at Cafe Tavolini. http://www.cafetavolini.com/
I kinda of wish I had eaten there “before” - although Ramsay’s presense suggests they suck.
In any event, you should probably go there “after” and then compare notes when the episode airs.
Definitely will - trying to work my way into the “grand-reopening episode” which would be fun.
how do they determine attendees for such a show, any insight? I’ve always wanted to check out a Top Chef episode from the other side of the fork…
When do they get to the Bowman’s?
The Fox version of the show sucks donkey balls. Fakey and formulaic. The BBC show was good.
The production company has complete control over the reservations. They filmed at a restaurant locally here in NJ (Flamango’s), we found out who to email to, and got a reservation for one of the before nights, which was a complete disaster (1.5 hrs to get a dinner) with a minor revolt in the dining room. We did not end up on the show, but could see me quickly in profile in the background.
+1 on Chris Blum’s comment above.
Couple of years back, my wife and I got in, through her job, to the “Restaurant Wars” episode of the very short-lived NBC show of Marco Pierre White (Ramsay’s former boss and mentor, and supposedly the only man who’s ever made him cry). The whole experience, up until actually sitting down to eat was a horror show. Had to wait for about 1.5 hours in a “green room”, then another hour plus wait in line outside the “restaurant” then, finally inside, another 20 minute wait at a cramped bar before finally sitting down for dinner close to 10 pm. Only thing that got us through it was the free wine (Copolla’s Director’s Cut Zin). Producers asked afterward if we could go back to the green room to fill out comments.
We jumped into a cab and headed home. Never going through anything similar again.
Cool, it will be interesting to hear what you find. I like the show, but agree the British version is a better show.
I posted this a while back on Chow…
I’m already sick of the formulaic way in which they approach each week…
- walk in try to find person in charge
- sit down and look at menu
- mock confusing/complicated/dirty menu
- ask if the crab is fresh
- hate every single dish
- inspect filthy kitchen swearing and saying “i *******ing ate this!!”
- meet owner(s) to establish dire financial situation and increase drama
- witness trainwreck dinner service
- next day… institute new menu to be implemented in 3 hours
- magically, dining room is packed with VIPs/food critics/busloads of vineyard goers
- dinner service with new menu starts good, but ends badly because of owner’s stubbornness. Lots of yelling optional but recommended
- design team swoops in the dark of night and transforms the restaurant
- the team ooohs and ahhhs about new design
- they give it another try and everybody pulls together to impress the VIP.
- Everyone learns a valuable lesson about teamwork/respect/egos
- thanks to gordon ramsey and his straight talking genius, the place is SAVED!!!
- tune in next week where you will see the next train wreck.
Wow, pretty spot on analysis. ![[welldone.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/fc9709a841aa9379fd892a9cf0b535b05f473b86.gif "[welldone.gif]"){kind=small}
And…finally…watch the restaurant fail anyway!
They filmed at a local restaurant …and the restaurant was out of business within a couple of months anyway…
I ate at the restaurant before AND after and actually thought it was worse with the re-worked menu and decor.
I’d love to know how many of the restaurants actually make it - and how many of them actually fall back into old patterns and fail.
That is the one thing I liked about the BBC episodes is that he did a follow up a month or two later, really to see if they made a difference.
Friends with a local food writer. Since I tipped her to Ramsay being there, I’m calling in the favor by asking for a seat at the table if she gets one for the night. (She seems to think she will.)