After Suing Kitchen Nightmares Twice, Here's How Oceana Is Doing
A "Kitchen Nightmares" episode so explosive it's now hard to find online, Oceana restaurant's Season 4 episode is the center of two lawsuits. Since the airing of Oceana's episode in 2011, the owners have taken the show to court. Twice. The goal of "Kitchen Nightmares" is for Chef Gordon Ramsay to come in and help save struggling restaurants. Although, Oceana alleges that Ramsay did more harm than help.
Located in a prime spot on Bourbon Street, Oceana has steep competition, and standards must be kept high. Before Ramsay's arrival, the seafood restaurant's kitchen was dirty and had a major rodent problem. Owners and brothers Rami and Moe constantly bickered on how to best manage the NOLA restaurant. The disjointedness of the two dining rooms highlighted the disjointed way the brothers attempted to manage Oceana.
When taking a tour of Oceana's kitchen and seeing the hazardous state prepped food was kept in, Ramsay screamed at Executive Chef Damon, "I didn't come in here to humiliate you, but how dare you serve me food from this disgusting fridge." After Ramsay discovered just how bad the rodent problem was, he shut down kitchen service. Working with Gordon Ramsay, the brothers were able to clean and open the kitchen back up, according to RealityTVRevisited.
Seafood, lawsuits, and a pandemic
However, before the Season 4 episode could premiere, there was already legal drama. According to Today, under the advice of Oceana's legal counsel, the restaurant filed a lawsuit attempting to prevent the episode from airing. Feeling like the show misrepresented Oceana, a settlement was reached where the production company agreed to pay Oceana every time they use footage of the episode and to include updates on the restaurant's current conditions. The second lawsuit came in August 2018 when Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" Facebook page posted a now-deleted post with a clip of the episode of Ramsay gagging in Oceana's kitchen with the caption, "no wonder this restaurant is failing..." The second lawsuit alleges that the post suggests that the restaurant is still failing years later.
Beyond Ramsay and "Kitchen Nightmares," Oceana recently won another major court case. According to Eater Nola earlier this month, Oceana won the country's first appellate court for an insured business seeking damages related to the COVID-19 shutdown.
Unlike many "Kitchen Nightmares" restaurants that have failed, Oceana is going strong to this day. According to RealityTVRevisited, Oceana is still open but with new owners.