“It’s sort of lukewarm, solidified chunks of crap.” – Gordon Ramsay
“If you’re looking for a peaceful evening, this is the one episode of Kitchen Nightmares you might want to avoid,” Narrator Guy tells us during the intro.
No way, Narrator Guy, bring it on, says I!
In this edition, we head to Providence, Rhode Island where Abby and her friend Rico bought a restaurant called DownCity, which apparently has a great location.
Rico has a “day job” and Abby, an experienced restauranteur, runs the day-to-day operations. And by this we understand that Rico is the “checkbook” backing DownCity.
Abby says she doesn’t know why her business is going poorly, and it quickly becomes clear that she’s the problem. Josh the server calls her “Cruella de Vil,” of The One Hundred and One Dalmatians infamy. Mark the server goes further, calling her “a complete psycho f—ing b—.”
Rico tells the camera that he has to get Abby “on board, because my life is at stake here.”
Enter Gordon Ramsay, who meets Abby and quizzes her on the quality of the food at DownCity. Abby gives it a ten out of ten rating, which you know she’s about to shortly regret.
Ramsay and Abby then get into an argument immediately, after Ramsay mentions that he the room service at the boutique hotel he’s staying at – which DownCity provides the room service for – served “disgusting” and “stone cold” soup and crab cakes.
“Blah blah blah blah blah,” is Abby’s assessment, which means that my assessment is that this is gonna be one fun episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
“Cut the bulls—,” Gordon tells her. And then after she leaves his table, he sarcastically says, “Wow, welcome to Providence.”
He then quickly notices that “peppers” is misspelled on the menu, and Josh the server says that he’s worked for DownCity for three years and never noticed.
When the calamari is served, Gordon inquires why it’s “soaking wet,” and learns that it’s “tossed in a sauce” after it’s been fried. And indeed, it looks kind of gross visually.
“What’s he bitching about?” Abby asks from the kitchen.
Then, Ramsay’s assessment of the nachos: “It wasn’t a party in my mouth; it was a funeral in my mouth.”
“It kind of does look like something died,” Josh replies.
And finally, on the “award winning” meatloaf: “It’s sort of lukewarm, solidified chunks of crap.”
“That’s pretty much the norm,” Josh replies. He also admits that it’s embarrassing to serve food such as this at DownCity.
Ramsay then gathers the entire staff and tells them that his food experience was “shocking,” and we’re not meant to infer that that’s in a good way. Gordon also uncovers that there’s no head chef at the moment, as the last one was fired recently.
“If this is American comfort food, somebody’s dreaming here,” he continues.
Then Ramsay and Abby get into a screaming match involving “what’s wrong with the meatloaf.” Abby insists that it’s “not that bad,” while Gordon demands that she admit “it’s s—” so that they can move on to overhauling the menu… and everything else presumably.
When Ramsay storms off to get some air, Abby continues to stew, mumbling to herself about “I don’t care what he says” and “he’s wrong” and things to that effect. The staff confronts Abby at this point – prompted by the show producers, no doubt – to let her in on the not-so-secret notion that indeed the meatloaf and the entire menu is awful.
Ramsay sits down with Rico, who relays that things have worked out “horribly” with financing DownCity, and that he’s in debt of over $1 million and counting.
During dinner service, Ramsay immediately notices how messy the kitchen is. “That is foul,” he notes, and that’s before he heads downstairs to see what’s doing with food storage. In short: it’s predictably horrid.
I’ve noticed a pattern on Kitchen Nightmares where owners who are not directly involved in the kitchen often have food storage/spoilage situations that are completely a mess. And DownCity certainly fits the bill.
Meanwhile, Abby decides to call Gordon a “f—ing a-hole,” and then Ramsay replies that Abby is a “f—ing stuck up little b—-.”
So it’s a colorful episode of Kitchen Nightmares is what I’m saying here.
Things get pretty wild on this show, but this episode truly goes off the rails, with Abby seemingly delusional about what’s happening, claiming that the kitchen “wasn’t like that before you got here.” Eventually she tells Ramsay to “get the f— out of here.”
“You are denial, you need therapy,” Ramsay says on the way out.
Rico heads outside to be the peacemaker. “Honestly, she’s got to start listening,” Ramsay tells him. Eventually, Rico gets Ramsay to stay by promising to “help.”
Later, the three huddle up back inside of DownCity, and there’s general agreement to get on the same page and start with a clean slate the next day.
You know, the Kitchen Nightmares way.
The next morning, Ramsay has the staff go through an exercise write down questions for others on the staff anonymously. The massive size of the menu and the poor quality of the food is surfaced straight off. And, lo and behold, all roads lead back to Abby.
Abby finally does admit that she’s become a “defensive b—-” since she took over running the place. She then claims to be open to change and relinquishing some level of control.
At dinner service that night, the menu size is trimmed down considerably, and without a relatively normal Abby at the helm, things start off well enough. Things then fly off the rails when some kind of colossal hold up happens in the kitchen.
Side note that as the delay goes on, one diner complains that it’s “already 25 of” and they haven’t gotten their order yet, and I’m tempted to say that it’s more of an east coast thing (where I’m from) to say a number and then “of” without saying which hour, having the hour implied.
Meanwhile, eventually everyone gets fed and Abby somewhat keeps it together… until everyone leaves, when she flips out on the staff, saying no one knows what they’re doing, etc. (except with more cuss words).
Ramsay then steps in, who announces he’s calling in a “very experienced chef” to step in and help out with the new menu for the forthcoming “comeback day” and DownCity relaunch.
Interesting, this is a rare episode of DownCity where they don’t do a full renovation of the restaurant before relaunch. Instead, Ramsay and the guest chef unveil the new menu, which honestly doesn’t look nearly as good as most other Kitchen Nightmares episodes at this stage. Of course, Abby and staff flip out over the “creative comfort food,” hug each other and cry, and so forth.
Before relaunch night, it’s a little strange watching Abby attempting to rally the staff, telling them they “they’re going to rock this town tonight.” The Stray Cats were unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
Anyway, dinner service starts off well (again), but then once again there’s some kind of colossal communication breakdown, as the Narrator Guy tells us. Led Zeppelin was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
Meanwhile, panic ensues when it’s observed that an “influential” local food critic out in the dining room is blogging live from her table.
We’ve got live food blogging going on, people!
Eventually, it’s crisis averted as food fires out of the kitchen that “looks amazing” and even the food blogger/critic seems pleased.
Abby says in the midst of this, “This is my absolute dream come true… it’s a new DownCity, I’m absolutely loving it.” And later she even laments how unprofessional she’s been – quick a turnaround.
After dinner service, Ramsay presides over a happy staff and encourages them to keep things going in a positive direction.
And Ramsay and Abby, once at each other’s throats, share a hug in the end.
In the final segment, it’s revealed that James is eventually promoted to head chef after having served under the tutelage of the guest chef that Gordon Ramsay brought in.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “DownCity”: is it still open?
DownCity closed in 2014, citing an “economic downturn.”
Mashed.com also notes:
Yelp reviews of Down City were mixed to negative. After discovering its closure, a few reviewers opted to lambast the restaurant’s memory, with one writing, “Everything about this place was great AFTER Ramsay, and little by little, it degraded back into the dictatorship [it] always had been before.” Another wrote, “Easily the worst food I’ve had in Providence, which is embarrassing in a city filled top to bottom with stellar food services and a college dedicated to hospitality and culinary arts. Thank you for closing your doors.”
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “DownCity”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 7
AIRED ON – January 29th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay