The Bean Blog

Rocco’s 22nd Street aka The Restaurant

Aug 13, 2004 Watching way too much TV

Have you ever seen The Restaurant? It’s the NBC show about Rocco DeSpirito and his new restaurant (well it’s not so new anymore) Rocco’s 22nd Street. I thought the first season was pretty cool. It was about Rocco racing the clock to get the restaurant up and running in time and then working through the first few months.

In the beginning, Rocco was there working in the kitchen a lot. In fact all of the first season we saw lots of him running the kitchen and cooking as well as some smoozing with the customers. It seemed like the restaurant would go far.

That first season really brought Rocco a lot of fame. He even wrote his own book. And between the reality television show and his book he was busy with photo shoots and publicity events and television commercials, not to mention appearance on talk shows and what not. I think all of that fame really went to his head. All of sudden he got unrealistic expectations of himself. He began to believe he was not only a very good chef, but he seemed to think he was also a very good businessman. I have never been to his restaurants (he also owns Union Pacific which is also a New York restaurant) nor have I ever tasted his food, so I can’t really speak to his chef abilities. But from what I hear he is very good. However, after watching the show I can pretty much guarantee his management skills, including employee motivation and accounting knowledge, SUCK with a capital S-U-C-K! Granted this is a reality TV show and they are trying to get ratings. So they can spin things in an unflattering light even for a shining star. But I don’t think that’s the case here.

For one, he is never at the restaurant. I shouldn’t say never. He is rarely at the restaurant. According to comments I’ve heard from employees on the show as well as in the news link I pasted below, Rocco’s mother, Mama, works 14 hour days in that restaurant making meatballs and such. And she is 79 years old. She is at the age when most of our mothers or grandmothers are retired and have been for quite some time. But she is standing in a hot kitchen for 14 hours cooking almost every day. And Rocco isn’t! Granted she enjoys it and she wants to be part of the restaurant. But how can Rocco watch his mother work 14 hour days in his restaurant and not be there to help her. I guess since he’s almost never there he probably doesn’t even realize how hard his mother is working for him.

The show previously aired on NBC, but now they are rerunning the second season on CNBC (I think). In this season we got to meet the financial backers for the restaurant. Jeffrey Chodorow’s company China Grill Management. And Jeffrey is none too happy that even though Rocco’s (the restaurant, not the guy) has more patrons then any of the other 21 restaurants he owns, it is not making a profit. Apparently Rocco (the guy this time) is spending more money then he’s making. He’s buying stupid things like new monogrammed pots and pans for the kitchen. So this season is really about the battle between Jeffrey and Rocco and who truly has the best interest of the restaurant (and the money that comes with a profitable restaurant) in mind.

I really liked Rocco last season. I thought he was charming and funny. And I thought he was doing a good job with the restaurant. This season it’s like a complete turnaround. His employees are constantly complaining about how he is never there. The customer’s are constantly complaining about how Rocco is never there. It is very common to hear “This is the third time I have been here for dinner and I have never once seen Rocco. Is he ever here?” from restaurant patrons. His employees need him and he is never, ever there. And when he does show up, he’s only there for about 10 minutes. Ok, in TV time it appears like ten minutes. He’s probably there longer. But you definitely see him walk out and leave when the restaurant is still packed with people and the kitchen is still crazy with the dinner orders.

In the episode that was on tonight, Rocco fired his executive chef, Tony. And this was just the day after (at least in TV time it was the next day) Jeffrey gave Tony a raise and told him he was a very valuable employee. But he didn’t just fire Tony. He called Tony over to his office (which is across the street) and while he was firing Tony somebody was in the employee locker room with a mallet, pounding Tony’s locker in to submission. When that person finally got the locker open, they dumped all of Tony’s things in to a garbage sack and then walked out with it. Right in front of all the other employees and only hours before the dinner rush.

Meanwhile, Rocco takes Tony in to a conference room. On the table in the conference room are some of Rocco’s new books. He and Tony sit down and then Rocco proceeds to autograph two of those books. How rude is that? How absolutely and completely unprofessional and idiotic is that? Then he started to talk to Tony about how they had some expectations for him. And Rocco and he had discussed them about four months ago. And then Rocco goes, “In fact I have them right here.” He dug in to his back jean pocket and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. He unfolded it and began to go over some of the things that he had told Tony he needed to improve on from four months ago. What?? Seriously! Could you imagine having a review with your boss, or getting fired, or whatever and he pulls a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket? Is that his filing system? Rocco is so unprofessional, I can’t even express my astonishment in words.

So anyway, he fired Tony. Tony who ran the whole kitchen. And not just the main kitchen downstairs, but also the appetizer kitchen upstairs. Everybody loved Tony. And respected Tony. If somebody called in sick, Tony could rearrange the kitchen in a second to compensate for that loss. He had that kitchen running smoothly. Well maybe not completely smoothly, but as smoothly as a kitchen in a dysfunctional restaurant can. Tony took care of Mama too. Let me repeat. Tony took care of Rocco’s mother. Rocco’s mother who works 14 hour days in Rocco’s restaurant. And Rocco is never there. Tony cooked meals for Mama. He gently pushed her to eat when he felt like she was working too hard and not taking enough time to take care of herself. He made sure she safely made it to her apartment when she left at night. Granted she lives next door, but at least he made sure she didn’t slip and fall on the sidewalk. It was more then Rocco does.

So let’s recap. In one day, moronic Rocco fired the man who was a very intrical part in keeping the kitchen together. He did it in such a way that he essentially scared every single employee to the point most of them were not sure they even wanted to work there anymore. Luckily for Rocco, this is in New York City and it’s not exactly easy to find a good paying job on a whim when you have to compete with about a billion other applicants. Let alone one that allows you to be on TV. Plus, he once again pissed of Jeffrey who absolutely did not want Tony fired. In fact Tony continues (at least as of that show) to work for Jeffrey. Just not at Rocco’s. Jeffrey was not going to let a good man like Tony sink because of an idiot like Rocco.

Rocco stated that he was going to replace Tony with [drumroll here] himself. Rocco was going to run the kitchen. Hmmm…makes it hard to run a very, very busy kitchen from your office, or a publicity event or your apartment. On that first night, Rocco did work the kitchen. For part of the night. Then he went up and smoozed for a while. And then he went to his office. And when he walked out the door the place was packed (people were waiting for tables for two hours) and the kitchen was in chaos.

I really think that Rocco needs to watch his own show and try and learn from where he is lacking. He needs to decide what he wants to do. Does he want to be a celebrity or does he want to run a restaurant? Cause right now he’s failing. If he wants to wine and dine the guests, kiss all the pretty ladies and go to his photo shoots, then he needs to hire a general manager to run the restaurant for him. And he needs to let them do that. Not fire them when he thinks either (1) that Jeffrey likes them too much so they must be bad or (2) that the person is actually doing a better job then he can possibly do.

Not that he cares, but I am extremely disappointed in Rocco.

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