Bistro Bordeaux

What happened after

French bistro at 618 Church St closed after 7 years, announced via Facebook by owner Pascal Berthoumieux; covered by The Daily Northwestern.

Closure date on record: 2017-04

What happened on the show

Pascal Berthoumieux had complaints piling up about his new head chef at his Evanston French bistro. Charles Stiles sent mystery diners Jay and Nicole in as a waiter and a food critic. As aired, the head chef is indeed abusive to his kitchen, but the real saboteur is a sous chef, Brian, who believed the top job should have been his and set out to take it, badmouthing his boss to the staff, telling customers he ran the kitchen, and tampering with the head chef's orders to get him fired. The confrontation has Pascal firing Brian, who insists to the end that he deserves the role. Stiles closes with the head chef's anger easing once the sabotage stops. Given the scripting claims that later dogged Mystery Diners, this kitchen-politics sting is best read as broadcast rather than as documented event.

After the cameras left

Bistro Bordeaux has since closed, in the ordinary way and by the owner's own hand. Pascal Berthoumieux announced the shutdown of his Evanston French bistro at 618 Church Street after seven years, covered by the local student paper in April 2017, per our 2026 check. That is years past the episode and unrelated to it, a bistro that ran its seven years and closed. The sting filmed a rivalry in the kitchen; it did not decide when the restaurant would finally wind down.