The Capri from Kitchen Nightmares’ fourth season is still open to this day, but it has changed slightly and has new owners.
Kitchen Nightmares sees Gordon Ramsay attempt to impart his years of experience in the restaurant industry to owners who are struggling to keep the doors of their own restaurants open.
Jeff and Jim Thiel, who owned The Capri Italian restaurant from the fourth season of the show, have sold the restaurant, and it is now operating under a different name.
How Kitchen Nightmares works
Opening any kind of business comes with a lot of risk, but opening a restaurant often involves very tight margins and a huge time commitment, which new owners may not be prepared for.
Kitchen Nightmares follows the experienced chef and restaurateur, Gordon Ramsay, as he visits struggling restaurants all over the United States.
Ramsay then spends several days observing how these restaurants operate, in order to get a grasp on what the owners could do to improve their businesses.
He then makes the changes and re-launches the restaurants with a final service, which is meant to re-introduce these restaurants to the community.
Here’s what happened to The Capri from Kitchen Nightmares
The “Capri” episode of Kitchen Nightmares first aired on May 6, 2011, in the fourth season of the show. In this episode, Ramsay traveled all the way to Eagle Rock in California to visit this Italian restaurant.
When Ramsay first arrived at The Capri, it became immediately evident that the restaurant’s identical twin owners, Jim and Jeff Thiel, were focusing more on their silly pranks than on actually running the restaurant.
As a result, Ramsay felt like the restaurant had fallen behind because of its bland frozen food, dated décor and exterior and the fact that it was not open around lunchtime or on Mondays and Tuesdays.
By the end of the episode, Ramsay had inspired the twin brothers and completely transformed The Capri, inside and out.
The restaurant had a successful re-launch, which reportedly set it up for success even after Ramsay and the Kitchen Nightmares crew left the premises.
Jim and Jeff continued to run The Capri successfully for years after the fact, but sadly, the brothers announced in a 2019 Facebook message that they had decided to part ways with the restaurant and would be handing it over to new owners.
So while The Capri is still technically open currently, the restaurant is now under new management.
What happened after the “Capri” Kitchen Nightmares episode?
Ramsay returned to The Capri in a season seven “Revisited” episode of Kitchen Nightmares. The celebrity chef was impressed with how clean Jim and Jeff had kept the restaurant after his departure and also had good things to say about the food.
The Capri’s owners happily informed Ramsay that their sales had increased by about 20 percent since his initial visit and Ramsay was happy to inform them that he had not found gum stuck to his table this time around.
The restaurant seems to have been doing well after Ramsay’s return in 2012, and had a 3.8 out of 5 star rating on Yelp before it was sold.
What have Jim and Jeff been up to recently?
The Thiel twins posted a fairly emotional video on Facebook after their very last service at The Capri.
In it, they thanked all of their loyal patrons (some of which they mentioned by name) and even Ramsay, for all that he had done to help them stay in business for a total of 20 years.
After that, it seems like both Jim and Jeff decided to take a step back from the restaurant industry. However, a recent post on the twins’ Instagram page reveals that they recently paid a visit to their old restaurant and “has a blast”.
What happened to The Capri?
If The Capri was part of your must-visit Kitchen Nightmares restaurants list, do not let the news of Thiel twins’ departure sadden you.
Although Jim and Jeff sold The Capri to the Ice Cold Hospitality group in 2019, the restaurant is still open.
In fact, even though The Capri is now operating simply as “Capri Club,” this casual diner has retained many of the décor items that Ramsay and his team installed as part of their initial Kitchen Nightmares renovations.
Capri Club is now being managed by the restaurant industry expert, Robert Fleming, and welcomes walk-ins on every single day of the week (from 2 p.m. on weekends, 5 p.m. on Mondays and 4 p.m. on all other weekdays).
The menu contains a variety of Italian Aperitivo fare and cocktails, which were specially developed by Chef Francesco Allegro.
