Restaurant Impossible - Smitty's Restaurant Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Clearwater, Florida to help out Smitty's Restaurant.  The crew ends up having to use a lot of time and money on an exterminator in this episode which Robert has said could be the dirtiest restaurant he has ever done.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Smitty's Restaurant to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews and comments are post Restaurant: Impossible):


This restaurant pretty much has zero reviews online since the visit, so this update will be a little different than normal.  I will just go over the things other than reviews found about this restaurant.


When doing the Smitty's renovation in February, Robert said on Twitter "Day two at Smitty's restaurant in Clearwater Florida OMG the dirtiest place I have EVER EVER seen in my life. Feeling I'm losing this battle."  He also said that it was twice as dirty as Rascal's in season 1 and there were 100,000's of bugs.

Robert was there February 15, and on March 20th, Smitty's had a restaurant inspection.  In this inspection there were 13 violations including:

• Dead roaches on premises.(3 dead in dish area, 2 on floor between ice machine and upright reach in freezer)
• Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found.(2 live in dish area, 1 live on floor near upright reach in freezer)
• Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler.(raw chicken over sauces in walk in cooler) 
• Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food.(raid ant and roach spray by bread on cooks line)

Here is the full inspection report with the 13 violations.  So, it looks like the bugs are still a problem a month after Restaurant Impossible left.

An article in the Tampa Bay Times earlier this week stated, "By Irvine's account, of the 74 restaurants the show has remade, four have subsequently been sold and eight have gone out of business."  So, he is still way off on his numbers when you compare them to mine.

Conclusion:

Smitty's is pretty much a diner serving breakfast and lunch, and not having many reviews online is not a good sign for a restaurant.  Usually the buzz of Restaurant Impossible coming to town has people eager to write reviews of the changes made to the restaurant.

With the restaurant having cleanliness problems, including thousands of bugs, it does not make local people want to go try the restaurant.  Restaurants that have had bug problems in the past on the show usually do not end up thriving after a Restaurant Impossible visit.  I know I probably wouldn't go to a restaurant after seeing thousands of bugs in the kitchen, no matter how many times an exterminator came.  An inspection a month after Restaurant Impossible visited still found roaches, which is also not a good sign.

This one will have to be watched.


UPDATE 5/9/2013 - A recent inspection on 5/1/2013 had 12 violations and some of the high priority ones from the inspection notes are listed below.

• Dead roaches on premises.(3 dead in dish area, 2 on floor between ice machine and upright reach in freezer)
• Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found.(2 live in dish area, 1 live on floor near upright reach in freezer)
• Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food.(raid ant and roach spray by bread on cooks line)
• Pesticide/insecticide labeled for household use only present in establishment.

UPDATE 8/2014 - Smitty's has closed - More information on the closing.


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