Restaurant Impossible - Michele's Restaurant Update

Tonight's Restaurant: Impossible has Robert Irvine going to Michele's in Corry, Pennsylvania to try to help new owners Michele and Andy, who purchased the restaurant at an auction despite no restaurant experience.  As I do every week, I searched around the internet to read stories and reviews about Michele's, to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited.


There was not much information about Michele's at all.  There were 2 reviews on Google Reviews, which both gave 0 out of 3 for the rating, but both of these reviews were before Robert visited.  There were no ratings on Tripadvisor, Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc., so it seems as if the restaurant didn't create much buzz or the customers frequenting the restaurant do not care about writing reviews on the internet.

When the Restaurant Impossible crew was there in June, a local article wrote of the makeover and someone commented: 

• "Hope they renovate the menu and wait staff, this used to be a great place to dine when it was Perry's, was not impressed with it after it became Michele's. Wait staff were slow and not friendly and the menu was boring"

 And a recent article has customers of the restaurant as saying:

• "Before, it felt like you were walking into an old, dark room. It wasn't someplace you thought about when you wanted to go out to eat.  Now it's welcoming.  And the food is delicious." 
• "It's better because there are more choices again.  The new menu was very limited."

Conclusion:  

Without much information from customers that have been to the restaurant after the renovations, it is hard to determine what the locals think.  I know it is a small town, so maybe there is more word-of-mouth reviews, rather than reviews on the internet.  As always seems to be the case with Restaurant Impossible makeovers, Robert makes the menu smaller, some of the local customers complain or the restaurant owners want older items back on their menu, and the restaurant add items back to the menu after Robert leaves.

After watching the episode, I am sure we will get a better idea of how the restaurant will do in the future.  Most people hope for success for the owners, but last week's Paliani's episode proved to be the opposite according to the comments.  What are your feelings on Michele's?  Do they have what it takes to succeed?


UPDATE  - Michele has reported that business is up slightly since Restaurant Impossible did their makeover and was told that the business usually picks up more after the show airs.  Also, she thinks the show focused on her marriage a lot because her kitchen was so clean and they couldn't use dirtiness as a theme.  Finally, Jessica, the chef hired on the episode, cooked the opening night successfully and Michele hasn't seen or heard from her since.  Michele still followed Robert's advice and has hired an experienced chef to run the restaurant after Jessica didn't return.

UPDATE 10/2015 - According to a few online reviews, it appears that Michele's is now closed.

Information taken from Goerie.com and ErieTVNews
Photo courtesy of Foodnetwork