Restaurant Impossible - Tootie's Texas BBQ Update

Photo - Facebook

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Cathedral City, California to makeover Tootie's Texas BBQ.  Tootie's is supposedly weeks from closing and started to decline when the owner Eileen was battling cancer.  The restaurant is said to have tasteless BBQ, poor service, and is failing to bring in a lunch crowd.  This is the 2nd week in a row that the show has made over a California BBQ restaurant with 'tasteless' BBQ.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Tootie's Texas BBQ to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):




Positive Reviews:

• "Best BBQ in the valley! The tri-tip is to die for! The loaded mashed potatoes are heavenly....my mouth is watering as I type this!"
• "First time dining at Tooties since Restaurant Impossible was here, and what a difference!  I haven't had a good barbecue like this in a very long time. The homemade sauces were great and the spicy 'cajon' sausage links I had in my sliders were perfect..... Eileen, the owner, served us personally and was extremely friendly and attentive....The decor has also drastically changed. The place looks brand new, bright and comfortable....Definitely coming back."
• "Went to the "new" Tootie's with a party of six.  The post Restaurant Impossible look is terrific!  Much more personality!...The owner Eileen stopped by to check on us several times.  She was very nice and chatted about the Restaurant Impossible experience!"
• "Food was great, decor was great, service was great, parking was great. Can't find a reason not to give it 5 stars."
• "What an improvement. I couldn't give this place one star 4 days ago. It's getting 4 now. I love the burger and our server Christy. Eileen is so proud of her new place and I can see why. They will have to work for that 5th star!"
• "Since the makeover - great space & food better!"

Negative Reviews:

• "Even after drenching it with their watered down sauce, it still provided a less than appetizing experience.  Needless to say, most of the meal was left uneaten.  I expected more since this establishment had just been on Restaurant Impossible and gone trough a major overhaul.  The restaurant itself is cute and still has the smell of fresh paint.  But the appeal stops there.  I was majorly disappointed and will neither recommend it nor return."
• "While it is kind of out of the way and a hole in the wall, the decor and atmosphere are awesome.  The service was good, friendly and attentive.  We were expecting the food to live up to its surroundings, but it totally fell flat.  The meat was bland and had to be seasoned liberally by the BBQ sauce they gave us (which in itself wasn't impressive)...Prices were a bit high for the quality of the fare.  If this place got a better chef, it'd be a true gem."
• "We were sad to see the majority of the new menu items were gone and they were serving the same items they served in the past....The waitress mentioned they tried the new items for five days and only kept the most popular ones...I was so optimistic and ready to throw my support back into the new Tootie's, but unfortunately I cannot support this restaurant any longer. Good luck to the owner. I wish you the best."

*Reviews from Yelp, Urbanspoon, Tripadvisor

Other News and Stories:

• The show description said that Eileen was battling cancer and the restaurant started to decline.  She also lost her husband to the terrible disease ALS in 2009, so she's had some tough years.
• In a City Council of Cathedral City meeting on February 10th, Tootie's owner Eileen Smith "expressed her disappointment that no one from the City attended the grand re-opening of her restaurant. She indicated that Restaurant Possibility was at her location, a national T.V. show, and no one from the City came to show support. She feels that the City is not business friendly." (Page 5 of document) *Forgive the note taker for getting the show name wrong.
• Eileen was nominated for "volunteer of the year" last year at the Cathedral City Chamber of Commerce awards dinner. (Photo)
• A comment on this Facebook event said that the restaurant does lunch well, but needs to work on their evenings, while another comment on the same event (January 19th) said Eileen is not using Robert Irvine's recipes. 
• Here is Tootie's Facebook page (which isn't kept up to date) and their website. 
• Eileen owned a hot dog place next to Tootie's called Leenie's Weenie's, and knocked down the wall to add pool tables to Tootie's in 2012. (Link) 

Conclusion:

The reviews for Tootie's Texas BBQ were not too bad before the Restaurant Impossible visit, but a lot of them referred to the restaurant being in a bad location and "off the beaten path."  The reviews since the makeover are average to above average with people liking the food and decor, and the reviews also complement that Eileen is active in the restaurant.  The few negative ones complain about the food and that the menu is pretty much the same.

This episode seems very similar to last week as it is a BBQ restaurant in California with a bad location, and owners that are active in the community.  The publicity Restaurant Impossible brings should help out with the bad location of the restaurant.  Maybe Restaurant Impossible is trying to help out owners that are good people and give back to the community this season? 

UPDATE 5/2014 - Sadly the owner Eileen passed away in May 2014.

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