Bergen County Italian restaurant featured on Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Kitchen Nightmares’
Da Mimmo Brick Oven Pizza in Dumont was featured on the popular show Monday night after being selected through an audition process this past summer
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A Bergen County Italian restaurant got a complete makeover by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for the television show “Kitchen Nightmares.”
Da Mimmo Brick Oven Pizza in Dumont was featured on the popular show Monday night after being selected through an audition process this past summer. The family-owned restaurant opened in November 2022 in memory of a family member, lovingly called Mimmo, who passed away in 2017.
“Him and my father always wanted to open up a restaurant of their own. So me and my brothers decided, ‘Let’s go.’ So here we are in honor of him,” said owner Antonio Gigante.
The Gigantes, a family of seven, all play their roles in the partnership restaurant. However, as the show highlights, some of the siblings received an attitude adjustment from Chef Ramsay.
“It most definitely was a learning experience overall. From the inside of the kitchen, all the way to the floor. The aspects of how to treat the customers in the right way, how to turn tables over, how to get certain things out of the kitchen faster,” said Antonio Gigante. “It was just an experience all around.“
The restaurant faced its challenges in a new neighborhood in a post-COVID-19 pandemic economy. During the show, it was partly renovated. The menu was also slightly adjusted.
“Now that the restaurant has a different feel, look and menu, we have a lot of new faces coming in,” said Melissa Gigante. “A lot of positive vibes are coming our way. We’re really looking forward to it because, in the beginning, we didn’t really fit into the community. Now we feel like we are a part of it.“
The show airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. on Fox.
