LOUDONVILLE – If you tune into the Fox show “Hotel Hell” for its season finale on Tuesday, July 26, you may recognize the location and some familiar faces.
Chef Gordon Ramsay and his crew paid a visit to Landoll’s Mohican Castle outside Loudonville last December, leaving behind a renovated banquet room and a new sense of determination from the staff.
Landoll’s Mohican Castle, which employs about 30 people, opened in 2002, featuring eleven luxurious suites and a restaurant. The original restaurant burned down in 2008 and was replaced a year later by a new restaurant built next to the banquet room.
General Manger James “Jimmy” Landoll II said they were contacted initially by a Los Angeles casting agency, inquiring if they would be interested in being on the show.
“At first we were a little reluctant but we said we’d meet with them and hear them out,” Landoll said.
Landoll didn’t feel that the Castle had the conflict and problems that producers were looking for, but he knew they did have some issues.
“We knew that we weren’t necessarily running things correctly. We made money. We’ve always made money. It’s never been a financial issue. It’s just a matter of are we doing things the right way because none of us really had any hospitality training,” Landoll said.
In spite of the initial reluctance, Landoll and his mom, Marta, who owns the Castle, met with the casting agency and then Ramsay’s team before deciding to be on “Hotel Hell.”
“When you get the opportunity to have the No. 1 restaurateur and hotel consultant in the world come to your facility, whether it’s good or bad, you take advantage of that,” Jimmy Landoll said.
A crew of nearly 100 came to Landoll’s in December and spent almost two weeks on-site.
Landoll can’t say much about what happened while Ramsay was here before the episode airs Tuesday night, but he outlined some of the projects Ramsay and his team completed while they were in the area, and some of the advice he was given.
One of the major changes Ramsay’s team made while they were at the Castle was renovating the banquet center.
“We’ve already booked more weddings this year than we’ve ever had. And we’ve already booked like 20-some weddings for next year and two or three for 2018. We’re really filling up the weddings so we feel that’s a big help,” Landoll said.
Ramsay also completely redesigned the restaurant and banquet center menus.
“Where else can you go in Ohio and get married and the menu was personally designed by Gordon Ramsay,” Landoll said. “I think to always have that attached to your property is a good thing to have.”
Since he left, Ramsay and his team have continued to follow-up and assist Landoll.
“I hear from somebody pretty much every week,” Landoll said.
Ramsay’s sous chef stayed for a month after they left and trained the Castle’s staff and worked on getting the kitchen organized.
“They gave us a lot of advice,” Landoll said. “I got a lot of hands-on training and learned a lot about how things need to be done.”
Ramsay hired a consultant, Dave Brewer of David A. Brewer & Associates from Pennsylvania, to spend a month on-site, helping Landoll learn all the tricks of the trade.
Landoll also was given a three-day internship course at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Pittsburgh International Airport. While there, he had the chance to shadow the hotel’s general manager and other key staff, learning first-hand their best practices and how to manage a hotel.
“There were a lot of things that came with being on the show beyond just being on TV,” Landoll said.
Based on recommendations made by Ramsay and the consultants, Landoll hired several new staff members including an executive chef for the first time since the old restaurant burned in 2008 and a sales/marketing manager to help promote the Castle.
A remodel of the pool house and construction of a new banquet room/conference room are projects expected to be completed in the next month.
In April, they closed the restaurant for a week for remodeling, before reopening with a new name (Copper Mug Bar & Grille) and a logo designed by Ramsay’s graphic design team.
The name was inspired by the copper mug which the popular Moscow Mules drink is sold in.
While the chef and businessman is considered by some to be overly blunt and at times mean, Mohican Castle’s General Manager Jimmy Landoll has a different opinion of Ramsay.
“I think Gordon is as advertised,” Landoll said. “He is very honest, No. 1, he’s the same person on camera as he is off. But I do think he genuinely cared about our situation. I don’t think it was just a TV show for him. I felt like he was here to help.
“I think he provokes you to see the worst in you, but also so he can fix that and help you.”
The season finale will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Landoll hasn’t seen how his business will be portrayed on the show but he’s excited to see.
“It’s going to be embarrassing. I know that. I knew that going in. I can handle it and I’m prepared for whatever comes out on Tuesday,” Landoll said.
The general manager has been busy in recent days conducting interviews with media across the area and across the state, indicating the amount of interest people have in the Castle and its appearance on Ramsay’s show. Landoll is hopeful this interest will translate into a strong future for his family’s business.
“The castle has always been near to my heart. I grew up here,” Landoll said. “It’s my family’s business and legacy and it kind of started to have its issues because of staffing and after the restaurant burnt down. I’d like to see it become a national landmark. A place where, when you have guests come in to town and you’re in Ohio you want to take them to because it’s so unique. Gordon asked that same question and I gave him pretty much the same answer and he said in his eyes it’s already a landmark and it should be and we should be proud of it.”
If you want to view a preview of the episode, watch the commercial below.
