On the off chance that you were too distracted by other news last week to notice, let me catch you up. On last Sunday’s season finale of America’s Next Great Restaurant, Jamawn J. Woods and his healthy soul food concept, Soul Daddy, beat out the competition for the opportunity to open three fast casual eateries across the country: at the [...]
In the hours before President Obama interrupted The Celebrity Apprentice to give our sleepy nation a jolt of happy, death-related news, and just days after we learned that Kate Middleton’s wedding dress was an Alexander McQueen, dozens of viewers waited anxiously for yet another vital revelation: who would be crowned the winner of America’s Next Great Restaurant? Would it be [...]
We did it, guys! If you happen to be in New York, Los Angeles, or Minneapolis, you’re a week away from being able to sample fast casual fare from the winner of America’s Next Great Restaurant: the food television world’s great exercise in blending tedium and chaos. It’s a good thing we’re so close to the end, too, because whoever [...]
Well, we have two weeks left, and we’re getting down to that precarious portion of any competition show where any contestant, including top contenders, can go home at any time, for any reason. This would be taking more of an emotional toll if I actually liked anyone on America’s Next Great Restaurant, or had any faith in our esteemed panel [...]
For three weeks in a row now, my first reaction upon hearing the world’s preeminent culinary badger, Bobby Flay, tell one unfortunate entrepreneur that the ragtag band of judges on America’s Next Great Restaurant “will not be investing” in him or her, has been: “Oh well, tacos/grilled cheese/health wraps is hardly a concept, anyway.” My second, more vehement reaction has [...]
According to the giant countdown clock that flashes up after every single commercial break of America’s Next Great Restaurant, we have about 27 days before the wide-eyed entrepreneur who irritates Bobby Flay the least opens three restaurants across the country, in two major cities and Minneapolis. Set your alarms. This week, the seven remaining contestants designed uniforms and starred in [...]
Welcome to the weekly recap of America’s Next Great Restaurant, NBC’s search for the next billion-dollar restaurant chain. In case you’ve missed the past few weeks of the show, here’s a brief rundown: ten contestants develop original concepts for a fast-casual restaurant. “Fast-casual” is a term the producers made up meaning “Chipotle,” i.e. one of those places that’s just a [...]
On cheerful days, I am an adventurous and discerning diner, with an appetite that’s incompatible with my scrawny frame. I can shovel away macaroni and cheese with the big guys, and I’ve never met a pumpkin pie that I didn’t inhale. But when I’m depressed or anxious, my appetite disappears. A dinner following a bad argument with my boyfriend probably [...]
