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"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1

bpearis

By bpearis
in Food Media & Arts

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ambra

ambra

Posted
Posted

I ate there two weeks ago. My friend who is hopelessly in love with Rocco (TV Rocco) dragged me there. Not me, I am happily married to my own Italian man. :laugh:

While the service was impeccable, Score 1 for the busboys, they rocked, I found it really expensive, we spend 100 bucks (including tip) for two glasses of wine, 2 apps, a side dish, and 1, yes, 1 entree. Oh and a coke. we got meatballs, salads, and salmon (WAY greasy) How does that equal 100 bucks? We did tip well though too....

I mean, I know that its New York, but it a Meatball joint for goodness sakes.

tanabutler

tanabutler

Posted
Posted

I finally gathered up the nerve to watch the show last night on Bravo. Luckily, it's so far removed from my experience in restaurants that I didn't have nightmares.

That financier guy sure got a bad nose job. He looks scooped.

JesseNYC

JesseNYC

Posted
Posted
William Grimes reviews Rocco's on 22nd St in today's Times. 
It's pretty good. Early on, this was not so. The squishy pasta and bumbling service that enchanted viewers lived on for a while after the cameras left. But as the more hopeless members of the team departed, the restaurant got down to the actual work of preparing and serving food, and at the moment most of it is more than respectable.

Actually not a bad review, especially considering it comes from Grimes. I'm sure Rocco will be happy with it.

I was really suprised by this. It seems that Grimes actually took it for what it is...a red sauce joint, and didn't compare it to other upscale places.

Interesting.

"I'll have the lobster...... stuffed with tacos"

Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted (edited)
Here's a spirited article about Rocco's on 22nd from today's (Sept. 19) Chicago Tribune. Edited by Alex (log)

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

  • 2 weeks later...
ronnie_suburban

ronnie_suburban

Posted
Posted
It's coming back, like a bad bout of indigestion, for 6 more episodes.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/...1|,00.html

It would certainly be ironic if the show were to return without Rocco, especially after he expressed a desire to participate again.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted (edited)
Saying the decision has to be made "pretty soon," Burnett also points out that opening another new restaurant -- whether with DiSpirito or someone else -- is not the only option.

"If you look at the series," he says, "the first episode was about the opening. But the ratings increased dramatically while we were in the restaurant, which told us you don't need to have a restaurant opening. It's only three acts.

In other words, they want to remove the one aspect which MIGHT have made the first series good (if it had been done better)--the opening. They want to jump right to the manufactured melodrama and get further and further away from the nitty gritty details that COULD have given the show depth.

Good idea, geniuses.

And of course more people watched the show later on in its run. How many people are watching when the train actually wrecks itself? Very few. They gather AFTER the wreck.

Edited by jhlurie (log)

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

herbacidal

herbacidal

Posted
Posted
It's coming back, like a bad bout of indigestion, for 6 more episodes.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/...1|,00.html

I didn't catch the original broadcast, so I'm catching up with the reruns on Bravo. Has the added bonus of airing right before Queer Eye...

yea, i caught the first 2 episodes last week on late night bravo reruns.

i liked them, thought they were pretty good.

especially compared to the outtakes i was able to glimpse of the last 2 episodes, which were the only episodes i caught previously.

Herb aka "herbacidal"

Tom is not my friend.

=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted

Also, if you don't mind the spoilers you can use this thread as a primer for what to look for prior to the episode airing...

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

uzayt

uzayt

Posted
Posted

Hey all,

Just thought I would drop a line for all interested. I am still working Rocco's. Things are much smoother now and the food is great and hot. You will be oh so happy to hear that NBC will be back at Rocco's for season 2. So you will have ample more chances Rocco on this board.

Uzay Tumer's webpage
daysee8

daysee8

Posted
Posted
You will be oh so happy to hear that NBC will be back at Rocco's for season 2.

Is this confirmed? The linked article upthread suggests otherwise.

=R=

Mark Burnett has to say that. He doesn't want Rocco to have him by the balls and demand more money than he wants to pay. So he's got to keep on saying that he can go with another chef if he chooses. I'd guess that's probably the same reason that Rocco went from saying he wants to do it again to not saying much of anything.

Lreda

Lreda

Posted
Posted
We are all paid in time and its smooth sailing at 400- 500 covers a night.  The contracts are signed and we begin shooting in November.

Ugh!!!!

Still jealous over a full house at 5:30 though :wink:

kill_it_grill_it

kill_it_grill_it

Posted
Posted

I have nothing to add to this thread other than to comment that it is VERY entertaining, maybe even better than the show. I've only managed to make it through the first 14 pages so far. As a viewer and once aspiring restauranteur, it certainly didn't look like much fun for anyone except maybe Rocco. :shock:

mtdew

mtdew

Posted
Posted

Yesterday I went to Walmart to get a new remote for my TV, and I saw Rocco's face on the front of a computer game.

fifi

fifi

Posted
Posted

Was the game a shell game... "Where is the paycheck?" :laugh:

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

  • 2 months later...
jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted

Best. Quote. Ever.

(bolding is my emphasis)

The jury's still out on whether that hatchet has been buried. Said DiSpirito of tonight's event: "The cameras are coming. Julian has approved that. We are absolutely on good terms." But Niccolini said: "He's welcome up to a certain point - until he crosses that line. Very likely everything will be fine, but he will try every which way to get his camera crews in - he wouldn't be Rocco otherwise.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

Sparkitus

Sparkitus

Posted
Posted

I have just lived through three weeks of taping at Rocco's and I'm spent. I can't even tell my friends about it anymore because they think I'm making this shit up. Now I'm sorry I deleted all those spam emails about cheap prescription drugs over the internet! The real problem with the show past and present is that the people taping it don't work in the business and don't know where to look for the drama. They think it's all about whining waiters and cheap, drunken guests. There is so much more going on under the surface than their cameras could ever snag on tape. And a lot more entertaining, too.

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