Is In the Drink Still Open? Kitchen Nightmares Update (Wayne, NJ)

In the Drink Restaurant and Bar sits inside Preakness Valley Park, alongside the fairways of the Preakness Valley Golf Course in Wayne, New Jersey, and has been owned by Jorge and Solange Mora since 2017, according to TAPinto's coverage ahead of the episode's premiere. The restaurant was the subject of Kitchen Nightmares Season 8, Episode 3, filmed over several days between May 30 and June 3, 2023, and airing October 9, 2023. Ramsay had difficulty locating the restaurant's entrance because of what TAPinto described as non-existent signage, and compared the interior decor to a "dreary funeral home."

He calculated that the business was carrying more than $250,000 in debt, and clashed with Jorge Mora over kitchen operations and management style during the visit. As part of the relaunch, the production fully renovated the restaurant's interior and introduced new menu items, including honey-glazed wings, pulled-pork sliders, and a chicken Caesar wrap, aimed at a more casual, golf-course crowd. Coverage at the time of the episode's release noted that In the Drink was one of four New Jersey and New York-area restaurants featured in the early run of Kitchen Nightmares' revived eighth season, alongside Bask46 in Woodland Park, Da Mimmo in Dumont, and later restaurants in Brooklyn and Yonkers, according to NJBIZ's roundup of the season's New Jersey episodes.

Since the episode aired, coverage of the restaurant has been limited; the restaurant's own website continues to describe it as perched alongside the rolling fairways of the golf course and lists current hours, a Totowa Road address, and contact information, with a site copyright dated 2025. No news reports of a closure, sale, or relocation were found in the years since the episode, and the restaurant's Facebook page continues to identify it as active at the Preakness Valley location. The venue's presence on a municipal golf course, rather than a standalone commercial address, has made it harder to confirm independently through standard business listings, and no 2026-dated review or public statement was located to confirm its status beyond the restaurant's own site.