restaurantMystery Diners · Season 1, Episode 3 · Aired May 25, 2012
Haus Murphy
Glendale, Arizona
This one survived. It remains in business.
What happened after
Long-running German restaurant/biergarten in Historic Downtown Glendale, self-described as serving German food for 26+ years; current TripAdvisor rank/rating and Food Network DDD feature found.
What happened on the show
Brett and Rose Hoffman disagreed about almost everything at their Glendale German restaurant, and the sorest point, as the episode has it, was Rose's nephew-in-law Gunnar, whom they had installed as manager and feared was in over his head. Charles Stiles sent mystery diners Deanna, Danny and Chris in as a delivery man, a customer and a waitress to see how Gunnar actually ran a shift. The cameras catch him lazing, souring the staff, cold-shouldering guests, and helping himself to beer under his aunt's nose. The aired confrontation has Rose firing her own relative while he protests that she betrayed him, and Stiles closing with word that he apologized and returned what he took. This is Charles Stiles' operation at its most family-flavored, though, like the whole run, the confrontation is best read as broadcast rather than as verified event, given the staging questions that later trailed the show.
After the cameras left
This is one the record treats kindly. Mystery Diners did not fix Haus Murphy, because Haus Murphy did not need fixing, and the German restaurant and biergarten in historic downtown Glendale is still open, still pouring, advertising more than twenty-six years in business as of our 2026 check at 5739 West Glendale Avenue. It sits in the survivor column not because a hidden-camera sting turned it around but because it was a sturdy local institution all along.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.