America's Next Great Restaurant

[NicoleJ]

nope. No fried chicken. And nothing I'd want to pay for:

The Winner of America's Next Great Restaurant Is Soul Daddy - Food TV - Eater National

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by NicoleJ

nope. No fried chicken. And nothing I'd want to pay for:

The Winner of America's Next Great Restaurant Is Soul Daddy - Food TV - Eater National

Me, either. He's got nothing without fried chicken. Whatever happened to that killer gumbo or jambalaya that he first made? Meh. soul daddy (http://www.souldaddyrestaurant.com/ - broken link)

[hiknapster]

Have any of you heard about this?

Seems like someone else had the same idea has Grilled Cheese Dude but they were way, way ahead of him.

It's funny because I think he may be the only contestant that still had a website and was looking for investors. Meanwhile the Flip Video was playing with the big dogs and came up with The Melt, dangerously close to Meltworks. Some lawyer is going to jump all over this but it looks like it's been in the works for awhile. Electrolux even invented a special grilled cheese grill for the restaurant.

They can't win but it won't stop some lawyer from trying to collect a fee.

Flip Founder Jonathan Kaplan’s Next Big Thing: Grilled Cheese - Eric Savitz - The Tech Trade - Forbes

[hiknapster]

They closed the LA and NYC locations the middle of last month and the Mall of America location a couple of days ago. Soul Daddy is no more.

I kind of feel bad. The guy was a people-pleaser but even if he had the gumption to speak up, I doubt the investors would have listened. I read a lot of comments from people that just wanted his fried chicken and waffles which has quite a following in his hometown of Detroit.

Now there is speculation that he was thrown under the bus by investors that were more interested in publicity and the television show, which got bad rating. I don't know. I think the investors didn't know what they were doing. Just because someone has a cooking show it doesn't mean they can open a restaurant. And those folks often become rich off of their fame rather than the food. The Chipotle guy got lucky, in my opinion. I doubt he'd be as successful coming up with another theme.

Anyway, I feel bad for the guy.

[sidrah]

His job gave him a year leave to do his thing and said he is welcomed back at any time. At least he has that to go back to. BUT, I kind of feel like one of those chefs should set him up somewhere.