In this 24 hours to Hell and Back episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Stone’s Throw in Seymour, Connecticut.
Stone’s Throw Restaurant is owned by Peter and his wife Tara.
They bought the restaurant three years ago when it came up for sale.
Peter is a trained chef and worked at another restaurant.
The couple wanted to work together and own their own restaurant so decided to buy a restaurant.
They are struggling now as it is harder than they expected.
They have put in their retirement and all of their savings into the restaurant.
Tara has a full time day job and is tired all the time after work.
She was also treated for cancer some years ago.
Gordon comes in disguised as an old lady and visits the restaurant in the company of four other old ladies.
They think that the restaurant smells, the owners notice it as well as Gordon and his companions.
They order some fine dining dishes and notice how wonderful the view of the river is.
They think that the restaurant itself is a boring bland beige and has dirty carpets.
The salmon is dry and overcooked and the duck dish is cold.
The lobster is rancid and all the ladies agree that they could cook better.
Gordon is done with the food and goes into the bathroom to change.
Afterwards he goes into the kitchen and stops them cooking in the kitchen.
After this he goes into the dining room and stops the customers from eating lunch.
He takes everyone in the restaurant out to the Hell on Wheels truck to show them undercover footage of the restaurant.
The footage shows plastic found in food, staff goofing off and pranking each other.
It also shows them burning food, improper storage of poultry and bad and mouldy food including mouldy strawberries.
Peter says he was not aware of most of what they saw on screen.
Tara is speechless along with their three sons.
The timer is started and the staff make calls to their family to say that they aren’t coming home.
The customers are asked to come back in 24 hours for a relaunch.
Gordon wastes no time tearing into Peter at the staff meeting afterwards.
His wife defends him but they do not see their failings.
The staff are not willing to speak in front of the owners so the family is asked to step into another room.
The staff open up and they say the sons are not pulling their weight.
They say that they slack off but they cannot speak up because of their parents.
Gordon lets them know he had his staff eat there undercover and they left with food poisoning.
The owners reveal that the restaurant is three months away from closing.
The staff say they are committed to helping the restaurant get better.
Gordon meets the family and Tara does not waste any time defending themselves and her husband.
Gordon tries to make them see they are in denial.
The clearing out of the restaurant is started by Gordon’s team.
Gordon brings up the smell and Peter says he cannot understand it.
They enter the walk in and find rancid oysters, spoiled chicken and spoiled shrimp that had been used recently.
Tara is called to see all that is wrong and she does not want to see it.
Peter finally admits things are bad and they are losing money on the spoiled produce.
They clean the kitchen out while Gordon meets with his renovation team.
Tara spends some time crying in her office until Gordon talks with her and she admits Peter was never that way before.
She thinks that he changed when she got cancer.
Peter is taken out to the truck kitchen and Gordon introduces the new dishes cooked from fresh and local ingredients.
Gordon demonstrates cooking a duck dish with Peter, who enjoys learning how to cook the dish.
Gordon plays a video of Tara where she talks about how hard she has to work to keep it all together and it makes Peter emotional.
Gordon reminds him that he has to remove the burden from Tara’s shoulder.
Gordon’s team take over and begin training Peter and his kitchen team.
The rest of his renovation team work all night and they are closer to meeting their deadline.
A few hours later Gordon introduces their new POS system by Touch Bistro.
The kitchen has been cleaned and the equipment replaced with brand new equipment.
The kitchen staff get down to work, prepping for the relaunch.
They make the meals they spent all night practising and Gordon immediately spots the dishes are not as he showed them.
The duck is over cooked, the shrimp sauce is too heavy and not cooked properly.
The salmon is also undercooked and bordering on raw.
Gordon has a quick word with Peter to check and motivate his team to do better as the doors will soon be open.
Tara is handling the front of the house.
The countdown ends and the doors are open to the new customers.
The interior of the restaurant is revealed and it now has an updated colour palette with earthy and wood accents.
Gordon’s former dinner companions have returned for the relaunch.
As the relaunch gets underway the kitchen is overwhelmed and have incomplete dishes.
The food takes a long time to go out and some customers are left waiting for 30 minutes.
Gordon talks to them but it is not working so Peter has to expedite to get them to finish the plates and push food out.
The food goes out and is well received by the customers.
They are impressed and most are shocked at the dramatic change.
Gordon is happy with the turn around and spends some time with his older friends before saying goodbye to Tara and Peter together.
What Happened Next at Stone's Throw, CT?
Three months later, they are keeping up the high standards Gordon set and they look happier.
The latest Stone's Throw update is that Stone's Throw is closed.
Stone's Throw closed in December 2019 and the restaurant was put up for sale for $900,000 on Loopnet.
Stones Throw Restaurant Yelp Reviews are mixed after the show.
Initially there were positive comments on the improved food items but the later reviews were negative on food quality.
Stone's Throw was aired on January 30 2019, the episode was filmed in November 2018 and is 24 Hours to Hell and Back season 2 episode 5.
Click for more 24 Hours to Hell and Back
Previous episode - Catfish Cabin
Next episode - Bayou on the Vine
"He...Jean wants....She is hysterical..."
ReplyDeleteThose old ladies were awesome. Love them. Also, Ramsay is definitely having so much fun with his elaborate disguises. This was a good episode.
This was one of the angriest episodes I can recall seeing from Ramsay. When he lit into Peter the owner after reviewing the walk-in cooler, I could almost feel the rage seething from my couch. Whatever it was about Peter, he really got triggered by him.
ReplyDelete