America’s Next Great Restaurant’s contestants are infectious

Reality shows have been the bread and butter of TV networks for quite a few years now and “America’s Next Great Restaurant,” is the next entry.

Reality shows may not have completely run their course but it sure feels like cooking reality shows have reached the end of the line. But wait, how about a restaurant pitch show? Don’t worry about whether you can cook or not, the question is do you have a dream?

There’s something so quintessentially American about America’s Next Great Restaurant. It’s so full of cock-eyed optimists with goofy dreams, it’s hard not to cheer and laugh at the same time. You see, the show is NOT about snooty chefs who know more than you and I do, it’s about people just like us – we may not know squat about running a restaurant but hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Most of the contestants in line to win a chance to run three chain restaurants – in New York, LA, and Minneapolis – are the very definition of outsiders. One guy sells insurance, somebody else runs a pet waste removal service called the poo crew, others are former athletes, or trainers, or “self-employed” or unemployed.

“Right now I’m a lawyer, and I like my job, but I don’t love it. So this opportunity could change my life,” says one bright-eyed, bushy-tailed contestant.

So what kinds of proposals are these people pitching for what the show calls “fast/casual” restaurants? One’s called the Sports Wrap, wraps with a sports theme – like recorded “cheers” breaking out every time an order is delivered. A couple suggests a chain called “Hicks” that specializes in small plates of what they call Redneck food. Another is called POT BELLY in which everything is baked into a pot pie. One woman’s idea is called LIMBO with everything divided into two menus – the devilishly good (high in calories) and the heavenly (low in calories.) A guy named Joey from Brooklyn wants to open a specialty meatball place called Saucy Balls.

The judges – including Bobby Flay of Food Network fame and Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle – decide somewhat arbitrarily who’s in and who’s out. It’s more important to have a good pitch than good food it seems. As the show progresses, the four judges will work with the ten finalists to finalize their ideas: Everything from menu items, to uniforms to floor plans.

The show is infectious, thanks to the let-it-all-hang-out attitude of the contestants.