“Mitch, do something!” – Gordon Ramsay
We’re introduced to the town of Carlstadt, New Jersey, which is called “buried in the shadow of Meadowland Stadium.
So, first of all, I’m a New York native and a lifelong Giants fan, so I need to hold up things right here. This home of the New York football Giants was always referred to as The Meadowlands and never as Meadowland Stadium. That’s a Voiceover Guy Nightmare situation right there, is what I’m saying (to pull a term from Jersey Shore legend Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.
Anyway, we’re here to talk about the oddly named Grasshopper Also, an Irish pub and family restaurant.
Married couple Mitch and Maureen Sandler* purchased the place 17 years earlier with Maureen’s father, Chief, who had decades of restaurant biz experience.
* No relation to the Sand Man himself, Adam Sandler, as far as I can tell.
These days, the place is failing and no one seems to know exactly why. Chief thinks that Mitch’s “supervision is not what it should be,” and that “quality control” is a problem.
Annette, a floor manager, says that while Mitch works constantly, his time spent is “not productive.” It seems he gets easily distracted and overall doesn’t really seem to know what he’s doing.
Maureen says that it feels like her life is falling apart.
When Gordon Ramsay shows up at Grasshopper Also, the first shocking moment is when Chief tells him that he sunk $3 million into the restaurant, and that was just “to get it going.”
“That’s crazy,” Ramsay replies.
Chief also immediately throws Mitch under the bus and says that he regrets granting his son-in-law a partial ownership in the business.
As for Mitch, his take on whether he’s the “problem” couldn’t be weirder. “Could be right, could be wrong. Who’s running it? I guess I am, right?”
This guy could write a book on the philosophy of failed restaurateurs, perhaps.
Annette tells Ramsay that the management is the reason for why things have gone so wrong, and further rates the food at Grasshopper Also a paltry three out of ten.
For Ramsay’s very first dish that he’ll sample, an appetizer of French Onion soup, Chief declares in the kitchen that “it tastes like tar” while Mitch counters, “I think it’s pretty good.”
“Dreadful color” is Ramsay’s first comment as soon as the soup is served. Then, after tasting: “It’s like someone pissed in my soup.”
Back in the kitchen, Chief indulges in a round of “I told you so.”
Next, the Sheppard’s Pie has a weird river of gravy poured on top of it. “Cold, congealed, gravy. It’s like glue,” Ramsay concludes. This is followed by Gordon spitting out the Fisherman’s Platter. So, he didn’t like it in conclusion.
Ramsay meets with the kitchen staff and tells them that they should be embarrassed. “If you served that Sheppard’s Pie in Dublin, they would shoot you,” he adds.
Gordon then inspects the food storage situation in the kitchen, and that rarely goes well… and indeed it didn’t go well with Grasshopper Also. Choice quote: “Blood from the meat on the mozzarella sticks?”
It’s bits like this that work really well on Kitchen Nightmares as it’s genuinely revolting to see the wretched state in the back of the house of some of these restaurants, and Gordon Ramsay’s disgust is genuine and something that can’t be faked (or at least not very easily).
Another choice quote: “Look how slimy it is… look how slim it is.”
Maureen at least has the integrity to be embarrassed about it. “We should all be ashamed of ourselves,” she says. She throws down a very easy coast phrase, which I appreciate as a native New York: frig it all, she says, with reference to perhaps needing to simply shut down Grasshopper Also.
Another choice quote: “The whole thing has got cross-contamination.”
Get the picture?
There are many Kitchen Nightmares episodes where dinner service gets started but then Ramsay shuts things down and sends all the diners home for one reason or another, but in this case, the night’s service is canceled from the jump.
The staff spends the night throwing out all of the contaminated food and cleaning, and then Ramsay head’s over to Mitch and Maureen’s abode the next day. Gordon meets alone with Maureen and goes into Dr. Ramsay mode, assessing that Mitch is a “broken man,” but that the “turnaround will start today.”
The key, he predicts, is instilling more confidence into Maureen’s husband. Maureen also feels that Mitch needs to learn to be a better communicator.
Back at Grasshopper Also, Ramsay assesses that the restaurant is in an improved state and ready to open that night for dinner. Ramsay pulls Mitch aside and tells him to take control and “find that voice” that let’s others know (presumably) to “back off.”
Then Ramsay gives the staff a cooking lesson, which presumably will be one of the biggest aids in turning the restaurant around.
During dinner service, Ramsay halts things to explain to Mitch the meaning of “quality control.” Mitch nods dutifully, and then proceeds to order the staff to get the food “the f— out of here!”
And yet meanwhile, we get “it’s f—ing raw” hamburgers being served, which is obviously a big no no for Chef Ramsay.
Ramsay finally melts down and screams at the entire staff, “If you were my brigade, I would have f—ing fired you 16 years ago!” The interesting bit here is that Gordon typically reserves his ire for one or two people on a restaurant’s staff, but in this case he went nuclear on the entire gang.
After the service, Ramsay goes “drastic” and brings in a local chef called James to help instill new standards for the relaunch of Grasshopper Also. Bonus: James is Irish.
For relaunch, Ramsay unveils a new point of sale system to help streamline operations, and then he inexplicably hugs Chief and says, “Come here, you’re an amazing guy.”
The revised Irish food menu has “spirit and life to it,” so says Mitch, and via the Ramsay model features simplified and fresh dishes.
During relaunch night’s dinner service, James has things handled in the kitchen, but Mitch’s expediting is still subpar. “If this guy was an air traffic controller, planes would be landing at the wrong airport,” Ramsay quips. And meanwhile Amazing Guy Chief barks, “Shut up! Shut up!” at his daughter Maureen for some reason.
Finally, James simply takes over everything and things run more smoothly. So essentially Ramsay has handled this Nightmare by doing everything himself and with the outside chef he brought in.
That night, Ramsay tells Mitch, Maureen, and Chief that “changes” need to be made, and to rely on James to help them. We’re not told how long James will be around, which is a bit of an obvious sign.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Grasshopper Also”: is it still open?
In short, a resounding no:
Grasshopper Also closed and was sold in October 2012 and reopened with new management, new staff and a new makeover.
It became a sports bar called the Eastside Ale House.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Grasshopper Also”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 5
AIRED ON – February 18th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay
This review originally appeared on TV Gee Army.