“I’m not blowing smoke up my own ass, but the food is good.” – Frank
Davide is one of over 150 Italian restaurants located in Boston’s Little Italy. This is perfect for me as I always love any episode of Kitchen Nightmares that has an old school east coast vibe.
Frank and his brother Anthony purchased Davide back in the day, when apparently business was booming.
Kim, Frank’s wife and a server at Davide, tells us in an epic Boston accent that the restaurant staht-ed off really great, but a couple of years in, “Frank found out that Anthony was embezzling money.”
Whoah!
Anthony then explains that when he needed money, he would go into the cash register and get what he needed “for painkillers or whatever.”
It’s right here that this episode of Kitchen Nightmares started to become one of my most favorite episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.
Frank then goes further, telling us that Anthony was addicted to painkillers and heroin and has been in and out of both detox and jail.
These days, Frank feels “broken” both mentally and physically, and the restaurant is seemingly suffering for it.
However, Anthony surprisingly is back working at the restaurant, says he’s in recovery, and is trying to make things work with his family and with Davide. He also thinks that Frank needs to take on “some of the responsibility” for why the restaurant is in such bad shape.
We also see footage of the brothers screaming at each other, with invitations for one or the other to kill themselves, f— themselves, and so on.
Kim goes on to explain that “Davide” is more than $1 million in debt.
Usually, Gordon Ramsay shows up and immediately has a meal so he can give his initial assessment – which is invariably a scathing one. But in this case, he sits the entire staff down and asks them why business has been slow. Frank relays that things have been going downhill for “at least a good three years.”
Anthony takes accountability for his role – “I did damage to the business” – which included him serving some kind of jail time for stealing money from the restaurant and/or his drug addiction. However, he then segues into his gripes with his brother, Frank: “He can’t let go of the past. If you can’t put the past behind you, we can’t go on.”
“You destroyed the business,” Frank counters. And then, when speaking to the cameras: “I’d like to f—ing beat him up.”
This might be a life lesson here in terms of being careful of who you get into business with, and perhaps especially your family.
Gordon then finally sits down to sample the menu, ordering the fresh made pasta, eggplant, and other Italian dishes.
Back in the kitchen, Frank amps himself up, saying, “I’m not blowing smoke up my own ass, but the food is good.”
While Gordon is waiting for his food, Anthony tells him that he was in jail for almost four years, and that he’s been off the drugs for about two years’ time.
“Brilliant,” Ramsay tells him. “Yeah, it’s nice,” Anthony retorts.
Meanwhile, Gordon’s take on the eggplant dish: “spongy and horrible.” When he finds out that it was frozen “three weeks ago” ahead of being cooked. he predictably shakes his head in horror. Meanwhile the store-bought lobster ravioli is “nasty,” and the rack of lamb is “burnt.”
Ramsay then heads into the kitchen, and all that head chef Frank wants to know is how the sauce tastes. “Who gives a s— about the sauce?” Gordon fires back.
After Gordon storms off to get some air, we can hear Frank muttering, “At least like something.”
At dinner service that night, the Narrator Guy tells us that “a depressed Frank tries to get motivated.” Chaos soon ensues in the kitchen, with brothers Frank and Anthony screaming and cursing at each other. This does seem like an edition of Kitchen Nightmares where the editing team doesn’t have to do much to drum up the drama levels.
Meanwhile, Frank simply offers shrugs and weird semi-comic screams when dishes get returned to the kitchen for being generally terrible.
Eventually, Frank completely melts down and announces that he’s “done.” He then tells the camera that he’s lost his passion for cooking and the restaurant business. Meanwhile, the remaining Davide employees struggle to complete the dinner service.
Afterward, Ramsay tells the staff that Frank is the problem, and a “ticking time bomb” for the business. Kim breaks down in tears, and it’s a rather sad and emotional moment. Gordon then encourages the team to rally behind Frank in an effort to lift him up and reinvigorate his spirit.
The next morning, Gordon sits down with Frank, Kim, and Alexander. The latter wrote a little speech and reads it aloud, as though they’re at an inspiration. It’s actually rather touching though, as Alexander talks about the damage he knows he’s caused, but now wants to band together to “really make this place work…” “if we put the effort into it.”
Frank reveals that this is the first time he’s heard remorse from his brother, and he takes that to heart.
Kim then presents her husband with his chef’s jacket, which she says he hasn’t worn in four years. “You have to look within you and break down this wall you’ve built,” she says, and wants him to wear the jacket again.
It’s here where I realized that this is one of the more psychologically interesting editions of Kitchen Nightmares, as the main problem with the business is the mindset and passion of one key staffer versus the other typically operational problems.
Ramsay then moves to the next phase of his patented Tough Love methodology, and has Frank prepare him a creative dish that’s meaningful to him. Frank whips up some kind of chicken dish that includes ingredients such as pears and shallots (which sounds pretty amazing, to be honest), and Ramsay surprises Frank by declaring it delicious.
Meanwhile, the Kitchen Nightmares crew does its thing and renovates the place, and it’s one of those situations where the new joint looks very similar to the old one. Of course, everyone melts down about how incredible the “new and modern” Davide looks.
“I can feel it, the hope is coming back,” Frank says, and soon after acquiesces to Kim’s plea to put his chef’s uniform back on. “And now you look like the chef you are,” she says.
“Gone are the dreadful plates of the ‘80s,” Gordon says of the redesigned menu. Homemade gnocchi with butter and truffle oil, and burrata are staples of the new offerings.
For relaunch night, food critics from Boston Magazine show up to check out the new menu. Things start out well, but “the tension builds between the brothers” in the kitchen, as the Narrator Guy tells us. And then things fly off the rails when raw pork is served to the critics.
“This is a f—ing disaster,” Frank says.
The crisis is averted as the kitchen rallied and Frank and Alexander somewhat seemed to get along. “I saw a family come together and pull off a strong service,” Ramsay tells the staff later that night.
The Narrator Guy then tells us in the following weeks, Alexander has made a “comeback” and Frank’s rediscovered passion for cooking has “flourished.”
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Davide”: is it still open?
Davide closed several years after it was featured on Kitchen Nightmares, in 2014!
Unfortunately, I was unable to dig up much more information on what happened than that.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Davide”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 6
AIRED ON – February 25th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay
This review originally appeared on TV Gee Army.