Chappy's on Church

Chappy's on Church was a restaurant that originally opened in 1984 in Long Beach, Mississippi. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina demolished Long Beach, resulting in them relocating to Nashville, Tennessee in 2006 (according to Chappy).

It was owned by John "Chappy" Chapman, and his wife Starr.

Gordon Arrives
Gordon arrives and meets Chappy who tells him that Nashville locals aren't receptive to the restaurant and he rates the food 10/10.

TJ tells him that the lunch menu and dinner menu have the same items but the price triples from lunch to dinner.

What does he order?
Gordon orders the fried green tomatoes, chicken and sausage gumbo and steak and lobster rocket from the giant menu.

The opinion of the food
The fried green tomatoes were bland, the gumbo was watery and bland and the steak and lobster rocket had grisly, chewy steak and lobster.

Dinner Service
Gordon arrives for dinner service and sees an open pot full of oysters kept at room temperature.

He also sees the kitchen blacken a steak in the same pan as fish for a pescatarian and is shocked when Chappy hasn't heard of what one is.

Gordon asks the pescatarian to talk to Chappy and she explains that meat would make her sick.

Kitchen Inspection
He inspects the walk-in and finds yellow mayonnaise that expired 3 years ago, amongst mouldy and rotten food and cooked and raw meat stored next to each other.

Gordon speaks with Starr and she is defensive of Chappy and tells Gordon she doesn't know when he changed but wants it to be fixed as he does care about the restaurant.

Staff meeting
The next day Gordon gets the staff together, they air a lot of frustrations about being yelled at, Chappy acting condescending and he promises to change.

Gordon is not convinced so he invites the locals to give their opinion with Chappy and Starr listening.

The locals have many criticisms - the food tasted burnt, it was not authentic Cajun, the quality was low, the food is overpriced and there was a bad atmosphere in the restaurant.

Makeover
Overnight, Gordon's teamwork on the restaurant changing the decor to a modern dining room but Chappy is not a fan of the makeover.

The menu has reduced from over 100 menu items down to 22 modern recipes.

Gordon also reveals Chris Fox to help implement the menu change and brings in a rail of casual shirts and pants for staff.

The staff sample the menu and love the new items.

Relaunch night
On relaunch night, Chris is in the kitchen assisting the kitchen by expediting.

Chappy is not communicating and is struggling with the new menu.

Gordon asks Chris to step in as Head Chef after Chappy “butterflies” the meat to serve quicker, lowering the standards.

After the change, the food makes its way out to the kitchen and the customers are happy with the food. After the service, the servers and customers were happy with the changes and the evening service but Chappy was clearly not happy. Starr promises not to let Chappy go back to his old ways.

Future
In the weeks that followed, despite positive feedback about the changes, Chappy went back to his old ways including the hat and temper.

Chappy has since given many high profile interviews including the National Enquirer saying that Gordon has wrecked his business.