(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 4 | View All Season 4 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 25, 2011
Davide Address: 326 Commercial St Boston, MA 02109
Episode Recap
Davide was a Boston, Massachusetts restaurant featured on Season 4 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Davide Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in February 2011, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place earlier in December 2010.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 4 Episode 6.
Davide is located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Brothers Frank and Anthony Gesualdi purchased the restaurant all the way back in 1997.
That means they’ve owned it for around 14 years at the time of the Davide Kitchen Nightmares visit.
The restaurant is located in the north end and is known for its authentic Italian food.
In fact, Davide was the first fine dining in the North End area of Boston and it originally opened all the way back in 1982.
Davide used to be number one and have a three-week waiting list, but things have obviously slowed down.
This led to the need for Gordon Ramsay’s help.
Business at the Davide restaurant is not the only problem, though…
After opening in 1997, Frank caught his brother Anthony embezzling money.
Anthony was doing this to support his drug habit.
Anthony went to jail as a result, and Frank ran the business, but it has since gone downhill.
When Anthony was released from prison, he returned to the restaurant.
Anthony is trying to prove he changed, but Frank still distrusts him.
I get both sides, there – people can change, but I also understand why Frank would be hesitant.
The brother’s tumultuous relationship affects the Davide restaurant.
Their relationship needs to be amended for Davide to succeed.
Gordon Ramsay arrives on a tour bus, and the driver does not recommend Davide.
The décor has not been updated since the mid-’90s and you can tell that the restaurant has definitely seen better days.
Gordon meets Anthony, who explains his past and how his brother is still holding onto the pain.
Gordon decides to handle the food first and orders the Caesar salad, the lobster ravioli, and the rack of lamb.
Gordon is impressed when the salad is prepared table side but is quickly annoyed by how long it takes.
That’s about the only high point, as things go downhill from there.
The lettuce in the salad is soggy.
The eggplant is undercooked, and the lamb has a burnt crust.
Gordon finds out the eggplant was cooked three weeks ago and frozen.
The lobster ravioli was brought in and not homemade.
Basically, it’s not what you’d expect from a fine dining restaurant, as freshness is a pretty important part of the experience.
Gordon comments on the food, and Frank says he knows he can do better after Gordon leaves Frank and Anthony’s family fight.
Frank is upset about Gordon’s critique and is now questioning himself and his abilities.
The staff is frustrated with Frank for slacking off.
He has even stopped wearing his chef uniform.
Gordon observes dinner service and finds Frank sitting in a chair.
Frank tries to get motivated, but soon the orders are piling up.
Anthony tries to speed his brother up, but Frank yells at him to shut up.
There is no communication, and Frank knowingly sends out bad fish.
Diners send back most of their dishes, and Frank walks out.
The sous chef and the rest of the staff steps up to finish the dinner service.
The following day Gordon mediates a meeting between Frank and Anthony.
Anthony writes his brother a heartfelt note and takes accountability for his actions.
He lets his brother know he loves him and that he’s sorry.
Frank’s wife also returns his chef coat that Frank gave up wearing two years ago.
Frank feels defeated and doesn’t think he deserves to wear the chef’s coat.
Gordon challenges Frank to make a dish, and he creates a lemon chicken entrée that Gordon enjoys.
Gordon gives Davide an overnight makeover, and Frank’s wife finally gets him to put his coat back on.
Gordon manages to get a Boston Magazine food critic to come for the relaunch.
The brothers argue and rush out undercooked food at one point, but Gordon gives them a pep talk, and things eventually get back on track.
When Gordon Ramsay leaves the Davide restaurant, things seem to be looking up.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares Davide restaurant episode a long-term success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Boston restaurant is still open in 2024 and beyond.
Davide Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Davide Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened next when the cameras stopped filming and Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Boston, MA.
Overall, things seemed to start off well for Davide, with Gordon Ramsay even revisiting the restaurant and seeing improvements.
Let’s talk about the revisit first and then I’ll share where Davide is in 2024.
Gordon Ramsay revisits Davide restaurant in Season 5
As part of the Kitchen Nightmares revisited episodes, Gordon Ramsay went back to Davide in episode 5 of season 5, which aired on October 21, 2011.
This was the same episode where he revisited Downcity in Providence and Classic American in Long Island.
Gordon revisits Davide and sees Frank still wearing his chef’s coat.
More importantly, Gordon Ramsay loves all of the food that he’s served.
This is a big turnaround from when he first visited the Davide Boston restaurant.
The brother’s relationship is improving, and business is up by 15%.
Gordon surprises the brothers with a Boston Bruins hockey player who gives them a jersey.
If you want to see the Davide Gordon Ramsay re-visit, you can watch this YouTube video.
The Davide revisit part starts around the 22:38 mark in the video:
Unfortunately, the restaurant’s success that you see in Gordon Ramsay’s second visit would not last forever…
Is Davide Still Open?
While things were going well when Gordon Ramsay revisited the restaurant, Davide eventually closed in 2014, around three years after the episode aired.
More specifically, Davide was sold to new owners, but the new owners chose not to continue with the Davide restaurant concept.
As of 2023, the old Davide Boston location is occupied by a restaurant called il Molo.
iL Molo seems to have been at that space since around 2016, so it opened there a couple of years after Davide closed.
The iL Molo restaurant was temporarily closed for a time but it eventually reopened in February 2022.
You can see the il Molo Yelp page here.
Here’s what the old Davide restaurant Boston location looks like in the most recent picture from Google MMaps street view:
Why Did Davide Close?
The Davide owners sold the restaurant in early 2014 because they wanted to move on to other ventures, including starting a project called Three Boys Farms.
Here’s a 2014 article from a local publication about the sale of Davide restaurant.
For some reason, the brothers couldn’t disclose who purchased the restaurant.
What happened to Frank from Davide after Kitchen Nightmares?
After selling the restaurant, Frank Gesualdi started Three Boys Farm with two other people.
Anthony doesn’t seem to have been involved in the farm, at least not directly.
Three Boys Farms specialized in Italian vegetables, eggs, and poultry.
It’s hard to tell if the business is still open as the website is inactive and the last Facebook page update was in 2018.
Here’s a 2104 article about Three Boys Farm that explains more of the background.
What happened to Anthony from Davide after Kitchen Nightmares?
Anthony Gesualdi also seems to be working as a tour developer operator at an outfit named Boston’s Politically Incorrect North End Tours.
You can see this on Anthony’s LinkedIn page.
There seems to be an official website for Boston’s Politically Incorrect Northend Food Tours, so it does seem to be an active business.
The website also lists Anthony as the tour guide.
My name is Anthony Gesualdi and yes, I am Italian.
That seems like an obvious characteristic of a North End Tour Guide for Boston’s Little Italy, however, most of the other tours are not run by an Italian, let alone one born and raised here.
Davide reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
At the time that Davide restaurant closed, it had an overall 3 star Yelp rating on 110 reviews.
That includes reviews from both before and after the Davide Gordon Ramsay visit.
In general, I can’t notice much of an improvement in the ratings after the Kitchen Nightmares Davide visit.
So, while Gordon Ramsay had a good experience in his second visit, it doesn’t necessarily seem like the same was true for other diners.
A lot of people seem to also mention getting special deals via Groupon and other similar sites, which is usually a sign that a restaurant isn’t doing very well.
Here’s a sampling of a few reviews that were written after the Gordon Ramsay Davide visit…
4 star Yelp review from January 2012:
Davide was a great experience and the food was absolutely incredible.
Our entire table ordered the filets and they were cooked to perfection.
What a change from what you saw on Kitchen Nightmares.
The owner and the chef had a chat with us at the table and were very welcoming.
We were served complimentary shots as well.
Would definitely go back.
1 star Yelp review from March 2012:
I would give it a half a star if I could.
My friend and I went to Davide’s tonight for restaurant week.
I thought it would have been ok since Kitchen Nightmares cleaned them up, but I was wrong.
It was a horrible mess. The food made us sick the service was slow and rude.
They were clearly still disorganized. The host scolded the poor young bus boy in front of the entire place. which is bad customer service period.
We don’t need to see it or hear it, it should have been done in the kitchen.
There was a puddle of water under our table that made me and my friend freaked out by it.
The bread and olive was the best thing. We had pasta dishes that were like mush.
I came home and had to have an alka seltzer I was afraid of being sick.
NOT worth the money even for restaurant week. I think we would have gotten a better meal at an olive garden, yuck.
Finally, here are two more Davide reviews that specifically mention purchasing special offers on deal sites…
3 star Yelp review from January 2012:
3 star Yelp review from August 2011:
Final Thoughts on the Davide Restaurant Episode
Overall, Davide seemed to have a solid run after the initial visit from Gordon Ramsay.
Gordon Ramsay revisited Davide in Season 5 and found that business was up and, more importantly, the food was pretty tasty.
Unfortunately, Davide closed in 2014 because the brothers wanted to move on to other businesses.
Frank started a farm named Three Boys Farm with two other people.
Anthony is working as a tour guide/operator doing Boston North End tours, which fits with the Davide North End connection.
Since 2016, the old Davide Boston location has been occupied by a new restaurant named iL Molo, which seems to have good reviews.
If you want to see some another North End Boston Kitchen Nightmares episode, you can check out my update for La Galleria 33.
There were also some other nearby Massachusetts episodes including Barefoot Bob’s in Hull and Olde Hitching Post in Hanson.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Davide episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
👉 Read other Season 4 updates:
- Next episode – Downcity update
- Previous episode – Grasshopper Also update
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/davide-restaurant-bostonhttps://foursquare.com/dinedavide
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Last updated: 2023-08-10 05:25
One of my favorite episodes by far. Happy to see them venturing into different avenues. All the best to Frank, wife Kim and brother Anthony. You still have people rooting for you.
This looks like another episode where Gordon comes in, turns the place around, sets it right, they start making a little money, then they sell it (with Gordon’s improvements and new menu), take the money, and run.
80% of the restaurants went out of business. Except for about 5-6, the other 15+ sold out as soon as they got things turned around.
I think most of the owners realized that they could not be sucessful as slackers, and most of them were either lazy, incompetent, cheap, etc. and they did not want to be working 60+ hours a week to run a profitable restaurant. So they used Ramsay / KN and got out before going bankrupt.
This is the first time ever heard someone tell another to go kill himself, and I was appalled. Since then I’ve heard it all over TV shows and on social media in numerous places. Please don’t do this. If Anthony had been more fragile, he might’ve done just that. There is no way I could’ve worked with Frank with his attitude in the beginning of the episode. He was a complete douche and cruel. And yes, my brother was just like Anthony.
I just watched this episode and obviously we have not seen the behind the scenes, but Anthony seemed to have 0 remorse or sense of responsibility for how his addiction affected the restaurant. Addiction is terrible but he can’t just shrug his shoulders and say ‘shit happens’ after he embezzled money from his own family and business. And then he just pops back into the restaurant and acts like the past just needs to be moved on from like he doesn’t have to earn it.
Did your brother also defraud and destroy your business? Telling someone to kill himself is terrible, but stress changes people. He was clearly depressed.
Wicked pissah of an episode. Gordon should have pahked his cah at Hahvard Yahd. Go Red Sox!
I am sorry that your brother struggles with addiction, I wish him and your family the best.
This was the best episode yet. I really found myself rooting for Frank and Anthony, both as businessmen and as brothers. Sometimes you feel beaten down and need a lift. I think we can all relate. I’m sorry they’re no longer in the business because I would’ve liked to have visited when in Boston. I hope the family’s doing well, remains together, and is happy.
I knew this restaurant would close. Frank decided there was no statute of limitations on revenge for what his brother had done years ago, but he had been clean for two years and also served his time for what he’d done. If you’re determined to never get past it, why even show up at the restaurant and pretend to cook,when all he did was serve packaged food and three week old eggplant? That was so disgusting I couldn’t believe it. Most of these restaurants wait until it’s too late, there’s too much debt, or their reputation has gone so far down that there’s no way to save it.
Sorry, but “time served” doesn’t mean forget OR forgive…Frank was 100% justified in his continued distrust/lack of respect/grudge against Anthony. Frank was left holding the bag for EVERYTHING when Anthony went off on his binges & afterwards didn’t show the remorse or humble himself enough for Frank’s forgiveness!!