Restaurant Reviews Hunger for the Web

has become a foodie's favorite in its seven years on public TV. But the Emmy Award-winning show, which features a trio of ordinary people dishing about local restaurants, isn't doing much for its founder and chief executive, David Manilow. Indeed, with less than $200,000 in annual revenue from fees, the program generates only a tenth of what an average McDonald's (MCD) pulls in.

So Manilow is hitching his star to a medium with richer promise: the Internet. While continuing to produce for WTTW, where it airs three times a week, Manilow and President Tim Bahr are trying to drum up $2.5 million to develop checkplease.tv. Their first-year aim is to put together short video reviews of restaurants in the nation's top 10 travel markets, which would be posted on their own site and the likes of Travelocity.com. Income would come from ads. So far, they and friends have chipped in more than $500,000. Heartland Angels, a local group of individual investors, is also raising money for the venture.