Gordon Ramsay in El Greco's kitchen Credit: Image courtesy of Fox.com

Remember El Greco? Pause here to hang head, pour a bottle of Ouzo out on the asphalt.

El Greco used to be that sweet if ramshackle mom-and-pop restaurant in North Campus. It was legendary for long waits and a sort of confused approach to service, but nothing a comped order of hummus and a compliment from its gray-haired matron couldn’t smooth over in the time it took to inhale an order of their luscious tzatziki.

In any case, Gordon Ramsay, that fire-breather, was brought in to turn around the apparently limping business for his reality TV show Kitchen Nightmares. He overhauled the menu, to deleterious effect, and replaced El Greco’s endearing no-aesthetic with a chintzy THIS! IS! GREECE! makeover. Long story short, El Greco’s been shuttered since December. (Eater Austin’s been doing the play-by-play of El Greco’s troubled post-Ramsay period, which you can catch up on here.)

The Kitchen Nightmares: El Greco ep airs tonight on Fox at 7pm. And if you’re wondering what that noise is, it’s the sound of my heart breaking, just a little.

This article appears in January 20 • 2012.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...