Prohibition Grille - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits the Prohibition Grille in Everett, Washington.

Prohibition Grille is a southern restaurant opened in 2008 by professional belly dancer Rishi Brown.

She is under the misguided notion that since she has successfully run a dance company for years, she can run a restaurant successfully.

The restaurant is not successful and is losing $100,000 a year.

She doesn’t manage the restaurant well and hired Rocky who had 30 years of experience to run the kitchen.

Rocky is unprofessional and there are constant complaints about the food.

When confronted with poor food he says the food is fine and Rishi naïvely believes him.

Gordon arrives at the restaurant and sees a flyer advertising the belly dancing and notes it is more of a Vegas thing.

Gordon meets Rishi and she tells him it was her idea and he is dumbfounded.

Rishi tells him she had the idea to open the restaurant over cocktails and she made it happen, even with no experience in the restaurant industry.

She tells him that she was drunk and decided she wanted to buy a restaurant and that despite the name there is no grill in the kitchen.

When she is asked about the theme of the restaurant, she says fine dining, steak house and southern gourmet.

Rishi takes him to his table, hands him an enormous menu and she rates the food a 10.

Gordon comments on her outfit as she is dolled up like she’s is heading to a party and not dressed like she is managing a business.

He is served by Candice and orders a soup of the day, fillet mignon medium rare, brown sugar glazed salmon and pan-fried oysters.

Gordon finds out that the soup of the day is the same soup that had been served for close to two weeks.

He lets Rishi know that soup of the day is meant to be changed everyday and she was clueless.

The soup arrives and it is a slop and gnarly.

Rishi finds out that the soup was made days ago and stored for use over a number of days.

In conversing with Gordon, Rishi finds out the oysters are bought pre-opened and were delivered five days prior.

Gordon is shocked to find out they buy prepared seafood especially as the restaurant is so close to the ocean.

The oysters arrive and he thinks they are tasteless and bland.

He attempts to feed Candice the oysters but she declines to eat them, saying she prefers fresh oysters.

Next, the fillet mignon arrives, and it is grainy and horrible with the collard greens lifeless and mushy.

The salmon arrives next and it is rolled into a pinwheel. It is disgusting with no seasoning and the presentation is awful.

Gordon meets with the kitchen team and calls them out on the promise of freshness on the menu meanwhile they serve reheated food and frozen oysters.

Rishi and Rocky are defensive about the food.

Rishi says the collard greens were overcooked but good and Gordon says it makes no sense to say they are good.

Gordon finds out they are losing $8000 a month and roughly $100,000 a year but Rishi is still insistent on the food being good.

Gordon arrives to observe a dinner service and covers up to the ‘Grille’ on the door to stop the false advertising.

He finds out Rishi isn’t around to help staff prepare for the dinner service as she is preparing for her belly dancing performance.

Gordon inspects the kitchen and the walk-in and finds cornbread that was made days ago and stored ready to be used for days.

As he is talking to Denis, Rishi starts her belly dancing in the dining area.

Gordon is visibly embarrassed and locks himself in a back storeroom.

Customers are mortified and confused by the mid meal performance.

Undercooked dishes are sent back to the kitchen and Gordon can’t believe how raw the steak is.

Rishi behaves like everything is okay and when she encounters a complaint about the gravy, she asks Gordon what to do and he reminds her that she is the owner.

They take the food back to the kitchen and trace the source of the problem.

The gravy is gritty, sour as it was made the weekend before.

Gordon has them pull every meal that has gravy on it form the customers.

He goes back to the walk-in and finds raw pork stored next to cooked ribs, new trout and old trout stored together andan old bread pudding.

Gordon is horrified and dinner service is halted and the restaurant shut down.

Gordon points out Rocky is lazy and Rishi is oblivious to the problems with his food.

Rishi turns on Rocky and says he tells her that is the quality of service she gets for the pay she gives him.

She is more afraid of losing a chef than raising the standards.

Gordon finds out she is being used by Rocky.

Gordon leaves and the kitchen staff clean up the walk-in.

Gordon meets with Rishi and her staff and they talk about the disastrous service.

The staff tell him more about Rocky’s activities on how he ditches his station at the height of dinner rush.

He also takes 3% of the tips as he had told Rishi that this was the industry standard and she doesn’t know any better.

Gordon tells them straight up that he has them bamboozled.

Rishi gets emotional and felt like that she had no choice but to believe him.

All the staff believe Rocky is the main problem and think that he should be removed from the restaurant.

Gordon says Rishi has to take responsibility for her business and he will help her find a new chef.

She resolves to let Rocky go and does so as soon as he comes in.

He apologies for getting complacent and takes it graciously.

Gordon then comes in and gets the staff together into the kitchen for some cooking.

Rishi has never cooked in the restaurant kitchen even though she says she loves to cook.

They cook a steak dish together to the delight of the staff and they also love the taste.

Gordon’s team work all night to convert the grille into a gastropub.

The interior has been brightened up with a bright red colour scheme and the exposed brick is made more prominent.

Gordon found a new chef Tyler with 20 years’ experience and he will find and train a new chef for them over the next few weeks.

Gordon also designed a menu that they can make in their small kitchen.

The last makeover is for Rishi and she arrives in a power suit, looking more like an owner.

For relaunch night, Gordon has invited local influential bloggers to help spread the word.

The relaunch goes very well with the customers loving the food and atmosphere of the restaurant.

Before Gordon leaves, he has Rishi swear she will no longer belly dance in the restaurant.

What Happened Next at Prohibition Grille?

In the weeks that followed, the new improvements were a big hit and Rishi felt in control of her restaurant again.

The changes Gordon made were met with a mixed response.

Both Yelp reviews and Trip Advisor reviews show both regulars preferring the old menu and new customers loving the new look and new menu.

Rishi sold to the restaurant to Brenton Holland in 2016 who kept the name and decor but focused on selling steak and whiskey.

Prohibition Grille closed in July 2017.

Rocky opened his own restaurant called Ole Soul Southern Creole and reviews were good prior to it's closure in September 2017.

Abbott’s opened in the space of Prohibition Grille in 2018 and reviews are excellent.

Prohibition Grille was aired on 26 April 2013, the episode was filmed in November 2012 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 6 episode 13.

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This post was last updated in March 2023.