Odds are that if you are reading this website, you know me well enough to know about the weekly ritual of watching Survivor with the family.  Since Survivor runs two seasons a year of 13-14 weeks each, that leaves several weeks in between without.  Last winter, NBC aired another reality TV show, another creation of Mark Burnett, the man behind Survivor.  This was "The Restaurant" and focused on Rocco DiSpirito, a semi-famous New York chef, and his opening a new restaurant.  For eight weeks, and covering a period of time of maybe the first two weeks in business, The Restaurant took us between the tables and behind the kitchen doors, showing the drama that happens when a bunch of hopeful actor/model types act it up for the camera in an attempt to stand out on national television - while serving food at an actual restaurant with actual guests. 

And as anyone who watched the show is aware of, they serve Coors Light on tap and take American Express.  Coors Light and American Express:  official sponsors of NBC's "The Restaurant."

While the show itself got pretty tiresome by the end of its eight-week winter replacement run, Carrie and I still wanted to eat at Rocco's while in New York because of its minor celebrity and our corniness factor.  Ian, though having a general disdain for reality TV, walked to Roccos from his work (it's only 7 ot 8 blocks away) and made us reservations, coming along for the ride and agreeing to not be too agitated towards our "star"-struck nature.

So there we were at Rocco's (now called Rocco's on 22nd due to a lawsuit brought by another restaurant in the City named Rocco's).  The first thing we noticed was that the hostess at the door was the same one on the show!  And look! - the bartender is the guy who used to be in the kitchen and had a storyline involving his problems cooking on the grill and another brief one with a restaurant romance.  And that waiter - he was on the show too.  But not ours, bummer.  And hey, there's Mama DiSpirito talking to that table.  Hey Mama! 

I ordered the Chicken Parmigiana and we shared some appetizers of Mama's Meatballs - a famous mainstay of the show and very tasty in their own right - and some calamari.  The meal was delicious, though a bit pricey, and viewers of the show might be interested to know that the food arrived warm - almost too warm, which beats the opposite - and that the cardboard appetizer boats were nowhere to be seen, instead replaced with wire baskets lined with some italian-language newspaper.

While we didn't get to talk to Mama or see Rocco anywhere, it was still a fun experience.  Ian and I ended the evening there playing a game of foosball while we waited for Carrie.  I then took some photos outside, and as we walked off Carrie pointed out that Laurent, the generally-disliked manager from the show, was sitting at the table talking to two others.  Now to see if he and the others are still there when they start filming season 2.