Project: Employees Only

The Web Series

Set in the luxe, crazy circus of a Manhattan restaurant, Zio, where the food is post-modernist Italian gastronomy, and the cast of characters is a motley, sexy group of actors, party girls, and career waiters, we watch the drama of making a restaurant a success. The story focuses on the front of the house of Zio, the waiters, the managers, the chef, and the owner. Employees Only offers an inside look into the hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking world of the employees and patrons of a high pressure, high profile New York restaurant.

The Show Pilot

2012, NYC, Opening night at Zio. Sexy beast Gianni, owner of Zio, the newest restaurant & the most important one in his empire, rules over a crazed peasant class of employees and patrons with ease and a little bit of menace. A few bumps in the road on opening night, a few disasters averted. What will happen next? The stakes are high... will this restaurant survive in this most cut throat of cities? A restaurant that wants be the hottest place in New York.

We see the inherent drama in building a restaurant from scratch, from the construction of the place, the hiring of the staff, to building the buzz. Will it be ready in time? We meet the waiters, the insecure, despotic chef, the blood-lusting Italian managers, all of them scurrying to make it all happen on time, tonight.

View Trailer →

Project Details

Executive Producer: Ottavia Bourdain

Producers: Allen McLain, Tania Van Pelt

Directors: Tania Van Pelt, Allen McLain

Featuring:

Monique Giunta, Katerina Radivojevic, Pascal YenPfister, Miguel Belmonte, Darren Assante, Jesse Xavier Rui, Allison Reilly, Jeanette Lutz, Julian Belbassee LeFlon, and Nico Malvaldi