Survivor’s behind the scenes guy Mark Burnett decided it was a good idea to film the opening of a New York restaurant. His cook is Rocco Dispirito and he simply calls the show The Restaurant. I guess they don’t want to confuse people about what the show is really about. The sad part is that it plays like a credit card, car and beer commercial with horribly planted shots of the aforementioned items. Apparently NBC feels that America needs to run up more credit card bills and drink more beer.

When you push “read more” you’ll see some links to some of the folks featured on the show and my unedited thoughts on them. Gideon Horowitz is the jester of the show. He’s an Irish Jew so you know he’s going to be a wild card. He’s already been demoted, suffered an arm injury and been forced to suit up to work before being sent home for no reason several times. This guy takes a licking and keeps on ticking. He also offers some insight on the show if you click on his website. Turns out we have a job in common. I’ll leave it to you perusing his site to figure out which one. Hint: It’s not acting or waiting tables.

Like everywhere else on our TV screen this summer, there’s a gay dude by the name of Topher Goodman. Unfortunately, he quit in the hopes of Rocco begging him to come back or offering him a Vespa like he gave bartender Lola Bell to get her to rejoin the staff. All poor Topher got was a pat on the back and good luck wishes from Rocco. Nice.

Laurent Saillard is the general manager. He’s an icy Frenchman, but being French is the least of his problems. His aura of superiority, lack of personality, and inability to connect on any level with the staff makes me wonder why exactly this guy is so invaluable to Rocco.

Jeffrey Chodorow is the financier. For those of you with smaller vocabularies, that means he put up the money to get the restaurant started. Smart guy because he gets his face on television and that kind of publicity isn’t cheap.

Pete Giovine is the resident ass among the wait staff. He whines about lousy tips while treating customers poorly. Even better, the guy isn’t funny and he is trying for a career in comedy. I guess when he was declined for Last Comic Standing and this was his backup plan. I did enjoy it when a customer sent him on a walk to look for red wine when the restaurant ran out. This guy is a tool, and doesn’t realize it.

So aside from hearing that 17 people have recently quit Rocco’s 22nd Street, I guess that’s all I’ve got to report at the moment. You know what that means, I’m done for now.