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Park's Edge - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

Park's Edge Kitchen Nightmares

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Park’s Edge in Imman Park, Georgia.

Park’s Edge is owned by best friends, Richard and Jorge who have run it for 3 years.

Jorge and Richard met at an airfreight company and neither have any experience of running a restaurant.

The food is over complicated and the staff are overworked.

They underestimated what it takes to run a restaurant and made several mistakes.

In the few years that the restaurant has been open the Health Department have forced them to close twice for health violations.

Jorge has failed to set organisation or any structure in the kitchen along with ensuring the food is to a high quality.

When the kitchen is under pressure, Richard doesn’t help and is out the front smiling with customers like nothing is wrong.

Richard put up a tent outside the front of the restaurant without a permit and they served liquor without a license.

When the local news came to interview him, he insinuated the neighbourhood was racist.

This was the final straw that alienated them from the local community.

They lost most of their business and they are regretful of their actions.

Gordon arrives at the restaurant after having already done some research into the restaurant.

He knows about the issues they have had with the locals in regards to the gazebo and accusations they have made.

He meets Richard at the entrance and then meets Jorge in the restaurant.

They sit down and he asks about their issues and they say the biggest one is the neighbourhood and the mistakes they have made.

They are adamant that despite these issues their food is good.

Gordon sits down for lunch and looks at their menu and he is confused as it has Mexican, Asian and Indian dishes on it.

Amy comes to serve him, and she helps Gordon out explaining that a grilled caesar salad on the menu is really grilled.

He has never heard of this before so he orders it with some chicken.

Another random server comes in to remove the extra utensils on the table startling Gordon and he introduces himself as Kevin the Bartender.

He manages to drop a comment on how bad the food is before being called away by Richard.

Amy and Gordon agree it was random for him to come over and remove the cutlery from the table.

Gordon continues to order some oysters and a grilled salmon.

First to arrive is the grilled salad and he is shocked to see that they have actually grilled the lettuce.

He gets the restaurant’s attention and shows them his lettuce has been grilled and they find it as funny and unusual as he does.

Gordon finds it hideous as the chicken is dry, the lettuce hasn’t been trimmed and it is too spicy.

The oysters are disgusting and he asks Richard to taste them.

Richard admits its bready and chokes on the spice on them.

The last dish to arrive is the salmon and the plate is very busy.

He asks Richard to taste this dish as well and he thinks that the combination of flavours don’t work together.

Gordon enters the kitchen to give feedback on his disappointing meal.

Jorge tells him that he went to culinary school and didn’t have proper training in a restaurant.

Gordon tells him he isn’t qualified to run a restaurant and they don’t realise how deep their problem is.

Gordon then sits with Richard to find out more about the neighbourhood problem.

Richard lists all the problems from their lack of a permit for their gazebo as well as business licenses and liquor licenses.

This made them a problem in the community as they weren’t operating correctly but the racist comment from Richard made it even worse.

Gordon arrives as the dinner service is about to start and runs into Richard leaving for a cigarette break and gets him back into the restaurant.

Gordon meets the rest of the cooking staff and the cooks both have more than10 years experience on the job.

Gordon observes the kitchen team working hard but Jorge is confused and overwhelmed.

The customers aren’t impressed with the food and there are complaints that it is too dry, too spicy, raw or meals are cold.

The servers are frustrated with the kitchen as their performance affects their ability to get tips.

The servers have to handle the complaints about the food while Richard hides out the back or outside.

Gordon confronts him on his role, or lack of one in the restaurant and him not dealing with unhappy customers.

Customers are left waiting for food and in frustration they walk out of the restaurant.

Gordon then inspects the walk-in where he finds stale and mouldy food produce, spoilt chicken and cooked food gone bad.

Jorge insists the cooked food was made recently but wasn’t going to be served.

Gordon doesn’t believe him and tells him he is lying but Jorge gets angry and walks away.

The next day, Gordon has a staff meeting with the owners watching via surveillance cameras.

The staff say the issues are mainly from Richard being hands-off with guests.

He drinks wine on the job daily but the owners are not communicating properly so Jorge is not aware of this.

The staff say they know more about running a restaurant than the owners but they don’t ask for help and are too stubborn to listen.

They say that Jorge is disrespectful and lashes out at them often.

Gordon then brings the owners in to iron out the issues.

They are touched by what they heard and Richard is emotional.

Jorge apologies to the staff for his failings and promises to change.

Gordon knows that they need to rebuild bridges in the community and encourages the owners to go on local news where Richard makes an apology to the neighbours.

Gordon’s team revamps the restaurants decor, the space has been made more contemporary, the clashing colours are gone and pictures from local artists are on the walls.

Gordon has also simplified the menu making it an American menu with a contemporary twist.

The staff sample and love all the food and agree Jorge’s previous menu was too complicated.

Gordon brings in his team to train the kitchen staff on the new menu but sous chef Matt is not on board with frying chicken wings.

He is taken outside and says that the menu sucks in front of Gordon and the owners.

He is given an ultimatum and asked to do his job and get on board or leave. He agrees to stay.

The relaunch is underway and orders come through the kitchen.

Jorge takes charge and the food comes out fast and to a high standard.

Matt complains as he is making the wings in the kitchen and he is bringing down the morale.

He overcooks a pork belly and when given a chance to correct it he messes up and is rude to Jorge.

He is asked to leave immediately.

The kitchen pulls together to push out the rest of the food.

The customers love their food and the night ends well.

Gordon gives Richard and Jorge some parting words, that they need to support each other for the restaurant to succeed.



What Happened Next at Park's Edge?

In the weeks that followed, the owners continued the community outreach and business is on the rise.

Richard is more active on the floor while Jorge has embraced the new menu.

After the show, they kept most of Gordon's changes but returned some customer favourites to the menu.

After filming, the Yelp reviews are mixed but negative comments are mostly service based and hit and miss menu items.

The Trip Advisor reviews were mixed and negative comments also seem to complain of poor service.

In October 2011 they failed a health inspection after also having failed previously in February 2011.

Park's Edge closed in early 2014 after their lease ran out in November 2013 and were reportedly looking for a new location to reopen.

The restaurant never reopened.

The website was active until 2020, 6 years after they closed!

Park's Edge was aired on February 03 2012, the episode was filmed in September 2011 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 5 episode 10.


This post was last updated in March 2023.

17 comments:

  1. What was with the sous chef? He was so offended about cooking chicken wings that they had to kick him out of the kitchen.

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  2. Richard just find himself a really bad partner. Jorge's skill is not qualify to be a sous chef.
    Best way for this restaurant is to fire Jorge and find a real sous chef....There are better partners out there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jorge was the head chef, not the sous chef.

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    2. That was the point . Jorge was not ready to be a sous chef let alone a head chef.

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  3. I find it interesting that Chef Ramsey made so much fun of the grilled Caesar salad. Its all the rage, I see it everywhere - probably to the point of being over done now.
    - but it doesn't make up for all the other mistakes (too spicy, not cleaned, core still attached)

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  4. Although he makes some good points (which possibly any consultant or great critic can do) Chef Ramsey is a pompous jerk, I've eaten here and had no problems with the food or service. I prefer my food spicy and believe preparation is an artform, cooking it is based on the consumer preference. The best way to set your yourself for future failure as a owner I see is to NOT get involved with this shows production staff and let them pick about and berate your restaurant. Reach out to your consumer and see how you can better serve them without the undue stress of a quasi performance that was set to be a predetermined failure..,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think you understand the concept of the show.. These restaurants are _failing_ when Ramsay walks in there. Which he does - also - because they call him in. He doesn't just pick any restaurant and drop by, giving his advice without it being wanted or needed.

      Also, when you have little to no customers, you can try to cater to _them_ as much as you like, but in the end a business needs to make money to survive. And you're not going to do that clinging to a handful of people who happen to like their food spicy, such as yourself.

      And considering the fact that they're still open now, and are doing well enough to survive in an economic crisis, I'd say they did well getting involved with this show.

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  5. Matt was being bullied a bit. Guy wasn't really being that bad.

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    Replies
    1. I agree that Matt was being bullied; whatever was going on in the kitchen, aside, this was one of the rare times when I thought Gordon Ramsay's behavior was wrong-- usually his mean comments are on-point and instructive. Here it seemed like bullying.

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    2. Doesn't help Matt said "is she gonna serve that in orange shorts" towards Andi (Ramsey's most trusted sous chef).

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  6. The blonde from Gordon's team, helping out in the kitchen looks like Chef Andi from Hells Kitchen. Is it?

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    Replies
    1. Sure looks like it. Seems she's done a lot of behind the scenes work on Nightmares

      http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3940907

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    2. That is her. She's been with Chef Ramsey for a long time.

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  7. Medium rare is warm pink center

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  8. What I picked up from the whole Matt thing is that he was basically being racist implying fried chicken would bring in clientele still in their prison jumpsuits. Also, not an aussie, southern accent if anything.

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    Replies
    1. He was obviously referring to Hooters you nimrod.

      Delete
  9. Richard was such a nice guy. Definitely one of the more pleasant owners. He was obviously passive, but he was one of my favorite owners for sure.

    ReplyDelete

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