What Happened To Bella Luna After Kitchen Nightmares?

"Bella Luna" is an Italian phrase that means "beautiful moon," and for some reason, it seems to be a really popular name for Italian restaurants. There are Bella Lunas in Chicago, Miami, New York, and numerous other locations. But the Bella Luna that was featured in a Season 6 episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" was located in Easton, Pennsylvania

Oh, oops! That past tense was a teensy spoiler, wasn't it? Well, more on that later. Anyway, in case you can't remember this 2014 "Kitchen Nightmares" episode (they all do start to blend together, don't they?), it's the one where they held a mock trial for inexperienced restaurant owner Rosaria Scollo and her culinary school graduate son Gianfranco (the restaurant chef) as well as for the rest of the staff. At the trial, disgruntled restaurant patrons were called in as "witnesses" and they all had a chance to air their numerous grievances about the restaurant's dismal décor, haphazard service, and inedible food while Gordon Ramsay served as judge and jury.

Even though all of the witnesses at the mock trial for Bella Luna Ristorante were hostile ones, the verdict Gordon Ramsay rendered was that the restaurant deserved a second chance. In fact, he begged the former patrons to come back and give the restaurant another chance after he'd done his best to fix things up

Step one was a complete revamp of the restaurant interior to make it brighter and less gloomy, if perhaps a bit generic-looking. The next step was to set up some functional management-type stuff to make the business run more efficiently, while the final makeover involved paring down the menu and making sure that all ingredients were fresh, not frozen. (One of Ramsay's many meltdowns early in the episode was triggered by the fact that the restaurant claimed to serve only fresh food, while in reality using quite a few frozen ingredients.) 

The first night under the new regime started off a bit rocky. But eventually, the restaurant staff got out of the weeds, and by the end of the night (and the episode), it looked like things might actually be looking up for Bella Luna. Well, you know how that goes, since the food industry is as fickle and ever-changing as the restaurant's eponymous moon.

By the time the Bella Luna episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" aired, the restaurant had long since folded, but it had nothing to do with Gordon Ramsay's failure to correct its course. The new look, new menu, and improved overall experience garnered thumbs-ups from a few Yelp reviewers who visited after the "Kitchen Nightmares" visit that took place in July 2013. Several people praised the improved décor and service, although noted that the restaurant's interior seemed to follow a typical KN-Ramsay blueprint.

Also typical of a restaurant redone by "Kitchen Nightmares" was Bella Luna's abbreviated menu. Yes, a shorter menu makes things easier for both chef and servers (as the pandemic drove home to anyone who hadn't already learned this from watching restaurant rehab shows on Food Network), but restaurant patrons aren't always pleased when some of their favorites disappear. One Yelper grumbled that Bella Luna no longer offered a side salad, while the other lamented that the limited amount of lasagna prepared sold out early in the evening. The prices, too, seemed to be on the high side for a restaurant that still seemed to be trying to figure things out.

As we already let slip in the opening paragraph, no, Easton, Pennsylvania is no longer among the cities to boast a restaurant by the name of Bella Luna. In November of 2013, just 4 months after Gordon Ramsay's visit and 6 months before the "Kitchen Nightmares" episode aired, it closed its doors for good. The reason wasn't a drop off in business, at least not according to owner Rosaria Scollo. She said they were doing better than ever, with three times the number of patrons, but unfortunately, there was an issue with the restaurant's lease. According to the landlord, Bella Luna was multiple months in arrears on the rent, so they put the building up for sale.

Had Bella Luna stayed open, it might have faced yet another legal hassle. A few weeks after its closure, the state police discovered that the restaurant had been serving alcohol with an expired liquor license. Although the license was up to date at the time of closure — and during Ramsay's visit, as well — there had been a few weeks during the preceding May where Bella Luna was out of compliance. Had the restaurant remained open, it was possible that the state could have chosen to suspend or revoke the liquor license in punishment for the previous violation.

Scollo vowed that Bella Luna would reopen someday, either in Easton or the surrounding area, but it's been over a decade and that day has yet to come. Perhaps it's just as well since once the "Kitchen Nightmares" episode aired, the restaurant's former patrons got to see for themselves how she threw them under the bus. As she told Gordon Ramsay, she felt that her restaurant was failing to thrive because Easton's residents were too provincial to recognize quality Italian cuisine.

Scollo's LinkedIn profile still lists her as the owner of Bella Luna, although she also claims to be a personal chef with a company called A Matter of Taste. She seems to have remained in Easton, however, and no such company by that name appears to be operating in the area. Her contact info, too, loops back to that same LinkedIn page, so that's a bit of a dead end.

While we can't tell you what became of the owner, we can update you on Bella Luna's building. By now it's in its fourth incarnation (at lest) as an Italian restaurant, but seems to be getting better all the time. Gennaro's, which predated Bella Luna, averaged just 1 star on Yelp, while Bella Luna made it to 2.1. DeLorenzo's, which came next, rated 2.8 stars, but Tony's Pizza, which moved into the space in 2022 after De Lorenzo's 2019 closing, is holding steady at 3.7 Yelp stars.