Location: Los Angeles, California
The first half of a two-part special, the Burger Kitchen has only been open for 16 months and is already facing serious issues with its menu (changed 10 times), staff (changed 10 times each for both wait staff and chefs), and interpersonal relationships between the owner and his employee son (the latter of whom feels obligated to work solely because said owner stole half of said son's inheritance to fund the restaurant).
Tropes
- Bumbling Dad: Alan Saffron on so many levels. He took $250,000 out of his son's trust fund (without his knowledge/permission) to buy a restaurant he had no idea how to run. And he was confused as to why his son resented him. Oh, and at one point he gives Gordon a copy of a book he wrote about how horribly his own father treated him as a child; he never puts two and two together until Gordon explicitly spells it out for him later.
- Dagwood Sandwich: The Cowboy Burger, which was a full-pound patty whose vegetables and bun were roughly half of its diameter. Gordon could not figure how to eat it, and he made it clear to the waitstaff with his gestures.
- Dysfunctional Family: The episode featured a family that treated their son like absolute crap. On top of that, they pretty much stole $250,000 from him to finance the restaurant in the first place.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Owner Alan is convinced that Yelp reviewers are actually part of a larger conspiracy to deliberately ruin the reputations of restaurants like his. Not surprising, considering that there are some people who are critical of people abusing the ratings system on Yelp.
