Is Capri From Kitchen Nightmares Still Open?

In May 2011, On Eagle Rock Boulevard in Los Angeles, a little Italian restaurant named The Capri appeared on "Kitchen Nightmares." Owned by identical twins Jeff and Jim Thiel, it had a lot of problems. You may recall the undersides of tables caked in chewing gum, holes in grim green sofas, and defrosted chicken that was "lethal." With a generous amount of swearing, however, Gordon Ramsay successfully stepped in to transform this nightmare into a dream.

Ramsey turned it around with homemade dishes (like meatballs), a renovated restaurant, and a huge boost in morale. The Capri turned from a dire eatery into a proud institution. Unfortunately, even after the successes from Ramsey's appearance, The Capri closed its doors for good on 9th September 2019. 

The move was apparently due to a decline in sales, along with some family health issues. While the twins may have closed the doors to The Capri for good, however, its memory lives on.

At the beginning of the "Kitchen Nightmares" installment about The Capri, Gordon Ramsay took stock of the restaurant's appearances and food and was not impressed. Open only for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, he claimed there was a clear way for the twins to increase business; opening for lunch was just one of the improvements the twins maintained after Ramsey's visit was over, along with keeping parts of Ramsey's revitalized menu.

When Ramsay revisited The Capri in 2012, he was impressed by the food, the longer hours, and that the undersides of tables, now clear of chewing gum. Over the next few years, The Capri continued to receive positive feedback, and their fame on "Kitchen Nightmares" seemed like a big boost. 

But although the restaurant stayed open for another eight years, the writing was on the wall. "We just weren't making any money," Jeff Thiel said of the pizzeria and Italian restaurant in 2019.

On their final day in business, the twins posted a heartfelt note on Facebook. "The end of an era," they wrote. "Thank you all. We will miss you!"

While The Capri may no longer be at Eagle Rock Boulevard in all its post-"Kitchen Nightmares” glory, that doesn't mean it has been forgotten. In the same location, Ice Cold Hospitality has since opened Capri Club, an aperitivo bar modeled after Italian restaurants from the '60s and '70s.

Under the command of Los Angeles wine veteran Robert Fleming, the Capri Club serves cool cocktails like negronis and martinis, and a limited menu. The reinvention has been a success, ranked as one of the hottest bars in LA in 2022. 

"You might not find the absolute best antipasti or even the best spritz in town at Capri Club, but you also won't find the near-cinematic ambience and Italian throwback vibes anywhere else," wrote Time Out in its 2022 review. "Eagle Rock Boulevard might not be a charming side street in Naples, but at Capri Club, it comes damn well close."