Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Rocco DiSpirito's Restaurant Woes
I think the Mrs. and I saw every epsiode of the mediocre reality series "The Restaurant." Purportedly about the struggles of opening a restaurant in New York, the show was mostly immature Manhattanites whining about work and trying to hook up with each other. As you might imagine, the program lacked the drama crucial to a really gripping story.
Turns out, the real drama is taking place in court right now. Apparently, it's unclear who really owns the restaurant. Rocco DiSpirito, the celebrity chef whose personality and star-power, was the foundation of the series claims he owns 50 per cent of the business. Others say he doesn't.
The restaurant's other financial backers want to put it on the market. But, Rocco's people claim he can make it profitable if he can just hang on to it.
The risk of losing his restaurant is bad enough, but even worse, Dispirito's former manager says one of the restaurant's investors, Jeffrey Chodorow, was mean to Rocco's mom.
The story says, "Lon Rosen, a Los Angeles Dodgers executive who was DiSpirito's personal manager when Rocco's opened, said that despite DiSpirito's dedication to the venture Chodorow treated him 'horribly' and 'inhumanely.' Rosen also accused Chodorow of being beastly to the chef's 79-year-old mother, making her weep by saying nasty things to her about her son while she worked 14 hours a day making meatballs and doing other chores at the restaurant."
How terrible!! There's just no excuse for being mean to Momma!!
Turns out, the real drama is taking place in court right now. Apparently, it's unclear who really owns the restaurant. Rocco DiSpirito, the celebrity chef whose personality and star-power, was the foundation of the series claims he owns 50 per cent of the business. Others say he doesn't.
The restaurant's other financial backers want to put it on the market. But, Rocco's people claim he can make it profitable if he can just hang on to it.
The risk of losing his restaurant is bad enough, but even worse, Dispirito's former manager says one of the restaurant's investors, Jeffrey Chodorow, was mean to Rocco's mom.
The story says, "Lon Rosen, a Los Angeles Dodgers executive who was DiSpirito's personal manager when Rocco's opened, said that despite DiSpirito's dedication to the venture Chodorow treated him 'horribly' and 'inhumanely.' Rosen also accused Chodorow of being beastly to the chef's 79-year-old mother, making her weep by saying nasty things to her about her son while she worked 14 hours a day making meatballs and doing other chores at the restaurant."
How terrible!! There's just no excuse for being mean to Momma!!
// posted by Dean @ Tuesday, July 27, 2004 
