Mel's Diner Reopens for Business

Now that my friend and one-time co-worker Melissa Grego has moved over to Broadcasting & Cable, she's resurrecting her old Mel's Diner blog.

Like she did back at TV Week, Melissa will take bigtime TV execs out to lunch and mi industry dish with restaurant info.

First up, Melissa takes Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly out to Blue on Blue at the Avalon Hotel. Discussion focuses on Fox's fall, but the topic eventually turns to how unhealthy those top-level jobs can be:

Kevin also does his best to eat healthy. “You can shove a lot of stuff in your face out of the stress,” he says.

And booze?

“No, I drink as much as possible,” he says, laughing. “I try not to have hard alcohol before lunch. But I really do wonder about the old-school way of drinking. I don’t know how they ever did it—though I’m tempted some days. It’s fun till about 3:30 when you crash.”

With all this talk about not indulging, I was surprised that Kevin knew all about the desserts at this place. He orders chocolate chip cookies and a fruit plate with honey for us to share.

He has started coming here pretty often, though he didn’t know about it until he joined Fox last summer. The Avalon Hotel, at the corner of Olympic and Cañon in Beverly Hills, is a quick ride over from Fox in Century City.

“If you want some semblance of creative thinking, sometimes it’s just a matter of sitting by the pool for a couple of hours,” he says.

Next up, Melissa will be dining with "The Girls Next Door" exec producer Kevin Burns.