“No one listens to me.” – Vic Flores
Fiesta Sunrise is located in West Nyack, New York, which continues a solid run of Kitchen Nightmares episodes that are located just north of New York City. Checking out the city on my trusty (Google) map, I see that it’s located across the Hudson River from Tarrytown, where one of my college roommates eventually settled down and became a decorated police officer.
Vic and Yolanda Flores had owned “another Mexican restaurant that failed,” according to Narrator Guy, so they then proceeded to get their daughter Patti “to use her credit and savings” to help purchase and run Fiesta Sunrise. We learn later that part of the reason for this is that Patti’s credit score was leveraged because it was “clean.”
Sounds like the makings of a kitchen nightmare right from Jump Street here, people.
So now while Patti is the “owner on paper,” Vic ostensibly runs operations at the restaurant – in a controlling and obstinate way, by all accounts.
Example: “It’s like Tijuana threw up in here,” Yolanda notes of the mandated décor. This point is emphasized by a shot of a massive “stuffed chili pepper” that’s wearing a sombrero and also (somehow?) holding up a Mexican flag that’s hung from the dining room’s ceiling.
Patti frames it like this: “From Day One, it turned out to be a disaster.”
Patti’s credit has been “rung out” and her marriage is now on the line because of the failing business. She also gets quite emotional when talking about how she feels her mother has deferred to all of Vic’s decisions over her own ideas. Also potentially relevant: Vic is Patti’s stepfather.
When Gordon Ramsay arrives, he’s immediately taken back when he sees “Grill 303” on Fiesta Sunrise’s awning. When Ramsay asks Vic about it, the latter nonchalantly says, “We don’t change that.”
When Ramsay sits down to order a sampling of dishes, he soon tears off a sticker that’s adhered to the front of the menu. Underneath is the logo for Fiesta Garibaldi, which we soon find out is a restaurant that Vic Flores used to own. Therefore, Fiesta Sunrise has the same exact menu and ingredients as Fiesta Garibaldi, in addition to the same head chef as it turns out.
Ramsay’s take on the taco meat he tastes is that it’s super dry and that “it looks older than f—ing me.”
Overall: “Dreadful. Absolutely f—ing dreadful.”
Back in the kitchen, Vic and Yolanda squabble, leaving Vic to wander around and mutter, “No one listens to me.”
When Ramsay meets with Vic, Yolanda, and Patti, the heart of the problem becomes clear: Vic sees the two women as mere financiers of the restaurant that he wants to run without interference.
We also learn that the current state of affairs with Fiesta Sunrise is dire: it’s losing around half a million dollars a year. All told, the restaurant is $850,000 in the hole, and it’s only been open for 18 months. I’m tempted to write, “Seems more like a Fiesta Sunset,” but that wouldn’t be cool of me, I guess.
During dinner service that night, it’s illustrative of how much is wrong with Fiesta Sunrise when Ramsay catches a server dumping baskets of chips (which had been sent to the kitchen for “tasting like cardboard) into a large bucket that’s used to serve all the restaurant’s guests.
It’s bad enough that it happened but even worse that both the server and Yolanda see nothing wrong with this.
And that’s before Ramsay discovers “fresh chives” in the food storage area that are five months old. This of course prompts the British chef to go on a deeper investigation, which turns up old “solidified” fish, rancid pork, and rotting chicken.
Vic mumbles something about it “not being that old” but Ramsay is clearly not a) believing him or b) in any way impressed.
“A hungry cat would walk away from that,” he says of slimy chicken.
And it goes on and on from there. A barrel of beans, for example, is “like a cement mixer,” and it looks truly hideous.
“You’re a f—ing disaster!” Ramsay shouts, and finally we get Vic telling that camera that he feels “stupid.”
And with that, Ramsay races out to the dining room to announce that he’s shutting the restaurant down.
Things get crazy – even for a wacky show like Kitchen Nightmares – when Ramsay sits down with Vic, Patti, and Patti’s husband, Don. It’s clear that Don is at his wit’s end with regard to his wife’s father-in-law, and we learn that in addition to Pati’s credit getting torched, they’ve also given large direct financial injections into Fiesta Sunrise.
When Vic weirdly gets personal with Don, accusing him of not having a job (which Don denies, but either way it seems irrelevant to Vic’s debtor status), leading to Don flipping out in the figurative sense and the literal sense as he flips over the restaurant table they’re sitting at.
Back in the Fiesta Sunrise’s kitchen, a cooking lesson was planned for the evening’s new specials, but things screech to a halt when roaches are discovered all over the dishware and cleaning stations.
As Ramsay screams at Vic yet again, the latter finally admits that he’s embarrassed, after which he finally apologizes to his family for the turn things have taken. It’s here where Ramsay’s aggressive bulldog qualities work best for him as it’s so clear that Vic and to an extent Yolanda needed to be shaken up into positive action.
At that night’s dinner service, with the place finally clean and debugged, Ramsay uncovers that this Mexican restaurant is incapable of cooking rice properly. Which, you know, seems like a problem.
Later that night, Ramsay tells the team, “This is a perfect example of how you’re digging yourself into a deeper hole.”
Then something unusual happens for Kitchen Nightmares: Ramsay announces that he’s heading back to New York City to “think of an idea” because something “drastic must be done.”
The next morning, Ramsay returns with a chef and expert in Mexican cuisine, Julieta Ballesteros. The overnight renovation is also revealed, which appears to be a modest but positive upgrade all told – most of all it looks vastly decluttered.
The menu overhaul is classic Ramsay: simplified, reduced selection, with a focus on fresh ingredients and made to order dishes.
At relaunch night dinner service, even with Ramsay and Ballesteros helping to see operations, a massive batch of nachos managed to get set on fire somehow by the kitchen staff. Things went well overall though, with even Nyack Mayor John Shields enjoying his meal (particularly the taquitos).
Ramsay is thrilled at how things went even as he gets in one final dig at Vic in revealing new external signage on the restaurant’s exterior. “How can you not have taken advantage of that?” has asks with regard to not having signage pointing the direction of a nearby mall.
Vic doesn’t seem to care, though. “I’m so happy,” is all he can say in response.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Fiesta Sunrise”: is it still open?
So the short answer to “Is Fiesta Sunrise still open?” is all kinds of no.
If this Reddit thread is to be believed, it’s pretty wild stuff:
The restaurant closed before the episode initially aired on Fox, there was a stabbing before it closed, and the restaurant was claimed by the state after it failed to pay taxes.
In any event, Yelp helps corroborate that the restaurant is closed.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Fiesta Sunrise”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Docuseries, Food Shows
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Chef Ramsay helps out a family-run Mexican restaurant called Fiesta Sunrise – which is in deep financial trouble and extremely dirty. Can Ramsay get the family on the path to success?
CAST – Gordon Ramsay