The Capri - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Capri in Eagle Rock in Los Angeles, California.

The Capri is a restaurant run by identical twins Jim and Jeff Thiel.

They bought the restaurant as they were regular customers and liked the idea of free pizza.

Server Mia calls them overgrown boys.

The staff say they are immature and cannot cook.

They entertain the guests but are so lazy that they do as little work as possible.

The owners will sleep in their car during service.

Gordon arrives and isn't impressed with the exterior of the restaurant.

He thinks that the interior is too dark.

He is greeted by Jeff who tells him that the restaurant is closed during the day.

It only opens at 4 o’clock in the evening for their dinner service.

Gordon asks Jeff to call in Jim and on meeting Jim, he thinks they are messing with him.

He is confused until the twins come out together and Gordon sees how identical they really are.

Jim says he is in charge as he had worked in the restaurant longer than his brother Jeff.

Gordon then asks to order some food for lunch.

Jim says the Capri never open for lunch.

He would rather be relax by watching TV or playing poker or sit in the sun.

He thinks in order to open for lunch they would need to hire more staff.

Gordon asks if they’ve tried serving lunch but Jim says they never have opened as they aren’t ready.

The twins also admit that they are only open for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday.

Gordon sits down to order and is appalled by the dirty menu that is falling apart and hard to read.

He is greeted by server Colleen, who has worked in the restaurant for nine and a half years.

She says the restaurant wallpaper hasn’t been changed for the past 35 years.

The decor is exactly the same as when the previous owners owned the restaurant.

Gordon orders a meatball sandwich which Colleen states that they order in from another company.

Gordon also orders for Chicken Scarpello and the Capri’s Colossal Pizza.

While waiting to be served, Gordon inspects the dining room.

He is shocked at how dirty and run down it is with taped carpet and sauce-stained booths.

He calls Jim to ask for who was responsible for the state of the dining room.

Jim says he is responsible for cleaning the restaurant.

He admits he hates it and hasn’t cleaned the restaurant in a long time.

The meatballs are bought in and microwaved to reheat.

The pizza has a lot of gunk on it and is falling apart.

The chicken Scarpello is dull and smells off.

Jim is unable to tell him exactly how old the frozen chicken is.

Gordon notices bits of gum stuck underneath the table.

Colleen tells him that underneath the tables have never been cleaned before.

He counts up to 20 pieces of gum that is stuck underneath every table in the dining room.

Gordon tells the twins to clean up the restaurant before the dinner service.

After the cleaning was done, guests begin to come in for dinner.

Gordon arrives to watch the dinner service.

Gordon inspects the kitchen and finds it to be dirty with equipment that is covered in grime.

In the walk in, there are rotten vegetables and precooked dishes.

There is a warm sauce in the fridge that would have been dangerous to serve.

They throw away the rotten vegetables and the orders begin pouring in.

Jim and Jeff get back to cooking and begin to send food out of the kitchen.

The diners are less than impressed with the food that they receive.

Lots of dishes get returned to the kitchen and there is a lot more sobbing from Jeff.

Thanks to Gordon’s encouragement, Jeff jumps back into dinner service.

He tries to help Jim get the kitchen back on track.

Unfortunately this makes the matters worse.

Gordon discovers that the chicken isn't being safely defrosted.

He tells Jim to take it off the menu.

Instead he announces the lack of chicken directly to the customers in the dining room.

Many of the diners walk out without eating anything.

Soon, Jim and Gordon get in an argument and pizza cook Darian reveals that they are childish.

He says that they will cry whenever things don’t go their way.

The remaining customers complain too.

They had to wait hours before they were served and get frustrated and leave.

Gordon brands the service lazy and tells Jim and Jeff to clean their kitchen alone.

After the twins spend most of the night cleaning, Gordon arrives early.

He opens the restaurant for lunch and with help from Colleen and Darian.

They serve customers from a new lunch menu and they love the new food.

Jim and Jeff arrive to a full dining room.

Gordon had introduces their new lunch menu and they sit down to sample it.

He tells the twins that they made $300 from the service.

The twins realise it would boost revenue to open every day at lunch.

Gordon takes the twins to a boxing ring.

This will allow them to get out their frustrations about the restaurant and to let go of the past.

They box each other, let out their annoyances and promise better communication moving forward.

Satisfied that the twins are ready to make some changes Gordon introduces a new menu.

Gordon teaches them to make homemade meatballs.

Jim goes out to the street to shout about their meatballs.

Gordon and his team worked overnight to give the restaurant a long overdue revamp.

It is one of the biggest makeovers in the show’s history.

The next morning, Gordon reveals the newly designed restaurant to the owners and staff.

He also reveals the new menu to the staff.

Colleen says the restaurant is the coolest place in Eagle Rock now.

Jim was shocked at the new look and Jeff called it a second chance at life.

On relaunch night, the restaurant is packed.

Jim is in the kitchen expediting and the food quickly makes its way out the kitchen.

Jim gets nervous but manages to send out dishes from the pass.

Some dishes go out too quickly and are sent out cold.

An hour into service the kitchen starts to fall behind and customers are frustrated.

Gordon takes them outside for a pep talk.

The kitchen turns it around and the customers love the new food when they receive it.

After the successful night’s service, Gordon speaks with the twins one more time.

They tell him that they are grateful for the help.

What Happened Next at The Capri?

Gordon revisits in a Kitchen Nightmares revisited episode.

They are still open for lunch service.

Jeff controls the front of house and Jim is in the kitchen.

Gordon sits down for lunch with the twins and feels under the tables for gum.

They report that business is up 20% and Gordon says his pizza is delicious.

Gordon has a surprise for them both.

It is a certificate of appreciation for their meatballs from the local Chamber of Commerce.

Eight months after the show aired, the twins reported to the local press that business had increased by 20%.

They had kept Gordon's menu and were using their staff better.

Both the Yelp reviews are mostly positive after the show.

The meatballs and pizza are mostly well received and customers love the twins.

Trip Advisor reviews are fewer in number but were also mostly positive.

In March 2012, they won a poll for the best pizza in Eagle Rock

The Capri closed in September 2019.

They closed due to health issues and declining sales.

The twins posted on Facebook "The end of an era Thank you all We will miss you!!!"

Capri was aired on May 06 2011, the episode was filmed in January 2011 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 4 episode 10.

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