Bella Luna

What happened after

Italian restaurant (owner Rosaria Scollo, sons Maurizio and Gianfranco) closed November 2013 -- 4 months after Ramsay's visit but 6 MONTHS BEFORE its May 2014 episode even aired -- over a lease dispute; the landlord said the business was multiple months in arrears on rent and put the building up for sale. The owner disputed this, claiming the business had tripled its patronage.

Closure date on record: 2013-11

What happened on the show

Gianfranco had a theory about why Bella Luna was failing: the people of Easton, he said, simply like mediocre food, too unsophisticated for cooking as good as his. Ramsay found that hard to swallow from a chef who had gone, in his own words, from internship to ownership, with a mother, Rosaria, who bought the place in 2010 and insisted the locals just did not appreciate food that was not microwaved. None of the owners had restaurant experience. The staff did not respect one another; when Ramsay noted that a waitress named Nicole seemed nice, manager Traci replied that she was a moron. The food demolished the family's authenticity claims: bland, flour-caked veal saltimbocca; penne alla vodka drowning in sauce and, unknown to Ramsay, cooked the day before, which he likened to baby vomit; and frozen mussels Rosaria refused to drop from the menu even after they stopped selling.

After the cameras left

Bella Luna closed in November 2013 over a lease dispute, four months after Ramsay's visit but a full six months before the episode even aired, with the landlord saying the business was months behind on rent. The owner disputed that, claiming patronage had tripled. Either way, a family with no restaurant experience and a chef convinced the town was beneath his cooking never got to face its television audience as an open restaurant.