[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
- I'm in Georgetown in Central Texas
to visit Simmer Down, a troubled home cooking
restaurant run by Chef Chris.
- The French onion wasn't good.
The gravy didn't have enough seasoning.
And the chicken fried steak was too breaded.
- Does she realize it's a chicken fried steak?
Simmer Down's half breakfast, half home cooking.
There's pickle pickle.
The restaurant is surrounded by a lot
of retirement communities.
A lot of them expect that liver and onions every day.
The day I opened in March of 2017,
there was a line out the door.
Ran out of food the first week every day.
- All righty.
- After that, my whole entire business just kind of went down
and I had no money left to my name.
It was horrible.
- Here's the crab cake sandwich.
- I would love Simmer Down to attract
some of the younger crowds around here.
I don't know how to get them to come in.
I don't know why they don't.
- Coconut cream pie.
- Chocolate cream? - Yeah.
- I need chocolate cream pie and coconut cream pie.
- My staff, most of them didn't have a whole lot of experience
when they came to work for me.
- How are you going to say, "Yes, I'll get you two pies,"
and then just walk the [bleep] off?
I'd rather you just say you're not going to [bleep] help me
than say you are.
- My brother Albert recently came down
to help me out with the restaurant
to run the front of the house.
- How are y'all doing this evening?
Is a table going to be OK?
Up until about three months ago, I was retired.
And my brother called me.
He sounded sad.
He needed my help, so I just jumped in my truck,
loaded up a few things, and came down the hill.
42 is probably them right there.
- No, this is 42.
I know my tables.
- Cierra's kind of like me-- real stubborn, mule-headed.
Cierra, did you get your pie yet?
- Yes, I got my pie.
I've been at Simmer Down
for about four or five years now, I think.
I'm not really good at math.
[laughter] I love this job.
Without this job, I wouldn't have food to put on the table.
I wouldn't have diapers to put on my daughter.
But we are kind of dysfunctional.
We are a little bit all over the place.
- Go grab them other tables, man.
- You grab a table, Bert.
I ain't seen you grab nothing but a chair.
- Simmer Down has really worn my brother down.
There's a lot of unprofessionalism,
a lot of disrespect amongst employees.
Sometimes it get to a point
where, like, Chris will fly off the handle quick.
His temper is real short.
- Is everything tasting OK?
- Having a hard time finding any crab flavor in here.
- Yeah, I can see if we can make you some more crab cakes.
We got a crab cake sandwich where he said
he couldn't find any crab meat in his crab cakes.
He just wants them remade.
- You can tell him it's one big mix.
I'll cook him whatever the [bleep] he wants,
but a crab sandwich he's going to send right back.
- When Chris is having a bad day,
steer clear, because little things will set him off.
It'd probably be easier for me just to cook by myself.
- All right, so alls we're doing is wasting food.
- OK, OK.
- If you want to go out there and tell him
a homeless person is [bleep] starving--
- Nope. Don't--no.
- Customer's always right, except for when I tell them
they're wrong.
- Chris is a very hands-on owner,
and it's just draining him.
I mean, being here from 4:00 or 5:00
in the morning every day,
till about 6:00 or 7:00 at night.
- I need a water.
- He has no time to go and do anything cool with his family.
- Man, that was stressful.
- I think y'all can do better, man.
- Nah.
- Y'all can do it better, man.
His health is not doing good, you know?
His family life hasn't been doing good.
I'm really here just to make sure my little brother,
you know, gets better, you know?
Like, he just didn't seem happy.
- I get criticized every day.
[groans]
It's really hard to juggle a life at home
and own a restaurant.
[sniffles]
Problem is, is when I'm not here,
[bleep] don't get done.
That was a [bleep] show.
- This restaurant is festering.
You cannot be that deluded!
Stop, stop, stop.
I promise you, you can't do this!
Smell it!
Shut it down!
[upbeat music]
I'm in beautiful Georgetown, Texas.
It's the up and coming.
The developments are extraordinary.
And there's even a retirement community
right across the street.
When you're a good local neighborhood restaurant
in this area, there should be lines
outside the door.
Simmer Down.
There it is.
OK.
Morning. - Welcome to Simmer Down.
How are you doing this afternoon?
- How are you? Good.
- My name is Albert. - Albert.
- I'll be your host today. - Excellent.
- My brother's the chef and the owner here.
I'm petrified.
Everybody's scared of Gordon.
But I'm hoping that Gordon really does have a heart.
And he's going to come in here,
and he's going to look and see what we really need
and help my brother.
- Sir Ramsay's here, buddy.
- Shut the [bleep] up. - Mm.
[laughs]
- Good morning. - Good morning.
- How are we both? - Well, thank you for asking.
- Good. What did you get?
- How was that?
- Damn, do you hear that? - We'll work with it.
- He's taller than I expected. - It's the hair.
- No, he's actually tall.
- Simmer Down. Simmer Down.
"Did your server ask about appetizers and desserts?
If not, you get 15% off your bill."
- Yes, sir.
- Why would you put that on there?
Can you not see that's a problem?
15% off, there goes our profit.
But is there an issue with the servers here?
- Yeah, that's been the main issue.
- Right. - You know, like, that's why
my brother asked me to come down and help.
He was overwhelmed, you know.
He was having trouble with the staff.
My brother's not really good with people in general.
- He's not good with people?
Here, let me whisper you something.
Why the [bleep] would you open a restaurant
if you're not good with people?
- Hello. - How are you?
- I'm doing good. How are you?
- Good. Nice to meet you. This is?
- Nice to meet you. I'm Hannah.
- Hannah, good to see you.
- Albert's my dad, and Hunter is my little brother.
- Oh, wow, this is a family-run front of the house.
- It's family everywhere. - We good?
- Yeah. - Right.
Let's go for the all meat omelet.
- All meat omelet.
- Let's do that with hash browns, please, thank you.
- Hash browns? - Yes.
I may as well try the salmon as well, you know that?
- The salmon. - Liver and onions.
- That brings back some memories--bloody hell.
- All righty, I'll get that in for you.
[light music]
That's Gordon's. - All right.
What did he get? - The all meat omelet, salmon--
- Oh, liver.
Gordon Ramsay is the main man of cooking.
Knowing that he's about to eat my food is insane.
I'm terrified that he's going to spit it out on the plate.
There's the meat omelet.
- Oh, wow.
- Here we are, Chef.
You got your all meat omelet.
- Amazing.
And what meat's in there in that one there?
- There's sausage, bacon, and ham.
- Sausage, bacon, and ham.
- Yes, sir. - Thank you.
Look at the state of that.
Oh, my Lordy.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[bleep].
- Did anybody ask how he wanted his salmon done?
- No, because we never ask how the salmon's done.
- I'm more worried about the salmon than anything else.
I'm trying to figure out how Gordon wants his food.
I'm not getting relayed the information back.
What am I supposed to do?
- Who the [bleep] is going to tell me that?
- Tell you what?
- That we have to start asking
how they want the salmon cooked.
- That's how you-- what do you mean?
That's normally what you have to do
when somebody asks for salmon. - No, you don't.
- Yes, it is. - No, it's not.
- Salmon.
- Here's your salmon, sir.
- Thank you.
There's so much meat in the omelet.
It's just--yeah, it just tasted of [bleep] grease.
I'll--I'll wait. - Yes, sir.
- Thank you. - Sorry about that.
- [grunts]
- Excuse me, excuse me.
He sent the omelet back.
He said there was too much bacon, and it was greasy.
- I've never heard of an omelet having too much [bleep] bacon.
Well, when you cook perfection,
you got to find something to [bleep] up.
- Well, that's my salmon.
Albert, it's $18.50.
- That doesn't look like $18.50 worth of food?
♪ ♪
- Do you like salmon?
- Yes, sir.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
- Any special seasoning on there?
- Well, it's definitely overcooked.
But there's no [bleep] seasoning on there.
But I'd like to know what the special seasoning is,
because I think he forgot it. - I'm going to find out.
I'm going to come back and let you know.
- Yeah.
- Chef didn't like the salmon.
He said the salmon was overcooked.
He wants to know what the secret spices are, though.
- Tell him it's a secret.
- My brother doesn't handle criticism well at all.
If anyone in here tells him his food sucks,
hey, he's going to deny it and he's going to cuss you out.
- You overcooked the salmon?
- I asked him 100 times,
how does he want his salmon cooked?
No one gave me an answer.
- Cook, I thought he told everybody.
- I did. Everyone was standing
right here when I yelled it. - I did not hear.
- Hannah! - What?
- I said a hundred times, how does he want his salmon cooked?
And no one gave me an answer.
- No one gave me an answer.
No one told me we were checking to see if we were doing that.
When are we--
- What's all the shouting going on?
What's going on?
- I'm sorry, Chef.
You don't want to hear all of that.
- Most important [bleep] in the dining room
doesn't get asked.
- Looks like me being a little [bleep]
screaming at them through the window.
And then all the customers can hear it.
But I wanted to make sure everything was perfect,
but I just didn't have the information I needed.
- Come on.
- These livers, man. They're good.
Gordon is complaining about everything,
but what he's saying is--
[mimics buzzer] Wrong.
- This is my liver.
- Liver and onions. - Excellent.
Albert!
Come here.
Come here, sit down.
Now, I grew up with liver and onions.
Liver and onions was, like, a staple.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Oh, it tastes salty, yeah.
- Do you?
- Yeah, OK.
Thank you. - All right.
Sorry, Chef. - [bleep].
- I like to be a part of something
that people are taking pride in.
And it really upset me.
I'm over there testing the food and it sucked.
Chris.
It's really salty, man.
You know, a lot of the food, he said, has been really salty.
And, like, a lot of the customers
have been saying it's salty.
- [bleep] no.
- You don't think it's salty?
- [bleep] no.
I'm thinking 100% [bleep].
I didn't think anything was salty at all,
and I'm pretty pissed off.
Man, don't [bleep] with me.
It came out of the same [bleep] pot, Bert.
You just tasted it.
It ain't [bleep] salty.
Are they dumping salt on their [bleep] and then eating it?
I mean, I know people that sit down and just do this
before they even eat because their mom
don't know how to cook.
- I want to help my brother succeed.
But if he's not even going to listen
to criticism from the best chef in the world,
I mean, that's insane.
It was really salty to me, man.
- Where the [bleep] are you getting salt at?
- Taste this one.
Just taste this. - Huh?
That's because he put salt on it.
- No, he didn't. He didn't put salt on it.
- Oh, boy. - He dumped some salt on that.
- No, just take a bite.
- I'm not tasting anything that had
somebody's mouth on it, dude.
You're out of your [bleep] mind.
I don't give a [bleep] who he is.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- You know, a lot of the food he said has been really salty.
- That's because he put salt on it.
- No, he didn't. Taste this one.
Now, just take a bite--
- I'm not tasting anything that had
somebody's mouth on it, dude.
You're out of your [bleep] mind.
That's out of the same [bleep] thing, man.
Don't [bleep] with me.
I'm pretty pissed off.
Every day when I cook fresh stuff, I taste it.
And tasting brown gravy at 6:00
in the morning when it's cooking
is not what you want to taste, but I do it every day.
- Sorry, Chef.
- What dessert do you have? - We have pie.
- Can I have a slice of that, please?
- Sure.
The lemon or the key lime?
- Whatever he's got. - OK, OK.
- As long as it's not too salty.
Thank you. - No. [laughs]
Let me go take it out. - Chef's choice.
- Bro, he wants chef's choice of pie.
[tense music]
All right, Chef.
- Thank you very much.
All right, sit down.
This is--this is-- - This is a lemon cherry pie.
- And who makes these? - My brother.
He actually gets up and bakes them every day.
- Mm-hmm.
So what time did he get up this morning to cook these?
- 4:00 a.m.
Does he have a family to look after?
- [bleep].
- About three months ago. That's when I came down.
- I'm sorry.
- One day he came home and she was gone.
- Me and my wife Terry have been married for 26 years.
We started this place happy.
Terry would hang out and enjoy the restaurant.
Everything was going great.
But later on, the restaurant kind of sunk.
I'm working, like, 80 hours a week,
and she didn't want to be around much anymore.
[sniffles]
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- Gotcha. That's--that's positive.
- But-- [clears throat]
I had a heart-to-heart with him.
I said, you know, like, Chris,
you know, you're about to lose your investment here.
You know, I said--
- And your family.
- Yeah, I mean, your family's gone.
If you lose the restaurant, what do you have?
And he goes,
you know, "I just want my wife back, man, you know?"
- The restaurant. That's very kind of you.
And is he-- is he financially secure?
Does he have-- does he have money behind him?
- The restaurant's in decline.
His marriage is on the rocks.
Are the staff pulling on the rope?
Do they help him? Does it seem--
- Everybody's getting complacent.
It's a team full of misfits here.
- Wow. - A lot of craziness, you know?
- This thing's taking him down.
It's taking you down. It's--
- It's taking me down.
Like, I kind of--
- Oh, I'm sorry.
- I just have to get back up to doing it.
- When was that polished last?
Oh, [bleep].
Oh, my God.
- Oh! - Oh.
- It's on his back! Snake on his back.
- It's on your shoulder right there.
- Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?
- Hold on, man. - Where is it? Where is it?
- [hissing] - [bleep].
[laughter]
That is gross.
[bleep] ew.
Let's bring out the whole team, please, Albert.
- All right, team members, we would like to have
everybody out here now.
- Come take a seat, bud.
- Where's--where's Chef?
- He's coming.
They were putting up some food real quick.
- I'm thinking when I go out there,
I'm going to tell him what's up.
I don't think this is going to end up well.
- Ah, this is him. - How you doing?
- Nice to meet you.
How are you feeling?
- Feeling tired, beat.
- You're feeling tired? - Yes.
- And this is-- - This is Squirrel.
- Oh, Squirrel. - I'm the man.
- Yeah, take a seat. Come and sit down.
Oh, boy.
I am lost for words.
[dramatic music]
What's going on with the food?
- I don't know what's going on.
- You don't know what's going on?
- No.
I'm pretty pissed about the salt.
Everybody yesterday that had the same gravy,
I didn't get one [bleep] complaint.
- Wow. - It's the same gravy.
- Oh, my [bleep] good God.
- I'm sticking up for myself, because he is saying
my food is all salty, and it's not computing
in my head whatsoever.
- You tasted the food? - Wasn't salty at all.
- But I'm going to tell you, eight other people tonight
had told me the same thing.
Things were salty today, man.
- I just never had anybody in the seven years
that I've been here complain about my food being salty...
- Right. - Until today.
- People don't complain.
They just don't come back, Chris.
A lot of people don't complain.
They just don't come back.
- I wish that was the only [bleep] problem in here.
"Did your server ask whether you had
"appetizers and desserts?
If not, you get 15% off your bill."
Chris, what does that mean?
- I can't get a server to sell a piece of pie.
If I told them they'd get shot if they don't sell a pie,
I'd have a bunch of dead servers in here.
- But do you have any idea how degrading that is on a menu
when the customers sit down?
- That was the only way I can threaten them
into doing their job.
- Have you tried teaching them?
Have you tried engaging them?
- They've got a rough teaching from me, but--
- A rough teaching from you?
What the [bleep] does that mean?
- That means once you [bleep] up,
I chew your ass, and you know now not to do it.
- So why are the front of house so bad, in your eyes?
- They don't have no control.
- But they're your team.
- Yeah. - Do you care about them?
- Oh, yeah.
- It doesn't sound like it to me.
- Well, the front of the house has never been
trained properly, so it was just a free-for-all.
Everybody does what they wanted to, Chef.
- They get mad at us for doing our own [bleep] thing.
Well, if we didn't do the [bleep] damn thing,
nothing would get done.
- But y'all ain't doing nothing.
How long has that dust been on that fan?
- I don't know, Bert. - And how long have you worked?
- I don't know, Bert. There's four of us.
There's four of us, and you're sitting here walking around.
You can get it just as much as I can get it.
[bleep].
- Cierra doesn't like to be critiqued.
She doesn't like to be told what to do.
- A dust snake that long landed on Chef Ramsay's back.
I swear to God.
- And all I hear is, "You could have done it,
but you could have done it."
And I don't see nobody [bleep] doing it!
- You got people here that have all been doing
what they want for so long.
- [bleep].
- And if I try and come in and hold them accountable,
then they're all going to start a--
a mutiny against me because--
I've already heard I've been called [bleep].
- Don't be acting like [bleep] then.
- I'm trying to prof-- - You want to sit here
and talk all this and say that we only--
we don't have any kind of management, because we don't.
- Oh, my God.
- I can't reach that anyways.
[dramatic music]
- At Simmer Down, staff tensions are at boiling point.
- You want to sit here and talk all this and say that we only--
we don't have any kind of management, because we don't.
- Wow.
Does anybody take this seriously in here,
because there's a lot at stake.
If I was in your shoes, I'd be petrified.
We are spiraling out of control.
We're not listening to customer feedback.
And we're in an absolute rut.
Chris, do you take this seriously?
- I--I used to take it real seriously,
and now it's just beat the [bleep] out of me.
I'm stumbling through the day.
- I respect your honesty.
But seriously, I'm worried.
- Chris has kind of lost his luster.
And, you know, he just needs to get kicked back in
and have more love for it again.
So if we can get Gordon on our team
and just get him to help us out,
we can make this thing work.
- Show me what we got tonight.
Show me how this place functions, will you, please?
I want to see how you come together.
♪ ♪
I need some fresh air.
I'll see you shortly.
♪ ♪
[bleep] hell.
While the team prepare for dinner service,
I've arranged to meet Chris's wife, Terry,
with whom he ran the restaurant successfully
before recently separating.
Hey, Terry. How are you?
- Hi. - Nice to see you.
- It's nice to meet you. - Likewise. Thank you so much.
That was a tough experience for me this morning with Chris.
I don't think he quite understands
just how broken things are.
Are you concerned about him? - Absolutely.
No 50-year-old man should have to put in
80 hours a week on his feet.
And he doesn't sleep. Stressed all the time.
I think it's killing him.
- Mm-hmm.
Restaurants are really hard to run.
When I opened my first restaurant--
my wife is a schoolteacher.
And I closed the restaurant Saturdays, Sundays.
We needed time out of that business
to make sure the family was intact.
- Right.
- How has that worked with you, in terms of the marriage
and the restaurant?
How--how are you coping with that?
- When you spend that many hours at the restaurant,
what comes home is not the best.
- No.
- But it was to a point
where we couldn't keep doing that.
- No.
- The restaurant has pretty well taken everything.
- I'm sorry.
It's just unfair, because no--
- It is. - No family deserves that.
- It's pretty tough, actually.
Tomorrow is our 27th wedding anniversary.
- Wow.
How much does he mean to you?
- Everything.
[somber music]
I mean, I don't know what my life would be without him.
♪ ♪
- Would you take him back?
- Of course.
- Let's get the restaurant back together--
- Perfect. - And welcome you back.
Because it feels like, and looks like,
that restaurant has beaten him down.
And the consequences are obvious.
- Oh, yes.
- And no restaurant's worth that, let me tell you.
- No.
- I appreciate the time. - Of course.
It was wonderful to meet you. - Likewise.
- Thank you.
- Take care now. - Thanks.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Now that I have a better understanding
of the sacrifices Chris has made,
I need to observe a busy evening service
to pinpoint the issues at the restaurant.
[upbeat music]
- Hello, how y'all doing?
My name is Albert. I'm your host today.
- All right, here we go.
- We're going to get [bleep] going into this dinner service.
It's gonna be a [bleep] nightmare.
- Come on over this way.
- Can I start y'all off with any appetizers?
- I think it's good.
How do you want that cooked?
- Salmon, medium.
Tonight, I'm going to show Gordon
that Simmer Down rocks out food, it's tasty,
and everybody loves it.
- OK.
Some early birds, yes?
- Yes, sir.
- OK, what's that?
- Egg rolls should be just about there.
- Hunter! - Chris, give me an insight.
How does this run? Who does what?
- When it's just me and him,
we both bounce the window, and--
- Right. - I do omelets and frying.
- But who--who--who leads?
Who's it--are you in charge?
- Basically, them tickets come out,
and he tries to yell them out as they come out.
- Gotcha. - Hunter!
- That looks good to me, man.
I'd say let's go with it.
- I got you.
We got a pork chop.
- Sir.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- How are you, my darling? - I'm lovely.
- How was your salmon?
- Kind of nondescript.
- Right. - It could use something.
- Got you.
- The crab cakes were overdone.
- Overdone, yeah, damn.
- I'm Hannah. I'll be taking care of y'all.
Would you like to start off with any appetizers?
- Fried mushrooms and egg rolls.
- Everyone is ordering appetizers,
and our fryers can't keep up.
And food is sitting in the window.
It's getting soggy.
- It just sits in there for a long time, doesn't it?
Do you know what I mean?
- Sometimes they do, yeah.
It's a mess.
- [bleep].
- Whoo! - What's wrong?
- Running out of room.
- Hold on. - So this--
- You said--you were pissed off about that earlier,
they weren't selling apps.
You wanted the apps, right?
- Oh, yeah.
- Man.
- And this is a Reuben and an Old Timer.
The Reuben was here, and I'll get you--
I'm going to go grab your soup, OK?
Thank you. - Thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
♪ ♪
- How's that Reuben?
- Well, the half that had sauce on it is good.
- Mm-hmm. - The other half...
- Damn. - Yeah.
- Can we make you a fresh one? - Sure.
- Can you refire a fresh one again, please?
- Let me get that. Sorry. - Thank you very much.
[bleep].
- OK.
Squirrel, I need a Reuben remake.
This one has no sauce on the side.
So I need a Reuben remake with french fries.
OK? - What a mess.
- Chris is getting hammered on the fried side.
I'm getting hammered on the grill side.
And we're both trying to plate everything in the middle.
And really, it's--it's just getting hammered all around.
Bert!
Where the hell is he at?
- Y'all have a safe trip home and enjoy the rest
of this beautiful day, OK?
- Now, where the hell is Bert?
He brought me up a sandwich that said they wanted
to remake it, and that's the remake.
Cierra!
- [bleep]. What a cluster-[bleep].
- Hannah!
Yell at [bleep] Bert to get his ass over here.
Bert!
♪ ♪
Bert, you can't tell me to remake a sandwich
and not tell anyone where it goes.
[bleep].
- Squirrel, you shouting and screaming like that,
is that normal for you?
- If I've asked him 100 times, yes.
- Yeah. - I'm going--
- Stop.
We just--just not good enough.
♪ ♪
- How are we doing over here, guys?
- What's the aftertaste?
- Rotten tomato? - Yeah.
- OK.
OK, I've got stuff to tell you.
The tomato basil tastes like rotten tomatoes.
There's a weird aftertaste to it.
- Well, that's because I put [bleep] in it.
- I'm embarrassed that my name is
even affiliated with the-- with the place, you know?
- So they can taste the [bleep] in it.
- What a [bleep] show.
- Excuse me.
- That is one crazy
[bleep] restaurant.
Honestly, it's embarrassing.
There are no systems.
There are no standards.
And above all else, there's no respect.
It's like a performance run by a bunch of clowns.
- Some people need to just wash their dentures out
and not leave them in all [bleep] week.
[dramatic music]
- Rotten tomato? OK.
The tomato basil tastes like rotten tomatoes.
There's a weird aftertaste to it.
- Well, that's because I put [bleep] in it.
So they can taste the [bleep] in it.
- Excuse me.
- What a [bleep] show.
Wow.
[tense music]
- Was everything OK over here?
- It's very fishy. - It's super fishy.
- Send back the crab cakes. - Got it.
- We don't have any more mac and cheese.
- No more mac? - No.
- OK.
- They didn't like the crab cakes.
They said they were too fishy.
and the lettuce that they get put on,
they said it seemed old.
- Old lettuce? - I don't know.
- No. - Whatever.
- We're out of mac and cheese, right?
- And mashed potatoes now.
- No onion rings, no nothing.
The rail is filled with tickets.
Food's getting sent back, and we're drowning.
Who had the soggy or old sweet potato or whatever?
- He is really a one-man band, right?
- He loves the restaurant business
and he loves to cook, but he's beat down.
He wants to do it all himself.
- He's like the ringleader of his own [bleep] show.
Lost his family, lost his wife, lost his son.
- Couldn't believe how hard he's working, man.
And he asked me for help, I was like, he really must need help.
- He'll kill himself before he drowns.
- I was already retired.
I wasn't ready to come back and get in the game like this.
- Excuse me, general manager. I'm out of wine glasses.
- I know. They're in the back right now.
- Out of mash, mac, no crab cakes, no onion rings.
- [bleep], man, disaster.
- Bert, sit down quickly.
I'm here to help.
I don't like to see a man putting himself
through everything he's doing,
because he's taking everybody down.
He's taken his family down.
He's taken the restaurant down.
He's taken you down.
- That's why I've been talking to him.
You're going to have to trust the people around you.
- I need you to be strong.
I need you to be honest, OK?
Let's stop him now.
- I'll do whatever I can.
- Let's go. Let's go.
I've spoken to Bert, and now I need to sit down with Chris.
He clearly needs help, and I need to talk to him.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to take this opportunity
just to apologize.
I'm not going to allow anything else
to come out of that kitchen,
because we have some serious issues.
Can you help the guests out, please?
Thank you. Thank you.
Hey, stop.
We're done.
Enough.
- Enough? - Stop right there.
♪ ♪
Chris, we need to talk.
- Thank you all. Sorry about that.
- You two, come and sit down.
Sit down.
Cameras out.
Out!
Staff, out!
What is going on?
- I don't--I don't know what--
- Come on, Chris. Come on.
- I don't know what's happening.
- Come on, Chris.
You're not right.
I can't for one more minute
to see you performing like this.
And we can blame staff, we can blame errors,
customers, senior homes.
The first person I'm starting with is you.
My friend,
it's not the restaurant that needs fixing.
I need to help fix you first.
What do you want out of this, Chris?
[somber music]
- Time off would be nice.
- Mm-hmm.
- But, man, this is a monster.
My wife Terry and I started this place happy,
and it pretty much tore us apart.
It's hard coming in every day.
[sniffles]
A lot of time that should have been spent
at home wasn't.
It was all spent here.
- Let's get a system in place.
Let's get you out of here.
It's doable.
♪ ♪
I can't do it.
- I've never seen you so angry and so torn apart.
But your health is bad.
There's no structure here, man.
Your life is a [bleep] show around you, man.
- Your family's important.
How much?
- It's so important he told me he'd walk away from this thing
if he could just get his family back.
But I told him he can have both.
- This thing is taking you down.
And before we lose anything else, we're stopping.
Deep down inside, you are way better than this.
♪ ♪
Are you willing to change?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Then you've got me, OK?
It's going to be a tough couple of days,
but you need to embrace the change.
Yeah?
- Yeah, I'll--I'll do whatever you tell me.
- Come on. - Thank you, Chef.
- Thank you.
I thought that this whole thing was just
going to be him tearing me a new [bleep],
and it's not that.
It's kind of like getting to the root of the problem
and figuring it out.
I want to be happy again.
- Come on, Chris.
[dramatic music]
- With Chris on board, transformation on him
and his restaurant can begin.
Working through the night,
my team have revived the outside patio,
while inside, we brought in vibrant colors
and popping wall features
to appeal to the younger generation.
And a fully equipped, modern kitchen
has been opened up to allow direct lines
of communication between the front and back of house.
I can't wait for Chris and the team
to see the completed transformation.
- Oh, my God!
- When you walk in, it's just, like,
kapow, right in your face.
- Is this the same place?
- Look at the bar! - I know, dude!
- What?
- Man, this is badass.
- Very nice. - Dude!
Whoa!
- The pictures I have on the wall--
sorry--of me and my wife--
[sniffles]
Just kind of felt like family coming back.
And that's what I need right now.
Just beautiful.
[upbeat music]
- Oh, my goodness me. - Hunter, put it down.
- Hunter! For God's sake, man!
Let Chris-- [laughter]
Diving into the food already.
It's inviting, right?
Now I feel like I want to come in for a dinner.
And with that back area opened up now,
it's bringing the dining room into the kitchen
and the kitchen into the dining room.
We've even got a remotely accessible
TouchBistro POS system.
On your days off, you can study on the app
and it'll give you a minute by minute sales.
Let's talk about the menu, if Hunter hasn't eaten it all.
[laughter] - Ha!
- Right, chopped salad-- that's going to come out
in literally two and a half minutes.
A little pulled pork chili bowl.
60 seconds to get that to the table.
Main course, chicken salad sandwich.
A double smash burger, big hit with all the youngsters.
Super quick and really delicious.
Great Texan ribeye.
Beautiful little rub on there, and fried eggs.
We're relaunching Simmer Down tonight.
And for the first time ever,
we're going to be connected like that.
I've never heard you so quiet. What's wrong?
- Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed.
- To see the tears in my brother's eyes,
Chef Ramsay, I couldn't be more appreciative.
It's beautiful.
- Dig in.
- The pulled pork chili is really good.
- The menu is awesome.
I would have a hard time myself
trying to figure out what to eat.
I'd probably order five or six things and--and just gorge.
- The menu and the décor are on point,
so now it's time to introduce the systems and training
that this place has never had.
I'm loving those aprons, by the way.
- Yeah, they look good. - You come with me.
All the dining room staff, come over, please.
Ladies, let's go.
Let's do a mock service and pretend
we've got two two-tops in first, yes?
So go to the POS system now and fire
one chicken sandwich and one smash burger.
Let's go.
Chris, that ticket comes in. You call it out.
The minute you call out, we're live.
- Sounds good.
The staff is listening to what Gordon's saying
and firing on all cylinders.
- Let's go.
- All right, next ticket came in.
I'm hoping it's--it's gonna roll out nice and good.
- You go in now and fire another table.
Let's do one bowl of chili, one chicken sandwich.
Let's go.
Table 30, please.
- I don't remember what he said, dude.
Gordon knows what he's doing.
Some things can be implemented,
but not everything will always work like that.
- Call it out.
- It looks like we just got a queso going on.
That's all I'm seeing on here.
- So why is that coming out just one queso?
- I need to write stuff down like a normal server.
I can't remember this [bleep] off the top of my head.
- Come over, come over, come over.
It's only a two-top.
And we're weak in here. We need to get really on it.
- You want me to change a habit that I've had
and want me to just change it one day?
It doesn't really work like that, man.
[tense music]
- But it's only a two-top. - That's fine.
It could be a two-top, it could be a one-top.
- But are you saying you can't do it?
- I'm not saying I can't do it.
I'm saying that I can't remember it all the time, dude.
- Right.
So--call me Gordon.
- Cierra's attitude can definitely hurt the restaurant.
She doesn't like to be told that she's wrong.
And when she does, she goes into defense mode.
- I'm trying to bring the dining room
and the kitchen together.
That means you have to pull on the rope a little bit.
Are you OK?
If you don't want to do it, just tell me.
- I like--I like waitressing.
I like my job. I like the people I meet.
I have regulars.
I'm defensive because seeing Gordon be critical
makes my blood boil.
I definitely want to tell him to [bleep] off.
- I'm not asking you to absorb all the tickets.
You can write it down, with absolute pleasure.
Let's start again. - OK.
- Right? - Yeah.
- Get your pen and paper.
A smash burger, and let's do a chicken sandwich.
So you go on and put that in.
Call out that order, and then we go from there.
Let's go, guys.
- All right, what have we got here starting out?
We got a double smash burger you need to fry.
- Are we going to work from left to right or right--
- We're going to put the first one up here--
- So we work from left-- - And work our way down.
- Left to right. - Yes.
- Everybody agreed? - Yes.
- Everybody understood?
And we don't take that down, OK,
until that is completed, all right?
You OK? - Yes.
- Do you want to go behind the bar and serve drinks--
- No. - If you find it too difficult.
- No. - No?
- You got this.
We got this.
- Please stop touching me.
- Cierra definitely needs tough love.
She's never really had someone to, like, tell her
that she needs to do this, this, and this.
Listen to him, because he's here to help us.
He's not the bad guy.
- I think Cierra will be at her wits' end,
and she will blow.
- Walk away, please.
- What?
Gordon gave us a beautiful restaurant,
an easy, streamlined menu.
If we don't make this thing happen,
it's not on anybody but us.
- Don't talk to her right now.
- At Simmer Down...
- Uh, hold on, Bert.
Bert, don't talk to her right now.
- Server Cierra is finding it tough to adapt
to the essential new systems that I've put in place.
If we start falling out with each other,
it's not good in front of customers
and then our systems disappear.
Yeah? We're good?
- You got this. We got this.
- Are you familiar with the system now?
- Yeah. - Love it.
You got this. Come on.
- Cierra seems to have her head in the game now.
I think that she's keeping it in the back of her mind
that this is for the better to help Chris out.
- Miss Smiles. - Ugh!
This place is not just a restaurant to me.
- I love you to death.
Smile and the rest will come. You already know how to work.
- Chris has helped me out so many ways in my life,
and I owe a lot to him.
I see the potential that this place could be,
and I would like to see it there.
I want to see him succeed.
- One, two, three.
all: Simmer Down!
- Training over, the relaunched restaurant
is ready to open its doors.
- Welcome to Simmer Down. - Our first customers.
- How y'all like the way it looks in here?
- The secret here is to get you in and out,
to understand the system.
Let them feel the pressure.
Come in, two minutes, back in.
You got this. Come on. - I got you.
I am super excited when people walk in that door
and see how it looks,
see how the food tastes.
This place is going to be the talk of the town.
[upbeat music]
- Do we want to start off with any appetizers?
- So just the hot wings and the queso?
All right, I will get that.
- I got a hot wing and a queso with chorizo.
- Is everybody doing all right? - Yeah.
- Good, good.
- They're coming in quick, though.
- OK.
♪ ♪
- Everything tasting good?
Everything's looking good?
You're welcome.
- Those eggs on that ribeye is over medium.
- Oh, it says over medium.
- OK, so it's well done ribeye, but over medium eggs.
- OK.
- The communication with the front and the back
has been a lot better.
They're actually listening to us,
and there's no attitude or fighting between us all.
- Was that the chili?
That's probably my favorite thing.
- First bites, what are we thinking?
- I think it was very good.
- Wings?
- They were very juicy. - Yes.
- The spice was perfect. - Great.
- Here you go. - Thank you.
Hunter!
- All right, Squirrel, we good?
- I'm doing it. - Keep it going, man.
Keep it going. Yeah?
Good.
So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13--
15 tables. You can do this.
Come on. Well done, bud.
Come on.
- Is another wing ready?
- We're full.
Kitchen is slammed, but we're coping.
That's the big difference.
And honestly, Squirrel's really leveled up.
And more importantly, he's in control.
- I need more dinner plates.
- That line is slammed,
and Chris is nowhere to be seen.
And that's the secret of success--
this kitchen functioning without Chris.
Keep it going, Squirrel, please?
- I got two in the window or one in the window?
- Are y'all first time here?
Awesome.
My staff is a lot better.
I feel like I could trust
and let this place run without me.
- With the service in full swing,
a very special guest is here.
Welcome. - Hi.
- How are you? - Good.
- Chris's wife, Terry, on the day
of their wedding anniversary.
What do you think? - I like it.
The new Simmer Down is beyond anything
that I could have imagined.
It's incredible.
- Let's go have a seat outside.
Can I get you some water, or-- - Water would be good.
- Yeah? - Here we go.
- Get two nice glasses of water.
Yeah, then go outside the patio now.
Somebody wants to say hello to you, patio.
- All right, thank you.
Hey!
[soft music]
Happy anniversary, mama.
- So how's it going?
- It's crazy.
Have you got to see inside? - Yeah.
- It's beautiful, isn't it?
- It looks great, yeah.
I like it.
- It's beautiful.
- I'm really glad that this came for you.
You know, this was the dream.
- Well, it was our dream.
- I hope you'll listen to him and take a step back.
- Yeah.
To be able to do this and still have
family time...
[sniffles]
Is the best part, I think.
- That's the most important part.
- Yeah, because we weren't going to make it.
[sniffles]
This place is going to make it
where me and you can have some quality time together.
- That's the biggest win of all, for me.
- Yeah.
Love you. - I love you too.
I'm very excited to have more time with my husband--
more quality time.
Not the exhausted, frustrated, dead on his feet husband.
And so this is just--
it--it's a godsend.
- This is the happiest I've seen Chris in a while--
a very long time.
You guys look so cute together. I love it.
They're having, like, a little date night out here.
Super cute. I love Chris and Terry, man.
- Happy anniversary, y'all two.
- Yeah.
This has been a wild roller coaster.
It is ups and downs and all arounds.
It's put me and my wife in a really good spot.
And my staff, we're all just a huge family now.
I think it's going to be great.
- Well done.
Success has a price to pay,
but it's not worth losing the family.
You know that.
You've got your system. Now use it.
Keep one foot in the kitchen and one foot out.
OK? - Definitely.
- Until next time, bud. Come here.
- Chef, thank you. Thanks a lot.
- Look after yourself, man.
- Thank you so much.
- Any--any questions, anything, you call me.
Take care. - You're too amazing, Chef.
Thank you. - Take care, guys.
Oh, boy.
When I first got here, this restaurant was
a run-down island of misfits.
Now, finally, with a good communication, a system,
and respect between the front of house
and the back of house,
hopefully Chris can now refocus his life,
and the stress of this place can
really start to simmer down.
Oh, boy, Simmer Down.
Two months later...
- Since you left, people been coming in
loving the new place.
Thank y'all for being here.
I've got Squirrel running the back of the house,
which leaves me a lot of time for me and my wife.
[sniffles]
I just appreciate everything you've done for me, Chef.
Thank you.