{"id":188625,"date":"2026-05-10T13:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188625\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T13:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:33:24","slug":"wilsons-secret-sauce-closing-a-year-after-gordon-ramsay-visit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188625\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson’s Secret Sauce Closing a Year After Gordon Ramsay Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: March 8, 2026. We now know what restaurant is set to replace Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce in Delco. Is Delco ready for The Wiz<\/a>?<\/p>\n

This time last year, Delco was all a-twitter after a resident spotted celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay walking down the street in Upper Darby<\/a>. It turned out he was here to \u201csave\u201d popular Best of Philly-winning<\/a> barbecue joint Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce via a new Fox show, Gordon Ramsay\u2019s Secret Service, which was all about \u201cAmerica\u2019s filthiest restaurants.\u201d (Wilson\u2019s turned out to be not the least bit filthy.)<\/p>\n

One year later, after Ramsay exited the premises, Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce is closing its sit-down restaurant \u2013 just like Philly restaurants Zocalo<\/a> and the Hot Potato Cafe closed not long after getting the Gordon Ramsay treatment years ago \u2014 and selling their building. Here, husband-and-wife team Steve and Kelly Wilson talk about their experience living through a restaurant \u201creality\u201d show and what\u2019s next for them.<\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know your backstory, tell us what you were doing before you opened Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby in 2018.<\/p>\n

Steve Wilson: I was a mechanic for many years and started smoking ribs and brisket on the side as a hobby. Garry Maddox used to have a big barbecue competition down at the ballpark, and we entered and took first in chicken and second in ribs a couple of times. This evolved into doing a bit of catering, which grew quickly to the point where we couldn\u2019t do it out of our house.<\/p>\n

The location you chose on Township Line Road has always seemed like a doomed address to me. Before you, nothing really took off there.<\/p>\n

SW: Yes, it was an Indian place, it was a crab cake place, it was something else \u2014 I think a pizza place? This guy I bowled with owned the building, and he convinced me to sign a lease. Then COVID hit, and banks were like, \u201cYou really want to buy real estate right now? Sure, here\u2019s a mortgage.\u201d So we bought the building.<\/p>\n

Do you regret buying it?<\/p>\n

SW: Not at all. We\u2019re going to set up a ghost kitchen in Delco \u2013 we have a friend who wants to open a bakery but doesn\u2019t want to commit to her own space yet \u2014 so we can share that and just concentrate on the catering.<\/p>\n

Why sell the sit-down spot in the first place, though?<\/p>\n

SW: Our son is 13. He\u2019s wrestling and playing football, and if we keep the restaurant, we\u2019re going to miss out on so many things. Plus, it\u2019s hard to keep staff there. It\u2019s hard to bring in tables if I don\u2019t have waitresses, and it\u2019s hard to bring in waitresses without tables. And our dynamic is really about catering and events. We\u2019re also selling it for more than we bought it for.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s always a good thing. So \u2026 Gordon Ramsay.<\/p>\n

Kelly Wilson [joining the call as she\u2019s getting her kids off to school]: Hi, Victor. It\u2019s Kelly. Do you want my opinion or Steve\u2019s?<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steve and Kelly Wilson inside Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby the week before the Gordon Ramsay\u2019s Secret Service about them aired \/ Photograph by Kae Lani Palmisano<\/p>\n

Go for it, Kelly!<\/p>\n

SW: Just remember \u2026 It\u2019s going down on paper!<\/p>\n

KW: I mean, it\u2019s not that I don\u2019t appreciate some of the advice that he gave us. I\u2019m sure it helped with some things. But business actually slowed down a bit since he came in.<\/p>\n

Wow. I didn\u2019t expect you to say that. I know the dining room isn\u2019t often crowded when I come in, but you seem to do a heck of a lot of catering and takeout.<\/p>\n

SW: When I look back at it and look at, \u201cAre you still climbing, are you staying the same, or are you going backwards?\u201d I have to say that last year was the first year that we went down year-to-year.<\/p>\n

KW: Gordon Ramsay changed the menu. I didn\u2019t feel like his menu \u2026 We had a lot of customers coming in from day one of the new menu begging us to bring the old menu back. We were getting lost with his menu, and our menu really worked a lot better.<\/p>\n

SW: We had a lot of things on our menu, yes, and that drove Gordon crazy. But the thing is, our menu was just a combination of things we had in-house. We weren\u2019t bringing in one thing to create some new dish. We are looking at a case of chickens and figuring out what new and different thing we could do with those chickens. But I think that overall, working with Gordon Ramsay was a great reality check, more than anything else. Some of the show was a little humiliating and I could have used more of a hand in the back office and less in the kitchen, but \u2026<\/p>\n

One of the things that came out in the show was that you are in debt for more than $600,000.<\/p>\n

SW: Yeah, that sounds like a lot. But really, almost all of that is just two mortgages: one on our house in Havertown, and one on the restaurant. And the house and the restaurant are both worth the same amount of money or more than what we paid for them, and now we are getting out from under the restaurant. So it\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

\"Gordon<\/p>\n

Gordon Ramsay with Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce owner and chef Steve Wilson in Upper Darby during the shooting of Gordon Ramsay\u2019s Secret Service \/ Photograph via Fox<\/p>\n

You mentioned being humiliated on the show.<\/p>\n

SW: So, they basically kick you out of your restaurant. They showed up on a Friday and we had to hand over our keys and leave, and then they go in with Gordon and their cameras. So they show brisket in our walk-in, and they say, \u201cOh my God, they are going to reheat that brisket.\u201d But that brisket was actually from that day and it was supposed to go to Barnaby\u2019s in Havertown and the Greeks in Narberth. I wholesale my brisket out to them and they turn it into cheesesteak specials or quesadillas or tacos. And then, if you watch the episode, they\u2019re watching us cook and saying, \u201cOh my God, he\u2019s going to throw those burnt ends into the fryer.\u201d They weren\u2019t burnt ends at all. They were chicken wings.<\/p>\n

My impression is that, at first, you didn\u2019t realize any of this had anything to do with Gordon Ramsay.<\/p>\n

SW: We weren\u2019t approached by Gordon Ramsay or his people. We were approached by a network that said, \u201cHey, you want a makeover?\u201d<\/p>\n

Right, I saw that a restaurant in Rhode Island had complained that they were sold on this idea of getting a fresh new look for their restaurant, and nothing about Gordon Ramsay going undercover with infrared cameras in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

KW: No, they kind of tricked you about that!<\/p>\n

SW: Well, they didn\u2019t tell you exactly what the premise was. I wouldn\u2019t say we were \u201ctricked.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then the trailer comes out for the new series and they say it\u2019s all about \u201cAmerica\u2019s filthiest restaurants.\u201d I can\u2019t imagine how nervous that must have made you.<\/p>\n

KW: I got really upset because, first of all, I take pride in keeping this restaurant clean and immaculate. I don\u2019t want people to be skeeved touching things, to be grossed out because things are dirty and sticky. So it\u2019s actually extremely clean.<\/p>\n

SW: I think the production team was actually shocked they were here for the show, based on how clean the restaurant was.<\/p>\n

KW: They really didn\u2019t do much. The show was originally supposed to be a makeover show. They put some fresh paint up and changed the curtains and put plastic tablecloths down. We didn\u2019t get a whole lot of new stuff like the restaurants in the other episodes.<\/p>\n

Steve, you and I recently had a conversation about the cost of goods, where you were complaining that the price of a case of corn just went from $18 to $58. And I get that. But I also feel like there are some restaurants out there charging COVID pricing just because people are used to paying for it. I\u2019m not going to name the spot, but I recently got a barely mediocre cheese pizza from a place in Delco, and it was more than $30 for a large pepperoni. So you\u2019ve got some flour, some water, some low-quality cheese, and some low-quality pepperoni.<\/p>\n

SW: Well, but you also have to keep in mind that a lot of places are paying people a much better hourly wage, because people won\u2019t work for minimum wage anymore, in many cases. So, sure, that pizza might only cost them however much to make \u2014 but what about payroll and other overhead like rising utility costs, what about insurance that goes up and up every year? The cost of those pizza boxes went up.<\/p>\n

KW: Well, hold on now. I do feel like there are businesses out there definitely taking advantage, like they just know people are going to pay, so they might as well just keep it that way. But Steve and I, we adjust our menu regularly. Our rib costs go up and down, so they go up and down on the menu. We were at $32 a rack, and now we\u2019re at $28.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019ve opened a restaurant and now you are closing one. What advice do you have to people out there who say they want to open their own restaurant?<\/p>\n

SW: I tell people all the time, if you are going to own your own business, whether it\u2019s a restaurant or not, you have to own the real estate. If you don\u2019t own, you\u2019re just paying rent with nothing to show for it. If you buy and have a mortgage, you have that property to fall back on. You don\u2019t want a landlord. You\u2019re at the mercy of whatever the rent\u2019s gonna be. Sure, you might have the benefit of more foot traffic in a mall or at a strip mall, but you\u2019re going to get clobbered in every other way.<\/p>\n

Kelly?<\/p>\n

KW: [pauses] I would definitely find a mentor. Follow somebody around. Really look into it because there\u2019s a lot more involved than you would think. Steve and I literally had to learn everything along the way. Be prepared to, if you have kids, you\u2019re not going to see them a lot. It\u2019s hard. [pauses]<\/p>\n

SW: Hon, don\u2019t cry,<\/p>\n

KW: You miss a lot along the way. You miss weddings. And funerals. You miss your kids\u2019 games. You miss your kids\u2019 concerts.<\/p>\n

I wish you a lot of luck.<\/p>\n

SW and KW: Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE: March 8, 2026. We now know what restaurant is set to replace Wilson\u2019s Secret Sauce in Delco.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-188625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}