“I mean really, how f—ing arrogant.” – Dan Laney
The Monticello Hotel is located in Longview, Washington, located on the border with Oregon, north or Portland.
The Monticello dates back to 1923, Gordon Ramsay tells us. “But unlike cheese and good wine, some things do not get better with age,” he adds.
The story of how Phillip Lovingfoss – a name that sounds like it’s out of a novel – came to own the Monticello Hotel is pretty wild. Apparently, he was a bartender who fell in love with the at the time owner, Annabelle Juell.
Keep in mind that Phillip was in his 30s at the time they got married, while Annabelle was in her mid-60s, as Lovingfoss himself tells us. When Annabelle eventually passed away, everything – including the Monticello Hotel – got inherited by the loving Mr. Lovingfoss.
Interestingly, Phillip has proved out his taste in older women as these days he’s dating Ginger, also 30 years his senior and who also happens to serve as the hotel’s general manager.
Lovingfoss also loves on his fancy vehicles, as we learn that he “flaunts” his shiny Bentley outside the hotel while the rest of the staff is struggling to make ends meet. He’s also got blinged out diamond rings on each hand.
“I mean really, how f—ing arrogant,” is how Dan Laney, the head chef, puts it.
In recent years, the hotel has been neglected in a weirdly unique way. We learn that there are only four suites in the massive-looking structure, while many guest rooms are “filled with Phillip and Ginger’s crap.”
Meanwhile, Ramsay tells us that “most guests are unwittingly given room in the so-called north wing,” which is like a crappy adjunct building to the much larger historic hotel.
Or, as Gordon puts it: “A characterless 1960s shoe box motel next door.”
And then that’s all before staffer April says, “It is no big secret that Phillip drinks.”
“Phillip will come in here drunk in front of the staff, and it’s just an embarrassing mess.” Dan adds.
On a somber note, Ginger tells the camera that she’s frightened that Phillip could die if he doesn’t get his drinking under control. And then meanwhile, Phillip talks openly about how he was charged with a DUI, seemingly during the filming of this episode of Hotel Hell.
When Gordon Ramsay shows up, he admires what he “assumes” is a classic car show taking place due to the fancy old cars parked in the Monticello’s parking lot. However, he soon learns that “they all belong to Phillip.”
Conveniently for show purposes, Ramsay’s room is in the “north wing” “dump” of a motel and not one of the four remaining suites in the Monticello Hotel proper. Once in his room, Ramsay focuses on the lumpy mattress, which apparently was sourced from Phillip and Ginger’s own home.
We also learn that the nightly fee is $250.
Next up: a tour of the “dumping ground” rooms that are filled wall-to-wall with furniture and “crap,” and Ramsay isn’t wrong is that it’s not that far off from an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive.
When Ramsay meets Phillip and Ginger, the first thing that Gordon does is check out Phillip’s “bling” on his hand, and cracks that one piece of jewelry “looks like a Super Bowl ring.”
I always enjoy when we learn about specifics on this kind of show, so it’s cool that we get a read on that while The Monticello Hotel is currently worth in the neighborhood of $3-$5 million, it’s currently losing money at the rate of something like $400,000 a year.
“That’s insane,” Ramsay says of this.
It’s also interesting and a bit funny that Phillip and Ginger place the blame for the hotel’s fortune on its staff (who they in theory manage) for shirking their responsibilities and “bleeding the clock” during work hours.
Over at the hotel restaurant, Ramsay starts out with crab with artichoke dip, and something called Phillip’s Triple Tower (which is displayed very prominently on the menu).
“F—king snot drip,” Ramsay says of the artichoke dip.
And we soon learn that none of the food Gordon samples is fresh – it’s all cheap and frozen, the meat tough and chewy.
“It’s more like eating at a badly run old folk’s home than a decent restaurant,” Ramsay concludes.
When Ramsay asks Debbie the server about Phillip, she replies that while when “he’s sober he’s fine… When he’s drinking, I avoid him at all cost.”
Also, Debbie rates his amount of “drinking on site” at a staggering ten out of ten. She then shows him the local newspaper, which features a front-page story about Phillip’s recent DUI.
When Ramsay assembles the owner and kitchen staff, Chef Dan explains that there’s no time to use fresh ingredients due to the limited hours the team is being paid for currently.
“I played the safe card and bought most of it prepared,” Phillip attempts to explain.
Ramsay pulls Phillip aside and there’s a brutal moment where Gordon asks Phillip if he’s had a drink today, and when the Monticello Hotel owner denies it, Ramsay presses forward with, “Yes you have.”
When the British chef pieces together the bait-and-switch with the hotel rooms, the dumpy conditions in the “north wing,” the awful restaurant food, and the in denial alcoholic owner, this is truly Hotel Hell.
Back at the restaurant, Ramsay observes that all of the diners are super old. “There hasn’t been a lot of buzz about this place in decades.”
During dinner service, Grant the bartender tells Ramsay that he’ll typically make “seven or eight” drinks for Phillip during the day.
With the full staff and owners and assembles, it becomes almost like an intervention about Phillip’s drinking, his absentee management style, and most awfully his volatile behavior when he’s drunk.
We even learn that Phillip will “go behind the bar to make his own drinks” after the staff “cuts him off.”
The conversation is so dark that I found myself imagining this footage being brought into court to defend the hotel’s employees in the event that Phillip could eventually injure people (or worse) with another drunk driving escapade.
Which means its time for a gimmick! Ramsay takes the staff to a hotel room and hands everyone special glasses that show off “bodily fluids” all over the mattresses under a special blue light that’s right out of an episode of CSI. To be fair, the cigarette burns are visible to the naked eye.
This quickly leads to something of an intervention, Part II, where Ramsay reveals to the staff that Phillip told him that they are the problem, when meanwhile Dan and the rest vocally recount how they typically work unpaid hours in an attempt to maintain a minimal level of service for the hotel’s guests.
When Ramsay once again pulls Phillip aside again, he’s so baffled at Phillip’s placid, unforthcoming answers to his questions that he abruptly waves him off with, “Get out of here.”
The next day, it’s time for yet more evidence of how awful the experience is at the hotel when an assembled group of guests tell the owners how awful The Monticello Hotel is in every way. Zero of the eight people say they would stay at the hotel ever again.
An emotional Ginger then tells Ramsay in a private conversation that “the alcoholism is deep… He’s very ill, it’s a terrible disease.”
Intervention Part III is a real intervention, where Ramsay and the staff gather to attempt to convince Phillip to get treatment for his addiction.
It’s honestly kind of heartbreaking to listen to staff members say that he’s a great guy and solid manager while sober but “you can see the black cloud” descend when he starts drinking.
Phillip finally starts to show some emotion at hearing all of this but then storms out of the room. Later, Phillip tells Ramsay in his office that “I’m definitely going” to treatment after Gordon pleads with him.
“It’s time,” he adds.
Overnight, the reno team does its thing, with the most important thing being that four new suites have been cleaned up enough to accept guests at the historic hotel proper. We see an example of one, and it does look truly lovely. I live in Seattle, Washington and would consider staying in accommodations like that for a fun weekend getaway.
Just as important: the furniture has been upgraded and the rancid mattresses removed.
We also see samples from the new room service menu, an offering that didn’t exist before Ramsay’s arrival. And then the menu at the hotel’s restaurant has also been overhauled, made of course with fresh ingredients. Chef Dan (who has eight kids, we learn earlier in the episode!) seems pretty amped about it.
And it’s also alluded to that Phillip is going to start paying the staff “fairly,” but we don’t get a lot of background about what that means.
Dan then pulls Ramsay aside, tells him that he’s been sober for nine years, and that he would love to be Phillip’s sponsor after he completes rehab treatment. Soon after, we see Dan make the offer to Phillip directly, the latter of whom accepts.
While we do see Phillip get emotional briefly when he finally consents to get help, his weirdly placid, plastic smile soon returns, which makes me suspicious that he’s going to take getting sober as seriously as he must.
🔪 Want more Ramsay rampages? Check out our full Kitchen Nightmares episode guide — every filthy kitchen, every redemption (or disaster), all tracked.
Hotel Hell, “Monticello Hotel”: is it still open?
In a word, no, and in fact the Monticello Hotel only remained open for around two years after the Hotel Hell episode aired in 2014. Via Wikipedia:
The hotel closed in 2016 due to the owners’ debts and underwent a multi-million dollar renovation to restore it to its original glory. The Monticello Hotel opened its restored Crystal Ballroom and new Speakeasy on August 25, 2017 to a packed crowd of over 500.
I wasn’t able to figure out what Phillip Lovingfoss is up to these days… but it doesn’t seem great:
The Daily News of Longview reports that a jury convicted 51-year-old Phil Lovingfoss earlier this month for threatening District Court Judge Ed Putka a year ago. The judge heard his March 2015 DUI and hit-and-run case.
Some stats and info about Hotel Hell, “Monticello Hotel”
TV SHOW – Hotel Hell
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 2
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon Ramsay checks in to The Monticello Hotel in Longview, Washington, owned by Phillip Lovingfoss: a wealthy individual with a fleet of classic cars and a drinking problem so serious that it is threatening to destroy his hotel and his life.
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay