Chappy's

What happened after

Cajun restaurant ('Chappy's on Church,' owner John Chapman) had closed by June 2013 -- the building was seized by the state of Tennessee for non-payment of state taxes, per a sign posted on the door. The owner publicly blamed Kitchen Nightmares for the failure, but the tax seizure was the documented proximate cause.

Closure date on record: 2013-06

What happened on the show

Chappy Chapman was sure Nashville was the problem. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Mississippi restaurant he and his wife Starr had run since 1984, they rebuilt as Chappy's in Nashville, and when it struggled Chappy decided the locals simply must not appreciate Cajun cooking. His staff said the problem was Chappy. He rated his food a perfect ten, the best Cajun in the city, and ran a sprawling menu stuffed with off-menu specials. Ramsay disagreed on every count. The fried green tomatoes were bland under a hollandaise that tasted only of butter, and the gumbo, watery, bland, and not even warm, drew the line that it looked like Chappy took a crappy. Worst was the steak and lobster rocket, a butterflied filet beside lobster so chewy it was inedible, at a price that horrified him. Ramsay dismissed the rest of the kitchen and simply called Chappy a joke to his face.

After the cameras left

Chappy's was gone by June 2013, when the state of Tennessee seized the building over unpaid taxes, a notice posted right on the door. Chapman publicly blamed Kitchen Nightmares for the failure, but the tax seizure, not the show, was the documented reason the doors were locked. A chef who insisted Nashville just did not get Cajun food never entertained the idea that his own cooking and his own books had run the restaurant into the ground.