Restaurant Impossible - Mystic Treats Update - Closed

Photo - Twitter

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Ashland, Oregon to makeover Mystic Treats.  The owners Mike and Erika opened the restaurant three years ago and hoped to attract customers with their vegetarian and offbeat pizzas.  That concept has failed them and Robert needs to educate the owners, get them to choose an identity for the restaurant and redesign the menu.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Mystic Treats 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):

Robert Irvine's Restaurant Nosh To Close

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Robert Irvine's Nosh in Bluffton, South Carolina will be closing for good on Sunday, January 25th after six years in business as reported by The Island Packet.  After closing his other South Carolina restaurant eat! last year, the man who has a show about saving restaurants currently doesn't operate any restaurants, and has closed two in the past 13 months.

Robert Irvine's spokesman claimed the restaurant closing had nothing to do with profits.  His spokesman stated:

"He's too busy to be as personally involved as he wants to be. He coaches businesses and tells them if you want to be successful you have to be personally invested in the business. When you're not living here, and you're on the road 340 days a year, it's hard to do that."

He also added:

"It's hard to grow a restaurant when you never have time to go visit it. His restaurants were successful, but they weren't as profitable as maybe they could have been ... just because he's not there. He felt he wasn't doing the restaurants the justice they deserved."

His spokesman then pretty much contradicts the above quotes by stating that Robert Irvine is opening a restaurant in the Pentagon, and has plans to open others in Las Vegas and the Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. That makes me think it had everything to do with profits.

Finally in another quote to try to keep Robert's reputation intact, his spokesman stated that according to Robert Irvine's figures, about "70 percent of the 115 restaurants he's worked with are still open and exceeding anything they had done prior to that." If you are a reader of this site, you know that figure is actually about 50 percent. He padded his resume in the past, and he seems to continue to pad his Restaurant Impossible stats.

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2015/01/22/3551706/celebrity-chef-robert-irvine-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Renae's Corner From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Photo - Facebook

Renae's Corner in Titusville, Pennsylvania, which was featured on season nine of Restaurant Impossible has closed.  The restaurant posted the following message on their Facebook page on January 13th, 2015:

"Today was our last day open. Thanks to everyone that supported me and came to eat."

That is not very descriptive, and the Titusville Herald's attempts to reach the restaurant for comment went unanswered.

When Restaurant Impossible came to the restaurant, it was called El Bistro, and the show decided to change the name to Renae's Corner.  You may remember that the restaurant was listed for sale before the episode even aired on the Food Network.  I guess they were unable to sell, so have decided to close.  This is the second restaurant from season nine of Restaurant Impossible to close and the Restaurant Impossible Update page has been updated with this information.  The closing comes just four months after their episode first aired.

Restaurant Impossible - Shade Tree Customs & Cafe Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Albuquerque, New Mexico to makeover Shade Tree Customs & Cafe.  The owners of a motorcycle repair shop decided to open a full service restaurant right above their repair shop.  Robert needs to figure out why the restaurant is failing and he also needs to make changes to their menu.  The design team also needs to update the interior without losing the motorcycle vibe.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Shade Tree Customs & Cafe 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):

Giada De Laurentiis Denies Matt Lauer, Bobby Flay, John Mayer Cheating Rumors. Why No Alton Brown Rumors?

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With Giada De Laurentiis recently announcing her divorce, tabloids brought up old John Mayer rumors and created new rumors due to close relationships between herself and co-workers Bobby Flay and Matt Lauer.  Giada issued a statement to Gossip Cop denying these rumors, which said:

"I have never ever been romantically involved with John Mayer. I met him twice at least 5 or 6 years ago at public events along with hundreds of other people. The small amount of face time with John was in rooms filled with other attendees at these events. I have not seen or even heard from him since. The allegation of an affair was a fabrication back in 2010 and remains so today.....My long-time friendships with my co-workers Matt Lauer and Bobby Flay are exactly that — long-time friendships. There has never been a romantic relationship with these two men."

Matt Lauer also denied any relationship between Giada and himself and said that they are just long-time friends.

With the tabloids trying to tie Giada's co-workers/friends to the split, how come Alton Brown wasn't brought into the mix?  I guess he doesn't help sell magazines, but Alton has not been wearing his wedding band lately as pointed out by a few readers of this site.

In a March 2014 article, Alton is pictured with his wife wearing his wedding band, but in all of his current photos on Instagram/Twitter, he does not have it on.  Also, in the older seasons of Cutthroat Kitchen, he is wearing a wedding band, but in the most recent ones he is not.

Does this mean anything or is it even confirmed that Alton and his wife aren't together?  No.  But if the tabloids were trying to connect the dots by including co-workers, maybe they should have included Alton Brown in the mix.

Food Network's January 2015 Programming Highlights

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Here are some of the highlights of the Food Network programming scheduled to air on the channel in January:

• Guy's Grocery Games: Family Style premiering on Sunday, January 4th where families compete for a chance to take home up to $20,000.
• The season 6 premiere of Worst Cooks in America on Sunday, January 4th at 9pm, which has Anne Burrell and Tyler Florence as mentors.
• The series premiere of Best.Ever. with Ted Allen as a host on Monday, January 5th at 10pm.  This sounds like a prime time version of Best Thing I Ever Ate.
• The series premiere of Duff Till Dawn on Thursday, January 29th at 10:30pm.
• The series premiere of Daphne Dishes with Daphne Brogdon on Sunday, January 4th at 12pm. 
• New primetime episodes of Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, Chopped Canada, Cutthroat Kitchen, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Mystery Diners and Restaurant: Impossible.
• Restaurant: Impossible goes back to Wednesday nights as it was on Monday nights for the past few months.
• New daytime episodes of Giada at Home, Guy’s Big Bite, The Kitchen, The Pioneer Woman and Trisha’s Southern Kitchen.

The press release with episode descriptions and air dates is below: