barMystery Diners · Season 1, Episode 2 · Aired May 20, 2012
The Groves Bar & Grill
Gilbert, Arizona
It has since closed.
On the show
Season 1, Episode 2 · May 20, 2012 · bar/grill
employee theft sting: catering side-business suspected
What happened after
Neighborhood bar/grill at 4375 E Branded Ct (Gilbert/Rawhide Rd area); multiple directories tag it permanently closed. Arizona trade-name registration (File #615660) still shows Active on Bizapedia, which is a paperwork artifact, not an operating signal.
What happened on the show
Dennis Petty watched food and supplies drain out of his Gilbert bar and grill faster than sales could explain, and, as the episode frames it, wondered whether a recently hired chef was the leak. Charles Stiles planted mystery diners Danny, Shellene and Sarah as a waiter and paying customers, and the hidden cameras settle on chef David running a catering operation of his own straight out of the Groves kitchen, using the restaurant's ingredients while ticket times for real customers stretched. The broadcast ends with Dennis firing him, David vowing to keep the side business going without a boss, and Stiles narrating that it folded once David had to cover his own overhead. As with the rest of the series, take the sting as aired. Mystery Diners was later dogged by allegations that its confrontations were staged, so the drama sits on the reported side of the ledger.
After the cameras left
The episode flagged a fix, but Mystery Diners was never a rescue, and the Groves did not outlast the decade. The neighborhood bar and grill at 4375 East Branded Court now reads as permanently closed across the directories that once carried it, with a closed tag on its Foursquare page as of our 2026 pass. An Arizona trade-name filing still shows active, though that is paperwork rather than an open door. Ordinary attrition is the likelier story than anything caught on camera.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.