Blackberry's - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Blackberry’s in Plainfield New Jersey.

Blackberry’s Catering and Family Restaurant is soul food restaurant owned by Shelly Winters.

She used to run a successful catering business.

Her mother Mary invested her retirement funds into setting up the restaurant.

Shelly believes that the decor is great, the food is great and the location is great.

The customers and staff think otherwise, they feel that she is denial and is a control freak.

There is a breakdown of communication in the kitchen.

The staff have no system in place and she is $200,000 in debt.

Gordon arrives and immediately thinks there is a disco happening at the restaurant.

This is due to the disco ball and the records hanging from the ceiling.

He meets James who is the general manager and Mary who is the baker.

He soon finds out Shelly and James are engaged after she asks him if she can give Gordon a kiss.

Gordon sits down at a table.

He orders collard greens, pork chops with mac and cheese, chitlins and red velvet cake.

Gordon notices a record stuck on the wall beside him is hiding a big hole in the wall.

The staff claim to have no knowledge of the cover up.

First is the porkchop and mac and cheese.

He finds the meat dry and the mac and cheese is over cooked and mushy.

He can tell it has been heated in the microwave.

Next, is the Collard greens that are bland, soggy and limp.

The chitlins smell and he asks for a prayer before tasting them.

They are awful, and he goes to the bathroom to throw up.

The only part of the meal he loves is the red velvet cake that was made by Mary.

Gordon meets the kitchen staff to let them know everything that was wrong with the lunch service.

Gordon comes back for the dinner service.

He sees a mouse in the entrance of the restaurant by the front door.

The staff don't believe him as they had an exterminator come in the week prior.

James claims Gordon brought the mouse in with him.

Gordon sets out to prove otherwise and calls the staff together.

Shelly immediately backs up James claims that Gordon planted the mouse.

This angers Gordon and he wants to leave.

Shelly agrees and wants it all shut down.

Mary steps in and asks Shelly to back off and pleads with Gordon to stay.

Her wish for him to stay combined with an apology from James convinces Gordon to stay.

Gordon watches dinner service and notes there’s a pizza oven.

Food is being cooked in woks rather than pans.

Shelly is disruptive and not communicating properly.

This is confusing her staff and causing bickering between them.

Customers have been waiting for an hour and Gordon is astounded at the chaos and poor service.

The next day, he calls a staff meeting.

He hears the staff out on what they think is wrong with the restaurant.

They all complain of how Shelly is overbearing and controlling.

She leaves little room for staff to do what they are trained to do.

Shelly gets offensive and tries to keep Dwayne from talking and soon asks him to leave.

Gordon stops it before it escalates and tries to encourage open and honest dialogue.

Mary tells her daughter that she needs to be open to change for things to get better and she agrees.

Gordon shows them the first change he has made.

He has purchased them a fryer and a six-ring burner stove all from Southbend.

Shelly misses the wok and Mary is emotional at this change.

Mateen, the sous chef is put in charge of the kitchen for the night to create a system and a team.

Gordon reveals the newly renovated restaurant.

It looks less like a cafeteria and more like a restaurant now.

The records are not completely gone.

They have been made into beautiful, framed art displays that are hung on the walls.

The menu has been revamped with new dishes including updated soul food classics.

There are new barbecued pulled pork sliders and fried chicken and waffles.

On relaunch night, the new system is tested and it starts well with customers loving the food.

Mateen takes charge of the kitchen.

Shelly receives a personal call and ignores her duties, almost putting the kitchen behind.

Shelly falls back to her old ways.

She tries to interfere with other cooking stations but when called out on it she walks out.

The rest of the team rally together and continue with the orders without Shelly.

At the end of the night, Shelly stays in her office.

She leaves when Gordon comes to call her to the meeting.

Mary once again tries to get her to join in but she has shut down and refuses to come out of her office.

Gordon goes ahead to congratulate the staff and tries to talk to Shelly again but she declines once again.

Mary gets angry and tells her she is ashamed of her.

What Happened Next at Blackberry's?

In the following weeks Shelly sees the success from Gordon's visit.

She starts to embrace the changes at Blackberry’s.

Nick at Jersey Bites posted about the experience of attending the relaunch here.

Yelp reviews after filming were mixed.

Reviewers complain of fighting in the kitchen, hit and miss service and food.

Blackberry's closed in March 2013, Shelly posted the below,

“I want to say we just no longer saw room for growth. We were so stagnant.

We were maintaining, barely, but not able to generate the clientele we wanted,”

Withers explained. “I think we gave it 10 good years.

We had a wonderful time and are looking on to bigger and better things.”

Blackberry's was aired on September 23 2011, the episode was filmed in July 2011 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 5 episode 1.

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