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The Restaurant - Season Two
Season two kicks in six months after the first season ended. Rocco's has suffered some problems and they will be highlighted. The conflict between Rocco and his financier Geoffrey Chodorow of China Grill Management will be shown as Chodorow seizes control of the restaurant accusing Rocco and his staff of financial mismanagement. Rocco will encounter these and other pitfalls throughout the series and viewers will see if he can rise to the occasion and turn things around. |
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Restaurant News
June 9, 2004
We hear you knocking, but you can't get in. Who do you have to know to get a reservation at Rocco's in New York? Not Rocco; even he can't get it. He has been barred from entering The Restaurant since partner Jeffrey Chodorow and his China Grill management company filed suit against the celebrity chef alleging the DiSpirito was guilty of mismanagement. To mismanage don't you have to manage? At least a little? Anyway the court has ordered that Rocco can not return to The Restaurant until the legal issues are resolved. However the court did grant him permission to enter yesterday so that he could be photographed for an upcoming cookbook. Yes, another one. According to Reuters a China Grill lawyer tried to prevent that as well and the Daily Dish quotes Chodorow as charging that, "His only visits to or contact with the restaurant since this litigation began have been to foment disruption, to take food, to assault and threaten the manager or to lie to the employees." But the judge let Rocco enter Tuesday afternoon after posting "$500 in escrow to cover any damage he might cause while there." I'm not a fan of either side here, but that is really petty. And meanwhile, poor Mama is stuck in the middle; she still goes in every day to make the meatballs. According to "Mama" Nicolina DiSpirito her son's exile creates problems for the staff. "They don't know what to expect next. ... All I can do is take it day by day and do my best here."
May 27, 2004
At least NBC has the guts to admit when they blow it. NBC's Jeff Zucker admitted during a media conference call that taking The Restaurant off of Monday nights was a mistake. Moving Crossing Jordan and Law & Order repeats onto Monday gave NBC even lower numbers than The Restaurant generated according to a Variety report. Zucker went on to say, "We made too quick of a decision on that. Under some pressure from stations that were not pleased with the (news) lead-in Monday at 10, I buckled. I regret that I didn't keep 'The Restaurant' on in that time period." Variety is reporting the entire second season will air on Bravo after the final episodes air on NBC. Look for episodes 4 and 5 this Saturday, and the finale a week later.
May 23, 2004
Without apparent explanation, The Restaurant is back on the NBC schedule. Episode's 4 and 5 are scheduled to run on Saturday, May 29th at 8 and 9pm e/p. Trying to research the why, we came up with nothing. Is this an example of Mark Burnett's clout to get it back on the air? Or is it NBC blowing off an obligation and putting it on Saturday night where they have little to lose?
May 15, 2004
In a press release NBC has announced that The Restaurant has been cancelled; temporarily. The show will rejoin the network's schedule on Wednesday, June 9th at 9e/p. NBC is planning to rerun the three second season episodes that have already aired and then run the final two episodes.
May 7, 2004
We are proud to announce that recaps for The Restaurant will be handled by the latest addition to our staff, Randall The Vandal. Randall will also be recapping Fear Factor and For Love or Money 3. You'll find his recaps headlined on the RTVC Home page here, as well as linked on this page when they begin.
Randall the Vandal, is a humor writer who enjoys writing recaps of the reality shows currently dominating the airwaves. Known for stealing other people's ideas and writing styles, Randall the Vandal has spent many years honing his craft in the finest detention centers across the southeast and is recognized as one of the funniest writers emerging today. At least by his mother. His father refuses to comment.
Email Randall here: randallthevandal2004@yahoo.com
April 25, 2004
On last weeks premiere of The Restaurant 2 we learned that Rocco and his partner Jeffrey Chodorow each own 50% of the restaurant. Jeffrey is attempting to take over the restaurant siting Rocco's mismanagement. Chodorow is no stranger to mismanagement and much more. He was convicted in 1994 of federal charges, specifically, defrauding the U.S. Department of Transportation and obstructing a pending proceeding of the DOT. He plead guilty to these charges, in return for which, charges of bankruptcy fraud and fraudulently concealing assets from creditors were dropped.
Even with a felony record, he has several liquor licenses for his businesses. According to Fox News that is because liquor licenses are controlled by the state and the state is only only concerned with state felony convictions, not federal convictions.
It also appears that Chodorow is suit happy. He has been involved in over 20 cases since getting out of prison in 1996. So the suit against Rocco is just business as usual.
Fox News is also reporting that if Chodorow wins the suit, it is over for the restaurant. Workers at Rocco's are saying that Chodorow has plans to close the restaurant as soon as the second season of the show has aired. Reportedly he intends to open a steak house in the location. Fox News quotes a waiter as saying, "There won't be a third season of The Restaurant."
And finally, the NY Daily News is reporting that Chodorow has further problems with his ownership of The Manhattan Gentlemen's Club, which he has been trying to sell. According to a Chodorow spokesperson the individual who was going to buy the nudie bar and escort service could not close the deal because he will be spending the next 8 years in prison for swindling $10 million from The New York City Transit Authority.
April 23, 2004
Monday night's premiere of the second season for The Restaurant showed us a very busy Restaurant the was not making money. Evidently it's not making ratings either. Only 6.7 million watched the season 2 debut, compared to over 20 million for competition CSI: Miami. And Mama made all those meatballs.
April 19, 2004
Celebrity Chef Rocco DiSpirito returns tonight with the second helping of The Restaurant. Rocco says the plot of this season was a surprise; "it was not my choice to make my litigation public." The season will concentrate on Rocco's legal battle with his business partner. According to a Zap2it.com report Rocco says "There were definitely times I wished the camera wasn't there. I'll tell you frankly that it was not my choice to make my litigation public. This is something that my partner Geoffrey Chodorow and I were handling privately until the day the cameras showed up." In the typical lament of unhappy Reality TV stars everywhere Rocco says, "I'm a character; it's not real." "They had tens of thousands of hours of tape and with that tape, they crafted characters. What you saw on television isn't necessarily representative of who I am as a manager day in and day out. I think it's hard to get to know someone over six hours." Unless it's the most telling six hours. If you are going to do this kind of TV you should accept the results gracefully. Save the wine for dinner.
April 6, 2004
The Restaurant 2 is coming and the meatballs are already flying. Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito filed a counter suit Monday against China Grill Management who invested in his New York restaurant, Rocco's. Rocco says the management company is cooking the books. A suit filed in February by China Grill accuses Rocco of mismanagement that lost $600.000.00. That's a lot a spicy meatballs.
March 20, 2004
NBC has announced that the second season of The Restaurant with Rocco DiSpirito will debut Monday, April 19th at 10pm e/p. The show dominated its time slot last summer. This edition again features six episodes and brings back many of the same cast. It takes place six months after the end of season one.
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