Here’s a trio of Roccos:
1. There is an excellent restaurant in Rochester that we’ve now been to a couple of times called Rocco.  The food is the kind that Rochester has needed for a while…serving smart, elevated Italian dishes that aren’t fussy.  For a town that has red sauce joints in spades, Rocco is a revelation.  The menu is far from groundbreaking, but the ingredients and execution are spot on.  On my last visit I ordered  hanger steak served with fresh corn, new potatoes and fennel.  The corn and roasted new potatoes were tossed in a minty pesto while the fennel was simply grilled with lemon.  Simple, perfect, delicious.  I also guess that most of their meat and produce is locally sourced and I love that they’re not beating us over the head with which local farm it came from.  Stop here when you can.
2.  I love the new show Rocco’s Dinner Party. After trying to watch (and root for) The Restaurant (where Dispirito came off as a talented yet petty, momma’s boy asshole), I wasn’t sure I could stomach another Rocco vehicle.  I was wrong.  This show is cool because Rocco finally is.  Knowlegable,  matinee handsome, and rocking true charisma, he’s a blast to watch.  The show is a fun, hip mix of  Top Chef, The Merv Griffin Show, and Design Star. Watch it once and you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.
3. Â Here’s Zoe and her pet rock, Rocco. Â She lives on Sesame Street, New York, New York. Â My son Sam got wind of the episode where Rocco is introduced and now every single rock that he comes across (and it being summer, it’s been thousands over the past few weeks) he refers to as Rocco. Now he’s got me on board. Â ”Sammy, stop putting Rocco in your mouth!!” and “Goddamit, stop throwing Rocco at the car!!” Â He’s actually wanted to keep a couple of his Roccos as pets, which was going to be really great news for Rocco, hugely disappointing news for Fisher.
DL
Jul 20, 2011 at 9:45 am
I agree this show is considerably better. There is a good reason why Mama and her meatballs were not invited to the dinner party. I did squirm when Rocco uttered the word a couple of weeks ago.