The Ultimate Plywood Porn

The first (and only for right now) episode of Flip That Restaurant aired over the weekend, featuring Akasha in Culver City. It's a good inside look for anyone interested in how a restaurant comes together---from seemingly small details like picking out coffee and tea to dealing with city permits to construction delays to the millions of dollars it usually takes. On the ep, Akasha and partners jump through all the appropriate hoops to get to "opening night," a huge party that took place months before the actual opening. Merrill Schindler once again "plays restaurant critic" and blesses the resto a sure-fire winner. In the end, opening Akasha took more than the $2.5 million budget: When it finally opened in Feb, it was already $400,000 in the hole. That's a lot of tofu. The ep airs again tonight at 8pm and 11pm on TLC. [EaterWire; previously]