barKitchen Nightmares (US) · Season 8, Episode 9 · Aired December 4, 2023
Max's Bar & Grill
Long Branch, NJ
Open. The rescue stuck and it continues to operate.
On the show
Season 8, Episode 9 · December 4, 2023 · bar and grill
Aired same day as S8E10 per Wikipedia (season finale double episode).
What happened after
Official website confirmed live with current seasonal hours; family-owned since 1928 (97 years in business per Yelp). Yelp 3.5/5, active Facebook.
What happened on the show
Max's Bar and Grill had been feeding Long Branch, New Jersey since 1928, roughly 95 years by the time the reboot showed up, which made it a rare Kitchen Nightmares subject with almost a century behind it. Ramsay found dated decor and family strife weighing on the long-running spot, the kind of generational business where sentiment and stubbornness had let standards drift. Filmed in June 2023 and aired as part of the two-hour Season 8 finale alongside Diwan, the episode leaned on modernizing a beloved but tired institution without erasing what made it iconic to the town. For a bar and grill that had survived the Depression, the end of Prohibition, and nearly a hundred years of changing tastes, the challenge was less about survival than about shaking off decades of accumulated inertia.
After the cameras left
Max's is still pouring. As of our latest verification the Long Branch bar and grill was open with current seasonal hours listed on its official site, extending a family-owned run that stretches back to 1928. A 95-year-old institution that had let its decor and its family dynamics go stale came through Ramsay's visit intact, and remains one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants the show has ever featured.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.