Love on the Road

Erin Cahill,Jesse Hutch,Francesca Bianchi

Abby Brooks is the host of "Abby's Restaurant Takeover", a restaurant makeover television show focusing on high end urban eateries. She fell into this job, which has taken time away from her first love of actually being in the kitchen herself cooking. With a directive from the network on the risk of otherwise being canceled, Abby, with her best friend and director Kenna by her side, has to go on the road. The rebranded Abby on the Road's first assignment is Rocko's, a roadside diner in small town Lawrence, Minnesota, which is well outside of Abby's comfort zone. What makes it even more difficult is that the proprietor/head chef, Tom Billings, had no idea of the makeover - the submission made by his Aunt Marge, the diner waitress, and his teen daughter, Claire - and resists any change to Rocko's in reverence and memory to his deceased parents, from who he inherited the diner, and his regulars who he believes expect "diner" in what he presents to them. The diner is despite Tom actually having innate culinary skills beyond that of a diner line cook, and he long having fantasized about something different than a diner if he were to start a culinary life all over again. As Tom reluctantly gives in to Marge and Claire, and as Abby and Tom seem to be able to find a middle ground in what Rocko's should actually be, the two start to fall for each other. They have chemistry which Kenna and the camera, and by association the network, can see. Beyond Abby needing to move to whatever her next makeover after Rocko's, a happy ending for her and Tom may be at risk by what the network wants, which first and foremost is good television.—Huggo