Restaurant (1998 film)

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Restaurant is a 1998 American independent drama film directed by Eric Bross and written by Tom Cudworth. It stars Adrien Brody, Elise Neal, Catherine Kellner, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, with Simon Baker and Lauryn Hill in supporting roles. The movie premiered at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival on April 17, 1998, and Brody received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his work.

Set in Hoboken, New Jersey, the story follows a group of young waiters chasing big dreams in a city just across the water from New York City. The staff works at a busy local restaurant, where they mostly get along despite their different backgrounds. Chris Calloway, a bartender, is about to stage his first play, inspired by a failed relationship, and he begins a new romance with a singer named Jeanine. When his former girlfriend Leslie returns and Kenny, the man she cheated with, joins the staff, tensions rise and racial conflicts surface.

The film was inspired by the real-life friendship between Bross and Cudworth, who met while working in a Montclair, New Jersey restaurant and were drawn to filming in that setting. It was shot in 28 days across New Jersey and New York. The Hoboken location scenes were filmed in a real restaurant that had just been sold and renovated; the business later became the Madison Bar & Grill (formerly known as J.T. McClure’s).

Lauryn Hill was originally cast as Jeanine, but she became pregnant and was recast as Leslie, the former girlfriend. The movie’s production team includes producers H. M. Coakley and Shana Stein; cinematography by Horacio Marquínez; editing by Keith Reamer; and music by Theodore Shapiro. The film runs 107 minutes and is in English.