restaurantMystery Diners · Season 6, Episode 2 · Aired April 14, 2014
Spring Street Smoke House
Los Angeles, California
We could not confirm its current status.
On the show
Season 6, Episode 2 · April 14, 2014 · restaurant (BBQ)
food-cost/fat-trimming theft sting
What happened after
Listed hours (Wed-Sun 11:30am-8pm) and a review dated Dec 19 2024 found, but no 2025-2026 confirmation of continued operation or closure obtained this pass.
What happened on the show
Chris Patterson sold his barbecue fat trimmings to butchers and other kitchens, so when they started disappearing at his Los Angeles smokehouse he suspected his prep crew of tossing them. Charles Stiles sent mystery diners Grant and Amber in as a waiter and a customer. As aired, one cook is simply careless with the brisket and a busboy is filching to-go supplies, but the trimmings themselves are going to a prep cook who ices them down in a chest and sells them to an unnamed buyer for cash. The confrontation has Chris firing the cook and the busboy and suspending the careless one. Because Mystery Diners was later accused of scripting its confrontations, this trimming-theft sting is best read as broadcast rather than as verified fact.
After the cameras left
After the episode, the trail on Spring Street Smoke House goes faint. We found listed hours and a review from late 2024 for the Chinatown-adjacent spot at 640 North Spring Street, but nothing from 2025 or 2026 to confirm it is still operating, so we hold it at last confirmed rather than call it either way. Mystery Diners filmed a fat-trimming sting, not a turnaround; whatever became of this small independent, the honest answer is that the record simply thins out.
Sources
Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.