Photo courtesy of Kitchen Nightmares
Inman Park restaurant gets a 44/100 health score, shortly after celebrity chef visits.
Did “world-renowned” chef Gordon Ramsay fix one Atlanta restaurant’s problems or create a whole new set of nightmares for it?
In September, Park’s Edge restaurant participated in filming the fourth season of “Kitchen Nightmares,” only to fail its health inspection a few weeks later.
The show, which premiers on FOX this Friday, Nov. 4, promises participating restaurants it’ll “help turn around their businesses or else they’ll be forced to close their doors forever.”
Ramsay and his team infiltrated the Inman Park restaurant Sept. 9 – 12. Park’s Edge failed it’s health inspection Oct. 12.
“With Ramsay’s reputation on the line, he will demand absolute excellence and perfection from the owners,” according to the show’s website. “Using his five-star culinary expertise and knowledge, Chef Ramsay will put his name and his food empire on the line to help transform these restaurant nightmares into the American dream on Kitchen Nightmares.”
Sorry Ramsay, but unsanitary kitchens and unfathomably low health scores does not a successful restaurant make.
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Caleb – How do you expect Ramsay to control what the restaurant does once he leaves?
hi aj, i don’t. but it’s definitely ironic.
–cjs
Yeah sounds to me like if they had a nightmare kitchen before hand, they will probably still be dirty people after he leaves. Nothing to do with Gordon (even though hes a douchbag).
This article confuses me in that it seems like the author is placing the responsibility on Chef Ramsey for the failed health inspection, even though the inspection occurred a month after Kitchen Nightmares left Park’s Edge to fend for themselves.
Also, a quick look at Fulton County public records shows that Park’s Edge already had a failed inspection earlier this year. It is clear that good food safety practices are not part of their day-to-day operations. The only passing scores they receive for Inspections are a result of the Health Inspector giving them a couple weeks to clean up their act – they failed in February, but passed with a 90+ grade at the reinspection shortly following. Then, in October, they failed again. You can see the reports here:
http://ga.state.gegov.com/georgia/inspectionPick.cfm?id=888094&county=Fulton
A restaurant that ignores food safety should not be in business. How many times can they receive a failed grade before they are put out of business for putting their customers at risk?
hi sam, thanks for your comment. couldn’t agree with you more! ultimately, the restaurant is to blame but it’s surprising that even with ramsay’s alleged help, park’s edge still isn’t capable of maintaining food safety in its kitchen.
–cjs
CJS,
Why not state in the article what you just said in your comment: even with Ramsey’s alleged (why only alleged?) help, park’s edge still isn’t capable of maintaining food safety?
Instead you are implicating some responsibility on Gordon Ramsey and Kitchen Nightmares in your article – even the closing line will lead your readers to believe that the KN people are somehow responsible for the restaurant’s failure to follow good practices:
“Sorry Ramsay, but unsanitary kitchens and unfathomably low health scores does not a successful restaurant make.” Are you trying to state that Ramsey caused the unsanitary kitchen or low health scores?
I find this article to be slanted and misleading. The real issue is the restaurant’s inability to maintain a responsible food service environment, not the fact that they were given thousands of dollars to remodel and update their menu with professional guidance that they asked for themselves.
hi sam, thanks for another thoughtful comment. in the article we are placing blame on ramsay for under-delivering on the show’s promise. you’re missing the satire. an absurd number of fulton county restaurants received health scores this month so low, the city should shutter each and every last one of them. but only one was given expertise and “thousands of dollars to remodel and update their menu with professional guidance,” just 30 days before. if i were fox, ramsay, or anyone else associated with kitchen nightmares, i’d be pretty embarrassed to learn of this restaurant’s failure so soon after its makeover.
–cjs
Why should Fox or Ramsay be embarrassed? He frequently visits horrible restaurants that end up failing and closing even after his help. At the end of most visits, Ramsay frequently makes comments about how if they don’t do x, y, and z they’ll end up closing their doors. And on some of his Kitchen Nightmares Revisited episodes, he has shown that some restaurants ended up closing or returning to their previous ways. I don’t think Ramsay promises to turn around restaurants no matter what. He gives them the tools they need and it is up to them to keep it up.
It seems like the author of this article is simply trying to exploit Ramsay’s brand and show to get readership and drive traffic to the site.
To the point of earlier replies, there should be no expectation that the owners will continue to perform well once left unsupervised. If anything, the show provided enough life support to the business to hopefully find new owners to build on the improvements.
No one has mentioned that Park’s Edge has also operated without a liquor license for two years, despite ongoing neighborhood complaints, maybe following rules just isn’t their thing.
funny you mention that, i was there one night and noticed a couple cop cars outside… didn’t think too much of it until my gf and i tried to order glasses of wine. our waitress informed us there was a “problem” and couldn’t serve us. supposedly that issue was getting taken care of. curious to know the status of that…
i’ve always been a fan of their food and service though so it is disappointing to hear this news. hope they remedy this before i use my scoutmob there
When you see his program, unsanitary kitchens and walk-throughs, things not labeled and dated, mixing cooked with non-cooked storage, etc. are HUGE pet peeves of his. He often goes off on people for that, it seems to be a trademark of a struggling restaurant.
He would have definitely whipped that into shape; however, that they failed an inspection four weeks later just shows how quickly the reverted back to their old ways – real shame.
It will be interested to see if they make it into one of the follow-up episodes where he revisits restaurants later to check up on them.
From what I hear, this “reality” show is what you’d expect… it creates the illusion of fixing things, but it’s all in the script. A friend who’s seen the show production in action said Ramsay is there for just a few hours if that… when fixing an ailing restaurant probably takes weeks at least.