Well, absolutely nothing surprising in tonight's finale (except, perhaps, Joey's wife...not at all who I would have envisioned).

Soul Daddy it is. Not exactly a shocking result, but a good one (I think) nonetheless.

If I were the Spice Coast guy I'd be pretty pissed at Chipotle guy. If I were Saucy Balls I'd get as far away from the restaurant business (and, really, managing people in any context) as possible.

jesteinf wrote:If I were the Spice Coast guy I'd be pretty pissed at Chipotle guy.

Definitely! And Bobby Flay's complaints that the Soul Daddy guy wasn't serving fried chicken? Here are two guys who totally redid their concepts to please the judge/investor/losers & in the final judging, both get criticized for it. This show makes me want to pull out my hair. LOL...Any word on whether it's been renewed?

I hope Soul Daddy does well. Even a jaded individual like myself gets sucked into the heartfelt moment of someone going after their dream. How much better can a rib be for you than fried chicken though? Just curious as these judges seem to be using this as a platform to start a revolution (that should be another show). Also, according to Chipotle guy syarting a revolution isn't easy.

I was also surprised how well Joeys concept came together and how good it all looked. I mean it was great...until they had to cook and serve food to people in an orderly fashion.

I also wonder if the two others can keep what they did regarding graphics, design, menu etc. Or, if they signed some sort of intellectual property clause entitling Clive Stone to x% of any and all future sales and ownership of their venture.

jvalentino wrote:I hope Soul Daddy does well. Even a jaded individual like myself gets sucked into the heartfelt moment of someone going after their dream. How much better can a rib be for you than fried chicken though? Just curious as these judges seem to be using this as a platform to start a revolution (that should be another show). Also, according to Chipotle guy syarting a revolution isn't easy.

I was also surprised how well Joeys concept came together and how good it all looked. I mean it was great...until they had to cook and serve food to people in an orderly fashion.

I also wonder if the two others can keep what they did regarding graphics, design, menu etc. Or, if they signed some sort of intellectual property clause entitling Clive Stone to x% of any and all future sales and ownership of their venture.

LOL, my wife loved your Clive reference!

I too, wonder how free these contestants are now to pursue their concepts. It'd be pretty low of the producers to lock them out of that possibility but it wouldn't be a huge surprise, either. Certainly, it seems like it'd be pretty easy for any non-contestant with a little gumption to legally knock off any of the concepts and develop them on their own, so it'd be ironic if the contestants weren't allowed to.

It was strange that when Bobby showed Jamawn/Soul Daddy the space, it was entirely a surprise to him. I half expected Ty Pennington to make an appearance. That moment really re-emphasized the actual distance between Jamawn and "his" restaurant.

There's a 'review' of Soul Daddy at the Star Tribune's web site . . . (A taste of soul food)

at the Star Tribune's web site, Lee Svitak Dean wrote:Is Minnesota ready for soul food? It seems to be, judging from the long line Monday when Soul Daddy opened its doors at the Mall of America as the winner of the nine-week TV reality show, "America's Next Great Restaurant," or as it's referred to on Twitter, #angr. At lunch, diners waited patiently, snapping photos as the line snaked its way outside the restaurant and along the mall's hallway, Most, if not all, were fans of the TV show -- and of the winner, Jamawn Woods.

Anyone expecting a traditional taste of soul food will be in for a surprise since the premise of this restaurant is soul food with a twist -- a healthier, lighter version -- or as the subtext of the restaurant says, "new home cookin'." There's no mac-and-cheese or fried chicken here, but you'll find ribs, roast pork, pulled pork, baked chicken, biscuits and buns, albeit whole wheat ones.

Also, Soul Daddy's menu is now online.

=R=

Andy Dehnart posted a typically amusing wrap-up at Reality Blurred . . .

at RealityBlurred.com, Andy Dehnart wrote:America’s Next Great Restaurant concluded last night, at least for those not in the Pacific time zone, and the winning restaurant, Soul Daddy, opened three locations today: in L.A. at Hollywood and Highland, in New York City at the South Street Seaport, and in Minneapolis at the Mall of America. Like The Bachelor relationships, I suspect the big question is how long until the three close down.

at RealityBlurred.com, Andy Dehnart wrote:To me, the winner, Jamawn Woods, came out of left field. Ubiquitous reality personality Curtis Stone cited his “passion and drive,” and perhaps that overruled the purple design and pretty typical food. Soul Daddy, by the way, “will be owned by the contest winner along with various investors,” so it sounds like there are other investors besides the judges, who have refused to say how much they were investing.

One other quote suggests that there is a waiting period that the contestants must endure before going back at it...

at RealityBlurred.com, Andy Dehnart wrote:Sudhir, by the way, suggested that his final concept wasn’t something he was happy with, writing on Facebook today, “I will get down to the serious business of launching my uncompromised vision as soon as I am allowed to.”

Soul Daddy opens as America’s Next Great Restaurant ends without ever becoming great

=R=

Grub Street NY has reviewed Soul Daddy:

For those wanting to cut to the chase, here’s my six-word verdict: “Not as salty as Boston Market.”

Strangest part of this whole thing...Jamawn's title is "Assistant Manager and Founder"

jesteinf wrote:
Strangest part of this whole thing...Jamawn's title is "Assistant Manager and Founder"

Has to be real because nobody could make that up.

In news that should surprise nobody, two of the three locations of Soul Daddy have closed.

Well, another day, another closure. The Los Angeles location of Soul Daddy is being shut down, too. Yesterday came the news that the winner of America's Next Great Restaurant, healthy soul food restaurant Soul Daddy, was closing its New York City location after just one month. All that's left of the upstart chain is the Minneapolis location (on the third floor of the Mall of America).

Guess they should have made it more like Chipotle.

They probably didn't have enough dipping sauces.

I am shocked...positively shocked! How could these 4 culinary-investor geniuses have failed so spectacularly when it came to picking America's Next Great Restaurant?

I also think it's hilarious that the last location standing of a soul food restaurant is The Mall of America, perhaps the least "soulful" place in the country.

Well, it's all over

The doors at Soul Daddy at the Mall of America closed permanently Tuesday night, bringing to a quick end, after slightly more than eight weeks, the "prize" offered as part of the NBC reality show "America's Next Great Restaurant"

I'm assuming there won't be a season 2.

Reading that link ... how vile that they didn't even notify him in advance ... and only gave them how long to show some ROI? ridiculous.

I'm totally shocked that those industry experts/investors didn't have the expertise to pull off this concept...shocked, I tell you.

Chipotle Guy, Lorena, Bobby and 'Clive,' you let us all down.

=R=

jesteinf wrote:I'm assuming there won't be a season 2.

Why not? The objective was never to cook good food, or to run a successful business - it was to get yourself on TV (contestants) or to get people to watch your show (producers).

The following is the announcement that was released from ANGR Holdings, the owner of the restaurant:

"After careful consideration and a thorough review of its performance, we have decided to close Soul Daddy at the Mall of America. This was a difficult decision for us, as we wanted to see Soul Daddy succeed, but the restaurant simply was not performing as we had hoped. We'd like to thank all of the customers who tried our restaurants and the people who worked hard to try to make the restaurants succeed.

--Soul Daddy Restaurants

The holding company's name sounds just an easily guessed vanity license plate: ANGR.

The three restaurants had opened May 2. The two other locations (South Street Seaport in New York City, and Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles) were closed June 14 and 15, respectively, to the surprise of Jamawn, who had found out about the first closing in an email hours after having put in an offer for a home in Lakeville, Minn. He was to have had a year-long management training program at the MOA store. Jamawn first heard that he won the competition about two weeks before the restaurants opened. The three finalists on the TV show had been kept in the dark on who had won, and alternate endings to the program had been filmed.

It was noted the 'winner' had just signed to purchase a home. I hope he doesn't come out of this experience financially disabled. It would be a pity if a contestant is better off losing than winning.

Regards,

Independent George wrote:

jesteinf wrote:I'm assuming there won't be a season 2.

Why not? The objective was never to cook good food, or to run a successful business - it was to get yourself on TV (contestants) or to get people to watch your show (producers).

Given the incessant coddling and micro-managing with which the 'investors' smothered the contestants, along with their very know-it-all attitudes about everything, the failure of the restaurant(s) actually reflects more poorly on them than the winner of the show. Since I believe one of the primary goals of the show was for those 'investors' to further their own brands, I'm guessing it'll be hard to recruit new 'investors,' since the result of Season 1 exposed its 'investors' as bumbling morons, who actually knew a lot less about running and launching restaurants than they pretended to. Especially in the case of the Chipotle Guy, it's better to be lucky than good.

Still, this is (reality) tv. Of course there could be subsequent seasons. I believe The Bachelor franchise has produced only 2 marriages in nearly 2-dozen seasons, yet it continues to chug along, ratings-wise.

=R=

Wow, I somehow missed all three closings! What they tried to make that concept gave it little chance in the first place, much less with such little time to get on it's feet. If that's how they were going to back the concept I would have preferred to finish second.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Independent George wrote:

jesteinf wrote:I'm assuming there won't be a season 2.

Why not? The objective was never to cook good food, or to run a successful business - it was to get yourself on TV (contestants) or to get people to watch your show (producers).

Given the incessant coddling and micro-managing with which the 'investors' smothered the contestants, along with their very know-it-all attitudes about everything, the failure of the restaurant(s) actually reflects more poorly on them than the winner of the show. Since I believe one of the primary goals of the show was for those 'investors' to further their own brands, I'm guessing it'll be hard to recruit new 'investors,' since the result of Season 1 exposed its 'investors' as bumbling morons, who actually knew a lot less about running and launching restaurants than they pretended to. Especially in the case of the Chipotle Guy, it's better to be lucky than good.

Still, this is (reality) tv. Of course there could be subsequent seasons. I believe The Bachelor franchise has produced only 2 marriages in nearly 2-dozen seasons, yet it continues to chug along, ratings-wise.

=R=

This show had abysmal ratings, among the worst on network TV every week. I'd be 99% sure it's not coming back. If it were going to come back, the "investors"/NBC would have kept the restaurants open precisely to the point that the failure this quickly would reflect poorly on the judges' expertise and taint a second season.

It's different than a show like the Bachelor, which has decent ratings and where a contestant chooses the winner. It's more akin to the Next Food Network Star, which at least has had a couple of winners' shows stick around for a few seasons and created one breakout star.

I'm sure NBC was just cutting their losses.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Given the incessant coddling and micro-managing with which the 'investors' smothered the contestants, along with their very know-it-all attitudes about everything, the failure of the restaurant(s) actually reflects more poorly on them than the winner of the show. Since I believe one of the primary goals of the show was for those 'investors' to further their own brands, I'm guessing it'll be hard to recruit new 'investors,' since the result of Season 1 exposed its 'investors' as bumbling morons, who actually knew a lot less about running and launching restaurants than they pretended to. Especially in the case of the Chipotle Guy, it's better to be lucky than good.

If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't have built three restaurants thousands of miles away from each other in the first place.

I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but the person I really want to see get a reality show is 'Bigfoot' from Kitchen Confidential (supposedly Andy Menschel, not that I'd know anything about anything). That would be fun, AND educational!

jvalentino wrote:If that's how they were going to back the concept I would have preferred to finish second.

Precisely. There is apparently no real glory in winning.

Regards,

I don't think anyone would have done any better than Soul Daddy did. The "investors" messed with everyone's concept so badly that their final entries were no where close to the ideas they brought in. The Indian guy for example, had a great idea that could have been easily delivered Chipotle "style" with the customer selecting final ingredients but in the end, his food that they approved hardly looked like anything Indian. The "investors" have lost any credence therefore I can't imagine a second season of this show.

While ANGR was one of those shows that I loved to hate, the fact is, good tv does not equal good business. Any real investors would have wanted to see a detailed business plan, marketing plans and financial projections for the build-out period, 30-days of operations, 6-months, a year, 5 years, etc. And no sane person would try to launch a new restaurant chain in 3 cities located hundreds of miles apart. (No economies of scale, difficult to deliver a standardized product, impossible to manage.) Of course, locations in 3 cities are better to draw in the viewers (yeah, right) because there's the promise of a location nearby!

Hi,

I was surprised by the accountant-bean-counting personality of Chipotle's founder. In my mind's eye, I had a very different personality concept.

Regards,

For those of us who were rooting for Spice Coast, an article in today's New York Times describing the rise in popularity of Chipotle-style Indian "fast casual" restaurants.

While not Indian, the article includes this gem:

"Last September, Chipotle Grill, which was built on Americanized Mexican foods, began applying that assembly line model to the foods of Southeast Asia. Their ShopHouse Kitchen, off Dupont Circle in Washington, serves rice bowls, noodle bowls and versions of the Vietnamese sandwich banh mi."