(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 8 | View All Season 8 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 27, 2023
South Brooklyn Foundry Address: 6909 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11209
Episode Recap
South Brooklyn Foundry was a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City restaurant featured on Season 8 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the South Brooklyn Foundry Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV in November 2023, the actual visit from Gordon Ramsay happened in June 2023.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 8 Episode 8.
In this episode, Gordon Ramsay heads to South Brooklyn Foundry in New York City.
Unsurprisingly, South Brooklyn Foundry is located in…drumroll please…Brooklyn.
More specifically, South Brooklyn Foundry is located in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn.
It’s been open since ~2017, which means that it’s been around for about six years at the time of the South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant Kitchen Nightmares episode.
The South Brooklyn Foundry owners are Kelly Agnes (pictured above), Rey Martinez (pictured below), and Sam Dabbas.
Rey Martinez is the chef at the restaurant, while Kelly seems to work the front of house.
I’m not sure about Sam’s role yet – I’ll update once the episode airs.
Unfortunately, the co-owners aren’t seeing eye to eye, and the toxic relationship between them is negatively affecting the South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant.
To make matters worse, they’re dealing with a heavy debt load, which always adds some extra stress to everything (and extra difficulties for the restaurant’s cash flow).
They reached out to Gordon Ramsay to help get the restaurant back on track so that they can tackle the debt and turn it into a sustaining business.
The actual South Brooklyn Foundry Kitchen Nightmares visit happened from June 7th to June 11th.
During that time, the Kitchen Nightmares producers put out a call for “on camera patrons to join us with a celebrity chef” in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
They did not name the actual restaurant, nor did they specify the show – they just called it a “restaurant renovation show for a major network television series”.
If you’ve ever wondered what the process looks like, here’s a screenshot of the casting call for South Brooklyn Foundry.
After the South Brooklyn Foundry Gordon Ramsay visit, the restaurant posted on its Facebook page about a “Grand Re-Opening” with a “new look and new menu, with classic favorites”.
This re-opening announcement was for June 12th, 2023 – the day after Kitchen Nightmares finished up filming at the restaurant.
Currently, I’m writing this post the day before the episode airs on TV.
As such, I don’t have any direct insight into what actually happens during the episode.
After it airs, I will add a more detailed recap that includes some highlights from the episode.
I’m guessing that there’s some yelling and some bad food.
I did see a clip from a preview video where Gordon Ramsay tries the $30 burger at South Brooklyn Foundry.
Even before eating it, he thinks it’s overpriced and says it needs to be “exceptional” to justify the price.
However, as you can probably guess, it was not “exceptional”.
He did call it “ok” (but it was still under-seasoned and a bit bland), but that’s not enough to justify such a high price.
Later on, when I share some real South Brooklyn Foundry reviews, you’ll see that some patrons also complain about the burger price.
These reviews were written before the episode aired on TV, so they’re not just mimicking Gordon.
Beyond pointing out issues with the food, I’m also guessing that Gordon Ramsay spruces up the place, tightens up the menu, and tries to make it more operationally efficient.
So – was the Kitchen Nightmares South Brooklyn Foundry episode a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Brooklyn restaurant is still open in 2024.
South Brooklyn Foundry Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the South Brooklyn Foundry Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Brooklyn, NYC.
Before talking about the restaurant itself, though, I first want to share one fun tidbit that happened when the episode was being filmed.
When Gordon was filming at the South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant, he went viral on TikTok for meeting with some fans and signing their Kitchenaid mixer.
Yes – someone literally carried their Kitchenaid mixer out to meet Gordon Ramsay.
Those things are friggin’ heavy, so they must really be Gordon Ramsay fans.
Here’s a link to the TikTok video and I’ve tried to embed it below.
@rizzogore Replying to @☆mari☆ 🥹🥹
Now, let’s get into talking about the restaurant…
Is South Brooklyn Foundry still open after Kitchen Nightmares?
As of 2023, South Brooklyn Foundry is still open and serving customers in Brooklyn, NYC.
Reviews for the restaurant seem quite good, and I’ll cover that topic in more depth below.
South Brooklyn Foundry used to be very active with posting on its Facebook page.
However, it hasn’t posted much since September 2023.
Instead, the restaurant seems to mostly use Instagram, now.
On the South Brooklyn Foundry Instagram page, they regularly post about events and specials at the restaurant.
They seem to have a few regular events.
First off, they seem to sometimes host a comedy show called Disorderly Conduct.
The show seems to move around Bay Ridge, with one of the locations being South Brooklyn Foundry.
The restaurant also seems to host other comedy events, such as a show called Gotta Be Me Comedy.
They also seem to have live music pretty regularly, which sounds nice.
Here’s a promo for Alex Toro, a jazz singer, though they also have other artists play.
Most of the other artists also seem to be jazz singers, which seems to be a theme for the live music at South Brooklyn Foundry.
They also have a regular karaoke night on Saturday, which gives the non-professionals a chance to sing.
One of the customer reviews below mentions that the karaoke night seems to draw a pretty big crowd.
And lastly, South Brooklyn Foundry also seems to have an occasional drag brunch on Saturday mornings (or other drag shows in the evening).
Overall, South Brooklyn Foundry seems to always have stuff going on, which probably plays a role in why its reviews are better than the average restaurant from Kitchen Nightmares.
Beyond the regular events, they also have other one-off things, such as a “Paint & Sip” event, where people can drink wine and paint stuff.
I’ll go into South Brooklyn Foundry reviews in more detail in the next section.
But first, I always like to embed the Google Maps street view viewer so that you can explore the area around the restaurant.
Here’s what the South Brooklyn Foundry NYC location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
Next, let’s take a look at some South Brooklyn Foundry reviews from after the visit from Gordon Ramsay…
South Brooklyn Foundry reviews after Gordon Ramsay visit
In general, South Brooklyn Foundry seems to have positive reviews.
On Yelp, it has an overall 4.3-star rating on 397+ reviews, which includes reviews from both before and after the Gordon Ramsay South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant visit.
On Google, things are even better – it has a 4.5 star rating on 382+ reviews, which again includes reviews from both before and after the episode.
Honestly, that doesn’t sound like a “nightmare” to me, as those ratings are better than most of the other restaurants that appear on Kitchen Nightmares.
With that being said, I’m always interested to see whether reviews from after Gordon’s visit are better than those before.
Given that we know the actual visit happened around June 7-10th 2023, let’s focus specifically on reviews from after the episode was filmed.
On Yelp, there have been 9 post-Gordon Ramsay reviews at the time that the South Brooklyn Foundry Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV.
Those reviews seem a bit mixed, with a 3.44 average rating (below the long-term average).
I’m not sure if there’s anything to read into that, as it could just be random chance.
On Google, the reviews are more positive, with only a couple of negative ones mixed in.
Most people seem complimentary of the food and service.
On the negative side, some people complain about high prices and the automatically added 20% gratuity charge.
Here’s a sampling of a few real reviews that were written after the South Brooklyn Foundry Gordon Ramsay visit:
Let’s look at the positive ones first…
5 star Yelp review from October 2023:
Since my last review and Gordon Ramsay’s visit the place is still excellent.
The food the service all of it!
Not sure why they needed any help [from Ramsay]
5 star Google review from September 2023:
IDK what Gordon Ramsay is going to say but this place is solid.
Used to get great take out.
Now we discovered great service.
Thanks Nick!
5 star Google review from October 2023:
Really terrific burger!
The bacon salad is awesome also.
Karaoke on the weekends is a bonus, attracts a really fun, energetic crowd.
Burrata and tomato jam appetizer is out of this WORLD good.
5 star Yelp review from November 2023:
We came in, a party of 2, about 7 pm Saturday night.
It was on the early side so was relatively quiet.
We loved the chefs burger, fries, and side salad.
Everything was fresh, delicious, and nicely presented.
Service was friendly and they seemed very interested in making sure we had a good experience, checking on us several times.
We will definitely return!
And then here are some examples of negative reviews from after Gordon’s visit…
2 star Google review from November 2023:
Cheap cuts at beyond premium prices.
Chef’s Burger at $24 is simply too high.
Brooklyn Burger Bar’s basic burger is $15 and is far superior.
Zona Sur’s basic burger is $18 and is on par with SBF.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken was similarly overpriced, especially when considering that it was packed with thigh meat (see photo).
Same for the chicken wrap.
Poor value for money.
2 star Yelp/Google review from August 2023:
After passing by this place countless times and noticing its popularity, we finally decided to give it a try today.
The food turned out to be decent, but unfortunately, our overall experience was overshadowed by some concerning issues.
Firstly, we ordered the chef burger, which was listed at $21 on the menu.
However, when the bill arrived, we were charged $24 for the burger.
When we inquired about the price discrepancy, the staff said they would inform the manager, but nothing further was done.
Consequently, we ended up paying $24 for a burger, excluding tax and gratuity.
Speaking of gratuity, we were surprised to find that they had added 20% gratuity after including tax.
Given that we were a party of 3 kids (including a toddler) and 2 adults, the total bill amounted to $54, with an additional $11.76 for gratuity.
This practice of charging gratuity on top of tax felt unusual and left us feeling dissatisfied with the overall value.
Considering these factors, the final cost of around $30 for a burger in Bay Ridge seems significantly overpriced.
Regrettably, we cannot recommend this place to others based on our experience.
Final thoughts on South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant
Overall, South Brooklyn Foundry seems to be doing pretty well after the Kitchen Nightmares episode.
However, it also seemed to be doing pretty well before the episode (at least in terms of customer reviews on Yelp and Google), so I’m not sure if Gordon Ramsay changed anything about the business’s trajectory.
Reviews for the restaurant were already pretty good, so there wasn’t much room to improve.
The restaurant also seems to have tons of regular events that involve the local community and bring people in.
Given all of that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one stay open for a long time, as long as they’re able to deal with the debt load of the restaurant (and keep their communication from turning toxic).
That wraps up my South Brooklyn Foundry Kitchen Nightmares update.
If you want to see some other Kitchen Nightmares episodes in Brooklyn, you also might be interested in my updates for Mama Maria’s from Season 6, Mojitos Restaurant from Season 3, and The Juicy Box from Season 8.
If you want to see updates for some other restaurants from the new season of Kitchen Nightmares, you can also read my updates for El Cantito Cafe in Yonkers NY, Love Bites Cafe in Saugerties NY, Da Mimmo in Dumont NJ, and Bel Aire Diner in Astoria Queens.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the South Brooklyn Foundry restaurant or the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thank you for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/south-brooklyn-foundry-brooklynhttps://www.facebook.com/sbkfoundry/
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Last updated: 2023-11-28 07:25
Just finished watching this episode. Still confused as to who owns the debt and access to the business accounts. The South Brooklyn Foundry owners are Kelly Agnes, Rey Martinez and Sam Dabbas. Who is Sam Dabbas? Rey walks, comes back 2 months after Ramsey leaves? What happened in the meantime? Who signs the paychecks? Did they hire new kitchen staff after the subs left? I guess so, right? Gordon never went into the walk-in, which is always the highlight of any Nightmare episode. I suppose he didn’t have a problem with the freshness of the ingredients or cleanliness of the kitchen. And again with the 20% mandatory gratuity. I wouldn’t eat there at those prices even if I could afford to…
Is Alex Toro a hybrid dinosaur or lizard person? Check out her creepy gloved (for her sake, I hope) hands.
a promotional photo in a filthy NYC subway is bad, especially since she is dressed like a night club singer. I hope that she wasn’t robbed.
You make some good points Sammy!
Rey is a loser and an asshat. He had no business being in a restaurant. Why Kelly let him back in 2 months later is beyond me.
Something very unsettling about this business ‘relationship’ to say the least. I wouldn’t trust either of them to tell me the correct time of day.
A captain of a ship never leaves his crew. Kelly should have sued his ass and got a restraining order. Clearly she stated 100 times he is an awful “partner”, so why is he back….
Just got off the phone with my lawyer and she said we would have sued him and owned that pizza shop. See you on Drag Night!
The commentary on Alex Toro’s head shots were worth visiting this write up.
Stendhal is always good for a laugh.
IMO Rey Martinez (The Foundry) is funnelling money from the restaurant’s bank accounts to his pizzeria or to some other venture or personal stuff hence why he hasn’t given her access to the bank accounts. Embezzlement should have been addressed in this episode. Not sure why it wasn’t.. Kelly took him back 2 months after Gordon left so if he continues to clean her out…maybe she deserves it…because taking him back was the dumbest thing she did. I hope it ends well!
She is definitely going to stay in debt as long as he is around.
You can buy almost 5 In N’ Out Double-Double burgers for the price of a Chef’s Burger at this restaurant. It’s a good thing for the owners that In N’ Out is not in New York!
This restaurant has unfortunately closed. https://www.brooklynpaper.com/south-brooklyn-foundry-closes-kitchen-nightmares/