Ruby Tates (renamed Love's Fish Restaurant)

What happened after

Owner was forced to close the Brighton fish restaurant in early 2009, citing the credit crunch and a lack of bookings.

Closure date on record: 2009-01

What happened on the show

Ramsay arrived at Ruby Tates to find owner and former actor Allan Love in a fragile state, worried the failing restaurant might cost him his house. The Brighton spot specialised in fish, which Allan happened to dislike, and his two chefs, Jamie and Alex, seemed interested mainly in the money. Ramsay judged the fish both too expensive and sub-standard, so he took the chefs to a local market, found pollock cheap and plentiful, and added a pollock fish and chips that quickly caught on. He and Allan clashed over the restaurant's gaudy decor, which Allan loved enough to threaten to halt filming, but Allan came round to a makeover and to a rename, Love's Fish Restaurant, built around his own biggest asset, himself. Jamie was made head chef and the reopening was a hit. Returning weeks later, Ramsay ordered a covert takeaway under a fake name and found the place still thriving, with Alex fired days after his departure for lateness and disrespect.

After the cameras left

The success Ramsay filmed ran into the recession. The owner was forced to close the Brighton fish restaurant in early 2009, blaming the credit crunch and a collapse in bookings. We hold this at high confidence: UK hospitality trade press reported it at the time, in January 2009, independent of any Kitchen Nightmares tracker. It is a familiar shape for the British run, a genuine on-air turnaround that the wider economy then swamped within a couple of years, less a failure of the fix than of the timing.