“Family reasons” being that the only place they had family willing to let them sponge off them was Boston, would be my guess. :dubious:
Yow. We don’t live that far from Boston, visit it at least a half dozen times a year. Have to keep an eye out for any new ‘concept’ restaurants. 
Thanks for finding the updates, I couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, just how incredibly out of touch with reality the owner was.
The thing I remember most is how Gordon took the other young chef and gave her a job with one of his restaurants. I thought that was very classy of him.
The restaurant owner was a big fool. That place could have made some seriously good money. It was a charming and sweet cafe. The soup and sandwich lunch for tourists was a great idea. I would have loved something like that.
Piccolo Teatro and Bonaparte’s were the ones that most stuck with me. IIRC, I saw those two back-to back, which was what gave me the idea that they always followed the same predictable formula to ultimate failure.
oops. wasn’t ready to post that.
I propose a Kitchen Nightmares drinking game. I’m basing the following on the uncensored UK version:
One sip
“Fuck”
“Shit”
“Bloody Hell”
Each “bystander” (in the street or in the restaurant) who has a negative comment
During a side-by-side taste test, each person shown choosing Gordon’s food over the chef’s (must be shown, tallies don’t count, for safety reasons)
Staff lies to Gordon (one sip per lie: he says “it’s not frozen!” five times, take five sips)
Ashamed silence as Gordon dresses down someone
Someone justifies their own behavior (which Gordon just ripped) to the camera behind Gordon’s back
Two sips
“Fuck me”
“Fucking hell”
“Bollocks”
“You will kill someone!”
“I don’t want to get poisoned”
“I ate this!”
“Are you taking the piss?”
“They’ve sunk everything they have into this”
Gordon holds his head in his hands
Gordon throws something in the trash
Owner is clueless that s/he’s doing anything wrong
Owner is financially inept
Owner is living in the past
Head chef is a terrible cook
Head chef has no restaurant experience
Non-chef setting the menu
100-item menu
Menu is all over the place (Italian-Chinese-Barbecue with chips)
The kitchen is filthy
The kitchen staff are lazy goof-offs
All the ingredients are instant or frozen
All the food is bought retail, shipped from ridiculously far away, or out of season
The waitstaff are rude/clueless
Staff show up late
The floor manager and the chef hate each other
The floor manager/chef is the owner’s best mate from school
The floor manager/chef is the owner’s relative
Too many managers
Someone bad-mouths Gordon to the camera behind his back
Someone justifies their own behavior (which Gordon just ripped) to Gordon’s face
Each “bystander” who has a positive comment (about the restaurant)
During a side-by-side taste test, each person shown choosing the chef’s food over Gordon’s
Ex-customer tells a horror story
During Gordon’s first meal:
Three sips
“This is my biggest challenge yet”
“How many X does it take to Y?” (example from the Morgan’s episode: “How many women does it take to run a restaurant into the ground?”)
“Ladies who lunch”
“He’s in over his head”
“Simple local ingredients”
“We’ll be out of business in (3-6) months”
During Gordon’s first meal:
Drain your drink
Staff member attacks Gordon
Staff member quits or gets fired (one drink for each)
Owner goes AWOL
“We’ll be out of business in (under 3) months”
Business shuts down by the end of Gordon’s week
Gordon has a professional hazmat crew clean the kitchen
Feces on the floor
In the “next week’s nightmare” bit, Gordon uses the same turn of phrase for next week’s restaurant as for this week’s
For the return visit:
Drain your drink, then drink another
Gordon cleans his plate