Bruno’s, the popular 36-year-old, three-meals-a-day, seven-days-a-week classic malt shop with a jukebox (who has that anymore?) on Germantown Pike serves up frothy classics such as milkshakes, root beer floats, and banana splits. The property has been the site of restaurants for more than 100 years — Rollo’s from 1920 to about 1955, Dew Drop Inn from then until 1989, and Bruno’s from 1989 to the present. But it never experienced anything like the recent “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service” invasion.

Ramsay, the seemingly ubiquitous TV personality and 17-time Michelin-starred, celebrity foul-mouthed chef with a volcanic temper is quite a classic himself. He’s hosted 21 cooking/restaurant shows in England and the U.S. since 1999, including “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Kitchen Nightmares,” “Master Chef,” “Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars,”and “Culinary Genius.”

The format of his newest show is similar to “Kitchen Nightmares,” in which Ramsay and his team assist a struggling restaurant on the verge of closure. In the first 30 minutes, he berates the owner for everything Ramsay insists — between bleeped-out expletives — the owner is doing wrong. These issues usually involve food safety, cleanliness, terrible tasting food, bad attitude, or anything else that gets his goat.

In the second half-hour, Ramsay and his dozens of associates give the restaurant an extensive physical makeover, a new menu, new signage, training to improve the food, and more. By show’s end, the expectation is that the restaurant is on its way to success.

A mole reveals a mouse?

What’s new with “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service” is that someone who works in the restaurant, unbeknownst to the owner (Ramsay calls them a “secret insider”), contacts Ramsay’s people and asks them to help out.

In the case of Bruno’s, Ramsay arrived in late March, poked around in secret with the cameras running, and later revealed to owner Tim Bruno and his partner/son, Nick, what he discovered. The episode aired on Aug. 6.

“The restaurant was then boarded up for one week,” Tim told the Local. “Gordon had over 50 people in here. Rumors got around, of course, and everybody wanted to see what had happened. Business has been great since then. Gordon got what he wanted, and I got what I wanted.”

Despite the boost in business, Tim said he is extremely upset about the “deception.” At the beginning of the show, a dead mouse is pictured in the basement, and Ramsay said he saw others. Another atrocious turnoff was a bag of rancid-looking ground beef.

“I am shocked,” Ramsay said on the show. (Every week Ramsay says he is shocked by what he’s seen. It’s his mantra.) “I cannot believe what I am witnessing.”

“That mouse film was absolutely fake,” Tim insisted. “That was a setup; it was footage from somewhere else. I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that that film was not taken in this restaurant, and there was nothing wrong with the ground beef. The way they lit it with a blue light made it look bad, but it was definitely not. As a result, some terrible things were put on social media, which is hurtful after putting 36 years into this business.” The Local reached out to Gordon Ramsay for a response, but did not hear back by press time.

Nick said on the show’s taping, “It was really hard to listen to Gordon go after my dad like that. He’s my hero!”

‘A good experience’

Tim insists Ramsay is “a very good actor. When the camera is on, he raises his voice and tells you how bad things are, but when the camera is off, you see a different person, a nice guy.”

The elder Bruno also gives credit where it is due. “Overall, it was a good experience,” he said. “They gave us these big new signs, top-of-the-line new pots and pans, tables and chairs for the outdoor [enclosed porch] area, dishes and silverware. And we did learn a lot from his chefs, who worked with us. I have to admit that we had gotten a little lax in some areas after all these years, and we have definitely paid more attention to those areas, thanks to Ramsay and his team members, who really work hard. And we have added a new dinner menu.”

At the end of each episode of “Secret Service,” the “secret insider” is revealed. At Bruno’s, it was employee Brie Katona, who also happens to be the younger Bruno’s girlfriend. “I am very grateful to Brie for reaching out to Gordon,” Tim said. “Yesterday we had a couple who said they have lived in Mt. Airy for 30 years but had never been here before.”

Customer Jennifer Nichols, of Wyndmoor, is another newcomer. She told the Local, “Over the years I have seen Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant makeover shows once in a while, but I’ve never seen one from the Philadelphia area, so when I saw the show on Bruno’s last week, we just had to check it out. I don’t really see any dramatic changes from when we came here years ago, but the food and service are good, and the outdoors area is very nice.”

Bruno’s prices are one thing that won’t change. Almost all dinner entrees are under $20, including garlic bread and a choice of soup or salad.

Bruno’s is open 8 a.m.-8 p.m. daily, at 9800 Germantown Pike across from Chestnut Hill College. Call 215-242-1880 or visit brunosrestaurantchestnuthill.com for more information. Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.