In the heart of the exciting downtown scene of New York City's TriBeCa, a fading bookmaker and restaurateur Louis (Danny Aiello) is struggling to come to grips with the murder of his partner as well as his turbulent relationship with the talented head chef, his son, Udo (Edoardo Ballerini) as his eatery undergoes a major transformation from a neighbourhood to a trend-setting establishment.

At the same time, the dictatorial "star chef" is in nightly competition for both his father's allegiance as well as for the affections of sexy hostess, Nicole (Vivian Wu) with his assistant, the streetwise sous chef, Duncan (Kirk Acevedo) an addicted gambler.

This particular night, Louis is confronted in the restaurant by low-level Queens hood, Carmen (Mike McGlone) and his obese partner (Alex Corrado) commonly known as "Black and Blue", who want not only to take over Louis' local bookmaking business, but his long time restaurant as well.
As this drama unfolds throughout the evening, a living commentary on New York's restaurant scene takes place with the comings and goings of the evenings patrons including Louis' murdered partner's daughter Natalie (Polly Draper) - for whom Louis has a long time attraction - a Wall Street trader Ken (John Corbett) the obnoxious gallery owner Fitzgerald (Mark Margolis), the pretentious food guru Jennifer (Sandra Bernhard) - whose sexual encounters with star chef Udo has helped put him near the top of Manhatten's culinery world - plus the restaurant staff including trivia genius bartender, Sean (Jamie Harris) and ambitious waitress/artist, Marti (Sumemr Phoenix).

As the baton is passed from one generation to another, the evening comes to an end with an old recipe - revenge - taking centre stage.