpacho that would bring tears to your eyes. But that show would have to be on HBO.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:51 (twenty-two years ago)

"wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase.

This totally describes the back of the house at the restaurant I work in.

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and as for surly . .

Behind the bar the phone list for all the employees is taped up. People have written witty rejoinders next to everyone's names. Next to mine is "No soup for you!" :(

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 21 July 2003 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)

You fit right in, then.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 05:03 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite line in the show was Rocco saying after interviewing a particularly honest candidate: "He hates people. I love him."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 21 July 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Revive to let you know this is on in ten minutes.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, yeah, the close-ups of Coors bottles are getting a little ridiculous. Couldn't they have found another beer? Heineken? Amstel Light? Anything other than white trash, watery, domestic swill? What was the thinking here?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 01:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope they make Kitchen Confidential into a movie. I always ask chefs if they'e read it. They eithger say it's the only book they've EVER read, or that they don't want to go near it, it's too painful.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 28 July 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

hahaha--He's wearing an indie trucker hat.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 28 July 2003 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

indeed he was. hilarious.

"You can come back and be a customer now." ?!?!?! and she laughed! i'd fire her too!

― Aaron A., Monday, 28 July 2003 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

her hair was out of fucking control. made her look like the hooker Homer marries in Vegas.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 28 July 2003 01:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it suited her a little too well.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 01:46 (twenty-two years ago)

It was so rough how he made those poor people get their hair done all embarrasingly and then fired them! What a dick that dude is--it was pretty hilarious, all that stuff about "I started this restaurant because I'm so proud of my Italian heritage, and my mama's cooking, and that's why I'm naming it after myself." This is a great show.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 04:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, he expressed regret over getting their hair done. He didn't know who was going to be fired beforehand.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the product placement, whatever you think about it, is weird. Clearly most of those shots are done after-the-fact and then cut in, and it looks really awkward. Sometimes the lighting wasn't even the same. It was like a commercial was periodically jamming the signal.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:01 (twenty-two years ago)

How amazing did that spaghetti and meat balls look, though?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Although that big guy didn't like them.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:03 (twenty-two years ago)

But I wouldn't kick 'em outta my kitchen.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Who was the Soprano-wannabe bugging Fran Drescher - Rocco's family? And why didn't someone slap the people whining about their free food and wine?

I can't believe that they worked a long shift in Manhattan and were walking out with $50-60 in tips. That's insane.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

That dude who got his job switched and had to clean the bathroom and then broke his arm, poor dude.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently, he was in a cast, and never worked there again. When he called in after a month and said he could work again, they ignored him. So now he's being really vocal about what an asshole everyone there is.

Lemme try to dig up that link.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:09 (twenty-two years ago)

And "poor dude" especially becuase he seemed like a competent waiter. The guy who ran across the street with the credit card and otherwise dealt very badly with bitchy customers, he's the one that should have been cut.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously. I wanna see that link.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Who was the Soprano-wannabe bugging Fran Drescher - Rocco's family? And why didn't someone slap the people whining about their free food and wine?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll find that link tomorrow. I read it over my girlfriend's shoulder, and now I can't find it. I'll ask her.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I missed this, because I was out drinking at the benefit for some East Dallas door guy who died a tragic death. :( As sorry as I am for his family some dumb hippie band was playing and I'm sorry I missed this show. *sigh*

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 28 July 2003 07:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, this is big evesdropping fun:

http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=18494&

It's a thread on a forum, now featuring Rocco's waitstaff (and even more interestingly, former waitstaff). I've been reading backwards, so I can't tell you exactly where the shit-flinging starts.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 4 August 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

A couple of folks involved posted earlier, but it looks like you can start with this page and continue on from there for the action.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Wowee zowee!

Boy, Rocco sure came off as an asshole tonight.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Indeed.

Incase you haven't read that far, here is Gideon's online diary.

http://www.gideonhorowitz.com/train.htm

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I checked that out.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the show tonight (though still enjoyable) came off if anything as even MORE staged than ever.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:31 (twenty-two years ago)

(I live two blocks from 'The Restaurant'.)

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd say you should eat there and tell us about it, but I wouldn't want you to pay $20 for a plate of fucking meatballs.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"We're bleeding money - LET'S APPLY FOR AN AMEX LOAN!!!"

They're called customers. You smile to their faces, and curse their existance every night before bed. And bed is at 6 am, after you do a lot of coke and drink yourself into a forgetful stupor, just to be able to psychologically deal with the daily horror that is being a waiter.
Yeah, I did my time already. (And may do it again, if I can't find another job that lets me work nights and make decent money.)

I, rationally, understand why someone didn't slap the whiny fuckers. I, emotionally, didn't.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:45 (twenty-two years ago)

This is what's bothering me most of all -- this looks like a bad restaurant. The food looks painfully MOR. The customer who made the crack about how he could get a better deal at the Olive Garden sounded totally convinced, and I believed him. Then there are the gingham banana boats juxtaposed with the sterling silver. And the big loud guy -- who was that guy? -- defending it: "It's a brilliant idea. The customers don't know what they're going to get!" Me, I like to know what I'm getting. Can I order the calimari with the irony on the side, please?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah milo that was weird, the loan thing.

You know, of all the people on the show, I think Rocco seems the least comfortable on-camera.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, it's him and the waiters that get the most camera time, and the waiters are all (shocka!) actors.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:51 (twenty-two years ago)

This one was pretty unbelievable. I loved it when the word got around about the Vespa and Topher instantly decided to quit.

The voice-over was so amazingly obviously written by someone else.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 11 August 2003 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite new TV show. I wish the staff would've just walked en masse after the Vespa Bonus news got around.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 11 August 2003 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

GOD I miss having a TV and/or cable...

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 11 August 2003 04:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Me too. :(

― Texas Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 11 August 2003 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

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