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by Dan Weltin Published: June 7, 2004
Since it's snowing, most of the diners are canceling their reservations. About 210 have already cancelled. Rocco tells Billy, the line cook, that he's really appreciated here. I hope so because he gets dumped on an awful lot. Rocco announces to the staff to disregard everything Jeffrey said yesterday, and Jeffrey will be back tomorrow to tell them to disregard everything Rocco says today. Ha ha! That Rocco, he's such a kidder. GOING TO MIAMI Jeffrey, meanwhile is going down to Miami to test out another replacement chef. This one's named Randazzo (last name, but another R) and he's an ex-prize fighter. Before he leaves, Jeffrey tells his goons to make sure no wood is burned in the ovens. Foreshadowing, anyone? Rocco is actually cooking and getting things ready in the kitchen. It appears to be lunchtime. Now I think the restaurant would probably do better if it only served dinner. Just a thought. Down in Miami, Jeffrey is testing out the new food with his goon squad. He sits at one head of the table and Luke sits at the other, but there's like eight people between them. Jeffrey keeps yelling to him when he gets the food: "Luke, wait till you try this! Luke, wait until you smell this!" Maybe they should have sat closer to each other. Basically, they love it. At Rocco's, things aren't going well. Gabe is 50 minutes late. Rocco see's how great the lunch shift went, so they can fire some people (maybe you shouldn't schedule so many people on the lunch shift and it's also snowing really hard, so it probably wasn't too busy. Again, just a thought.) But, since they can fire someone, they will. As soon as Gabe walks through the door, BAM! He's gone. He's a little sensitive, remember, so don’t mind the tears. Rocco feels really bad about it. Not as bad as Gabe, I'm sure. Back in Miami, Jeffrey and his crew watch old Randazzo fights and clap when he wins. It's on TV, people, you don't need to applaud. It happened a while ago, too. Jeffrey jokes that Rocco and Randazzo should duke it out for head-chef position. Oh, everyone's a jokemaker today. They tell Randazzo he served up a SKO, a standing kitchen ovation. Groan. Should have stopped at the first boxing joke. They offer Randazzo the position if he ever wants to start up a restaurant in New York. It all doesn't sound too serious. I think Jeffrey just wanted some free food. THE JESTER AND THE JACK-ASS Since Antonio went back to Italy, we need a new clown for comedic relief (Rocco and Jeffrey's jokes just aren't cutting it). Luckily for us, we have Steve, the bar manager. He's going to try and remove the snow from the awning by pushing on it with a broom. Oops, the broom head fell off. He attempts to put it back on, whoops, pressed too hard. Let's try that again, oh no, he broke it for good that time. Well, let's get a few more people out there to help. Rocco stands on a ladder to supervise. Good work team. Let's get back to the action and that means the kitchen. Billy's getting crapped on again, this time by Gavin, who's been promoted to head chef. Don't forget it, or you'll draw his wrath. Here's Uzay the waiter to show some friends the kitchen. He introduces Gavin as the sous chef and all hell breaks loose. "I'm the chef, who the f**k are you? Recognize, I'm the chef. You? Celebrity waiter." What a prick. FIRE BEATS WOOD, WOOD BEATS WATER, WATER BEATS FIRE Uh oh, Rocco put wood in the oven. Good thing Sara's calling to check. Rocco refuses the call. This is boring, let's go watch Billy get yelled at again. Gavin really is getting into his role as chef. "I don't care what you say, you're not the chef here." Do they only have one line cook? Oh, that's right they fired Gabe this afternoon. Good move Rocco. Now Shane is being asked if wood is being burned. He doesn't know. Rocco's assistant calls him over and he immediately comes. So, if you're bringing any news that might be publicity related, Rocco jumps at it. Turns out Yvonne wiped out on her scooter (you really shouldn't drive scooters in the snow) and hurt her leg. Rocco rushes off to the hospital. Yvonne has a scratch on her leg and acts like she's about to crumble. Rocco kisses it and makes it better. Since Sara can't get through on the phone, she comes down in person to check on the wood problem. Yep, there's wood in that fire. Gavin better remove it and if he puts wood in there again, he's fired. Prick Gavin shrugs the whole conversation off and goes on being a dick. Problem solved! Jeffrey has hired a security guard to ensure that no wood is brought upstairs to the oven. This is too much for Gavin. Instead of letting the man do his job (ridiculous it may be) he asks dumb questions like "Were you a cop? Ever been shot? Stabbed?" The dude is drunk on his own power. Someone needs to hit him. To go along with all security-guard stereotypes, the guard sits down in front of the wood. Nothing like a good sit. CESARE (NOT FRANKIE) SAYS RELAX Enough of the kitchen. Let's see what the bartenders are up to. Apparently, the bar is filthy. Is it the next day? I'm confused. Let's go back to Gavin. He's not happy. He doesn't want to be Tony. He wants out. I thought he enjoyed his power trip? Rocco's disappointed to say the least. Now, it's dinnertime. I'm sure of it. More bartender trouble (hey, they seem to be wearing the new waiter's uniforms. Can't say the same for the actual waiters, though). April doesn't like Chipmunk Matt. He makes bad drinks and talks too much. "But I'm here to create a bar scene," he says. It's a restaurant, not a bar. Serve food, not drinks. April and Matt argue in front of the customers. Can't blame them, though, Rocco does it all the time. Hey look it's Deborah, the shrink! She's back! I guess she wanted that meal she never got. She and Jeffrey talk about Rocco's crazy pyromania. She thinks Rocco is out to sabotage the restaurant since he'll never be as successful as Jeffrey. I think Deb wants to jump Jeffrey (maybe Rocco, too, and she just ran into Jeffrey first). Rocco hangs out at Beppe's after his long day. The owner, Cesare, says Rocco is too uptight, needs to relax. He says Rocco looks like a homeless person. He needs to go to Tuscany for a few months. Good advice, maybe I should take it. Rocco sits down with Mama and admits he wants out. He'd like to open a smaller place, get out of the rat-race that is Rocco's 22nd Street. Mama agrees. Ok, did everybody pay attention, this will be important later on. PROFITS, SCHMOFITS Jeffrey's got some good news. After two weeks, the restaurant has finally made a profit. He's eager to see Rocco's reaction. He'll have to wait. Rocco and Mama are out looking for restaurant space. A nice mother/son moment. Enough vignettes, back to Jeffrey. He announces to the staff the news about the profit. (Hey look, it's Kenji, the coolest guy on the show!). As soon as Jeffrey's done, Rocco jumps in to talk about the specials (great seeing you Kenji!). Rocco has no reaction. Jeffrey didn't appreciate that. He wants to meet with Rocco tomorrow. One more montage of Rocco schmoozing. It's the finale, we've got to pack it all in. They should have compiled a "best of" schmoozing montage. That would have been classic. THE FINAL CONFRONTATION (ON TAPE) This is it. The big meeting. Jeffrey is sad because he no longer enjoys the restaurant biz. So, he wants to stop his attempts of fixing the restaurant. Wait, what's this? Scenes of the staff ice skating? What the hell? Oh, I get it, it's the last we'll ever see of the staff so let them go out having fun. A nice little moment. They're all getting along, even April apologizes to Chipmunk Matt. Aww. (She didn't look him in the eye, so it didn't count, he says. That's true. I think he should accept it anyway, but he is right.) All right, back to the main players. Jeffrey proposes two options: Rocco buys him out, or he gives Rocco a couple hundred grand to leave. Otherwise it'll end up in litigation. Rocco doesn't want to see all their efforts go to waste, but he's unsure of what choice to make. He'll know in a couple of days. Fade to black. What?! That's the end? Burnett couldn’t have kept the cameras rolling any longer? That sucks! Here's some text to bring the audience up to date. "Since taping ended, Rocco and Jeffrey sued each other for control of the restaurant. The litigation is still pending." Ok… I thought Rocco wanted to start anew? We all heard it, right? Personally, I think Rocco felt threatened since Jeffrey came to him first and offered the deal. Otherwise, I think Rocco would have left gracefully and taken half the staff with him to start his new restaurant. Maybe, I'm wrong. In any case, word has it that Rocco's recently closed, so who knows. If a Brazilian steakhouse opens, we'll know Jeffrey won. For more Restaurant News, Links, Interesting Tidbits check out these sites: NBC's Official Restaurant Page Sirlinksalot's Restaurant Page You want to talk about The Restaurant? Well come to our Reality TV Forum |
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