Kitchen Nightmares: Is the Burger Kitchen still open?

Burger Kitchen, which was featured in a 2011 episode of Kitchen Nightmares closed only a year later.

There are only a few Kitchen Nightmares episodes that are so intricate that they need a double-feature to resolve, but the “Burger Kitchen” episodes are one of the best examples of this.

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Unfortunately, all Gordon Ramsay’s efforts proved to be fruitless, as Burger Kitchen closed its doors just a few months after its episodes aired.

About the original “Burger Kitchen” Kitchen Nightmares episodes

The Kitchen Nightmares episode in which Chef Gordon Ramsay visits the Burger Kitchen restaurant in Los Angeles, California, was jam-packed with action and drama.

So much so that it is one of the few episodes in the show’s history to be featured in a special two-part episode.

Not only did Burger Kitchen have all of the tell-tale issues that most of the restaurants on the show struggled with (including tasteless food, unhappy employees, cash flow issues and delusional management), but it also featured conspiracy theories ranging from stolen trust fund money and mob connections, to fake Yelp reviews.

Kitchen Nightmares: Is the Burger Kitchen still open?

Alan and Gen Saffron opened Burger Kitchen in 2010 (with a surprise investment from their son Daniel Saffron later on).

Though the restaurant was originally meant to be a way for Alan to share his love of meat with his loyal customers, the restaurant pretty much struggled from the moment that its doors opened.

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By the time that Ramsay showed up to film the “Burger Kitchen” episode just a few months later, the restaurant had already had 10 chefs and as many new menus.

Not only that, but the newest executive chef, David Blaine (not to be confused with the celebrity magician) had been struggling to make his mark under the owners’ direction and was not being paid timeously.

Ramsay certainly did his best to navigate the tense family dynamics and issues with staff in this double episode.

By the end of the second episode, it seemed like the restaurant’s new and improved menu, a state-of-the-art POS system and Daniel’s more stable leadership could have just been good enough to get Burger Kitchen out of the red.

Unfortunately, like many of the other restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares throughout the years, these changes were just too little, too late, and Burger Kitchen officially closed its doors in 2012. This closure came just one year after the episode aired in 2011.

In the end, Burger Kitchen did not last long enough for Ramsay to revisit the space, or to judge how well it was doing after his first visit and re-vamp. But some reviewers reported that Ramsay’s burgers were not even served after he left.

What has happened to the Saffron family since the “Burger Kitchen” episode aired?

By the end of the “Burger Kitchen” episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay had convinced Alan and Gen to hand the restaurant over to their son, and he had convinced Daniel to forgive his father.

Alan passed away in 2020, but Daniel ended up marrying his girlfriend at the time, Wendy (who was also featured in the episode). The couple now even has children together.

What happened after Burger Kitchen closed down?

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The Saffron family reportedly sold Burger Kitchen even before the business closed down. However, once Burger Kitchen shut down, a host of new restaurants opened in its place.

Unfortunately, many of these restaurants have faced the same fate as this original restaurant.

This includes a business named “Luigi’s”, followed by “Jaffaa Middle Eastern”, “Tokyo Cuisine Eatery” and “Theía”, a Greek restaurant which now occupies the former Burger Kitchen space.

Did the Yelp conspiracy turn out to be true?

One of the elements in the “Burger Kitchen” episode which has attracted the most attention (aside from Alan’s alleged ties to the mobster Abe Saffron, of course), is Alan’s conspiracy theory that his restaurant was failing because Yelp reviewers were out to get him.

Ramsay did his best to convince Alan otherwise throughout this episode and he even included various bloggers and reviewers twice in the episode.

But the real moment of truth came when the Saffron family reportedly handed the business over to someone else later in 2011.

By the time that Burger Kitchen closed down for good, the restaurant still had a not-so stellar Yelp rating of 3 out of 5 stars, with most of the reviews falling into the one-star category.

This proves that the Yelp reviewers were never out to get Alan specifically (as he had assumed) and that they were really just being honest about their food and overall experience, regardless of who owned the restaurant.

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Categories: Kitchens