restaurantKitchen Nightmares (US) · Season 7, Episode 2 · Aired April 11, 2014
Pantaleone's
Denver, CO
Yes. This one is still open.
What happened after
Official website confirmed live with current daily hours (11am-9pm), active online ordering; opened 1985. Yelp 4.1/333 reviews (updated July 2026).
What happened on the show
Pantaleone's slogan promised Denver's Best Pizza, a title it had genuinely earned, in 1985. Nearly three decades later Pete Fafalios, a Greek immigrant who learned pizza in New York, still insisted the claim held, even as a taste test Ramsay staged had locals preferring a store-bought pizza to Pete's. The place ran on Pete's whims: closed Sundays so he could watch football, oblivious that football season is peak pizza season, shut in the afternoons so he could nap, and offering no delivery at all. His son Josh had modern ideas Pete shot down, his wife Paulette feared losing their home, and a green clown hologram, up for fifteen years, quietly scared the customers. The calzone came overstuffed with cold filling and raw onions, and one diner compared Pete's meatballs to cat food. Pete, stuck decades in the past, brushed off every bit of it.
After the cameras left
Against the odds set by its own stubborn owner, Pantaleone's survived. As of our latest verification the Denver pizzeria was open with posted daily hours and online ordering, still going strong from its 1985 origins. Whether Pete ever opened on Sundays or added delivery, the family pizzeria Ramsay found frozen in its own glory days is still turning out pies decades on, one of the show's genuine survivors.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.