"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1

Pezchef · August 16, 2003

This show really offends me on so many levels...

As a Chef

As an Italian

As a Catholic...(the blessing of the meatballs).

As far as Rocco sending Gideon home because he would bum everyone out because of his sling...Does he also turn handicapped customers away at the door? If someone who was wheelchair bound wanted to eat at Rocco's...Would he say, "Sorry, we can't let you eat here, You'd really bum out my other customers. You'll have to eat somewhere else."

There is nothing "Super-Rocco" could do now to redeem himself in my eyes. I'll never buy anything with Rocco's face on the box.

tommy · August 16, 2003

As far as Rocco sending Gideon home because he would bum everyone out because of his sling...Does he also turn handicapped customers away at the door? If someone who was wheelchair bound wanted to eat at Rocco's...Would he say, "Sorry, we can't let you eat here, You'd really bum out my other customers. You'll have to eat somewhere else."

that seems fundamentally different to me. he also probably doesn't hire butt-ugly people with questionable hygiene as hosts either. but i'm sure he'll let them in to eat.

Pezchef · August 16, 2003

Tommy...

Of course I'm exaggerating. I just didn't like the attitude he took with Gideon. I mean, don't you think the customers would appreciate the fact that this kid came to work even though he was hurting? It shows he has a good work ethic. Which is more than I can say for someone who would rather shmooze than cook.

KelMH · August 16, 2003

Tommy...
Of course I'm exaggerating. I just didn't like the attitude he took with Gideon. I mean, don't you think the customers would appreciate the fact that this kid came to work even though he was hurting? It shows he has a good work ethic...

It would also show that Rocco appreciates his employees. I thought his statement about Gideon's condition showing the "tragedies of life" were also totally off-color, if not offensive. I think Rocco is tragic...

tommy · August 16, 2003

Which is more than I can say for someone who would rather shmooze than cook.

from what i see, the cooks *are* cooking.

and i really don't think that customers would look at the guy with the sling and say "gee, isn't that nice, he came to work." c'mon. and if they did, does it really matter? give me a break here.

Edited August 16, 2003 by tommy (log)

WHT · August 16, 2003

This demonstrates the danger of not separating commercial endorsements from the body of the show. At least we can hold on to our contempt for Amex and Coors in The Restaurant due to their clumsy, forced appearances. When a product that sponsors the show is represented as being objectively endorsed, it's deceptive.

Loke some of the shows on HBO and Showtime. The produt is mentioned in passing context or is just there.

WHT · August 16, 2003

Eric was probably there just the once and the editors are using the old CUT AND PASTE.

You have to love the Avid system, it slices, it dices and makes whole segments from scraps.

Saydee · August 17, 2003

I just saw a promo for tonight's episode of The Restaurant, and lo and behold it featured... Tony Bourdain! Apparently they're going to show his trip to Rocco's - including some of his comments. Should be worth a watch.:)

Jinmyo · August 17, 2003

Egad.

It's Sunday again. :sad:

Gifted Gourmet · August 17, 2003

It's Sunday again.

never thought of it that way heretofore ... but you are absolutely right!

ronnie_suburban · August 17, 2003

It's Sunday again.
never thought of it that way heretofore ... but you are absolutely right!

Well, at least with a Bourdain sighting the show will carry some additional value this week.

=R=

Nick · August 17, 2003

I'd finally given up on this show and wasn't going to stay up to watch it tonight, but if Bourdain's going to be on I guess I will. I hope it's triumphant Tony rides in on a white horse to rescue Rocco before he sinks ever deeper into a cesspool of his own making.

Bux · August 17, 2003

Nick, to the best of my knowledge, Tony ate there once and it was during the filming. He reported on his meal in the first couple of pages in this thread and long before the show hit the air waves.

bilrus · August 17, 2003

I thought that he was there during the soft opening.

Nick · August 17, 2003

Nick, to the best of my knowledge, Tony ate there once and it was during the filming. He reported on his meal in the first couple of pages in this thread and long before the show hit the air waves.

Bux, I kind of figured as much. Was hoping he'd come back for a new taping session. Maybe I won't stay up to watch it. Thanks.

Blondie · August 17, 2003

Here's what Tony said at the time:

I'm having a lot of trouble separating the ironic from the post-ironic from the sincere regarding last night's experience. The food was good--if actively unambitious. Exactly what you think/hope you're going to get after looking at the menu (see above).I mean, when you see Spaghetti and Mama's Meatballs as the first, most prominent thing on a menu--that's pretty much a defining mission statement, yes? Good meatballs. Fresh fish. The food was decent..Maybe even a little bit better than decent.. In fact--if Rocco was serving the exact same food in a tiny, out-of-the-way, homier location, I'd be unrestrained in my praise for the place. (Rocco's version of Rao's, perhaps)But the decor is very City Island: loud, overlit, vinyl and formica...(the business model seems to be a mix of Carmines and Balthazar)and the TV thing added another dimension of..of..complicity in some crime yet to be identified. (though shooting ends this week). I'm confused. Rocco is an extremely talented chef, an excellent cook, a very bright, articulate--and yes--sensitive guy. I personally like him--and hope he does well in all his ventures. I want to root for him--a capable chef with the world on a string, making moves. But I'm troubled by my dinner last night. A meal shouldn't make you feel implicated in some unnamed felony afterwards...it shouldn't make you stand in front of the mirror looking into the yawning depths of your own dark heart, wondering "Jesus! What have we come to?!" Irony and cynicism should not, I think, be menu items.
Am I looking too hard at what could/should be a "fun", casual dining experience? Did snobbery or self-loathing or envy play a part in my unsettling experience? Ripert, who dragooned me into this, thinks the place is fantastic and shrewd. I don't know. I feel like I just woke up from a week-long coke jag; shaky, weak and..guilty.
Maybe some future posters will add much needed perspective cause I feel like I've lost mine.

Nick · August 18, 2003

Well, I watched it again. What a sorry affair. I'm not sure which is sorrier, me for watching it, or NBC for putting it on. When it was over I said to Susie, "It's a soap opera! It's a fucking soap opera!"

Just think of the possibilities if they could have gotten Julia C. to do this instead of Rocco and his mother.

tommy · August 18, 2003

either i'm more tuned in to rocco's horrible acting, and the horrible set-ups for the product placement, or rocco's acting is just getting worse. you can see these things coming a mile away. which, of course, means they're that much more insulting.

it was refreshing to see bourdain and ripert, instead of the usual cast of whining customers.

pastramionrye · August 18, 2003

so does anyone know where the three disgruntled cooks are now cooking these days?

or did rocco blacklist them?

tommy · August 18, 2003

This show really offends me on so many levels...
As a Catholic...(the blessing of the meatballs).

all things considered, i think the blessing of meatballs would be one of the least offensive things the catholic church is dealing with. :laugh:

(disclaimer: i'm catholic.)

Jaymes · August 18, 2003

the horrible set-ups for the product placement, or rocco's acting is just getting worse. you can see these things coming a mile away.

Did anyone else wonder if perhaps they had intentionally not paid the staff just so they could "suddenly" come up with the brilliant idea of using the American Express Small Business Card? :unsure:

Jaymes · August 18, 2003

This show really offends me on so many levels...
As a Catholic...(the blessing of the meatballs).
all things considered, i think the blessing of meatballs would be one of the least offensive things the catholic church is dealing with.

Boy, there's a really unpleasant joke one could come up with there.

tommy · August 18, 2003

Did anyone else wonder if perhaps they had intentionally not paid the staff just so they could "suddenly" come up with the brilliant idea of using the American Express Small Business Card?

could very well be. and what was rocco saying about not setting up anything with a payroll company? i mean, when you open a business with 50 employees, or whatever it is, you'd think you give ol' ADP a call in within the first week or 2. :blink: :blink: :blink:

Nick · August 18, 2003

all things considered, i think the blessing of meatballs would be one of the least offensive things the catholic church is dealing with.

The blessing of the meatballs was a highlight in this show.

Bux · August 18, 2003

Aside from the Bourdain/Ripert My Dinner with André routine, the show really came to a grinding bore of rehashed material. It wasn't funny, it wasn't sad and it wasn't insulting. It was boring.

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