“Jack’s has had a reputation for bad food, and so in my opinion that’s what killed us.” – Tammer
St. Clair Shores, Michigan is a “summer resort community about 40 minutes from Detroit,” Narrator Guy tells us.
From the jump, a few funny things happen on this edition of Kitchen Nightmares. First, we see shots of this “summer resort community” that’s depressingly drab scenes of snow-covered fields. Then we learn that Jack’s Waterfront was “recently acquired by three bodybuilders: Bill, Scott, and Tammer.”
One can imagine the scene:
- Hey bro, can you spot me?
- No doubt, then you wanna buy that restaurant or whatever?
- Dude, it’s gonna be epic.
“We all workout together and hang out together,” Tammer explains.
It gets even funnier: Bill explains that Jack’s Waterfront is “known for great entertainment” as we see this massively jacked up middle aged guy in a bodybuilder-type t-shirt working a DJ mixing board.
Bill adds – and I must note with zero hint of irony – that in the summer, “it’s like Girls Gone Wild across the entire lake.” However, in the winter, “there isn’t much going on,” and one imagines that the bodybuilding bros of the area must seek out Girls Gone Wild-style recreation elsewhere.
“Jack’s has had a reputation for bad food, and so in my opinion that’s what killed us,” Tammer says.
Tammer by the way is a clean cut, strong-looking guy with the one standout quality that he has shortly sheared lambchop sideburns. I’m also strongly attempted to snark on his statement above, but I’ll let you do that on your own, my clever readers.
AJ, Tammer’s father, is an older man with a European accent who had run the kitchen and is, in Bill’s opinion, the reason why the place is “falling apart.” These days, AJ is sent out to the front of the house to “act as general manager” so they can avoid firing him, according to Bill.
AJ for his part seems perfectly content in his new role – he affably tells the camera that he “talks to the customers, flirts with the ladies, and asks about the food in between.”
Things get even more complex as Scott adds that AJ gets drunk on the job: “every night during business hours, he gets wasted.”
“Ouzo is my favorite drink, I like to drink ouzo,” AJ notes, before adding, “It’s a nice life, I like it.”
Meanwhile, Bill tells us that everyone is terrified of the hulking Scott, so much so that they “had to make a decision to remove him from the restaurant.” Currently, he’s a “silent partner.”
Now, Aaron is running the kitchen as Head Chef, who feels he has no power to change the menu.
With all of this mess going on, Jack’s Waterfront is over half a million dollars underwater and sinking fast. Which queues up Ramsay to literally slide up in a snowmobile to attempt to save the place.
When Ramsay meets Scott, he first asks him if he’s the bouncer and follows up with asking him if he’s “in training.”
When Bill sits down with Ramsay, he learns that Bill is working 65 hours a week while Scott is a “silent partner” due to “scaring the customers.” Gordon then gets a different answer from each owner (and AJ) when he asks them what’s wrong with the restaurant.
After Ramsay orders up dishes to sample, he observes that Scott is staring at him from across the restaurant “like some big musclehead meatball.”
Ramsay soon learns that the crabmeat omelet is spelled with a “k” on the menu (krabmeat) so that, via Aaron, customers will know that it’s artificial crabmeat. This of course disgusts Ramsay, especially because Jack’s Waterfront is literally sitting next to a body of water.
“The crab was shocking, embarrassing, and fake,” he tells an already tipsy AJ.
“General manager, my ass,” the British chef quips.
Meanwhile, the fish and chips are “rubbery” and, what’s worse, Ramsay relates the flavor to having “a breaded condom in your mouth” (no comment on how he might be familiar with such a sensation).
The salmon “is quite possibly one of the worst” he’s ever had – it’s dreadfully sweet, drowned in some kind of sauce.
Ramsay visits the kitchen, where Aaron enthusiastically agrees with his criticisms. No one can agree who actually “controls the menu.”
“AJ, it’s got to be your responsibility,” Ramsay says to the person with the title of “general manager” as the older man simply shakes his head.
At dinner service that night, it takes a very long time for dishes to get served to diners, and many of dishes are not prepared correctly when guests do finally get served. A bunch of people get comped, which sets Bill to fuming about the money flying out the window.
Meanwhile, we see AJ hiding out with diners, smoking cigarettes and drinking ouzo.
At a meeting with the owners with AJ that night, Ramsay cuts to the most pressing question: who has the “final say” at Jack’s Waterfront. The only thing the group can agree upon is that no one knows, and Bill throws AJ under the bus for being a general disappointment.
The next morning, Ramsay checks out the food storage area and finds a huge amount of waste and rotting food. “The general hygiene in this fridge is a f—ing joke,” he tells Aaron, AJ, and the owners later.
One funny thing (that sets Ramsay down the path to melting down) is a massive tray of rock-solid risotto that is completely glued to the pan.
As the staff goes about a forced full cleaning of the kitchen, a very telling thing happens that is a clear sign to never eat at a restaurant to be in any way “suspicious.” When Bill sees up close how dirty the conditions in the kitchen are, he casually talks about how he would laugh off when people would tell him they got sick from eating at Jack’s Waterfront, believing them to be “full of s—.”
But now he does believe those people in retrospect. Fantastic for those people and countless other diners, I’m sure.
At the next dinner service, Ramsay gets a read on how the “deadwood” kitchen staff working under Aaron, who has only been in place for several weeks, is another huge albatross on the future prospects of the restaurant.
One diner complains while waiting over an hour for his order, “You get better service at a shelter than you do here.”
The next day, the overnight renovation is revealed, and the interior of the restaurant looks transformed. There are fresh fish tanks set into the walls among the overall aquatic décor. Bill gushes over how “warm and inviting” it is now.
Ramsay also introduces a rather fun gimmick, which is leverage the nautical theme by serving small pieces of rope and instructions on how to tie various knots at each table to give diners a fun activity to mess around with while waiting for their meals.
Even with the positive aesthetics, dinner service starts off terribly, with AJ and crew fumbling around the kitchen yet again while hungry customers grumble out in the dining room.
At one point, Scott goes thermonuclear, screaming about how no one is communicating. This actually delights Aaron, who had been incredibly frustrated about how no one was responding at his attempts to show leadership.
Dinner service smooths out, and the other owners credit Scott stepping in for helping things to turn around. No word on the previous customers who find him “scary,” however.
That night, AJ is “convinced” to cut down on his hours and pay as a way to “help the business.” It’s basically a kind hearted way to nudge the old guy out.
In the episode ending epilogue, we learn that Aaron was able to take “full control” of the kitchen, and replaced a few of the worst employees in the process.
We also learn that AJ was eventually fired.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Jack’s Waterfront”: is it still open?
No! Jack’s Waterfront closed a few years after Gordon Ramsay and crew visited.
The history from there is a bit complex, but it seems as though the troika of Bill, Scott, and Tammer may have eventually repurchased the restaurant that had been rebranded by new owners, and then launched Brownies on the Lake in 2011.
Based on that restaurant’s Yelp review (which has a pretty awful 2.4 stars on 246 reviews), Brownies on the Lake might closed in 2021, which is a time period when many restaurants closed shop during the first year or two of covid.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Jack’s Waterfront”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Docuseries, Food Shows
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Ramsay arrives at Jack’s Waterfront and is appalled by the lack of fresh seafood and inattentive management. The general manager’s excessive socializing with patrons may sink the place.
CAST – Gordon Ramsay