FOOD NEWS
Kitchen Nightmares: Is Finn McCool's Still Open?
By Julia Mullaney
Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" was a must-watch show from 2007 to 2014 — that is, as long as you enjoyed watching the celebrity chef scream at disheveled restaurant owners.
In Season 1, Ramsay made his way to Westhampton, where he visited Finn McCool's. Andrew "Buddy" Mazzio, the restaurant's owner, was struggling to keep his head above water.
After hearing negative feedback about the fried food, Gordon Ramsay added new items to the menu, made the family clean every inch of the restaurant, and gave it a makeover.
Ramsay gave it his best shot, and things seemed to be going well when filming ended, but Mazzio couldn't make the restaurant work long-term and sold it two years later.
Family drama aside, Westhampton is a tough place to own a restaurant because it's heavily populated in the summer months, with very few customers during the rest of the year.
Finn McCool's kept its namesake for another three years before the new owners closed it again in 2012. Mazzio's son and head chef, Brian, didn't like the show's dramatic editing.
It's unclear what Andrew Mazzio did after selling the pub before passing away at the age of 69. Brian is now the executive chef at Sunday's on the Bay in Hampton Bays, New York.