South Brooklyn Foundry

What happened after

Bay Ridge restaurant closed end of June 2024 (announced July 2, 2024) after almost 9 years. Owners Kelly Agnes and Rey Martinez split over differing creative visions, compounded by the stress of the Kitchen Nightmares filming experience, an 18-day production closure, and mounting pandemic-era SBA disaster-loan debt.

Closure date on record: 2024-06

What happened on the show

South Brooklyn Foundry, a Bay Ridge restaurant nearly nine years old by the time the reboot arrived, had its flaws laid out by Ramsay like every other stop, but the deeper strain was between its two owners. Kelly Agnes and Rey Martinez were increasingly split over differing creative visions for the place, a rift the Kitchen Nightmares experience did not heal and arguably made worse. The June 2023 filming itself added real pressure, including an eighteen-day production closure that squeezed a business already carrying heavy pandemic-era debt. Ramsay's on-camera fixes addressed the food and the day-to-day operation, but the episode could not resolve the fundamental disagreement between two partners who no longer shared a vision for what the restaurant should be.

After the cameras left

South Brooklyn Foundry closed at the end of June 2024, announced on July 2, after almost nine years on lower Third Avenue. The owners' split over creative direction proved decisive, compounded by the stress of filming, the eighteen-day production shutdown, and mounting SBA disaster-loan debt from the pandemic. Ramsay's visit could smooth the food but not the fracture between Kelly Agnes and Rey Martinez, and a restaurant that had lasted nearly a decade could not survive the combination.