Black Pearl

What happened after

Seafood restaurant closed just four days after its Sept 25 2008 episode aired; owners reportedly blamed Ramsay for the closure.

Closure date on record: 2008

What happened on the show

Three owners ran Black Pearl, and by the staff's account they were rarely in the same room, until Ramsay's cameras drew all of them out. David Leonard made an entrance in a long coat and sunglasses, a statement Ramsay saw right through. The New England clam chowder was merely watery, but the Connecticut lobster roll arrived soaking wet on bread Ramsay compared to a wet diaper, and the Bangkok mussels were so overspiced they lost any taste of mussel. The friction was all David. When a table complained their mussels were sandy, he marched over to lecture the diners that mussels are meant to be sandy; when the kitchen flagged fish that smelled old, he argued; when Ramsay identified the lobster as cheaper Canadian on sight, David disputed that too. For a seafood restaurant in one of the country's toughest dining cities, denial was the house specialty.

After the cameras left

Black Pearl set a Kitchen Nightmares record for speed of collapse: it closed just four days after its September 2008 episode aired, and the owners reportedly pinned the blame on Ramsay. The Manhattan seafood spot at 37 West 26th Street never got the chance to test any change. Given the denial the episode captured, especially David's, the fault line was arguably in place long before the show ever arrived.