Mick Foley confirmed that he did make an appearance on the “Handlebar” episode of Kitchen Nightmares in 2008.
Mick Foley is best known for his illustrious career as a professional wrestler, even though he has done many other things in his career as well.
This is why fans were so shocked to see him on a Kitchen Nightmares episode in 2008, but he did confirm that he really was at Handlebar that night.
About Mick Foley
Michael Francis Foley, or simply “Mick,” as he is known to most of his fans, is most well-known for his professional wrestling career.
Foley initially started his wrestling career as a college student and only really started gaining notoriety when his persona, “Cactus Jack” became popular in the 80s.
Since then, Foley has portrayed many distinct characters and has even been crowned a world champion wrestler on four different occasions.
Outside of wrestling, he has also authored a few books and been on a stand-up comedy tour. Even now that he has retired, Foley is still acting as a wrestling colour commentator and has been inducted into the WWE Legends program.
Was Mick Foley on Kitchen Nightmares?
Mick’s face is well-known to fans of the professional wrestling world, but to regular people on the street, he can easily blend in with the crowd and seem like just another guy.
Unfortunately, it seems like this is exactly what happened to the film crew that was filming the “Handlebar” episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
Some devoted Mick Foley fans just about fell out of their seats when they unassumingly tuned in to watch Kitchen Nightmares, only to catch a glimpse of the pro-wrestler at Handlebar’s re-launch dinner service.
However, since the series only really made a big deal about Dee Snider, who is the songwriter for the legendary rock band, Twisted Sister, and who was coined as a Mount Sinai, New York “local legend” on the show, many fans were left wondering if their eyes had deceived them.
Dee Snider had also been featured earlier on in the episode at a motorcycle rally, where Ramsay was attempting to drum up business for Handlebar by promoting the re-launch. But Mick did not appear during this rally.
Fortunately, any confusion about whether that really was Mick Foley or not at the Handlebar reopening was cleared up by a statement on Mick’s MySpace page.
This announcement confirmed that Foley was scheduled to appear on this episode (which first aired on 11 September 2008 at 9:00 p.m. ET) ahead of time and that he definitely was the one sitting at Dee Snider’s table at Handlebar.
Why was Mick Foley on this episode of Kitchen Nightmares?
It might seem strange to some fans that a pro-wrestler like Foley would suddenly make an appearance on a FOX reality series about a celebrity chef trying to save failing restaurants.
However, it is very likely that Foley simply decided to tag along to the event with his long-time friend, Dee Snider.
In fact, Foley even jokingly tweeted “A free meal, and a chance to hang with @deesnider. Win/win!” in response to a fan’s shock after spotting him in the episode.
What happened at the Handlebar re-launch dinner service?
Handlebar’s re-launch evening started with a bang, not only because of Dee Snider’s table full of celebrity guests, but also because he auctioned off a motorcycle on the Handlebar website.
However, it quickly became apparent that this large rush of customers was too much for Melissa, the Handlebar chef, to handle on her own when she served both burnt and undercooked salmon.
Fortunately, Melissa learned from her mistakes and improved her communication with the rest of the kitchen staff throughout the night. In the end, the re-launch was a huge success.
Is Handlebar still open?
Handlebar managed to implement most of the changes that Ramsay suggested on their original episode. Hence, they could keep the success from their celebrity-filled re-launch evening going for quite a while after the original episode aired in 2008.
When Ramsay returned to the restaurant in a “Revisited” episode in 2009, things at Handlebar were still going relatively well.
It seemed like Billy had learned to be a little less stubborn about the way his business should be run, and Melissa decided to stick around in the kitchen.
Even though things seemed to be going well at Handlebar, the restaurant closed down just a short while after Ramsay’s return in 2009.
Initially, a different restaurant, called “Skybox Restaurant and Sports Bar” opened in its place, but this restaurant was eventually sold again, and a new restaurant called “Benchwarmers Tavern and Grill” replaced it.
