“I feel like I’m in the witness protection program.” – Gordon Ramsay
“The Hotel Chester is located in Starkville, Mississippi,” Gordon Ramsay tells us, which is where Mississippi State is located.
And speaking of stark, such is the state of the Hotel Chester.
We learn that married couple David and Suki Mollendor bought the place after David spent four decades in the hotel industry as a “trouble shooter.”
That sets this episode of Hotel Hell apart from many others, in that the hotel was successfully run for a long time by a skilled owner. However, a near fatal car accident almost crushed David’s feet and caused him to be bedridden for half a year.
This turn of events led to “a drop of standards” at the Hotel Chester, a steep decline in business, and eventually led to David Mollender filing for bankruptcy. Things are now in the dire state that David and Suki are living in one of the hotel’s guest rooms, and Suki left her job in real estate to become the Hotel Chester’s chef and “temporary manager.”
The Kitchen Nightmares host notes that Suki has never worked in a restaurant before but has attempted to leverage her knowledge of sushi making to run the hotel’s restaurant.
Daughter Megan, who is a server at the restaurant, talks about how both of her parents are exhausted and at their wits’ end. This points again to an unusual situation where Ramsay’s help is needed, but not for the typical mistakes, laziness, and incompetence that is rampant in the hotels and restaurants he takes on to help fix.
When Ramsay meets David at the front desk, the culture clash between the often curt Ramsay and the loquacious Southerner is striking. It seems as though Ramsay is tempted to be put off by David’s slow, friendly style, but in the end he does seem mostly charmed by it.
While David tells Ramsay that he believes the quality of the hotel and its services are top notch, Gordon’s first take on an “executive” guest room is that it’s bland, dated, scuffed up, and “I feel like I’m in the witness protection program.”
Suki tells the camera that she’s aware the rooms are dated, but that they “try to call the furniture ‘period furniture.’”
Next, Ramsay heads to the hotel restaurant, which is completely empty. Therefore, it’s egregious if we’re to believe that it took over an hour for Suki to prepare the reasonable number of sushi dishes that Ramsay orders up to sample.
Ramsay’s first take on his “Las Vegas” sushi when it finally arrives: “Wow, that’s disgusting.” He also talks about how strange it is to eat sushi that combines fried salmon and cream cheese, but I think that’s relatively normal these days (though don’t quote me on that). And then meanwhile the Sakura is even worse: chewy and inedible.
There’s also a sushi dish called Strawberry Field that has strawberry slices draped on top of cut sushi.
Chef Ramsay’s assessment: “I’d rather eat a f—ing Beatle.”
Lindsey the server then tells Ramsay that on a “busy” night, only 12 guests eat at the restaurant. I found myself wondering why Lindsey would stick around for what must be almost nothing in terms of making money from tips. And then Lindsey also corroborates that the diners who do show up typically must wait beyond forever to get served.
When Ramsay meets with David and Suki, we learn that the Hotel Chester is close to $900,000 underwater. My own editorial thought bubble here – and keep in mind I’ve lived o the coasts my whole life – is “and that’s in Mississippi.”
What’s truly bonkers crazy here is when Suki then says, “We’re in debt?”
I felt sure that it only sounded like she uttered that sentence as a question, but it turns out, nope, she literally had no idea that the business she runs with her husband is nearly $1 million in debt.
“Please don’t say that you don’t know,” Ramsay almost begs.
I’m tempted to believe that this is just another contrived reality TV show set-up, but I must admit that it kind of feels real. Suki looks genuinely hurt, and I feel for her.
Meanwhile, we also see footage of hotel guests complaining about the cleanliness of the rooms, and Ramsay concludes that David is simply checked out (pun not intended) at the Hotel Chester at this point.
Which means it’s time for a gimmick! Ramsay stops by the local Piggly Wiggly for some burger patties and other barbeque-style ingredients and then grills up some food himself to help rescue customers from going hungry over at the restaurant.
Ramsay then visits David and Suki’s hotel room that the Hotel Chester owners are living out of, and it’s here that Suki breaks down in tears. David opens up about how rough the last five years have been spent recovering from his horrific car accident, and how they lost their home in the process.
What really makes their circumstances hit home is when Suki explains that sometimes “seven days go by” without her leaving the hotel premises because she’s working so much.
It’s here that we cut to seeing Gordon Ramsay’s completely bare bottom as he goes into his hotel bathroom. I’m not joking here: it’s a fully nude Ramsay shot from the backside. I have no explanation why this was shown (I mean, it leads up to showcasing how small the bathtub is in the hotel room, but whatever) and can only guess/hope that they blurred this bit out when it aired on FOX (my viewing experience is through the wunderkind TubiTV streaming service).
Ramsay then meets with the Mollender’s again, where he emphasizes that it’s time for them to reconnect with what the local college community of Mississippi State is looking for. They eat lunch at a bustling nearby restaurant, where they learn that a whopping 1,000 people dine there daily.
“You know, this place is 200 meters away,” Ramsay says of another busy spot. “You have a gold mine standing there,” he adds.
“David, you need to get your head back in the game,” Gordon tells them on the way back to the Hotel Chester.
The renovation day reveal includes classy-looking new letters on the exterior that display HOTEL CHESTER. The hotel rooms are also vastly transformed and look much more vibrant, inviting, and modern now.
“If Gordon would let me, I’d kiss him,” David says.
“I’m in a dream, wonderful,” Suki adds.
There’s also a brand-new beer garden that’s set up to serve local beers installed into what was once an abandoned backyard on the premises. And it’s there where Ramsay unveils the new restaurant menu, which is a classic Gordon Ramsay spin on southern cuisine, with fresh locally sourced ingredients.
And Ramsay has also brought in a new head chef named Enrica to run the restaurant, which Gordon will support until David and Suki can afford to pay her.
The hotel guests and restaurant/beer garden patrons seem thrilled on relaunch night, while Enrica pumps dishes out of the kitchen so that diners are not left hungry and miserable.
Beyond David keeping his wife in the dark about their financial situation, this is an episode where you truly feel for the owners and want to see them do well, so it’s great to see things end on such an upbeat note.
And as a cherry on top, Ramsay has rented the Mollendor’s a spacious apartment for six months.
David does end up sneaking in a kiss on Gordon’s cheek.
Hotel Hell, “Hotel Chester”: is it still open?
Unlike so many Hotel Hell and Kitchen Nightmares establishments, I’m thrilled to report that the Hotel Chester is still open as of this writing!
In fact it’s the #5 of 14 hotels according to Trip Advisor, and the Hotel Chester does appear to still be under the ownership of both David Mollendor and Suki Mollendor.
Some stats and info about Hotel Hell, “Hotel Chester”
TV SHOW – Hotel Hell
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 3
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon visits Starkville, Mississippi to try to rescue the failing Hotel Chester. Despite having over 40 years experience in the hotel business, owner David Mollendor is at a loss on how to make his dream of owning his own hotel work.
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay