(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 5 | View All Season 5 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 3, 2012
Park's Edge Address: 913 Bernina Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30307
Episode Recap
Park’s Edge was an Atlanta, Georgia restaurant featured on Season 5 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the Park’s Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in February 2012, the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay happened back in September 2011.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 5 Episode 10.
On this episode of Kitchen Nightmare, Chef Gordon Ramsay takes us to Park’s Edge in Inman Park, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia).
The Park’s Edge restaurant is owned by best friends, Jorge and Richard.
However, Jorge and Richard lack experience in running a restaurant.
To make matters worse, their food is complicated and their staff is overworked.
In the two years that the Parks Edge restaurant has been open, the Health Department has forced the restaurant to close twice due to health code violations.
Jorge’s failure to establish any organization and structure in the kitchen, and Richard doesn’t help out in the kitchen when things get busy.
The two owners also failed to obtain a liquor license but still served liquor.
Basically, Gordon Ramsay has his work cut out for him in the Parks Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode.
When a local news outlet pressed the owners as to why the Park Edge restaurant had so many problems, the two blamed the neighborhood for being racist.
Unsurprisingly, this further alienated their restaurant from the local community and caused their business to suffer even more.
When Gordon Ramsay arrives at the restaurant, he is confused by the menu that offers Mexican, Asian, and Indian cuisine.
Unsure as to what he should order from a complex menu, he asks his server Amy.
Amy suggests he try the grilled Caesar salad with chicken.
Not exactly the most fancy dish, but if a restaurant can’t do a good Caesar salad there are big problems.
What makes this salad unique, though, is that Park’s Edge grills the lettuce, which Gordon has never heard of.
Beyond the salad, Gordon also orders oysters and grilled salmon.
The grilled Caesar salad arrives first and Gordon is in shock when he finds that they really did literally grill the lettuce which hasn’t even been trimmed.
When he goes to taste, the chicken he finds that it is too dry and the salad was too spicy.
When Gordon tried the oysters he simply said they were disgusting, so things aren’t getting any better there.
And when the salmon arrived the plate was too busy and the combination of flavors didn’t taste good.
After he ate, Gordon gives his negative feedback to the kitchen and tells the owners they are far from qualified to run a restaurant.
So yeah – the Kitchen Nightmares Park’s Edge visit ain’t going very well so far.
Gordon then observes the dinner rush and notices Jorge becoming overwhelmed quickly in the kitchen as the other chefs seem capable of being able to handle things.
The restaurant’s customers aren’t impressed with the food and the complaints of the food being too dry, spicy, cold, or even raw start funneling in.
Instead of taking ownership and addressing the irate customers, the owners delegate this task to the servers.
The servers obviously aren’t happy because their tips have already been affected due to the kitchen performance.
The food takes too long to leave the kitchen and some of the customers walk out before their food arrives due to frustration.
Gordon then inspects the walk in where he finds stale and moldy produce, spoiled chicken, and cooked food gone wrong.
The next day Gordon has a staff meeting where the owners are watching via video camera.
In the meeting, it is revealed that they believe Richard to be the main problem as he is too hands off, and drinking wine on the job every day.
They also reveal Jorge to be disrespectful as he lashes out at the staff too often.
Jorge and Richard are touched by what they heard in the hidden camera video.
Richard is visibly upset and emotional while Jorge apologizes to the staff for his short-comings and promises his staff things will change.
Gordon Ramsay knows they need to rebuild the bridges they burned in the community.
To start doing this, Gordon encourages Richard to make a public statement to the news where he apologizes for calling his neighborhood racist.
Finally, Gordon’s team transforms the restaurant’s décor, making it more contemporary with pictures from local artists in place of the gaudy pictures that hung there before.
Gordon also simplified the menu, making it an American menu with a contemporary twist.
Gordon then brings in his team to train the kitchen staff on the new menu.
However, sous chef, Matt, does not agree on frying chicken wings.
Matt is given the choice of getting on board or leaving his job and Matt ultimately decides to stay at Parks Edge restaurant.
On the night of the relaunch, the orders start stacking up in the kitchen.
Jorge takes the lead and the food comes out in a timely manner and to a high standard.
Despite a minor hiccup with Matt disrespecting Jorge and losing his job, the night is a total success as customers are very pleased with their food.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares Park’s Edge episode a long-term success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Atlanta restaurant is open or closed in 2023 and beyond.
Park's Edge Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Parks Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Atlanta, GA.
Unfortunately, Park’s Edge didn’t start off strong after Gordon’s visit.
In October, 2011, Park’s Edge failed a health inspection (after having also previously failed earlier in 2011).
The restaurant scored just a 44 out of 100 on the test, which ain’t great.
This failure happened before the Park’s Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, but after Gordon’s visit.
Remember – Gordon Ramsay visited in September 2011 but the episode didn’t air until 2012.
As you’d expect, the Yelp reviews also weren’t great, as the restaurant had just a three star rating on its Yelp page.
I’ll share some real examples of Park’s Edge restaurant reviews below.
Despite that, Park’s Edge did manage to reopen and stay open a few more years.
But you can probably guess where this is going…
Is Parks Edge still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
Park’s Edge eventually closed in early 2014, which is a little over a year after the Parks Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
The restaurant has remained closed since then.
As of 2023, the old Parks Edge Atlanta GA location is occupied by a new restaurant named Victory Sandwich Bar.
It has decent reviews on Yelp, with a four star average rating.
You can learn more about the new restaurant on its Yelp page.
Here’s what the old Park’s Edge Atlanta GA location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
Why did Park’s Edge close?
Park’s Edge closed because the lease on their location ran out in late 2013/early 2014.
Without being able to maintain the lease on the Parks Edge Atlanta location, the owners were forced to close.
The owners were originally looking for a new location to reopen the restaurant in Midtown Atlanta.
However, that never happened and Park’s Edge remains closed as of 2023.
Here’s an article from Eater Atlanta that discusses it.
The article also mentions that Victory Sandwich Bar was the one to take over the lease.
Park’s Edge reviews after Kitchen Nightmares
At the time that Park’s Edge closed, it had an overall 3 star rating on 242 reviews.
That includes reviews from both before and after the Parks Edge Gordon Ramsay visit.
Reviews from after the Kitchen Nightmares episode seem to generally be positive, though a bit mixed.
There are many five star reviews, as well as some three star reviews.
There are also one star reviews, but those aren’t as common as the other ratings.
A lot of reviewers also mention that the parking situation at Park’s Edge is really bad, which seems like something that could have hurt the restaurant.
Another common complaint was the noise level at the restaurant – I guess it seems like it got very loud which bothered some people.
On the positive side, people seem to love the bottomless mimosas that were available during the Park’s Edge restaurant brunch.
Here’s a sampling of a few reviews that were written after the Park’s Edge Gordon Ramsay visit to give you an idea of what people’s experiences were like at the restaurant…
5 star Yelp review from November 2013:
I am not sure why Parks Edge only has a 3 star rating on Yelp but we have been here many times and LOVE the food and the service is excellent!!!
We have literally had everything on the menu and nothing is anything but delectable.
The parking is terrible and the entrance into the establishment is awkward.
However, they are moving soon and I would highly recommend giving this place a try!!!!
3 star Yelp review from October 2013:
My fish and grits was absolutely fantastic but overall my experience was ok.
This is actually my second attempt coming to the restaurant and I’m glad I made it here.
It’s nice to have a low key breakfast/brunch but the parking is horrendous.
I would recommend it definitely.
1 star Yelp review from September 2013:
First of all, the parking is terrible. It’s located in some type of house on top of a hill.
Second of all, the idea of endless mimosas are great but it’s killing their entire business model.
However, it keeps the guests sitting for longer than they should be. Instead of a normal 1-1.5 hour brunch, it keeps everybody sitting for 2 to 3.5 hours.
Came with my gf around 12:30pm for lunch and the host told us it would be a 30 min wait….Turns out, it took us over 2 hours to get seated.
Ordered the chicken and waffles along with a the peach french toast….overall the food was really good but the atmosphere is more along the lines of compound or velvet room on a saturday night.
The noise level is beyond terrible.
I will never be coming back.
3 star Yelp review from July 2013:
The food was great.
The service was good as well.
The only reason I give this place 3 stars is because of the noise.
It was so loud and impossible to hear the people I was eating with.
What happened to the Parks Edge owners?
A lot of people are wondering what happened to the owners after Parks Edge closed.
Here’s what I could find…
Richard from Parks Edge
Richard seems to have moved to Los Angeles, California and is no longer living in Atlanta.
However, his Facebook page doesn’t list and work information and his LinkedIn page hasn’t been updated, so I’m not sure what he’s been up to.
Hopefully he’s doing well!
Jorge from Parks Edge
As far as I can tell, Jorge still lives in Atlanta and is still cooking for a living.
However, I’m not sure about the specifics as his last LinkedIn update was for Parks Edge.
Final thoughts on Park’s Edge restaurant
Parks Edge had some issues with health inspections after Gordon Ramsay’s visit and the reviews still weren’t great.
For those reasons, it’s not surprising that Park’s Edge closed in early 2014, around a year after the Parks Edge Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
As of 2023, the old Park’s Edge Atlanta location is occupied by a new restaurant named Victory Sandwich Bar.
This is the restaurant that took over the lease immediately after the Park’s Edge restaurant closed, so it seems like Victory Sandwich Bar has successfully been in that location for almost a decade.
Richard has moved back to Los Angeles, while Jorge seems to still be cooking in Atlanta.
If you want to see another Atlanta Kitchen Nightmares episode, you can check out our Michon’s Smokehouse update.
For some other nearby restaurants, you can also check out Chappy’s in Nashville, TN, Anna Vincenzo’s in Boca Raton FL, and Fleming in Miami, FL.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Parks Edge restaurant episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thank you for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/parks-edge-atlantahttps://www.facebook.com/ParksEdgeAtlanta/
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Last updated: 2023-08-13 08:24
I loved the episode and the owners, so i really wanted to know what happened to Jorge and Richard. I also wanted to know what happened to Matt after getting fired.
Wow I felt the same way about the owners too! I really liked them and wanted to hear where their success has taken them. I’m sure they’re doing well
amy was super hot i want her IG
a_gizzle07
Lmaoooo the look on her face when he orders the flash fried oysters 😂
They should have combined the Mexican, Asian, and Indian cuisine in one dish and called it Fusion Cuisine.
2/10, one of Stendhal’s weaker comments
can’t all be winners. This restaurant was too boring to make fun of
Hey, don’t you dis my baby daddy. Stendhal rulz!
Richard was a very nice guy. I wonder why he teamed up with a loser like Jorge. Was there something beyond business there? Richard could have done better. Their staff was a weird bunch. Considering how dysfunctional they all were, it is surprising the place stayed open to the end of 2013.
they closed down park’s edge and replaced it with a different restaurant for the right reason if they had a health rate of 44 out of 100.