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New York Mag reviews Rocco DiSpirito's new restaurant, Rocco's (also the set of NBC's reality TV series, The Restaurant.) The ambience: "The cameras are mercifully gone now, but the residue of staginess and contrived kitsch remains. There is the impossibly rotund maitre d' figure at the door, who seems to have been plucked directly from a Sopranos casting call. There are the antic waiters wearing colorful soccer jerseys, and the foosball game that patrons can play while they wait for their platters of pasta to arrive. Operatic tenor voices blast vigorously from the sound system, and there's an eye-catching glass-bead mural of old Napoli itself, spread against the back wall." And we haven't even talked about the food yet. If you want the insider's take on the reality show, Gideon Horowitz (the kid that camped out by the door in the first episode and won a staff job) has a blog. In a post titled, "Reality TV Sucks," he writes, "paparazzi were screaming my name ...'over here....over here...look to the right Gideon' As I was standing in front of 50 lenses I couldnt help but think...are these people serious. I didn't cure cancer, I'm not starring in a feature film, I just let cameras follow me around for awhile. However ridiculous the situation was...it was a dream come true." Ah, the thrills of pre-achievement celebrity.
Rocco's on 22nd St. [NY Mag]
Reality TV sucks [Gideon Horowitz via Anil]