How Is Café Notte Restaurant Now? (Exclusive)

The newest episode of Kitchen Nightmares took an emotional turn as Gordon Ramsay led something of a family counseling session for the coowners of Café Notte, an Italian restaurant in Emsworth, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.

Though Debbie Santucci spent most of her time in the front of house and handling finances, her husband, Jerry, and her son, David Mielnicki, often found themselves at odds over back-of-house issues. Not only did they experience a downturn in sales as a result, but it took a toll on their familial relationship as well.

After trying the food and witnessing the difficulties the restaurateurs were experiencing during service, Gordon sat David and Jerry down to have a heart-to-heart, with very emotional results. Jerry, who’d been a carpenter by trade for decades before coming in to help his wife and stepson with the business, agreed that he needed to take a step back from the kitchen after David suggested it, and the two exchanged some long-overdue “I love yous.”

Though the episode also saw the usual upgrades put into place — a spruced-up dining room, new kitchen equipment, some Ramsay recipes for the menu, and a supplier hookup — it was the conversational element that really resonated with the team in this Kitchen Nightmares experience.

The episode ended with a check-in with the owners, who revealed things were still on the up and up for all three of them, but TV Insider caught up with the Café Notte family just ahead of the episode’s airing to find out more about their post-Kitchen Nightmares experience.

Debbie, were you the one to initiate contact about Kitchen Nightmares and coming on the show, or how did that work?

Debbie: Yes… Actually, my other son’s friend said, “Hey, guess who’s coming to town?… Gordon Ramsay.” And I dropped everything. I just typed the letter right off the top of my head. It was about five pages long, but that’s typical for me — I’m very long-winded — and sent it off. They called me the next day. I said, “No, you’re not. You’re not who you say you are.” They said, “Yes, we are.” I thought somebody was joking with me. So that’s how I found out.

So someone had reached out to you, or you just cold-called about it?

Debbie: I just sent the letter via some little thing that was local in Pittsburgh; it said it was for, “Anybody who wants to be on a Gordon Ramsay show.”

What was your initial reaction to Gordon’s feedback during that first lunch? Seemed like it was pretty upsetting.

David: As far as the food? It’s initially almost like a gut punch, but more for the heart, and it’s also a reality check at the same time, where you don’t want to hear the things that are going wrong or that aren’t correct, but it’s something that needed to be said. If somebody with Ramsay’s caliber has something to say, it’s probably a good idea to listen to it. So, personally, I just had my eyes open, ears open, and my mouth shut. Mostly. I tried to.

Do you think that’s maybe why he pulled you aside to talk to you individually that first time?

David: I think that had something to do with it. I think it was also everybody that was there was kind of defeated and was a little bit down, where I refused to break eye contact. I wanted to stay focused and locked in with him and let him know, even without saying anything, we were ready, willing, able, and good to listen and just open to accept any criticism and anything that he had to say. Because again, if someone of that caliber is here, it’s probably a good idea to take advantage.

Jerry, backing up a little bit, what was your reaction? I mean, I know you were the chef, and these were your menu items and your creation. You seemed to take it in stride, the criticism, but how did you really feel about what he said?

Jerry: Well, number one, I never claimed to take the title of a “chef.” And if you noticed in any of the recordings, my jacket was never stitched to say “chef.” So I didn’t walk around [like that] because I was never classically trained…. But my response to him was taken aback. I felt that I had put my best forward, and David says it’s a shot to the gut. You think, “Hey, I did something really great. You’ve got one of the top chefs of the world, and I’m feeding him,” and I thought things would be different. But he had something different planned.

Fox

You mentioned your jacket. I know he burned it. Did you ever get a new one?

Jerry: Personally, I took his advice. And if you noticed, after he burned it, he said, “Stick to carpentry”… Well, I was a builder for 30 years and a carpenter my whole life, and the only reason I came into this position was after COVID, when we were shut down for a long time, we couldn’t get employees, we couldn’t do anything, and being a builder, I kind of said, “Construction is down.” So I jumped in to help the family and keep the business going. I knew I could cook, and I did what I thought was the best I could do, knowing that we weren’t surviving, but we were also coming out of COVID.

Right. So it sounds like you’ve continued the trajectory that you were set on at the end of it, where you’re taking less of an active role in the kitchen. Is that correct?

Jerry: Well, what we did was, actually, the three of us interviewed chefs, and I stepped out.

Debbie: We have a new chef!

Jerry: Chef Jennifer, she’s been here, actually, one year last week. She’s doing a phenomenal job, and it was time for me to move on. I’m 66 this January, so standing on your feet all day — and I’ve had three back operations, both my knees replaced. It’s a long day for somebody of my age and my background. So it was refreshing. I think I never knew it was going to be, “Get out of here, Jerry.” But I didn’t have an endgame anyway.

I’m glad to hear things are going well for you. With Jennifer, the new chef, is she using the same menu items that Gordon had introduced during Kitchen Nightmares?

Jerry: She is. A lot of the items that were big sellers and popular, she kept them on the menu, and they’re true to what he did. As the seasons change, [some things change], like there were the soups that — when we went to the farm — we were getting the zucchini; well, you can’t get it in the winter. So she modifies things to adapt so that the seasons are fresh. So getting locally food farmed — and locally, in Pittsburgh, there’s no local farm… so she’s going to the local farmer’s market, but it’s seasonal. She’s adapted to using local vendors and moving forward and keeping everything fresh.

David: Yeah, I’ll just simplify it as well to say 40% of that menu is still intact. And also, we had customers that were [saying], “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” kind of thing. We brought back our meatballs. People, I mean, they’re right. I’m not saying that there was going to be people outside with signs, rioting. But [we heard], “Bring back meatballs! Bring back the banana peppers! Bring back the lobster bisque!” So what we did was we kept what, like Jerry said, sold well and worked out well. But again, to his point, snapper, we had snapper as an entree on there that was one of his creations. Well, guess what? Snapper went up in price. We had to change that fish, right? Or the pinwheel pork that we had as an entree. It was nice, a lot of prep, extra money, didn’t sell that well in the long term, so we got that one out. So we adapted accordingly and have been moving forward, and the menu’s been going extremely well.

Fox

So it sounds like preparation-wise — he had previously said that the frozen fish and things like that were a problem — you’ve done what he suggested and continued that.

David: We do not have mussels on the menu at this moment. The calamari, the chicken… That chicken. For the love of God, you know, in the last day or so, we’ve heard people, “Don’t butcher the chicken, filet the chicken, fry the chicken, roast the chicken, cook it 80 times,” and then yeah, that chicken is not on the menu. The Chicken Milanese that he put on that menu after they left, that’s the one that is there. So if anybody has any issues with chicken, OK, it’s his chicken now. It’s not Jerry’s chicken.

Debbie: It’s Gordon Ramsay’s! But to stick to what you’re saying —because I’m the bookkeeper, too, and I look at the books — when we hired the new chef, we did a lot of interviewing. She totally goes after farm-fresh, local; she wants that. That was one of the reasons why we wanted her on board, because that is one thing that he pushed for, Ramsay, and we are 100% sticking to that.

I wanted to talk about the cathartic moments in the episode. The sit-down between David and Jerry, it was very emotional. What did it feel like for you guys to kind of hash that out, and has it helped to improve your relationship in the long term?

David: Oh, immensely.

Jerry: Immensely. Yeah, I think to have a heart-to-heart, face to face, it took somebody from the outside.

David: Yeah, I was looking at something last night. It was, “When the father teaches his son, they both laugh. When the son teaches the father, they both cry.” It’s a proverb of some sort. It’s basically passing things from generation to generation, and ultimately, Jerry has been here and been my father and has made sacrifices for this place, for me, for my mom, and things that I’ve never been able to see, especially as a child. And having that conversation almost — it was like a passing of a torch, but an understanding of each other. Where, “Look, I’m getting older, you’re getting older. You’ve been the guy that’s been holding this together as a father and being a leader for us as a family.” And after that conversation, it’s just recognition to each other that, “Hey, I am getting older. I am responsible enough to do this. I can take care of this family. Let me take this burden from you, and let me run with this now.” And I think that’s really what was most meaningful for us.

Debbie, from your perspective, has it been better? I mean, I know you weren’t part of that conversation, but it had to have impacted you as well.

Debbie: Well, I watched it for the first time and cried. So, has it helped? Yeah, I mean, I think that they’re both — I don’t want to use the word “softer,” that’s always not a great adjective when it comes to men — but I mean, they’re softer…. They’re willing to listen to each other a little more, not be so quick to judge and snap. I think you know when to walk away. That’s part of growth. Sometimes it’s not worth that battle, right? So this too will pass, and they’ve been really good about it, I think. I’m not going to tell you they don’t still have the little bickering…

Jerry: That’s normal!

Debbie: All families have that.

Jerry: I think a large part of it is that I’m not here on a daily basis anymore, and if I do come in, I come in, and I have dinner with my wife. I don’t go into the kitchen and cook. I don’t. So that was a contention because I always felt I had to have control. I have to do everything. So with me not being here and David taking it over, it’s a lot easier to be a father than a boss.

That sounds like it was a success, then, for you guys overall. Do you have a message for Gordon Ramsay at all after everything?

David: Thank you. Come back and check us out.

Jerry: I would like to have him come back in and see what we’ve evolved to. It’s almost like he was our sensei. And here we are, and we’re performing, and it would be a great privilege to have him step in and see what we’ve evolved to become… So, thank you.

Your episode airs tonight. Are you guys planning any kind of watch party or something with your regulars?

David: No. I’ve probably had like 30 people today say, “Hey, we can come over and check it out!” … I think we haven’t seen the show, so we’re going in [blind]. We’ve seen a little bit here and there, but we’re basically as blind as everybody else coming into this thing…. I think we’ve all agreed that we want to watch it in our own way, on our own terms. For example, there’s a server that’s on that show that said, “I’m not watching that tonight.” So to have like 50 to 100 people in here, and then someone slams Jerry for the chicken, and then having 50 people go, “Ooh,” and then look at him, that’s a lot of process, personally… It’s about our mental health. Me, personally, I’m going to be watching it with my 91-year-old grandmother and nobody else.

Debbie: Yeah, I said I’m going to be in bed with a bag of chips and a bottle. [Laughs.] You don’t need to quote me on that… Somebody who does marketing said, “You know how much money you can make?” And I said, “Ask me what’s more important to me: my family or money?” I just need to sit, take it in, I know I’m gonna cry a lot. I hate crying, and I am not a pretty crier either. I’m going to be [wailing], so I’m going to have to pause it. Yeah, I don’t want to do that.

A lot of people have a rush of patrons after the show airs. Are you guys ready for that?

David: Yeah. It’s like waves, and we’ve been riding waves for 17 years, and tides get higher and lower, but nobody can be ready for a tsunami. But we’re as ready as we’re ever going to be.

Debbie: Yeah, we’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback, and we’re really looking forward to showing the place off and showing off what we’ve accomplished as a family, and of course, the menu is phenomenal.

Kitchen Nightmares, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox