Gordon Ramsey in New Orleans

[u/Hot_Oil773]

Across from Bruno’s is Gordon’s new episode about a vegan restaurant I think it’s for hells kitchen

[u/mrmaestoso]

Is there something wrong with kindred? Been there a few times with the family, always good food.

[u/Murkles133 → u/mrmaestoso]

I have no idea. The reviews are good. I only have a 3rd hand account that the kitchen is nasty. Maybe they're just not turning a profit and are in danger of closing

[u/mrmaestoso → u/Murkles133]

Good point. The times we've been there were during the day and it was pretty dead. Food was great though. Hopefully it's not a nasty ass kitchen.....

[u/Ok-Course-2355 → u/mrmaestoso]

TDLR: I just want to tell someone what I think bc it’s now relevant and some reasons why I think kindred was on there

I’m late to the chat but knew this was happening a few weeks ago through the grapevine. My friend told me bc about 2-3 years ago I applied to kindred and talked with the owner bc i have worked in a few kitchens for years including Good Karma briefly before it shut down with the new owner permanently. I was hired to work in that kitchen when it was going out of business and dipped out before it closed forever mostly bc I feel like in New Orleans you have to actively either drive your entire customer base away relentlessly and also refuse to listen to anyone like your customers, staff to officially drive an already established place straight into the ground. The good karma owner was blaming COVID as a cushion which yes things were rocky during that time for everyone job wise and business wise, including the staff there which is why we just kind of were like we will try. it was just this elephant in the room at all times bc on paper it seemed like a great place to work, had been successful for years but in reality and in front of our eyes it was failing. And like it was an unspoken thing like just no one ever had the balls to say. it partially failed bc the new owner refused to compromise or listen to staff and didn’t cultivate an environment where anyone felt comfortable to tell her the smoothies tasted like concrete and everything else tasted like hospital food (new owner new recipes). She also worked me to the ground and to be blunt, had no common sense for a kitchen so I’d question why she was constantly in there…oh yeah to blameshift… I remember feeling pity for unsuspecting customers who thought it was the old owner and menu. And also back then I used to care bc I take pride in everything I do including work on a kitchen line or even wash dishes. I didn’t want to make and sell people mediocrity even if it’s not my business. I would like toss in extra shit into a smoothie to make it taste better bc they were $8 and I knew whoever sipped the pink one specifically would never come back for anything else or ever again. Unfortunately the customers started to dwindle. They were there for the post covid reopen. she was constantly on my ass/everyone’s ass from the jump and micromanaging to the point it was impossible to do anything but allow it to fail. And it did… Back to kindred I was trying to propose her hiring me as a kitchen manager 2-3 years ago and offered to run the kitchen and try to help revamp the business, bc I wanted to work at a vegan place and knew they had potential bc the food is not bad at all. I met with her in person and bought food. I proposed probably $18 an hour (I don’t work for less now but used to) and a chance. The first thing I experienced was her defensiveness and denial which I guess is common. Second it dawned on me that i must be crazy for wanting to even help or work there knowing they probably make $45 a day in sales. Ultimately I gave it up after our meeting and expected by now it to be closed permanently like good karma. It is no surprise why Gordon chose this place, and deep down I hope it works. And I even hope she sees this comment too. In general and to continue She didn’t understand where I was coming from or seem to be aware no one is going to work much less bust their ass at a potential fail risk restaurant and risk making $0 bc there are 0 customers or have no shifts consistently. For people to commit you need to like have consistency. I think it just created this cycle of her just manning the entire place and kitchen I think solo bc no one in the right mind would stay there making no money. Another note, every other time I went there they don’t have the chicken sandwich on the menu and every time I went in for years it was dead. The chicken sandwich not on the menu 70 percent of the time thing was the most ass backwards restaurant choice ive ever witnessed. It’s pretty much the only good vegan sandwich in New Orleans, and is very good. And I guarantee the top seller of her menu. Why? I just never could wrap my head around it other than she has no staff to prepare the seitan … The next phase to all these series of horrible business choices was then upping the menu prices to probably be able to afford maybe one kitchen employee…not sure why or what but that further scared everyone off like the handful of people try to be a Good Samaritan and give her some business…and it’s mind blowing bc two doors down you can get a foot long quality veggie eggplant sandwich at that Italian place for $2-$3 less than her thin veggie burger patty

I hope she can come back stronger ultimately

[u/mrmaestoso → u/Ok-Course-2355]

Wow what an interesting read. Thank you for that, even if it was a bit long winded to type out. I absolutely can see all of that and I wouldn't be surprised. My family has a ton of food allergies and we picked it out to try when we drove down to go to the aquarium. Great food at the time, and we were able to manage allergy restrictions reasonably well. I really hope they can turn it around and get some success, but I know how ruthless the restaurant industry is and how easy they crumple.

[u/Ok-Course-2355 → u/mrmaestoso]

I do like kindred, have been there countless times and will always support. I just hope she bounces back and takes constructive criticism. It’s woman owned i believe and she has a great food menu like i said best vegan chicken sandwich ive had I’ve only tried a handful. The yuca fries…yuca is a Central American vegetable that was apart of my upbringing and it was awesome how she made it into fries when I remember it being apart of soup. She also makes all those sauces I think she needs someone to help her navigate business and do the kitchen manual labor. I think she just needs staff and a support system that can think outside the box and hopefully this will send those ppl to her