jhlurie

Certain portions of the show are undoubtably "directed" if not scripted. Sometimes maybe closer than we suspect. Meaning things like this go on: "hey guy, go over to that table and when you come back tell all of your coworkers in a loud voice what the people at that table were talking about". Also, as always, editing plays a role--although not as big a role as some people might complain about when they seem to come off badly on these shows. As far as it being "based" on another restaurant, I'm not quite sure how that would work. At this point this show is about a guy who opened a restaurant, got too famous, and neglected it. That plot requires that the person actually become that famous, at a bare minimum, even if the neglect was faked or exaggerated. If the comments are about Season 1 and not Season 2... again there are problems. The show then was about opening a restaurant in 6 weeks (which they basically did on camera) and later about a bunch of idiot workers bickering on camera instead of doing their jobs. Although that bickering was probably mostly fake, it certainly was a product of the setup they were in and not easily transferable from some other existing restaurant. So I'm still very confused about that claim. Sure they may be lying and faking left and right... but that's not the same as telling some fictionalized retelling of the story of another restaurant. Also, clearly, the restaurant does exist, and at least some of it's problems are documented in the public record (with legal documents).

It's actually pretty good. Okay, let me get this straight... they aren't killing the Remix sub-brand. They are just killing what it was originally supposed to be and substituting this new flavor? What the hell? Was the "Remix" brandname valuable? Okay, this part of the BevNet piece is odd: It's April--almost May. Did this ever happen? Where?

Lamely enough, they also seem to already have Reverse (I mean "Uh Oh") Golden Oreos too--in other words with Chocolate inside--as well as the vanilla cream. I'm with Jason. Without the burnt choco-cookie taste... it's like every other cookie.

Grand poobah Perlow and I were IMing during the show the other day, and in the fashion of bored nerdy types were playing a "Restaurant Drinking Game". I can't recall all of our witicisms, but basically the formula was: Take a sip every time... Gulp every time... Finish the glass when... The point being that the sips should be things which happen a lot but may be kind of meaningless, the gulps should be those less frequent but more over-the-top things, and the gulps are like... the big closers. Wait, I'll try one. Take a sip every time Rocco leers at a woman Gulp every time a Chowderhead flunky rolls their eyes at some example of Rocco overspending Finish the glass whenever you see a shot of Momma looking confused or put upon. You will be stinking drunk by the end of the show. Although frankly if I were deep into my cups right now while writing this, no doubt it would be much funnier. Or at least seem so to me.

Normally I'd try to handle an issue like this on the side, in private with Bicycle Lee, but given that he's chosen to air this in this fashion I'm going to reply in the same fashion, although I'm going to address the larger question and not Bicycle Lee's specific deletion complaint. Dinner conversation is one thing. eGullet is another. Dinner conversation is a small group of people who can all see each other's faces. eGullet is a conversation with thousands of semi-anonymous faceless people. We've used the "dinner conversation" analogy ourselves on occasion, but it's really not an identical experience, and we don't treat it as such. The context, the ability to read the reactions of people, and the tone of a communication are not the same. Also, eGullet has a specific mission targeted towards food discussion, and we've got certain rules of conduct and standards we have to follow to keep things organized, civil and on topic to food. In other words, on this board anything does NOT go. We try to be fair-minded, but please remember that. If any of you have issue with a specific administrative decision, or questions about site policies, you can PM me, or any of our Site Managers. But we aren't going to debate the decisions in a discussion thread with you. Ever.

If you mean "Olive Garden" by "OG", then yikes... sorry, I can't put that anywhere near my list of places I'll tolerate. Perhaps it comes from knowing that Uncle Frank is some moron who's never been any closer to Italy than I've been, and that the chefs they consult from Italy are probably being held at gunpoint. Applebee's is better than Bennigan's TGIFriday's etc., but... only a little. Cracker Barrel is very very good. Okay, back to Outback. You want to see "spin" on the health angle? Look here. The Bloomin' Onion, of course, isn't addressed at all, except under the "menu items prepared with butter and/or milk" section. Heh. Now here's something funny. Apparently they sponsor a blimp called "The Bloomin' Onion". Also, Look at the goofy hats they make these race car drivers wear...

If by "Chef" you mean that guy Tony, and how Rocco jumped all over him I'd agree. But if you mean Rocco the Rockhead when you say "Chef", he's VERY responsible for management and oversight--he PUT himself in that spot through an insistence that Chowderhead stay at arm's length (this may not be apparent in this edition but I think it was made clear in the last one--Rockhead gave Chowderhead a huge "go away" vibe, and frankly Chowderhead's biggest mistake, as Jason has mentioned, was listening). Rocco was apparently making business decisions, or at the very least had designated his own people to do so. Even with the NBC subsidy, that would be one very expensive form of revenge... so I kind of doubt it. I think he deluded himself that the media exposure would turn things around more than it did. Chodorow and DiSpirito DO deserve each other though. Our favorite Chowderhead is not the nice man he wants the cameras to show him as, just as much as Rocco isn't the charmer he wants us to see him as. Chodorow is technically in the right here, but he's a shark and even if that seems justified in this case it hasn't always been with him.

Ace-k (it's branded as "Sunett") is actually a fairly common additive to Sucralose blends. The mystery is why they still feel they need aspartame.

It may not be all of it, but go to the bottom of the page linked here (click me). Of course Rocco isn't much liked here either, I think, and that article dares to call him "likable", which seems like bullcrap to me.

mags, I think in part this is because they TRIED to make him more of a hero last time (remember the heavily edited "Rocco enters the kitchen and saves the day" sequence from last year?) and they failed utterly. So much so, that they kind of shifted things to show him as the heel he is slightly BEFORE the end of the last run (in part, I think, because he'd started spending so much time on talk shows showing his true colors there). To compare him to another Mark Burnett reality star, they must have had something of an "Omarosa" moment with him, where they realized they couldn't possibly hide it... so they went with it.

Outback, people. Okay at least throw in the phrase Bloomin' Onion or something (see my example above). Kangaroo. Shrimp on the Barbie. Something on a plate. And THEN what you listened to while eating it.

Kylie Minogue? Jet (the "Are You Going To Be My Girl" group). Okay, now as to Outback... Mmm. I love Bloomin' Onions! Fry me up one right now! Have any of you ever eaten one all by yourself?

I still can't get out of my mind how he had his hands all over that girl from the "24" TV show the other day when they both appeared on Carson Daly's show. It was like he doesn't even realize how icky it looks. So of course he's all over some bink at a book signing who actually wants him. Given that Chowderhead said that one of the biggest expenses was "payroll" you have to wonder where Rocco's claim to the press that Mamma isn't being paid came from. Where else is that payroll money going? Up Rocco's nose? As much as Chowderhead really is a Darth Vadar type, and as wormy as guys like the little intern seem, how the heck does a place hemorage an average of $120,000 a month? ESPECIALLY when so much of the startup costs were subsidized? Many restaurants go under for breaking even or running only slightly in the red, how could Rocco be surprised that management crappy enough to dig the hole THAT deep would go unnoticed?

That "specialty" is also refered to as "not thinking things through all the way".

Since Outback in a national chain, should I shift this topic to General guys? EDIT - Okay... merging with the thread linked by Varmint. It makes sense. I rather liked their Caesar, although it is correct that in actuality it's not very Caesar-like.

I've actually been mocked here before for suggesting that Outback isn't that evil, other than the hokey fake-Aussie crap and the wait times for seating. The Pork chops are a really reliable good eat, for example, and the steaks are decent for non-aged meat. The "bloomin' onion" is a joke, of course, but sort of a fun party food. There are worse places than Outback. TGI Friday's for example. Bennigans. Olive Garden. Any of those places where they try and act like they are serving you something special, when really you'd be much happier with a nice slab of meat.

This really was a very different show than Season 1, although the "promise" that they will also focus on how much everybody hates the new bartender and the "spy" seems like an unwelcomed callback to some of the tactics used last year. The corp. chef seemed okay to me, if not the intern. The first seemed pragmatic, while the second seemed to have less actual experience to back up his big words. What's pleasant is that the subtext of Rocco blundering around town on his Vespa while goofy music plays, spending all of his time on book signings and TV appearances (and yo... it's like his OTHER restaurant doesn't even exist), and being smirked at by his employees is EXACTLY in line with what we were all saying about him last year--when the show's editing tried (and failed) to portray him as the hero. It's like they read the former thread here and edited him that way this time. Well, at least so far. Because I'm waiting for Rocco to start "rallying" people and have his pre-lawsuit comeback by the end of the run of episodes. But so far, Darth Vadar (Chodorow) is the one coming off much better, even with his faceless legion of accountants trailing behind him.

It's a theory. However, since Chowderhead was looking at figures for a period when no cameras were present, perhaps it was only a NY consumer reaction to not wanting to be seen in a kitschy (tacky) restaurant, with really expensive meatballs. I mean... locals sit at a bar. Tourists are the ones swamping the restaurant itself. The locals are either disgusted with the place, or at best just don't CARE about it.

Rocco being oblivious seems a theme. Did you notice Rocco storming into his office in a huff after the first Chodorow encounter, and the way that the woman sitting there hardly even bothered to try and hide the big-ass smirk on her face? One gets the feeling that she's seen that kind of behavior from him quite a lot. If I had to put it in words, I'd say it was kind of a "here comes the asshat" look.

One "trick" I've learned with Louis Lunch is that visiting about a half hour before they close for the afternoon (on a weekday) makes things much easier for you--no crowd. In other words, if you have a big early lunch somewhere else and have later dinner reservations, it makes a nice late afternoon snack. Prime time it's just annoyingly crowded.

Yeah, and nice way to adapt my Darth Vadar/Luke Skywalker description to the new title. I feel honored. So far I've liked the fact that this "season", at least so far, seems less oriented towards being a showcase for famewhorish wanna-be actors in the front of the house, and wacky Rocco vignettes (to the extent of seeming self-parody with the few things of this type we DID see), and might actually have some relevance to how a restaurant runs. Well, not ANY restaurant, but at least one trying to be the Italian-American equivalent of Planet Hollywood. Of course Rocco is coming off like a huge tool, but then again if you really believe that there's no such thing as bad publicity, maybe he's okay with that.

Wow, Chodorow is Darth Vadar and Rocco is Luke Skywalker. Or at least that's what Rocco basically claims in the intro. Is it wrong if I hate both of these guys?

Tell us how you really feel!

None of the following is very specific to NJ, but... there's always mail order. Erythritol is usually an ingredient, not a product in of itself, isn't it? Thanks to Google, here's at least one example of it being packaged in bulk though (apparently it CAN be used in baking). Here's the same with Maltitol. Hazelnut butter I've seen at Whole Foods, in NJ and elsewhere. I don't know about Tonic Water, but I've frequently seen "normal" flavored waters with Splenda (the Veryfine Fruit2O line), as well as several soda brands (Diet Rite seems to be the easiest to find). Both brands are sold locally--Diet Rite seems to be in several local chains (according to the Diet Rite website, you can call (800) 696-5891 to find specific stores) and Fruit2O is in the CVS chain (and they have a store locator on their website). I know Splenda flavored syrups can be bought as well, so if you have your own seltzer making machine...

Rocco (and later "Momma"--because she goes everywhere with him these days) were just on Carson Daly's idiotic show. The worst part? Rocco reaching around fellow guest Elisha Cuthbert and feeling her up under the guise of helping her make meatballs. He also had this red dye in his hair and had the middle part moused up like a mohawk.