“You’ve lost enough.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay describes the Brownstone Bistro as a “Caribbean fusion restaurant” located in “the heart of Los Angeles.”
That would mean it’s roughly located in downtown LA, a neighborhood that I worked in on and off for a number of years. I witnessed the area stage a pretty incredible comeback over the course of a decade or so, as it developed a flourishing arts, nightlife, and restaurant scene.
Brownstone Bistro opened five years earlier and is now struggling. We get reminded that part of the gimmick with Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back is that hidden cameras are installed in the restaurant to catch its employees being lazy, incompetent, or some combination.
Clive Jackson, 57, is the owner and Dee Dee, 51, his wife. Clive tells us that he parlayed being an executive for a cruise line and a “major movie studio” into launching the Brownstone Bistro with the goal of pursuing his passion for fusion cuisine.
“Money was flowing everywhere” at first, but a horrific tragedy – the murder of Clive and Dee Dee’s son, Clive, Jr. – caused Clive to slide into a depression.
Whereas many times on Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, the owner or owners have some essential character flaw that causes their employees and the audience to dislike them, it seems with Clive it’s a case of a genuinely decent, experienced, and hardworking guy who is fighting through a tragedy in an attempt to save his business and livelihood.
Chris, a line cook, notes that he’s never seen Clive take a day off.
“Clive’s kindness is taken for a weakness,” Candice, 36, a server, assesses, and we also see other people frame the staff as being lazy. She believes that this causes people to take advantage of him.
“I’m suffering, my family’s suffering, and we’re about to lose it all,” an emotional Clive tells the camera.
It’s a somewhat awkward transition at this point in the episode as this is when Ramsay “goes undercover” in full disguise to do his initial assessment of the restaurant, with the hidden cameras filming what happens.
In this case, it’s kind of a jazz hipster cap and a scraggly blonde/white beard. He in fact looks like an old friend of mine who I lost touch with years ago here, which is a bit unsettling.
Ramsay’s comments upon being served include:
- “The cheese looks like it’s been sprayed out of a can.”
- “Where’s the lobster?”
- On the cooked pineapple: “I mean, I thought it was somebody’s spare tire.”
The British chef then ditches the disguise and “reveals himself” to Clive, Dee Dee, and team… and the rest of the restaurant’s diners as well.
“Damn, Chef Ramsay here bro,” someone from the kitchen says.
Ramsay declares that the service was terrible, the food “disgusting.” He then tells everyone to stop eating and takes the entire crowd outside to visit the rather bizarre 24 Hours to Hell and Back tractor trailer-meets-mobile kitchen-meets-sort of command center.
Here Ramsay reveals highlights/lowlights of the hidden camera footage on a massive screen that shows an unsafe cooking environment, dirty conditions, and incorrectly cooked food being served to diners.
When one of the Brownstone Bistro’s manager, Nicole, starts snickering at the spectacle of what they’re watching, Ramsay digs into her, telling her she ought to be ashamed of acting this way in front of her boss. And when he sarcastically asks her if she’d like popcorn to help enjoy the experience, she spicily fires back, “I would.”
With that, the show’s trademark 24-hour clock starts its countdown, with the goal being a massive relaunch the following night that sets the Brownstone Bistro on a path to success.
Next up is more of the “tough” part of Ramsay’s patented tough love approach: he reads scathing reviews of the restaurant to the team. Ramsay tells the entire staff that he needs everyone’s commitment to put in a hard 24 hours while he’s around to help turn things around.
With that, Terrence from the kitchen staff stands up, announces that he’s quitting, and walks around the room.
Unlike many other Ramsay tough-love adjacent reality TV episodes, Clive is all in on desiring Ramsay’s help – he tearfully tells the team how much he wants whatever help it takes to make things work.
A nice moment comes next when Ramsay reveals that not only will a few additional consultants help out, but a large group from a local parish is also on hand to assist with the overnight renovation and other changes needed to relaunch Brownstone Bistro one day later.
Ramsay next dives into an investigation of the kitchen and food storage areas, quickly undercovering grime, cruddy grease, and all kinds of nasty sludge. Not only is this a clear fire hazard, it’s awful in terms of thinking about what might end up on diners’ dinner dishes.
Clive and Ramsay sit down next, and Clive relays how much Clive Jr.’s death affected him. We learn more about what happened: the 14-year-old boy was “shot ten times.” While Clive was in close proximity when it happened, it was too late to save his child’s life. He tearfully tells Gordon that he blames himself for what happened and that it’s been very tough to move on.
It gets even sadder as we learn that Dee Dee and daughter Brooklyn moved out of their home recently as the pressures of the declining business have mounted.
“Losing your son wasn’t your fault,” Ramsay tell him. “But losing your wife and family will be your fault if you allow it to happen. And you’ve lost enough.”
The menu overhaul is vintage Ramsay: the “reheated processed food items” on the old menu are to be replaced with “fresh, authentic, Caribbean fare” such as Jamaican beef patties, ceviche, jerk chicken, and shrimp and grits.
With the 24-hour gimmick, however, Ramsay is concerned that there won’t be enough time to properly train the kitchen staff on the new menu. We then see Ramsay and his team of “expert chefs” giving the team a cooking lesson, which is always one of the more enjoyable elements of Ramsay-centric shows.
A quiet one-on-one with manager Nicole is next. Ramsay tells her that when he was “undercover,” the service and attitude he saw from her and her team was subpar. “Let me be really blunt: can you do a better job?” he asks her.
Nicole, now emotional herself, says yes.
It’s here where some of the reality show artifice fades away and you can see some of the reasons why Gordon Ramsay became a successful restaurateur. Not only is he presumably an excellent chef, but he has the skillset to be a great manager to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his team and give them the help they need to succeed.
The next morning, a tired but energized staff samples the new dishes, and everyone seems excited at this point about that night’s relaunch.
Further, the kitchen now looks completely transformed: not only is it spotless, but the space has been increased and is also stocked with new “state of the art” equipment. A Touch Bistro point of sale system has also been installed in the front of the house to help make service far more efficient.
With all of that going on, Ramsay goes back to playing Kitchen Psychologist by bringing Dee Dee in to talk to Clive. Before she arrives, Ramsay tells Clive that Dee Dee “needs to hear” that as important that the Brownstone Bistro is, his family is even more important.
What follows is slightly cringey, purely from an reality show production standpoint: while Ramsay vocally calls the cameras away from the room that Clive and Dee Dee are to have a heart-to-heart chat, we can still hear the audio coming out of the room. However, we break away from their conversation pretty quickly, presumably to build suspense in terms of what will happen next with their relationship.
The renovation of the dining room is revealed next, and the theme of “warm, sophisticated ambiance” really looks great. The best feature is a “living tree” in the middle of the dining room that’s meant to be a memorial and tribute to Clive, Jr. I may or may not have teared up a bit at seeing this.
Finally, the clock hits zero, and relaunch night commences. As diners stream in, it’s nice to see Brooklyn visiting Clive to wish her dad luck.
Problems creep up during dinner service when a food critic’s jerk chicken is served so undercooked that “it’s god blood in it.” This causes Ramsay to get the sternest we’ve seen him get with Clive up until this point, telling him, “If it’s not done, don’t serve it.”
However, the critic – Jenn Harris, Deputy Editor of the LA Times food section* – ends up enjoying her meal, and tells the camera, “I think the Brownstone Bistro is set up for success.”
* Full disclosure: I worked for the LA Times as part of Tribune Publishing many years ago on the digital side of the house.
Overall, relaunch night is a great success, and Dee Dee tells the camera that she’s encouraged and “hope it turns the family around as well.”
Ramsay tells Clive that he’s re-found his passion for cooking and tells him to “keep digging” in finding his way forward in business and in life.
Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “Brownstone Bistro”: is it still open?
I am truly saddened to report the following, which is dated from February, 2023: “Chef Featured on ‘Gordon Ramsay’s Hell and Back’ Left Homeless By Failed Restaurant”:
Clive Jackson, whose restaurant The Brownstone Bistro was featured in the show’s first season in 2018, lost his restaurant a few months after his episode aired. Sadly, this setback also led to Jackson losing his home, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his friend Lizzy Calhoun to provide some much-needed support.
If that’s not enough, this is devastating:
In a further turn, the recent torrential rains in Los Angeles collapsed his makeshift tent on 6th Street. It was at this point that Calhoun found him “soaked & shivering” without a coat and set him up at a motel in Highland Park for $92 per night.
Even more distressing is that there’s no mention of Dee Dee or Brooklyn in this piece.
I don’t research how the restaurants and people featured in Ramsay’s shows are doing currently until I’ve completed watching each episode, which only exasperates my sadness in learning about what happened to Clive after Gordon Ramsay and team’s visit.
Some stats and info about Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “Brownstone Bistro”
TV SHOW – Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 3
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell On Wheels” travels to The Brownstone Bistro, a Cajun fusion restaurant located in Los Angeles, CA.
GENRE – Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay