America's Next Great Restaurant

America's Next Great Restaurant
Starring	Bobby Flay Curtis Stone Steve Ells Lorena Garcia
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	9
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC CNBC
Release	March 6 (2011-03-06) – May 1, 2011 (2011-05-01)

Commuters in Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan treated to free samples of food inspired by the series, March 4, 2011.

America's Next Great Restaurant was an NBC reality television show that featured contestants pitching restaurant ideas to a panel of judges, where the winner would receive financial backing for their restaurant concept. Three locations were opened across the nation — Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York—on Monday, May 2, 2011, the day after the May 1 season finale. The judges included chefs Curtis Stone, Bobby Flay, Lorena Garcia, and Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells, who were the investors in the winning concept. The production company behind the show was Magical Elves, the same company that produces Top Chef. The show, which has been described as a cross between The Apprentice and Top Chef, premiered was on March 6, 2011. The first season finale aired on Sunday, May 1, 2011, with Jamawn Woods' concept, a soul food restaurant concept called Soul Daddy, judged the winner.

The season finale, which drew a 2.0 viewership rating, was rebroadcast on May 6, as viewers in the Pacific Time Zone did not learn the winner during the original broadcast, due to the breaking news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Due to low ratings, on May 13, 2011, NBC cancelled the show after the first season.

The three Soul Daddy restaurants that were opened in Minneapolis, Manhattan and Los Angeles closed after one month.

Contestants

Contestant and Age	Hometown	Occupation	Original Restaurant Name	Changed Name	Slogan	Restaurant Concept	Eliminated
Jamawn Woods, 32	Detroit, Michigan	Self-employed cook	W3 - Woods' Wings & Waffles	Soul Daddy®	Cooking With Heart And Soul	Soul Food	Winner
Sudhir Kandula, 40	New York City, New York	Software Sales	The Tiffin Box	Spice Coast®	Eat Flavorfully	Modern Indian cuisine	Runner-Up
Joey Galluzzi, 40	Brooklyn, New York	Financial services	Saucy Balls	Brooklyn Meatball Company	Italian Home Cooking, Fresh Is Best	Meatballs	Runner-Up
Stephenie Park, 28	Chicago, Illinois	Attorney	Compleat	Harvest Sol®	Flavor You Can Count On	health meals/Mediterranean cuisine	Episode 9
Greg Westcott/Krystal Seymour, 30/29	Los Angeles, California	Bartender/Personal Trainer	Hick's	Grill'Billies®	Urban Grill With Southern Attitude; Be The Sauce	Southern comfort food / Grilling	Episode 8
Sandy DiGiovanni, 54	Kansas City, Missouri	Bartender	Limbo	Sinners and Saints®	Food For Your Mood	Choice of healthy or indulgent dishes	Episode 6
Eric Powell, 28	Nashville, Tennessee	Financial Manager	Meltworks®		Artisanal Ingredients, Endless Possibilities	grilled cheese	Episode 5
Alex Terranova, 28	Marina del Rey, California	Restaurant Manager	Hard 'N Soft A Taco Bar	Revolution Tacos®	Explore, Discover, Indulge	Fusion tacos	Episode 4
Marisa Zafran, 31	New York City, New York	Director of PR/Marketing	Wok	Chǎo®	The Art of Stir Fry	Stir frying	Episode 3
Fran Harris, 45	Dallas, Texas	Personal trainer	The Sports Wrap®			healthy sports wrap	Episode 2
Sarah		Private chef	What's Good			organic and healthy	Episode 1
Aimee		Pet waste removal business	SoupZ			Soup	Episode 1
Brianne		Educator	Café crEATivi			Interactive cafe for kids	Episode 1
Tran			Nam Nam			Vietnamese	Episode 1
Anita		Restaurant manager	Pot Belly			Pot pie	Episode 1
Joe B.		Big Wangs Restaurant Chain Owner	Lil’ Wangs			wings	Episode 1
Jason		Restaurant owner	Bully's Burgers & Wings			Burgers and wings	Episode 1
Anastasia						Greek	Episode 1
Win							Episode 1
Farzan	Houston, Texas	Abe's Cajun Market Manager	Sina			Persian	Episode 1
Shannon						Spanish	Episode 1

Episode elimination chart

Jawan Woods' Soul Daddy concept was the first season winner, seen here on opening day, May 2, 2011 at the New York City location. The location closed permanently on June 14, 2011.

Place	Contestant	Episode
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	Jamawn	Top 10	IN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	WIN	WINNER
T-2	Sudhir	Top 10	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	LOW	IN	RUNNER-UP
T-2	Joey	Top 10	IN	IN	LOW	LOW	LOW	LOW	WIN	LOW	RUNNER-UP
4	Stephenie	Top 10	IN	LOW	IN	IN	LOW	IN	IN	OUT
5	Greg/Krystal	Top 10	LOW	LOW	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	OUT
6	Sandy	Top 10	IN	IN	IN	LOW	OUT
7	Eric	Top 10	WIN	IN	LOW	OUT
8	Alex	Top 10	IN	IN	OUT
9	Marisa	Top 10	LOW	OUT
10	Fran	Top 10	OUT
11	Jason	OUT
T12-20	Sarah	OUT
	Aimee	OUT
	Brianne	OUT
	Tran	OUT
	Anita	OUT
	Joe B.	OUT
	Anastasia	OUT
	Win	OUT
	Farzen	OUT
	Shannon	OUT

Episode 7 was an unaired episode that had contestants create a mini-website.

  The contestant was the Winner of America's Next Great Restaurant and won three restaurants in 3 cities across the country.

  The contestant(s) were the Runner-Ups of America's Next Great Restaurant.

  The contestant won the challenge for the week.

  The contestant made it into the Top 10.

  The contestant was safe from elimination but did not win the challenge of the week.

  The contestant was in the bottom group for the week.

  The contestant was eliminated.

Episodes

Each episode combines a business challenge with a food challenge.

Ep #	Title	Airdate
1	"Pilot"	March 6, 2011 (2011-03-06)
The judges have the 21 preliminary contestants give a presentation on their restaurant concept, and prepare a dish they would serve in their restaurant. After watching the presentations and tasting the dishes, the judges chose 9 contestants (Alex, Fran, Greg and Krystal, Jamawn, Joseph, Marisa, Sandy, Stephenie, and Sudhir) to compete for the opportunity to have their concept opened as a restaurant in three locations. Eric and Jason have a extra demonstration to determine who gets the last spot. Eric has to grill as many grill cheese sandwiches as he can and Jason has to make a great burger. With Eric making 29 in fifteen minutes and a merely satisfactory burger from Jason, the judges place Eric in the final spot.
2	"Episode 2"	March 13, 2011 (2011-03-13)
The contestants must create a logo for their company and hire a chef. The challenge this week includes serving a dish to 1000 people at Universal CityWalk Hollywood. Each person who samples the contestants dishes is given a silver coin to put into a contestant's jar. The contestant with the most coins is the winner and safe from elimination. Winner: Eric, for acquiring the most silver coins from the 1000 tasters. Eliminated: Fran, for being too stubborn and not listening to the investors.
3	"Episode 3"	March 20, 2011 (2011-03-20)
The nine remaining contestants must work the busy lunch shift at Chipotle Mexican Grill. All but Meltworks and Saucy Balls are directed to change their name and all must come up with a slogan. All but Stephenie (Compleat) do so. For the food evaluation, a signature dish based on the slogan is to be made. Sudhir and Marisa are advised to consider firing their chefs. Sudhir fires his chef and takes over as head chef while hiring a sous chef. Marisa stays with her chef. The evaluators included some of the country's top advertising executives. Flay recommends to Eric that he come up with some dipping sauces for the grilled cheese sandwiches. Winner: Jamawn, for acquiring the most silver coins from evaluators. Eliminated: Marisa, for not firing her chef, and for not getting her food concept to work practically.
4	"Episode 4"	March 27, 2011 (2011-03-27)
The eight remaining contestants must design and construct a smaller design of their proposed eatery and menu board. They then unveil their own mini-design and meal for Dine Los Angeles event attendees. Stephenie changes her restaurant name to Harvest Sol. Eric does not follow Flay's last episode's recommendations to make dipping sauces. Winner: Sudhir, for acquiring the most silver coins from evaluators. Eliminated: Alex, since the investors felt his ideas and concepts were more suited for a bar rather than a casual restaurant.
5	"Episode 5"	April 3, 2011 (2011-04-03)
The seven remaining contestants must design a uniform for their proposed eatery and do a photo shoot with the uniform. For the food challenge, the investors will propose a dish not yet made either on the menu or might fill a gap on the menu. Flay pushes the sauce idea on Eric again which he does this time, but not to Flay's liking. Winner: Greg and Krystal, for acquiring the most silver coins from evaluators. Eliminated: Eric, for not being flexible with his preconceived concept, and for not implementing the investors' wishes properly.
6	"Episode 6"	April 10, 2011 (2011-04-10)
The six remaining contestants must design a truck and sell their food to pedestrians at one of two locations. With a $300 budget, the task was to figure out their food cost, set their prices, and make the most profit they can. Joey finally changes his restaurant name to Brooklyn Meatball Company. Sudhir takes Ells's advice to have a taco on the menu. Sandy fires her chef, based on the investors' advice. Winner: Jamawn, although no contestant made a profit, Jamawn took in the most money. Eliminated: Sandy, for not being able to serve tasty enough food, and for not being able to properly implement her concept.
7	"Episode 7"	April 17, 2011 (2011-04-17)
The five remaining contestants must make food appropiate for children, also develope a toy for their restaurant. Stone and Garcia make an intial test of the food for the contestants, so they can tweak before the evaluation to make them more healthy or less spicey. Grill'billies argue with their cook and later lose half their food in a spill. Families were the tasters, including Flay's daughter. Winner: Joey, for having the most coins from the kids; he had 52% of the votes. Eliminated: Greg and Krystal, for not being able to control their concept due to a lack of hierarchy.
8	"Episode 8 (Venture in Vegas)"	April 24, 2011 (2011-04-24)
The four remaining contestants head to Las Vegas as to test their concept somewhere other than Los Angeles. They are put up in a luxury suite at Caesar's Palace, whose guests will be the testers. Penn & Teller show up as testers. The contestants will be serve three dishes for the crowd. For the business challenge, the contestants will be hire their next two employees, who will handle the first hour of serving without the contestants' help. Stephenie's staff is unable to identify the dishes as they spend more time prepping. She also adds back lamb to an item after researching the treatment of lamb in America. Winner: Jamawn, for getting the most coins Eliminated: Stephenie, for not having a good focus on what her concept is.
9	"Episode 9 (Finale)"	May 1, 2011 (2011-05-01)
The remaining three contestants are to build a mini-restaurant in the former restaurant row area. The mini-restaurants are to mimic a soft opening. Although the judges agree that Spice Coast's food is good, they feel that Sudhir has imitated the Chipotle Mexican Grill concept too much in the number of Tex-Mex style items he has added to his menu. The customers and judges also feel Brooklyn Meatball Company's food is excellent, but they must wait too long for it, as that restaurant's problem organizing legible tickets leads to a backup. Soul Daddy's food is also a success, though Bobby Flay is disappointed that Jamawn has replaced his fried chicken with baked chicken in order to provide more healthy menu choice, and Lorena Garcia feels his food is too rich to eat more than once a week. This episode was preempted in the Pacific Time Zone due to coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden. Winner: Soul Daddy Runners-up: Spice Coast, Brooklyn Meatball Company

Opened restaurants

ANGR Holdings is the company that ran Soul Daddy's restaurants. It also holds registered trademarks on several of the other restaurant concepts' names (marked ® below).

The Minneapolis Soul Daddy was housed in the Mall of America, while the Manhattan location was at the South Street Seaport, at 189 Front Street. The Los Angeles restaurant was located at Hollywood and Highland, in the same grand center as the Kodak Theater.

On June 14, 2011, the Manhattan and Los Angeles locations were closed in order for Woods to focus on the Minneapolis locations, but that location later closed on June 28.

Woods has been vocal in blaming Chipotle's management team for the failure of the Soul Daddy chain. As of August 2011 he has has yet to engage in legal action, but says that the company owes him a year's salary, and reached a settlement with Chipotle by September 27 of that year.

As of early October 2011 the top three contestants are all working on opening restaurants based on their "Next Great Restaurant" concepts. While on leave from his job at Chrysler, Woods is splitting his time constructing a Soul Daddy in his hometown of Detroit, while catering from his home and pursuing an associate's degree at Schoolcraft College, a school in Labonia, Michigan known for its culinary arts program. Runner-up Joey Galluzzi intends to pursue his restaurant concept, and enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at Le Cordon Bleu to improve his knowledge of the business. Runner-up Sudhir Kandula is also plans for the culinary industry. In the interim, he joined a San Francisco-based start-up called eCert, Inc. as their Vice President of Sales, advising a friend on his software/food venture called GlassCart, and working with friends on a stealth food project called American Dirt.

External links

• Official site
• Meltworks Official website of one of the competitors.