“I’ve discovered the kitchen, and it’s pretty gross.” – Gordon Ramsay
The 24 Hours to Hell and Back crew heads to New Orleans in this edition, which Gordon Ramsay rightly points out is known for many things, including jazz and its Cajun cuisine.
I’ve been to New Orleans several times (and once for Mardi Gras), and its food is absolutely outstanding. It’s also one of the most unique cities in the U.S., especially with many parts of the country starting to blend together into a roughly seamless same these days.
We learn that The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant is in the middle of New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter and is over a century old. Business is dead these days, and thus in need of a little Gordon Ramsay-led razzle dazzle to get things going in the right direction.
Dustin Palmisano, 32, bought the restaurant after serving as its head chef for several years. As we see time and time again with Ramsay-fronted shows like Kitchen Nightmares and Hotel Hell, business was great… at first.
Dawn, 43, a manager/cook, notes that two years back Dustin “really started having family problems,” which led to the Old Coffee Pot’s owner getting a divorce. Not only that, but Dustin’s ex abandoned her kids, leaving him to become a single dad on top of running a restaurant on his own. Over time, the business suffered.
Meanwhile, the staff finds Dawn to be terrible. “If I had a dollar for every time I saw Dawn go home, I’d be a billionaire,” one staffer notes.
Dustin says that the restaurant is losing $10,000 a month and “won’t be around much longer” unless there’s a drastic change.
Part of the gimmick with 24 Hours to Hell and Back is that the restaurant is told it’ll be part of a “typical renovation show,” which allows the crew to install hidden cameras in the restaurant to catch its staff in the act(s) of being terrible, essentially.
Additionally, it’s an excuse for Ramsay to go deep “undercover” upon his initial inspection of the place. In this case, he decks himself out in a New Orleans jazz guy outfit, replete with crazy fake goatee and hipster hat. He also rolls in with a group of fellow musicians to ensure that he won’t be noticed at first.
It’s fun watching Ramsay attempting to hide his British accent while ordering. Immediately, we’re able to see that frozen food is being used as part of their order, in addition to “contaminated chicken,” which is always a sign to avoid restaurants that don’t “feel” right like the plague.
Ramsay’s first observation of his po’ boy dish: “I’ve got rotten fries.”
Which I suppose would be another solid rule of thumb when checking out a new restaurant: if they screw up French fries, don’t walk, run out of the place.
Quickly, Gordon soon discovers out that the chicken smells “funny” and advises his entire table to stop eating. “I’ve discovered the kitchen, and it’s pretty gross,” he tells them.
As he changes out of his disguise in the bathroom, he whispers that “it’s like the restaurant has given up, and no one gives a f—.”
Finally, Ramsay reveals himself and shuts the Old Coffee Pot down in mid-service. “The food was that bad,” he tells the assembled staff.
“When a restaurant can’t even poach an egg, that’s a bad sign,” he adds.
He then takes the team – and the diners who were ordered to stop eating, mid-bites –outside to unveil the oddball and massive tractor-trailer meets mobile kitchen called Hell on Wheels. This includes Ramsay’s “top team,” who are going to help with the Old Coffee Pot’s rapid transformation.
A huge monitor then shows the staff hidden camera footage that includes kitchen staff cooking with contaminated foods, insects roaming the back of the house, and all kinds of other nausea-inducing (lack of) standards.
Such as one cook licking a plate… before it was sent out of the kitchen to real human diners.
And then there’s the massive rats.
I must admit that it’s pretty funny when we hear Shirly, 64, a server, asserting about a rat, “Ooh, we invading his privacy back here!”
This scared straight move prompts Dustin to quickly and sheepishly admit that he’s “ashamed” about what’s going on in the restaurant he owns.
Ramsay then starts the weird 24-hour countdown clock which in theory leads to the “relaunch” of The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant.
At a follow-up staff meeting, Ramsay unearths that the team feels both untrained and inexperienced in their roles, which helps lead them to being sloppy, lazy, and ineffective. Further, Ramsay addresses the fact the place is absolutely filthy and learns that there’s a cleaning schedule but “it hasn’t been posted yet.”
Also humorous: Ramsay observing that at a restaurant called The Old Coffee Pot, the actual Coffee Pots that the restaurant uses are branded with a different company name.
Not as funny: Ramay pulls a tiny dead mouse out of a toaster with an ungloved hand.
When he yells “there’s a f—ing mouse in here!” it’s a reality TV moment that does not feel contrived or produced.
Next up, Team Ramsay kicks off the reno project, which includes décor, furniture, and appliances.
Meanwhile, the British chef continues to dig into the rancid mess in the kitchen, showing the staff the slimy chicken, freeze dried blocks of gunky jambalaya, and so on.
“Are we really in New Orleans, come on?” he laments.
Dustin is a soft-spoken man of few words, so Ramsay has to work overtime to get him to talk about the divorce that pulled away the owner’s attentions to his business. It turns out that the story is pretty brutal: his now ex-wife, 27 – with whom Dustin has three kids – was caught cheating with a 19-year-old neighbor.
Now Dustin has full time custody of his three children and admits that “I had just given up on this place.”
Team Ramsay meanwhile has produced samples for their menu overhaul, which features simple, fresh, and easy New Orleans dishes – basic the Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares 101 scenario.
“Get frickin’ busy,” Ramsay tells the staff with regard to learning about the new dishes to get ready for relaunch night.
Ramsay then drills down on a huge problem – Dawn the general manager, who we struggling to poach an egg in practicing preparation of hollandaise sauce. Gordon pulls Dustin aside and asks him why she’s employed at all, let alone as a general manager.
He flat out asks Dustin if there’s a “feel sorry factor” in keeping her on, and the Old Coffee Pot owner admits, “Well, probably partly that.”
“She’s bringing you down,” Ramsay tells him, urging Dustin that “you can’t take on extra baggage.”
I mentioned that Dustin is a man of few words, and true to form, he immediately tells Dawn that she’s fired, only giving her the reason that “it had to be done.” He opens up a hair further when she bursts into tears – and does end up showing her a degree of empathy – but is firm that “it’s just not gonna work.”
One of the ways that 24 Hours to Hell and Back offers an intriguing wrinkle on the Kitchen Nightmares model is that we get to see the renovation in progress throughout the episode. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this aspect. For example, at one point, the electricians accidentally kill the power at 3:15 a.m., but we only get to see a brief glimpse of what happened.
The next morning, Dustin reveals to the staff that Dawn has been let go, and the staff seems surprised but not shocked. Ramsay quickly transitions everyone into tasting the new menu, which is laid out on a long table, and then notes that relaunch night will feature branded “grab and go” bags, which will help advertise the restaurant among the throngs of people strolling about the French Quarter.
The renovation is finally revealed, and simply having the place cleaned up and sparkling makes a huge difference. The Coffee Pots have also been rebranded appropriately as belonging to The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant, and the interior has been freshened up and modernized noticeably.
For the relaunch meal service, things go well at first, with fried chicken, gumbo, po’ boy sandwiches, bananas foster flying out of the kitchen to happy customers, but soon enough shoddy meals end up being served, including raw chicken in one case.
“Don’t go quiet on me,” Ramsay urges Dustin, which may be the most subtle advice that Gordon has ever issued.
Eventually, things smooth out, and it’s nice to see Dustin’s three small children greet him in the dining room.
Dustin also tells the camera that he has “so much more confidence than I had 24 hours ago.”
Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant”: is it still open?
No! According to this website, The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant shut down in 2023 after 125 years of operation.
Some stats and info about Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant”
TV SHOW – Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 2
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon and his team make renovations and create a fresh new menu for a failing Cajun restaurant in New Orleans in an attempt to revive it.
GENRE – Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay