Lucas Grill

The restaurant & setting. The season-three finale took Martin Novák to the east of the country, to the village of Hriadky, where the Lucas Grill restaurant sits right on a main road and at a crossroads. The place is in its second summer on a lease, has been open for not quite two years, and is named after its owner Lukáš. The original idea was to build it around grilled chicken, but in truth that plan never really caught on.

The people. The owner is Lukáš, a thirty-one-year-old trained cook who is head chef, waiter, handyman and owner all in one. He works thirteen to fifteen hours a day, six or seven days a week, and even though home is only ten kilometres away, he has parked a caravan by the restaurant so he can sleep in it. Last September his father suddenly died, the man who used to handle the technical side of the business and was his emotional anchor. A team of women helps in the kitchen and on the floor, among them waitresses Ester and Hanka, and Martin was called in by Lukáš's childhood friend, who watches him with worry: „I'm the one who set this up."

Why they called Martin. The friend put it simply, the whole place is just too much for Lukáš alone. He does everything himself, from cooking to serving to maintenance, and because of it he has lost all his free time and his original spark. The lunch menu more or less keeps the place going, but after lunch it is dead, and at the end of the day essentially nothing is left over.

The first visit. Martin ordered chicken broth and roast pork, then leafed through the à la carte menu, which he called very small, short and monotonous: „I honestly have no idea what to pick." The broth and the tripe soup were honest and well made, but the rest was a sad parade of ready-made products, accompanied from the kitchen by a „symphony of microwaves." The menu's meat was dried out from being reheated, the schnitzel looked nicely fried to gold but had no seasoning at all, the grilled chicken had rubbery skin, and Martin called the burger the single worst thing he tasted: „Do I go to a restaurant for ready-made food and a symphony of microwaves? Probably not."

The diagnosis. Martin summed it up that the à la carte menu was simply catastrophic, all ready-made, and he laid out the hard truth for Lukáš, though with respect: he can name his problems but does nothing about them. Lukáš pushed back that he toils from morning to night, but Martin explained that he is going at it from the tail end, building the space first instead of making the food. The most important line of the evening also landed, that Lukáš and his health come first. It was a cold shower, and the likeable young man was left beaten, on his knees.

The reset. Martin decided to get not just Lukáš's cooking brain moving, but his life too. First he secretly sent him to a football pitch, where his old Slavoj teammates were waiting so that, after four knee operations, he could at least dust off his boots and spend time with the people close to him. Then came the experts and friends, a POS tablet instead of the old paper order book, and from the partners at gastrokuchyne.sk a big gift, a combi oven for an otherwise modestly equipped kitchen with a single stove and a cracked microwave.

New concept & menu. The vision was clear, instead of the competitor's thirty-five items just thirteen, but quality dishes. Since the place stands on a main road, Martin came up with a sandwich of sourdough bread and pulled grilled meat that people can take away with them. To it he added an onion soup, a salad for those who do not want only fried food, skewers with a dip, and potato dumplings with mushroom sauce. Smaller portions, but incredible quality and variety.

The big night. Before the big night there was real stress in the kitchen, some of the women were nearly in tears and Martin had to calm them down, but in the end it got going. With one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty orders the kitchen had a slow start, the team was finding its feet and did not know which way was north, but bit by bit it gelled, with Lukáš going full throttle at the grill and the combi oven. The skewers did run out, but Lukáš ran out to the guests, apologised and offered a substitute, exactly the way it should be done. The guests left delighted, and some even packed food to take home.

One month later. A month later Martin had nowhere to park, both the car park and the tables were full. In the kitchen they had taken down a wall for more space, and the menu was visibly more varied. The fried homemade pierogi did fall apart a little and the soup was too salty for his children, but the roasted pork knee Lukáš had done tip-top, the meat excellent, only the skin could have used more crispness. Martin also praised the idea of serving grilled meat on bread so the juices do not dirty the table.

Verdict: Lukáš is on the right path and has heart, the place has come alive and the people have come back, yet even though the word grill is in the name, it still lacks more inventive dishes and specialities straight off the grill. For what he achieved in a single month, and for starting to think about himself too and about his father's legacy, Lucas Grill takes home 3 knives. (The episode recording ends a few seconds before the rating is handed over; the score of 3 knives is per the show's database.)