Gordon Ramsay visited South Brooklyn Foundry in season eight of Kitchen Nightmares, but the restaurant seemed to be fairly popular even before he arrived.
At this point, every longtime Kitchen Nightmares fan should know that when they tune in to watch this show, they can expect the unexpected.
But even so, the eighth episode of the show’s newly-revived eighth season has managed to introduce yet another first for the show.
This time around the “first” is not something food-related (we just could not handle another Cheez Wiz sauce-gate this season). Instead, it features South Brooklyn Foundry, a restaurant which also offers Botox treatments.
Kelly and her restaurant on Kitchen Nightmares
In this episode, Ramsay travels to Brooklyn, New York to visit South Brooklyn Foundry and its co-owner, Kelly Agnes, who claims to be drowning in debt.
As usual, Ramsay identifies the eatery’s biggest issues within moments of sitting down at the restaurant when he is confronted with burgers that cost up to $30 on the menu.
Watching Kelly gradually admit to taking all of the restaurant’s financial responsibility without actually having any say on what happens with its daily operations or its bank accounts throughout this episode was certainly entertaining to watch.
However, there are just a few things about this Kitchen Nightmares restaurant that are not fitting the pattern for the usual failing business that we see on this show weekly.
South Brooklyn Foundry’s Kitchen Nightmares timeline
But before we can dive into the details of this particular Kitchen Nightmares episode (and all of the things about it that are just not adding up at the moment), let us take a look at the entirety of the restaurant’s Kitchen Nightmares timeline.
Whilst this episode of Kitchen Nightmares premiered near the end of November 2023, the episode was actually filmed a few months prior, as outlined below:
| Date | Event |
| June 7 to June 9, 2023 | Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares film crew arrive to film the episode |
| June 12, 2023 | The South Brooklyn Foundry re-opens |
| November 27, 2023 | The “South Brooklyn Foundry” episode premieres |
This is pretty standard practice in the television industry, but it does mean that more than five months have now passed since South Brooklyn Foundry’s grand Kitchen Nightmares intervention.
What is not adding up
We all know that good reviews do not necessarily equate to good business (just like a few bad reviews do not necessarily mean that a business is going downhill).
But where the struggling businesses that usually appear on Kitchen Nightmares usually have reviews that corroborate Ramsay’s experience on the show from before the chef even stopped by the business, South Brooklyn Foundry’s reviews have always been fairly good.
In fact, only one of South Brooklyn Foundry’s ‘excellent’ 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor was posted as recently as 2023 and this also seems to be the case on Google Reviews, where only a few of the 5-star reviews have been posted recently.
So, it seems like the restaurant was already maintaining a pretty good reputation even before Ramsay arrived.
And when a restaurant that is not actually doing poorly volunteers to be subjected to Ramsay’s scrutiny, this inevitably leads to a discussion about, as one user on Reddit put it, “Seems like she just wanted to get her restaurant remodeled cause that doesn’t make sense”.
This, of course, would also help to explain why Kelly welcomed Rey back so quickly.
It seems like Gordon Ramsay enjoyed the visit anyway
Regardless of whether you think that South Brooklyn Foundry actually needed Ramsay’s help or not, it seems like the local Bay Ridge residents certainly enjoyed his visit.
Moreover, one of the celebrity chef’s sweet interactions with a fan during the filming of this episode actually ended up going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user, @rizzogore shared a video on June 11, 2023, showing Ramsay quite hilariously signing their KitchenAid mixer outside of the restaurant after he apologized for making them wait so long.
This uncharacteristically sweet and gentle interaction has certainly shown fans a different side of this more mature chef.
Is the South Brooklyn Foundry still open?
Fortunately, South Brooklyn Foundry has seemingly kept its good fortune, even after Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares camera crew left the restaurant in June, as it is still open and in business to this day.
The restaurant’s Instagram page reveals that they now frequently host events, ranging from comedy nights, to drag brunches, too.
And one review from two months ago confirms that Kelly still owns the business and is still actively participating in the day-to-day operations (however, the recent reviews do not provide any insight into whether Rey is still working at the restaurant).
