(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: UK | View All Season UK Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 7, 2006
Jacksons Address: 41 Market Street, Blackpool Lancashire, FY1 1EX
Episode Recap
Clubway 41, later renamed Jacksons, was a Blackpool, England restaurant featured on Season 3 of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in the UK.
Though the Clubway 41 Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in March 2006, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place much earlier in late 2004.
It was Season 3 Episode 3 on the UK version.
In this episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay went to visit Clubway 41 in Blackpool, England.
If you’re not from England, Blackpool is a seaside resort town on the Irish Sea coast. Some nearby cities that are more well-known are Liverpool and Manchester.
Clubway 41 was owned by Dawn Brindley and partner Dave Jackson.
When it opened, Clubway 41 was popular but then customers kept on decreasing, which is why they need help from Gordon Ramsay.
Only the café situated on the first floor was working well, the business on the rest of the three floors was quite bad.
After one and a half years, Clubway 41 was only making £5000 a week, which wasn’t enough to keep it open.
It was located on the second floor and customers just passed through it to go to the café.
Gordon first met David who was making his special dish, bread and butter pudding.
He also told Gordon that their “soup of the moment” (Tomato and Cointreau) was very well-liked.
David highlighted the fact their restaurant had very affordable prices – one meal cost around £25, but that included three courses.
Gordon decides it’s time to see if all those positives are accurate, so he sits down to test the food.
The first thing Gordon ordered was a salmon and strawberry salad.
Surprise, surprise – Gordon was not a fan of the salad.
After that, he tried Pork with Brie and Nectarine sauce.
He found the pork was too hard and the sauce to be disgusting.
Out of everything he only liked the mashed potatoes. I guess that’s something? It’s better than him liking absolutely nothing, which happens at a lot of restaurants.
The most shocking thing was when Gordon asked around locals about their views about Clubway 41 no one knew anything about it.
That made him suspicious about the “positive reviews” the owners wrote in the nomination form.
Gordon decided to test out their skills by inviting a group of 20 people to the restaurant.
Ramsay quickly notices Dave’s incompetency. He is neither a good communicator nor a good cook.
Customers had to wait for a long time to get their food and have a good experience.
To show Dave and his assistant Nigel the low standard of their cooking, Gordon arranged a blind taste test.
After tasting, the cooks also admit their food is gross.
Then Ramsay went to Dawn to ask why she makes up weird combinations which said was to attract customers.
Gordon challenged Dave to make a Broccoli soup which he made with 16 ingredients.
Even then it tasted bad while Gordon made it with just 3 ingredients and it tasted good. I agree – sometimes simple is better than complex.
The most beneficial advice Gordon gave them was to change the restaurant’s name.
He said Clubway 41 sounded like a gentleman’s club, and I can’t say that I disagree with Gordon here.
After that, the name was changed to Jacksons, which has a much classier vibe to it.
Beyond the new name, Gordon also decided to update the menu, with a much fresher assortment of food.
Gordon decided to guide him on how to cook with fresh ingredients.
During this, he discovered Dave has never cooked mussels which lead to a heated argument.
After that, Dave did a few exercises to learn better mental and physical control.
Then on relaunch night, everything went smoothly at first.
But after more customers came in, the orders started getting delayed again.
However, Dawn did great in communicating well with the customers.
Dave and Nigel also overcame the little speed bump and served food that received a lot of compliments.
In the end, they are much satisfied with everything and Dawn even promised to not put any funny meals on the menu.
So was the Clubway 41 Kitchen Nightmares episode a long-term success? Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Blackpool England restaurant is still open in 2024 and beyond.
Jacksons Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Jacksons Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Blackpool England.
As is usually the case with the UK version of the show, Gordon Ramsay revisited Jacksons some time later – around eight months to be exact.
In this revisit, we find out that Nigel is no longer at the restaurant.
Additionally, they’ve gone back to crappy frozen food to cut down on costs, instead of the fresh menu that Gordon put in place
Beyond that, they’re having difficulties with the physical location of the restaurant, as a new bus terminal opened nearby and is causing issues.
Overall, they’ve kind of stopped targeting locals and just focused on the tourist market, even going as far as to shut down the restaurant during low season.
Remember – Blackpool England is a bit of a tourist town.
You can see the revisit in this YouTube video:
With this information in hand, it’s probably no surprise what happened next…
Is Jacksons still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
Jacksons closed in September 2006, which is only around six months after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
At that time, it was still doing business as Jacksons, which is the name that Gordon Ramsay gave the restaurant on the show.
For a time, the old Jackson’s Blackpool location was occupied by a cafe named Market Street Diner.
However, that appears to also have closed.
As of 2022, it seems to be occupied by a restaurant named The Frying Squad, which offers “Traditional Fish & Chips”.
Reviews don’t seem that great, though, as it has just a 3.4 star rating on Google Reviews.
I’m not sure what happened to Dawn and Dave after Jackson’s closed.
If you know anything, please let me know in the comments!
More Information
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Last updated: 2022-09-25 08:06
Dawn’s cute.
I agree! Why was Dawn with Dave? It just doesn’t add up. And the fact she wanted to marry him is beyond comprehension.
Also, thank you to whoever created this website! You rock!
What a nasty comment to make
Its a shame your restaurant didn’t work. Hope you have found success elsewhere.
Hope u2 are doing ok?😔🙏🙏🤞🤞✌✌
“Club 41 was popular but the customers kept decreasing”— what do you mean, did they get smaller and smaller like The Incredible Shrinking Man?
Also, Dawn still is cute.
Dawn was some prime piece of beef back in 2004. Wonder what happened to her over the past 19 years? Where is she now?
Dawn is sooo cute!! I feel sorry she was overwhelmed at the end…😥😢🙏🙏
I hope you got that nut after reading this comment. Best wishes Leroy.
I found an article that says Nigel is a convicted pedo who’s also a person of interest in the murder of a teenage girl.
https://wideshut.co.uk/who-is-nigel-lloyd-suspect-charlene-downes/
An update on what happened to Nigel the other cook who was sacked, and it’s not pleasant…
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4158972/convicted-paedophile-51-arrested-over-murder-of-blackpool-teenager-charlene-downes-whose-body-was-chopped-into-kebabs-following-2003-disappearance/
This is crazy!