A struggling restaurant featured in Channel 7’s Kitchen Nightmares was forced to close its doors soon after filming wrapped after succumbing to “financial hardship”.
The Aussie reality program, fronted by celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge, features a range of ailing local eateries which undergo dramatic makeovers over five days in the hope of reversing their fortunes.
Yesterday, Virginia Cheong, the owner of Cafe de Vie in Homebush which appeared in episode five, made headlines after she slammed the show, claiming it had turned her venue into a “joke”.
And now, it has emerged that another eatery which featured on last night’s episode closed down almost immediately after filming ended.
In an emotional Facebook post on July 6, Anthony Davies and his partner Lauren Crisell – the owners of Araucaria restaurant in Winmalee in the NSW Blue Mountains – announced “with the heaviest of hearts” they would no longer be running the bistro due to “financial hardship” after just over a year running the business.
“We gave it everything, we gave it our all, and we hope that that was evident from our seasonal menus, our customer service, and our energy,” the pair wrote.
“Anyone who saw Anthony and his team in the kitchen knew that he gave a million per cent every day – even to the point of exhaustion and at the expense of his health … We are devastated that we couldn’t make it work for you all.”
The couple departed the bistro months before the episode went to air this week, and made the painful decision after going bankrupt with $140,000 in debt.
In fact, the episode revealed Mr Davies had even sold his car and received $8000 for it, which went immediately towards overdue staff wages after the pair’s business account fell into the red.
Mr Davies told news.com.au that he didn’t blame the show for the closure, and said a five-day makeover was not enough to fix fundamental business problems.
But he also hit out at some of the program’s advice, claiming it “absolutely failed to deliver” improvements.
“We were at the point of closing six weeks before we got to filming – we were just limping along, and we went into the whole process hoping some explosion might help,” Mr Davies said.
“It cost $10,000 a week to run the business, and during lockdown it was easy because it was all takeaways, so we knew exactly how much to cook as it was all preorders.
“After the first lockdown when we went back to in-person dining, we had no problem making $12,000-$15,000 a week, so we were in profit.
“But then after the second lockdown, we never saw much past $9000, so we were running at a loss, and after maintaining that loss for three months, we couldn’t sustain it further.”
He said the show had given the restaurant a welcome facelift, but that he disagreed with the menu changes introduced.
“The show seemed to imply we weren’t putting significant effort into the ‘pub playlist’ menu – things like burgers, schnitzels and beer battered fish. But the only thing we brought into the kitchen was bread and chips, everything else we made from scratch,” Mr Davies said.
“I think that was a source of tension they were trying to cultivate for the show more than anything.
“The guidance from them was to pay more attention to the basics and not to high-end items – the implication was that we were overreaching with some plates and prices. But we were just trying to be different from every other pub in the mountains.”
He said he “absolutely did not agree” with that aspect of the feedback.
“Nothing lacked effort at all. I saw those things – the pub classics – as things we had to have on the menu, and then I tried to do things we didn’t necessarily have to have, to be different,” he continued.
“We started filming in the middle of real financial hardship. I thought they would seriously help by looking at costings and help manage the books better – I didn’t necessarily think we needed them to help with the food.
“We were left with a menu with no garlic bread, no bruschetta but things like chicken terrine. They implied we were overreaching with some of dishes, but I feel they absolutely failed to deliver some pub staples with the menu we were handed.
“At the end of the day they put forward a format they thought would work best, but I found it hard to get my head around – little things like serving salmon, which is fine, but with an accompaniment of a mixture of wild leaves like baby cos and wild rocket – which we were serving at a time when a head of iceberg lettuce was costing $12 a head at the supermarket.
“It was as expensive a component as the salmon on the dish.
“They also came up with a schnitzel crumb which was fine and tasted delicious, don’t get me wrong, but we would have sold 30-40kg of schnitzel a week, and all of a sudden, we went from a really cheap crumb that met all expectations, to a very expensive crumb. I was open to the suggestions they put forward but it didn’t address the food cost.
“I feel they missed the mark on the pub menu.”
A prologue on last night’s episode confirmed that while Araucaria’s new menu “continued to be a hit after relaunch”, the “financial and emotional strain proved too much for the family”.
Mr Fassnidge also addressed Araucaria’s closure in a recent TikTok, saying the series “shows all aspects of what can go wrong in this current climate”, and describing Araucaria‘s experience as “a very sad one”.
Meanwhile, Mr Davies, who blamed the closure on dramatically reduced patronage post-Omicron, as well as the unique pressures and high costs facing the hospitality industry, said he had “no resentment or malice” towards Kitchen Nightmares.
“Colin and the production team were a bunch of really lovely people and very professional. I’m absolutely not blaming them – the restaurant was probably going to close anyway, whether it was in three weeks or 10, because we had sustained so many financial losses and supplier debts that it was becoming unworkable,” he said.
“It was all caused by that drop in patronage – there are a lot of fixed costs when you’re running a restaurant. You have to provide a certain level of service, and some Friday and Saturday nights we would have 110, 120 patrons, but others we’d have 30 or 40, so how can you roster for that variation?
“It was very challenging, especially going bankrupt and losing a significant amount of money. That’s never good for a relationship, but we’ve managed to make our way through it, so that’s a positive outcome.”
But he added that he found some advice to be “confusing”.
“I have no ill will towards the show. They came in and did what they believed to be correct. I think food production is such a personal thing and you’re not always going to agree,” he said. “But I found some messages confusing. And at the end of the day it takes a lot more than a week of cajoling and a new menu to save a business when fundamental things are not working.”
Mr Davies has since found work in the kitchen of a large resort in the Blue Mountains, and said he was grateful he had also been able to bring two Araucaria apprentices along with him, which he said was “the decent thing to do for them during the process of going bankrupt”.
His comments come after Virginia Cheong, the owner of Cafe de Vie in Homebush, which was rebranded to Cafe Tabouli during its own Kitchen Nightmares makeover, claimed the program had ultimately cost her thousands of dollars in business.
She told news.com.au that the first week after the store reopened under the rebranded name Cafe Tabouli, they saw a $6000 drop in business.
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“Slowly people started to come back and we’ve been able to get back to, not close, but we’re better than we were before,” Ms Cheong said.
“However, having said that we cut all the prices, so our margins, if they were bad before, they are even worse now.”
News.com.au contacted Channel 7 for comment.
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