“When we lost that little boy, our life stopped.” – Dede
Dave had a vision of opening a lodge on Henry’s Fork – near Island Park on the Snake River in Idaho – in 1999. This is a remote area of the mountain northwest, located to the west of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Apparently, the Angler’s Lodge did gangbusters business for years, and it’s easy to see why simply based on the stunning natural beauty that surrounds the property in every direction.
However, Zach, the restaurant manager and Dave’s son, notes that everything changed when tragedy struck: Zach’s brother passed away at the age of ten some years earlier.
“It was a dark, bad time,” Zach recalls.
“When we lost that little boy, our life stopped,” Dede, the child’s mother, says.
Art, the sous chef, estimates that business is now just 25% of what it was at its peak, so clearly the family tragedy took its toll on the family’s passion and ability to continue running Angler’s Lodge in top form.
We also learn that Zach has been in his role as manager for about a year, having returned home to help out with the family business. Part of the challenge, Art assesses, is that his inexperience is causing Angler’s Lodge to trend further in the wrong direction.
“Dave and I are tired, and it’s just like a black hole for us,” Dede says.
When Gordon Ramsay, he notes that Island Park is nicknamed Last Chance as it’s the last chance to pick up supplies on route to Yellowstone National Park (which sits to the northeast). Ramsay also observes upon arrival at Angler’s Lodge that it’s gorgeous, and we learn too that it was built by hand by Dave.
“This cottage stinks – what’s that smell of lemon?” Ramsay asks upon arrival in his guest quarters.
It gets worse: there’s a stain on the bed sheets that may or not be blood, and there’s a piece of crusty candy stuck on the pillow.
“This is depressing,” Ramsay concludes overall.
Ramsay then heads to lodge restaurant and meets Gina, the head chef, who assesses that “staffing issues” – meaning the owners’ frugality with staffing overhead – and Zach’s lazy schedule are the main reasons behind Angler’s Lodge’s current plight. On top of that, she feels that Dave’s “tight control” over the menu and even ordering food is stifling any ability to make substantive changes.
Ramsay then samples the food, and things get off on the wrong foot when he discovers the chicken wings are not fresh but frozen. He also describes the sauce on them as looking like they have been “dipped in elk’s blood.”
Meanwhile, the rice is like “mush,” and even Zach agrees that it looks like “oatmeal.” The risotto is like “plaster,” and the trout the worse Ramsay has seen in his “entire career.”
Zach admits to Ramsay that there’s no way in hell he’d be working at the Angler’s Lodge if not for his family’s interest in it, and he’s actually “desperate” to get out and do something else with his life.
At dinner service that night, Ramsay observes that the communication in the kitchen is bad, causing the service to be pretty bad on top of the poor-quality dishes that eventually get served.
Ramsay tells Gina that she’s in “way over your head,” and Zach is essentially a non-entity as a manager.
At a full staff meeting that night, Ramsay semi-melts down on everyone, essentially accusing everyone of complaining, excuse making, and not giving a s—. And on top of that, Dave and Dede’s frugality with spending on staff and food is strangling the ability of things to improve.
In a one-on-one conversation with Dede, she tells Ramsay that she thinks that Dave is so afraid of losing more in his life, so therefore he’s controlling and is unable to be flexible. And meanwhile Dede feels that her loss made her feel lost over the years herself.
Kitchen Nightmares and Hotel Hell can be formulaic in a good way, but it’s easy to get lulled into the rhythm of an episode. I mention this because it’s surprising when something genuinely unusual happens, which is the case when, at another staff meeting the next day, Zach politely but assertively calls Ramsay out, telling the British chef that he doesn’t “condone your behavior,” and that it’s not something that he’d expect from an “English gentleman.”
Specifically: “a lot of F words.”
Ramsay tells Zach that his accusations aren’t valid because he observed the restaurant manager “laughing and giggling” while this was going on.
Then, even more surprisingly, Zach tells Ramsay that “he doesn’t know s—.”
I was slightly shocked at this point that Ramsay didn’t angrily get in his face, but instead he simply said that he’d have a private chat with him later, though he adds, “Stop being a hypocrite.”
Ramsay also uses this opportunity to call out Zach on the scanty hours he’s putting in and his overall lack of competence.
Typically, Hotel Hell will have a scene where Ramsay has a group of people confront the owners in person about their terrible experience as hotel and restaurant guests, but instead here Ramsay reads feedback cards that he says he solicited from the local community. One person calls Dave a “horse’s butt,” and the overall consensus – which, who knows how accurate these findings are, for what it’s worth – is that the Angler’s Lodge staff simply doesn’t make people feel welcome.
“Maybe they don’t care,” one person writes – which feels like a pretty damning conclusion.
Ramsay then shifts into Hotel Psychologist mode, having a heart-to-heart talk with Dave where the latter talks about how after they lost their son, they were right back to work the next day “because there was no one else.” That, plus an inability to retain chefs and the grind of running a business year after year has made him lose his drive and ability to shift course.
“You have a big heart, and people need to see it,” Ramsay tells him.
After an inspirational speech from Ramsay to the team, the overnight renovation is revealed the next day. The staff is thrilled, and Dede describes the “new joy” she’s feeling at how much cleaner and modernized the guest rooms and lodge interior look. Meanwhile, the restaurant menu has updated, with the classic Ramsay take of putting a modern spin on regional specialties.
Interestingly, whereas Kitchen Nightmares goes into a fair amount of detail about what the menu changes are, Hotel Hell tends to gloss over it very quickly.
At dinner service for relaunch night, Ramsay remains frustrated with Chef Gina’s lack of communication. “Get a grip” he snaps at her.
“With a menu as easy as that, you’ve got no chance,” Ramsay tells the owners, indicating that it might be time to find yet another head chef at the Angler’s Chef.
Soon after, when Gina stops responding to Ramsay completely in frustration, he quietly tells her, “Stop. I want you to take your apron off and go home.” Sous chef Art is asked to take over.
Brutal.
It’s implied that the rest of dinner service goes fine, and Dave and Dede just seem thrilled that Ramsay has basically masterminded a way out of the miserable path they’ve been on for so long.
Now on a roll, Ramsay announces that he’s bringing in a local hotelier named Emily Brown as a consultant for Angler’s Lodge for the next month.
Ramsay then “orders” Dave and Dede to go have dinner together in the restaurant so that they can relax for the first time in a long time.
Hotel Hell, “Angler’s Lodge”: is it still open?
As of this writing in 2025, Angler’s Lodge is still open!
Via Trip Adviser, it’s the #4 of 5 hotels in Island Park, Idaho with 3.8 out of 5 stars on 150 reviews.
Some stats and info about Hotel Hell, “Angler’s Lodge”
TV SHOW – Hotel Hell
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 2
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon visits Island Park, Idaho to try and rescue the failing Angler’s Lodge. Despite building the stunning lodge with his own hands, owner Dave Ebey has lost his passion and it has almost cost him his business.
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay