29°
The Love Bites cafe, which was located in Ulster County, will be featured on the show that is known to rip apart a restaurant, and its owner, at 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13 on Fox.
The restaurant in Saugerties was run by childhood sweethearts who "have trouble separating their work and personal lives," according to Fox.
To help celebrate the beloved restaurant, wedding photographer and food blogger Jason Bover, who runs the website Ulster Eateries Unfiltered, will hold a watch party at the restaurant's former home which now has new owners and is called The Town Cafe.
According to Bover, the owners of Love Bites, Christopher Keff, and Tess Robinson, had apparently been struggling to keep Love Bites afloat for some time due to health issues.
Love Bites had been in Saugerties for nearly 20 years, but moved locations twice and has had three or four different owners.
"I'm not sure of the specifics of how getting on the show works but one could assume they reached out to Fox or Kitchen Nightmares somehow and applied to be on the show," Bover said.
During that time frame of waiting to hear back from Fox, the owners reached an agreement to sell to a father-and-son team who worked across the street at Dallas Hot Weiners.
The new owners, Wilfredo Nova and his father Benny Lemus, agreed to wait until the taping was over to take over what is now The Town Cafe, Bover said.
The good news is Bover appears in the show, or at least he does if his part wasn't cut, he said.
His appearance came about after the casting for "Kitchen Nightmares" posted in Ulster Eateries Unfiltered looking for extras for a TV show.
"They received so many emails that they deleted the post in about three hours," Bover said.
The Fox Network then reached out to Bover and asked him to come in as a VIP special guest to taste the food for the show, he said.
He also signed a "do not disclose" agreement so he can't tell the true outcome of the show until it airs on Monday.
"They filmed me going into the restaurant, ordering, and eating," he said. "Gordan interviewed me for about 5 minutes asking about my social media, restaurant consulting, photography, etc. I am not sure how much will make it into the episode."
The new owners have kept next to nothing of the old menu which is understandable as it's a completely new restaurant. Anything Ramsay did is gone, Bover said.
So come out to The Town Cafe and celebrate Love Bites during "Kitchen Nightmares," or snuggle on the couch where you can cover your eyes to some of Ramsay's antics.
The Town Cafe is located at 69 Partition St., Saugerties.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Rivertowns and receive free news updates.
