In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Levanti's Italian Restaurant in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Levanti’s Italian restaurant opened in 1998 and is owned by Dino Fratangeli.
The restaurant is located in Beaver, Pennsylvania, a middle-class suburban community located 28 miles outside Pittsburgh
Dino wanted to open a restaurant after graduating college and his father invested his life savings of $250,000 to open the restaurant for him.
The restaurant was busy and Dino was overwhelmed with the work in the restaurant.
The restaurant was so busy that his sister Tina sold her florist business to help out at the restaurant.
According to Tina, they were originally the only restaurant on the block but things started to decline when a rival restaurant opened.
The staff do not believe the problem is the new competition.
They believe Dino and Tina are the problem as they argue a lot and they do not know how to run a restaurant.
They state that Dino has absolutely no idea what he is doing in the kitchen.
The quality of the food is poor and Tina is like a manager who also doesn’t know what she is doing.
The staff say it is hard for the siblings to work together.
Dino says his sister doesn’t listen to him and that stops their communication.
She says that Dino blames her for everything that is wrong at the restaurant.
Tina says that the relationship between her and her brother got so bad that he left the business for about a year and half.
As Gordon drives to the restaurant he takes one more look at the tape that Tina submitted to the show.
Gordon enters the restaurant and sits down with Tina and Dino to discuss the restaurant.
Tina tells Gordon that she has given up her business to help the restaurant as it was the right thing to do.
Dino’s dad Tony has propped up the restaurant but he isn't willing to invest any more money.
The pair argue about who is in charge of the restaurant.
Dino says he is but Tina is in the restaurant more and they reveal that Dino left the restaurant.
Dino reveals that the relationship is so strained that he walked away for over a year.
They both argue about how much time they spend in the restaurant.
Gordon decides to taste the food and meets the server who explains that the owners argue a lot.
He orders stuffed banana peppers, filet mignon and the chicken carletta capellini from waitress Sam.
Sam also tells Gordon that the Carletta sauce is their signature sauce that came to Dino in a dream.
Gordon glances at another table who are eating bread and oil.
He asks to try it and says that the oil tastes like fryer oil rather than olive oil.
The staff say that Tina has been a hands-off manager of the restaurant for so long that she has become nonchalant.
Gordon discovers the months old dessert samples are rock hard and smell bad so they are removed from the dining room by Sam.
The filet is raw and he believes it is frozen.
Gordon then looks around and realizes that the restaurant is filthy.
He speaks with Tina who can't tell him how often the restaurant is cleaned.
Whilst he is waiting for food Gordon is disturbed by the loud noise from the restaurant’s POS, which Tina says is a common occurrence.
The stuffed banana peppers are frozen and watery and the chicken carletta has too much garlic and bullet hard chicken in it.
Gordon says it is the worst Italian food he has ever eaten and believes the owners no longer care about the restaurant.
Gordon observes a dinner service alongside Tony, who steps into the kitchen for the first time in months.
As the service begins he discovers that half the stoves in the kitchen no longer work.
No one is expediting the food service but somehow the food leaves the kitchen.
However it is sent back as the alfredo is lumpy, the gnocchi is chewy and the meat is disappointing.
Gordon ventures into the fridge and discovers green, slimy chicken and a mouldy, fermented sauce that is being served to customers.
Gordon is angry and tells them to stop serving any of the food.
He is frustrated that they have told the customers he is shutting it down the kitchen and blaming him.
Gordon enters the restaurant dining room and tells them what he found lurking in the kitchen, which is why he isn’t allowing food to be served.
Tony confronts Dino and Tina and threatens to close it if they don't step up and work together.
Gordon has discovered there is a gap in the market for an American Bistro and this will be the new direction of the restaurant.
The restaurant is given a makeover with a new modern decor and a new POS system has been installed.
Gordon is also bringing in two new consultants to help with the relaunch.
The kitchen has been refitted with all new top of the range equipment and the menu has been revamped to feature American classics.
On relaunch night, the customers are impressed with the new look of the restaurant.
They are not impressed with the long wait for their food.
There is a long wait as Dino struggles to keep up and gets confused with the new tickets.
In order to get the kitchen back on track the consultants step up to help in the kitchen.
Despite a few problems, the relaunch was a success overall with happy customers and no complaints.
Gordon reflects on the makeover, saying that this is his biggest transformation ever and success lays with the town.
What Happened Next at Levanti's?
In the following weeks, the consultants continue training Dino and Tina and they are working together as a team.
Yelp reviews were mostly good with compliments to the food and service.
A few negative reviews remark on portion size and poor menu items.
They actively posted on Facebook and the photos they posted of the food they were serving looked absolutely delicious!
Tina told the local press that the change from Italian to American was too much of a change for the regulars.
She felt that an upscale Italian would have a been better direction for the restaurant.
Levanti's Italian Restaurant closed in November 2013, nine months after the episode was aired.
The restaurant closed as Tony retired and they no longer wished to continue with the business.
They posted on their Facebook page,
Hello all! We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your loyalty and patronage over the past 15 years.
The people we have met and a lot of the friendships we have made will last a lifetime!
We are officially announcing the retirement of our father Tony, and the rest of us are excited to be moving on to pursue other ventures...
Heirloom restaurant opened in it's place and Yelp reviews were mostly good.
Heirloom restaurant closed in March 2018 and the kitchen equipment was sold in a liquidation sale.
The new owners remodelled the restaurant, undoing the work Gordon's team did at the restaurant.
Dino is now a real estate agent.
Levanti's was aired on February 01 2013, the episode was filmed in June 2012 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 6 episode 7.
Read About More Kitchen Nightmares
Previous episode - Olde Hitching Post Restaurant & Tavern
Next episode - Sam's Mediterranean Kabob Room
This post was last updated in March 2023.
Notice that Ramsay makes up a new word in this one. He says the previous kitchen was "delapicated" when unavailing the new kitchen.
ReplyDeleteActually, "dilapidated" is a real word, and very appropriate as used here; however, "unavailing" is NOT a real word. The word that you apparently intended to use should have been "unveiling" - defined as in "removing the veil from, or revealing."
DeleteActually......the original poster said "delapicated", not "dilapidated". So most likely, this person cannot spell (not trying to insult) and probably meant unveiling. On the other hand, you read "delapicated" as "dilapidated".... Oh, P.S., "unavailing" IS a word, just not appropriate to use at this point. Another thing, this person could have just simply misheard Ramsay considering he has an accent.
DeleteI'm watching this episode on a rerun as I type, Gordon clearly says "delapicated."
Deletehahahah he said delapicated and that's that. jeez.
DeleteThose of you who think Ramsey (as he's known here in London) said "delapicated" should go and get a hearing test, because he quite clearly says "dilapidated" anyone who disagrees is a mug and should get their ears cleaned.
DeleteHe is absolutely saying 'delapicated'. He said it at least once before this episode, and in the episode I'm watching now (Old Neighborhood) he's said it at least twice.
Delete"Don't be fixing my bad English, if you know so much why don't you become a poet laureate?" Yes, because if anyone has a good handle of English, they're only occupation in life should be words lauded by all. How dare someone be able to know these two words and hear them through a foreign accent, the accent that had been speaking the language for centuries before the Americas even heard of the words. Anti-elitism at its best. 'Someone is bullying me over speaking poorly, so I'll bully them about being really smart.' Geek is chic, you are irrelevant. I always loved these old school British cooking shows producers who wrote their own narration (check out his UK stuff) and the higher reading level involved in it. Too bad we must cater to the lowest common denominator.
DeleteHe definitely said delapidated. Just watching it now. Maybe it's his accent?
DeleteOkay freak show... Turn on close captions... Way funny.
DeleteHe said "delapicated" He just had that word in his head. Everyone has a wrong word. I've been corrected recently after 50yrs of thinking a word was spelt a certain way. No big deal.
DeleteHe said delapidated. How can anyone hear anything else?
DeleteNow I don't know if I am hearing "delapicated" because the thought has been planted there.
DeleteI watched the episode on Youtube tonight, not aware, of course, of this discussion, and I heard him say delapicated. At the time I thought there was a glitch in the audio or that he'd mispronounced the word.
Deleteno no no, he is saying "deli, i'm catered"
DeleteNope, Ramsey's brain short circuited - he definitely said dilapicated, I am watching the episode in Denmark right now and thought I would check out what happened in the future for this restaurant - where I stumbled over your comment.
ReplyDeleteThis place is still open and very delicious! My husband and I go frequently and have never once had a bad experience! If you're ever in the Beaver area make sure you stop by, their Margarita pizza and Bistro wings are awesome! My husband says the pasta is really good, too. And the staff is always really friendly. I'm so glad this one didn't fold.
ReplyDeleteGuys have you ever noticed the one common denominator in all these Kitchen Nightmares? Yes, Chef Gordon Ramsey. So we are to believe that he is always right and the business owners are all wrong? Seems pretty far fetched to me.
ReplyDeleteWell obviously if they are calling him in to help with their failing eateries, then they are doing something wrong, and seeing where he has several successful restaurants and is a world renowned chef, it is not that unbelievable that he would be right and they would be wrong.
DeleteHis show is about him trying to help failing restaurants.
DeleteOf course they're failing. Of course he's in every show.
Not exactly a remarkable observation.
While the point is logically erroneous and absurd, it does have a nugget of truth - Ramsey's restaurants are not universally successful - they fail as often as they succeed. His kudos is more attributable to being London's only 3 Michelin Star chef, and one of the youngest chefs to attain the accolade.
DeleteGordon just postponed the inevitable demise of these slop houses. You really can't blame him because his experience and knowledge of food is why these idiots contact Gordon in the first place.
DeleteIf anything, the failure rate shows just how freaking hard it is to open a restaurant and keep it afloat.
DeleteIn a past job, I was tasked with statistical analysis of culinary business (I guess that's how I could word it) This includes independently owned restaurants (no franchises) and suppliers of raw product (vegetables, meat, dairy, etc) About 63% restaurants close within 5 years (35% within 2 years). Suppliers are a little more reliable, but it still doesn't look good. 38% of independently owned restaurant suppliers fail within 5 years.
The only industry I've studied that was worse than this was software development - specifically game development. The percentage of failed game dev studios (even large ones) is ridiculous. I'm talking about 75-85% within 5 years.
Are you kidding? Some of his restaurants have failed, but many more have been extremely successful. He's world renowned for this culinary expertise, and has won multiple highly respected rewards as a result.
DeleteI live in New Brighton, PA (which is two towns over from Beaver, my sister-in-law lives two blocks from Levanti's), and I have eaten there before because when they first opened I had heard nothing but good things about them. I took my ex-girlfriend there the night of our school dance and I remember it being VERY dark. I had the spaghetti and meatballs and she had the stuffed raviolis. The food was very good back then but the very dark atmosphere was kind of disheartening and made the experience a little weird. When I first heard that Chef Ramsay was coming to the area I was very excited. I knew that since I had been there that the word on the street had died down YEARS before he had arrived and my wife always asked me why I always talked about the place but never took her there. It's very sad to see that Dino, Tina, and Tony have closed the place but anyone who lives anywhere near here know that even with the remodeling and reopening (thanks to Chef Ramsay) that it was too little, too late. Mario's used to be a small wood-fired pizzeria on the corner that chose to expand and has since then became a large restaurant on the main street that seems to get a large amount of business. On the other end, by the Beaver County Courthouse, is/was Levanti's, which was VERY small in comparison and had traveled so far downhill that Beaver residents were literally starving for a new, contemporary Italian restaurant and Mario's fit the bill. Now this may all be an assumption based on the fact that Tina and Dino were living off of their father's life savings the entire time and they might have chosen to simply close the place due to the strain the restaurant had put on their family, but if I had to put my money on a reason, I would put it on the fact that the changes came too late to be of any real usefulness for any of the members of the Fratangeli family or the restaurant as a whole. Whatever the reason, I hope that God blesses them and helps them with whatever their futures may hold for them.
ReplyDelete-Robert (New Brighton, PA)
They managed to sell the business off last year to the owner next door who will eventually expand their business. As for all the new equipment, it was actually on loan to Tony as the producers knew eventually the business would fail so it just went back to where they loaned it from. Such a shame, rumors are Tony lost around $180K in the end and Dino and Tina walked away with nothing and have since found alternate work.
ReplyDeleteIt is painful to watch Tony needs to suffer from Dino and Tina's incompetence.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 7th October 2014
ReplyDeleteI have no clue what numbers you're using.the biggest game companies out there have prevailed for decades and the survival rate of smaller companies has only grown since there's more platforms to choose from.
Is it easy to become big by yourself?no but what are these " large " companies that have failed within 5 years?you're even worse than Micheal Pachter.
i feel for server Jen, she seemed really sweet and genuine, bye jen !
ReplyDeleteI don't know why everyone's arguing over "delapicated" vs "delapidated". I'm an Englishman and can hear him clearly say "delapicated" but we've all misspoken at times and it's no big deal. Not like pronunciation changes his ability as a chef or entertainer. It's such a bizarre thing to focus on.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching a few seasons of this show now, two things really grind my gears. 1) the deplorable state of the kitchen and food. Molding, festering, bloody, soaking in its own juices and the chefs blame it on the managers or owners like they need to tell them to have standards and check stock and inventory and clean regularly. No. They need to stop being lazy and check for themselves. It's not like they are too busy to not do it. 2) not in this case, but when a restaurant returns to their old menu because customers "demand it". First off, what customers? The businesses are failing because they have no customers. So who exactly is demanding the return of old food? Also, why are they wanting the old, disgusting food back? Also if a majority of people like the new menu, why change it? Why satisfy the few and risk losing the many? I wish I could experience a restaurant featured in this show for myself. Things just don't seem to add up.
ReplyDelete