So Kitchen Nightmares is finally airing their episode from Bella Luna in Forks Township tomorrow evening at 9pm on Fox. As you may or may not have read in the local news, Bella Luna closed down not long after the show wrapped and is now being replaced by another restaurant, Delorenzo’s. We happened to have inside sources at the taping who gave us some details on what actually went down in the restaurant over the course of Gordon Ramsay’s time at the restaurant.
By all accounts, Ramsay was not there for the first evening of dining. His Twitter account had him up in New York City. Meanwhile, Bella Luna was serving guests and taping the ‘complaint’ portion of the program, where customers loudly and obnoxiously complain about everything in the restaurant. Many of the diners there, according to a diner that was at the restaurant that evening, seemed to be there simply to bitch loudly enough to get a free meal and their face on camera.
Despite that, the restaurant was bad, says one source. The drink menu consisted of bad wine and PBR, and they were out of their ‘house specialty’ cannoli. A salmon entrée came burned on one side and undercooked in the middle, with broccoli that was salted to the point of being inedible. The décor looked like Christmas and Valentine’s Day threw up all over the dining room. The diner noted a tense moment in the taping where one waitress loudly and rudely snapped at another, enveloping the dining room in awkward silence. Was it scripted? A diner there the first night claims, “Absolutely not. There was no indication that any of the customers or any of the staff were acting in a coached manner, and I was not coached by the producers in any way. The waitresses seemed more nervous and frustrated than anything.”
The next night, Ramsay was in the house. After an apparent meltdown with the staff, Ramsay kicked everyone out of the restaurant in the middle of their meals, comping their dinners and apologizing to them, according to another person who was at the taping. Another dramatic moment occurred at the Forks Township Municipal building, where Ramsay’s producers had gathered a room full of first-time and regular diners at the restaurant, according to a source that was present at the taping that day. The entire staff of Bella Luna was led into what they were told was a ‘staff meeting,’ only to be surprised by a room full of their patrons, each with laundry lists of complaints about Bella Luna.
Ramsay’s staff then spent several days remodeling the restaurant and reworking the menu of the restaurant. Bella Luna continued to operate for approximately three more months, then closed its doors after losing its liquor license and its lease. According to multiple reports, the owners are currently litigating that situation.
What will Kitchen Nightmares actually show of what went on at Bella Luna during the taping, and what transpired between Ramsay and the staff? How much did Ramsay change between the surprise staff meeting and the grand reopening? We’ll be tuning in tomorrow night to find out.