It's no secret that the restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares have serious problems, but in the case of Mill Street Bistro, the problem was owner Joe Nagy — though he wouldn't exactly admit it. The farm-to-table “fine dining” establishment in Norwalk, Ohio, was visited by Gordon Ramsay and the KN crew in 2012, who filmed what is now widely regarded as one of Kitchen Nightmares' best episodes.
Viewers may remember this highly-rated two-parter from Season 6 for its out-of-place menu items like elk quesadillas, the White House-approved garnish of tiny carrots, the no-hush kitchen policy, and of course, Nagy's massive ego and arrogant attitude, much to the grief of customers and staff alike. “Business is super slow and Joe is the biggest reason we're not seeing customers,” one employee said, while another added that the restaurant wouldn't survive unless he changed his ways.
Still, Ramsay accepted the challenge to put Mill Street Bistro on the right track for success, but a few tweaks to the menu won't do much. With just a few minutes left in the second episode of the double feature, a heated argument between Nagy and the “Hell's Kitchen” host suggests the restaurateur will never learn from his mistakes. What could have happened, when ultimately changing the name couldn't save the restaurant?
Read more: The untold truth about kitchen nightmares
What happened to Mill Street Bistro in Kitchen Nightmares?
After visiting Joe Nagy's farm, Gordon Ramsay was eager to taste every dish that was brought to his table at Mill Street Bistro. However, after tasting the food, he found that the restaurant was not true to its promised “farm-to-table” concept, but instead “freezer-to-table”. The dinner service made the situation even worse, with Ramsay witnessing some of the restaurant's shortcomings, including the owner's arrogant attitude.
Part one of the series ends with things heating up between Nagy and Ramsay in the kitchen, with the famously angry TV chef threatening to leave, but by the start of part two, their altercation has died down and Nagy seeks help. The process involves a staff meeting full of complaints about Nagy (which Ramsay sneaks off in another room to let Nagy hear) and a revamp of the menu to better fit the restaurant's bistro concept. But when dinner service erupts in another argument while sampling some of the new main dishes, Ramsay realizes that his biggest problem is having Nagy in the kitchen.
The next night, Ramsay hired a new chef to run the backstage area while Nagy remained front and center, and the reopening was a success. Ramsay knew the only way it would be successful was if Nagy kept his promise to change his attitude and not come back into the kitchen after he left.
After the Mill Street Bistro kitchen nightmare
A post-filming check-in finds that Gordon Ramsay's menu changes are going well and business is steady, but Joe Nagy has already returned to the kitchen as head chef and some of the staff featured in the episode have left the restaurant. “The future of Mill Street Bistro is uncertain,” the narrator says, leaving no doubt about how diners felt after Ramsay's visit.
After the two-part “Kitchen Nightmares” episode was filmed in June 2012, the restaurant garnered two five-star reviews on Yelp, but by the time it aired in March 2013, its online ratings were mostly one-star. By December of that year, Mill Street Bistro had been renamed Maple City Tavern, with Nagy still at the helm, but the newly renamed restaurant's Yelp reviews were still dismal, averaging just one and a half stars.
Outside the kitchen, Nagy filed a lawsuit against Gordon Ramsay shortly after filming Kitchen Nightmares, alleging that staff had vandalised the restaurant and stolen cookware and elk steaks. The dispute was settled in January 2014 when Kitchen Nightmares producers paid Nagy £900 (approximately $1,500 at the time).
Is Kitchen Nightmares Mill Street Bistro still open?
Mill Street Bistro rebranded as Maple City Tavern in December 2013, but the new identity couldn't save Joe Nagy's struggling business. The new-look restaurant closed for good in 2016, ending a nearly decade-long run for the restaurateur who first opened Mill Street Bistro in 2008. Records show that the building sold that year for $140,000, less than half the original asking price of $379,000 when it was put on the market in September 2013.
“It's been doing very well,” Nagy told the Norwalk Reflector after the sale in February 2016. “It's a good restaurant, a great building and I think whoever buys it is going to make it a very nice place,” he added.
The building has since housed several other restaurants and, as of June 2024, is home to an Irish pub called the Red Shamrock, which does not appear to have any affiliation to Nuggie and does not serve elk dishes.
What's next for the Mill Street Bistro owner?
When Joe Nagy sold the building that was known as Mill Street Bistro in 2016, he told the Norwalk Reflector that he planned to stay involved in other food-related ventures. “I never had any intention of retiring from that restaurant. It was never my intention,” he explained.
Nagy doesn't appear to have posted anything about himself or the ranch that supplied some of Mill Street Bistro's ingredients on social media, so it's unclear what his involvement specifically was. However, in 2018, a Reddit user said they met Nagy at a food festival in Tampa, Florida, and shared a photo of the encounter. Unfortunately, the post has since been deleted, but YouTuber Mermaid Grove reached out to the Reddit user in 2021 to learn more about the encounter. According to the Reddit user, Nagy was retired and traveling around the country selling items like elk burgers, but not elk quesadillas.
In January 2024, another Reddit user shared that they met Nagy at the North Ridgeville City Fair in Ohio in 2022, where Nagy was selling scallops, elk burgers, and alligator meat from a food truck. They added that they took photos of the event but never shared them back on the Reddit thread. Still, it might be a good idea to keep an eye out the next time you're at a food truck festival. You never know if you'll bump into Kitchen Nightmares legend Joe Nagy.
Read the original article on Mashed.
