In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits J Willy's in South Bend, Indiana.
J Willy's is a barbecue restaurant owned by husband-and-wife team Rick and Tricia and their friend John William.
South Bend is a middle-class town made famous by the University of Notre Dame, which is a few miles up the road from J Willy’s.
After they opened the restaurant, they were busy and the business was making money each year consistently.
The day-to-day running of the restaurant is left to John as Rick and Tricia live over three hours away, where they own another restaurant.
The couple assumed that John would be able to uphold the service standards and the food quality.
They believed the restaurant would continue to make money but John has run the venture into the ground.
John admits that it has being tough as they were struggling.
They weren’t really bringing in cash so they don't have a proper chef in the kitchen.
The cook Steve uses cans and bought in sauces to get food out as quick as possible.
With the increasing negative reviews, the customer numbers declined heavily.
Between the three of them they have invested all of the money they have.
Gordon arrives and thinks that the restaurant looks like it closed down ten years ago.
He isn't impressed with the desperate flashing sign out the front.
He meets John and Rick and Tricia and he sits down to read the menu and order food.
Gordon isn't impressed at the photos on the menu and orders a loaded baked potato pizza, beef ribs and a pulled pork cheese boat.
While waiting for his food, Gordon notices the sad and grim atmosphere of the restaurant.
He comments that the carpet looks like “a thousand Buffalos walked over it”.
Before he tries the food he asks a priest at a nearby table to bless his food before he eats it.
The food is terrible and strange looking and the pizza is covered in ranch dressing.
The ribs are untrimmed and have a bland, generic barbecue sauce and the pulled pork sandwich is smothered in processed cheese.
After tasting the food, Gordon refuses to let the priests table eat the pulled pork sandwich they ordered and stops them before they eat the food.
Gordon discovers that all of the food is canned or frozen and the barbecue sauce comes in a huge plastic container from a wholesaler.
In the kitchen, it is clear that John has cut corners in order to save money.
John says the menu is designed to cut a lot of labor out since there is no chef.
All of the kitchen staff describe themselves as cooks as they are just reheating food.
Dissatisfied with the answers found in the kitchen, Gordon takes the owners aside, hoping to determine the root of the problem.
Tricia says the problem is John as he lacks the passion to run the business.
John argues that it is hard to be passionate without any money and the business going downhill.
They reveal that they’ll be $1.2 million dollars in debt and they will lose their house if the business shuts down.
The couple state that they do not have any children as they are too busy babysitting two different restaurants.
Gordon observes a dinner service hoping to see if it would give him more answers as to why the restaurant is failing.
In the kitchen, all of the ingredients on the pizza are frozen or from a can or bottle.
There are cheap cuts of chicken and John admits to cutting corners with the food.
The food is sent out quick and Gordon compares the kitchen to a production line.
Most of the food were sent back by dissatisfied customers.
They didn’t like the mushiness and greasiness of the food and how cold the dishes were.
After the miserable dinner service, Gordon calls all of the staff together for a meeting.
The staff admit they were embarrassed by the service.
They say that it is getting harder at the restaurant as the pay checks keep getting slimmer.
Rick tries to blame John for the failure but the staff stand up for him and say that Rick isn't here.
Rick is defensive and says he can't come to the restaurant as he lives 3 and a half hours away and relies on John.
Gordon tells all three owners that they should all be ashamed of the state of the restaurant.
He asks if they need to get someone else in to run it.
John tells Gordon that he still wants to run the restaurant but that he needs help.
After the meeting Gordon inspects the kitchen storage.
The fridge isn't cold, there are old potato skins, a box of rotten tomatoes and peppers and blood in trays of meat.
Gordon tells the Rick and John to throw out all of the old food and clean the kitchen to prove their passion for the restaurant.
The next day Gordon meets with the owners at a Church and asks the owners to clear their conscience.
John wants to change and Tricia and Rick want John to step up.
After gaining a much deeper understanding of the kitchen’s situation, Gordon begins to implement his plan to turn the business around for good.
In the kitchen, Gordon brings in fresh ingredients and teaches the staff how to make barbecue sauce from scratch.
In addition to the new barbeque sauce, he also teaches them a new burger special made from all fresh ingredients to be served at the evening's service.
As guests arrive for dinner, the kitchen prepares the new burger specials.
The burgers are popular with the customers and they loved it.
An hour into the service, the orders become too much and Steve panics, causing disorganization in the kitchen.
After they rush to fulfil the orders, the burgers are sent out undercooked or overcooked.
It is not long before they run out of the ingredients to make the burgers.
Instead of the fresh special they lower the standards and begin sending out prepared burgers on sourdough bread and frozen fries.
Things quickly spiral out of control as Gordon goes mad over the dropped standards.
One customer is in tears over the burger as she was looking forward to it!
Before Gordon's team start on making changes he asks the owners if they are ready to commit to change and they promise they are.
Overnight, Gordon's team give the restaurant the most underwhelming makeover.
It appears only the carpets were replaced, a unit for their new sauce was added and one wall was changed.
Gordon #announces they are to make and sell their own BBQ sauce for customers to take home when they dine.
He reveals that the 75 item menu has been halved in order to allow the kitchen to focus on using fresh ingredients.
Gordon introduces four chefs who will be training and up skilling the cooks.
On relaunch night, Gordon gives John a pep talk before the fully booked service.
As the orders hit the kitchen the cooks struggle at first and try to send out potato skins without bacon and food slopped onto dirty plates.
The kitchen begins to get backed up and John talks to customers to keep them happy whilst they are waiting for food.
One table fed up of the wait and a customer goes into the kitchen to complain about her two hour wait before leaving the restaurant.
The kitchen steps up, gaining control of the orders and the food begins leaving the kitchen again.
Despite the hiccups in the kitchen the relaunch is a success and the customers loved the food.
What Happened Next at J Willy's?
In the weeks that followed they kept Gordon's changes.
They won first prize at the College Football Hall of Fame ribs cook-off with their signature barbecue sauce.
Yelp reviews after filming are mixed.
J Willy's closed on 4th February 2009.
With food prices increasing and customers decreasing, they had the choice of cutting the quality or closing.
A coffee shop opened in its place but this also closed.
The building was demolished in 2015.
Rick and Tricia also closed their restaurant Damon's Grill and Rick is now working in restoring and selling classic cars.
J Willy's aired on October 30 2008, the episode was filmed in February 2008 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 2 episode 5.
Read About More Kitchen Nightmares
Previous episode - Black Pearl
Next episode - Hannah and Mason's
This post was last updated in March 2023.
