South Brooklyn Foundry, a beloved Bay Ridge restaurant, has closed after nearly nine years in business.
Prior to its closure, the Lower Third Avenue-based eatery was featured in an episode of Gordon Ramsay's “Kitchen Nightmares,” which returned for its eighth season earlier this year.
South Brooklyn Foundry owners Kelly Agnes and Ray Martinez decided to part ways due to differing visions for the restaurant, saying their experience on the Fox show left them “demanding.”
“Sometimes it takes things going wrong for something better to happen,” Agnes told Brooklyn Paper. “Ray and I had our issues, but at the end of the day we were both doing what was best for the restaurant. We just had different perspectives, and that's what happens sometimes.”
Sept. 1 marked the restaurant's ninth anniversary, but Agnes still likes to call South Brooklyn Foundry a “success story.”
“I want to focus on the good times we shared here,” she said. “I want to focus on the people who've supported me all this time, my patrons. I want to sincerely thank them for believing in us.”
After learning the hospitality trade from “the best in the business” at Vinny's in Carroll Gardens, Agnes wanted to pursue her dream of owning her own restaurant that welcomed people from all walks of life. She opened South Brooklyn Foundry in 2017, going into business with Sam Dabas and Ray Martinez. Dabas eventually sold his interest within five years, but Martinez stayed on as head chef.
“Everyone told me, [Bay Ridge Avenue] “It would be hard to survive in Bay Ridge unless we had over 70,” Agnes says, “They really thought I'd be out of business in my second year, so I'd like to say being there for nine years was a success story.”
Throughout its existence, the South Brooklyn Foundry became a community hub hosting a variety of events, from jazz and drag shows to paint and sip nights. But like the rest of the hospitality industry, the South Brooklyn Foundry struggled to stay afloat when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Agnes said that while she made it through temporary closures and restrictions, the debts she accumulated during that time, particularly the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, forced her to find new avenues to boost her business.
“The government made it seem like they were giving us everything, but they were giving us nothing,” Agnes said. “We still have to pay for our liquor license that hasn't been used for almost a year and a half. We still have to pay renewal fees. Is this fair to small business owners?”
Then an opportunity came along to appear on Gordon Ramsay's new show. According to the letter seen by Brooklyn Paper, Agnes and Martinez applied for a kitchen makeover program aimed at helping struggling businesses in the wake of the pandemic, but didn't know they'd been signed to appear on the dramatic show, “Kitchen Nightmares.”
The series, in which Ramsay spends a week or so in struggling restaurants to help turn them around, returned to Fox in 2023 after a 10-year hiatus. The show is best known for the horrifying discoveries that Ramsay makes in the kitchens he's trying to save.
Agnes said that applying to appear on the show was the “worst decision” she ever made.
The main focus of the episode, which aired on November 20, 2023, was Agnes and Martinez's working relationship, which both acknowledged was a problem, but not to the extent that it aired on television.
“The show made it seem like we didn't know what we were doing serving food,” Agnes said, adding that the restaurant received its sixth consecutive A rating from the city's health department this year. “They didn't come into the kitchen, they didn't cut anything. They didn't say, 'Oh my goodness, this meat is awful.' It was just a partnership, basically.”
During the episode, Ramsay spoke bluntly to Agnes and Martinez, telling them that “their business was in limbo,” and Martinez left the restaurant. Although the show states that Ramsay returned as head chef two months later, Agnes and Martinez say their reunion ended the day after production stopped.
Martinez said he found out just a few days beforehand that South Brooklyn Foundry would be appearing in “Kitchen Nightmares” and considered pulling out of the production.
“This is not a cooking show, it's a drama for him. [Ramsay]”I regret this incident because it contributed to the storyline in which he was the villain and led to a flood of hate online,” Martinez said.
As promised, the creative team renovated the restaurant, but only the front of it. The finished work, which Agnes said didn't match the functionality or style of the restaurant, was unveiled at a private grand reopening dinner.
According to Agnes, the chaos that night was the result of a lack of communication with the chefs Ramsay hired after Martinez's departure and the misalignment of their table numbers. “They made it seem like we didn't know what we were doing,” she said.
That experience in particular caused Agnes to doubt her abilities in the hospitality industry, but a year later, things had improved, as had her relationship with Martinez.
“I was actually a bit gullible. I really thought they were going to help me. We were both totally devastated,” she said of the experience, adding that closing the restaurant for 18 days to film was another devastating financial blow.
The restaurant space is now up for lease, and Agnes is excited about her next venture, hopefully one in Bay Ridge.
“I just want to tell people they should chase their dreams, but also know that there's a lot of hard work behind it and it's not as easy as it looks,” she said, “But the community has been good to me and I would love to come back.”
Kitchen Nightmares production company Studio Ramsay did not respond to Brooklyn Paper's request for comment.
