possible this is going to be the craziest mission I have ever attempted I've got my crew here all the vehicles all the equipment because we're about to attempt something we have never done before ambush an unsuspecting owner in his own restaurant the outcome will be a surprise for all of us and it's all happening right now chef Robert Irvine has 2 days and $10,000 to do the impossible you three-two-one I'm in Orlando Florida and day one of a mission that could go horribly wrong I got an application from a known it was in serious need of our help hey Robert my name is Gina and I have placed an application to Restaurant Impossible and I never heard back from you guys but you're our last hope my husband and I watch your show all the time and I know that you're capable of a miracle and we need a miracle my husband jenny has had this restaurant for the past five years and he's just struggling in this restaurant is his pride and joy and it breaks my heart to see him come home stressed out exhausted and you know have no energy for us you know with the baby on the way and the restaurant being slow it's Airy our bills are piling up and you know I just don't know what to do so I'm reaching out for help so here's the catch and I'm a little nervous about this because my husband has no idea that I contacted you asking for help he's strong-minded and he's an Italian New Yorker and he doesn't take criticism from anybody very well but if there's one person that he's going to listen to it'd be you Robert Irvine I know you've never surprised an owner before but Robert we're desperate Danny would never ask for help at him and I both know that he really needs it I just want my husband back and I want him to be happy so please come help us we get one shot to surprise one guy in one restaurant that needs our help and I get one minute I either make it or I blow it on a normal shoot by the time I arrive my team has everything buttoned up and prepared the owners from my arrival not today we couldn't risk the owners finding out so we're gonna figure out everything on the fly I'm gonna get my crew together now can we pull it off I have no idea but you're about to find out the owners gonna be there right I just didn't know why is he there this early in the morning the landlord helped us out he called Denny for us he told Denny that he had heard his insurance that he needed two people to go into a safety inspection so it soon as you are going through this door they'll have him place open Alice's paralysis let's go with a plan in place it's finally time to head to the restaurant this is how crazy this is behind me an assortment of 10 vehicles an RV with our sound equipment all the tents for our design instruction generators crew on a normal episode of Restaurant Impossible my crew arrives a day early to set up the tents and things like that we face a total of about 8 hours without that setup day we're already eight hours behind schedule also on a normal restaurant if possible the owners know I'm coming well in advance or they've got plenty of time to get mentally prepared and do what they do on this episode we're ambushing him he has no clue I'm coming and I have no clue how he's gonna react I don't know if Denny wants us at this restaurant this is gonna be a shock and a surprise no matter which way it goes breather him or for me so here we are moments away from surprising Denny in his restaurant he has no idea I'm here our decoys will set up hidden cameras to catch whatever they can join their so-called meeting what's on the insurance company this is a renewal come on nervous let's go Heather now it's okay there's a must in summer of course you know yeah me too run you're gonna follow me I'm gonna just go I'm in he's in position you'll see him on the left-hand side so where would you suggest moving it well it probably all right here we go his life right Jesse Dave go you gotta be friggin kidding me you Denny you've got are you Dennis yes I cannot believe this is happening holy I've got my crew here all the vehicles all the equipment because we're about to attempt something we have never done before ambush an unsuspecting owner in his own restaurant all right here we go there's life Jesse Dave hey you gotta be friggin kidding me you Denny you've got hey you done it yes yes love it I made a save your restaurant my hero man I can't believe me right now dude away oh yeah yeah what's the matter I can't believe you're here I cannot leave it all right yeah I'm okay I'm okay I'm sorry I'm just overwhelmed right now I'm shocked that you're here I'm you're a freaking lifesaver man I've really put everything into this place and I cannot believe this is happening what are you crying it's just happy tears oh this is happy tears man I'm in a really tough spot in my life right now man and uh and you could really not save today yeah I've seen what you can do holy okay yeah so yeah tell me about the restaurant um this is this is my dream here I've worked my life to uh I bring my life to be in this position and it's not working so if I'm not here and I just surprise you obviously you have no idea I was coming right this is ridiculous I cannot leave here unreal um I thought I was getting robbed you guys ran out do we get it wrong I seen these people running out like what do they do when they all have cameras holy unbelievable my wife is gonna freak out all right so I'm gonna give you a second I regroup I gotta get I brought trucks and generators you know like right now lievable right now Jesse follow me walk with me that was pretty awesome they had no idea crying tears excitement a good thing because now we gotta start let's go Tommy let's go riding in let's get moving just keep it organized please I want to do once alright that's why you don't have time so let's do it one time guys when you walked in the look on his face was incredible mannerisms just it was so real it on real soccer man yeah I thought it was like this street smart guy this and I'm such a sucker man y'all got me good normally we spend an entire day before Robert gets here just setting up all the tools all the design stuff all the equipment we don't have that we have to do it today and what worries me is every minute we spend setting up is another minute we're not working on the restaurant Wow yeah yes you're not gonna believe this Robert Irvine in this whole crew here doing Restaurant Impossible come here now buzzer nope all right you're on speakerphone on camera right now put your bra on Amanda you're not gonna believe it Robert Irvine in his whole career and they're doing the show and you're on speakerphone I've never I'm not what's the name Amanda says you're here yeah hurry up I'm waiting for you that's okay I don't care about that hurry up we got a lot of work to do a lot of time or DEA I was behind a man is my little sister who's a big big part of this place but send a lot of hours while my team finishes setting up I need to learn more about Denny been doing this my whole life I'm a restaurant guy mm I started working at a restaurant called cafe Positano within a couple years I became family with the owners there it's for guys the one partner Pasquale it was a father figure to me four years down here I was a troubled kid up on the run with the wrong crowd no feature in that when I started working there house quality took me out of that lifestyle and put me to work we were all making a lot of money everything was great over there so I decided why not work for myself you know it took me three years just to save the money to put down to open this place how much was it it was a hundred thousand I mind they were partners for me so they put up a hundred thousand as well okay we went way over budget and then we opened things did not start well at all we fell flat my partners gave me a chance after chance to get make money here finally a couple years ago my partner's wanted out I had to buy them out how much was the play oh that was 80,000 how much you in debt right right now I'm in $350,000 do you still talk to Pascal not like I used to why don't you honestly maybe I'm ashamed like he really put himself out there for me he fought his partner's constantly for me it's actually you look best girl then I let him down for sure Deni worked for these partners for years at a place where everything was great Natalie's on his own it seems like he relied on his partners for more than just money when you managed did you do payroll did you do all the pills did you do I didn't do all the bills no um I did scheduling things like that but I didn't edit it so what's the biggest reality change to you understanding where money is and where it goes or for me I can honestly say when I opened I took on too much like I try to do everything payroll bills scheduling cooking taking care of the guys it's hard to let someone else do when you can't afford to pay someone do it for want it and then the people you kind of put on to write people maybe it sounds like Deni thought he knew everything about the business and I've been told my heart at this and that but he'd been in this business long time when you first started did everyone and their mother try to tell you how to run your restaurants because that's it happens to me I think people are trying to help him out but he's not listening he says he wants his own place yet he hasn't even changed the name I noticed you've got Tornatore's half a and then yeah a different name on the front so part of the buying them out was I had to change the name but you haven't been able to change the name who I started to change the name but a lot of money like my signs half built for out front so how much do you think it costs to change the sign to get it finished and it was 2,600 but I already gave the guy 1300 let's talk about your family a little bit let me be married I've been married for almost two years I've been with Jeana for seven years my wife is wonderful I have a newborn baby at home and this is a tough situation right now she paid the bills all last year you know which made me feel like a failure on top of everything else so Jeana paid all of our bills I've worked trying to get this place going trying to this place going okay so how is that strain on your relationship uh we never like fight or anything like that but the last few months it's been it's been real rough I work eight in the morning till eleven o'clock twelve o'clock at night five six days in a row so when I get home she's taking care of the baby all day we have no money she's basically why don't you just shut it down if you're gonna work like this and I'll get paid and we're gonna struggle it's not worth you not being home right so here's what we're gonna do obviously we can't do the service because your staff in are hating on nobody open this early I'm gonna meet with my designer Cheryl and Tom let's see how do we make this two something that I would want to come to and right now I have to tell you hey I wouldn't come here not even for a slice is your piece any good the best when you taste the food you're gonna say wow it's good I know you're gonna say this I know you're probably laughing inside but I know you gonna like the third so you piece is the best of fruits the best you got into business so what's going on there it's either the food the location the management do you have the leadership you don't have all those things that I don't know that I'm gonna have to pick piece by piece and attack as we go all right hello holy crap I'm so thankful I just yeah our life is like in that answer oh my with me I'll do whatever anybody says if I would have known I was gonna fear I would have watched my head earlier if it is the first time ever they like ambush somebody like it in thank you all you little rascals there is nothing now you go to all that trouble of making fresh rigatoni and then you kill it with this crap a good sauce is the base of the whole Italian cuisine what is this it's not for me it's been at ravioli Alfredo made the pasta make the raviolis you got a great pasta in there spinach when you eat it you get a cream instead he goes there so it's nice another baby fine cheese or something need some heat it needs something thank you shake my rotini Ryan I can get that anyone veal parmesan feels too thick right now I can tell you that taste it and tell me what you taste from the breading yeah the breading is a little soggy basting this doesn't have enough seasoning in it one thing I admire is he making a pasta okay the sauce is not good there's no texture there's no consistency is no flavor ratos you are because that's the base level right that's my main ingredient everything these are items off of my partners restaurant recipes I got from them I thought their deal airs then he may have inherited these recipes but he's not executing them well you're done with him no madam this has to be you it has to be unique now you do pizza pepperoni obviously that was really good too much cheese what happens with the cheese I know what the sauce right no less cheese little bit more salt but nothing major I mean better don't mess with that all right get all your staff I want to talk to all your staff get his cleaned up yeah good pizza Thank You pizza whoever just tasted my food I'm gonna supply anybody's gonna like it all some of the recipes that he didn't like were from Kathy Positano that I was taught by my ex-partners so it kind of a good way to close the door I gots on that partnership was get rid of all those recipes and I might work for them and it doesn't work here huh just a man I won the sign remember Denny's trying to change his name of the restaurant then he spent $1,300 with a sign company don't know who they are but for another $1,300 we can actually change the sign given the restaurant that he can put his identity on and it's such an important part of this story you my friend have to find the sign company see if they can get it ready by tomorrow and make sure we have a permit to put it up and do a smile come find me outdoors that was easy right thank you all right while Jason tries to track down that sign I'm gonna meet with Denny nice staff normally when I come to place I get an opportunity to see the service I couldn't do that because we ambush you you know that but what we did do four months ago Dena she took a video of your service I'm gonna watch that for the first time you can look at it with me hi is it a special tonight we're gonna do a bacon and cheese stuffed ravioli carbonara it's gonna be 14.95 all right got my recipe Eddie are you going a friend of negation somewhere ok hey guys hey Don - so you're definitely not getting a quarter picture of how it usually is Sara because usually we don't have any on the door like that we don't have him running food he doesn't jump into the kitchen like that usually we all have 20 dogs he's not usually like this wow I think that might be trying to do a little too much walk he doesn't do that right what is he doing a regular basis uh he works one day full in the kitchen when he does counter its he has so many other things to do while he's doing counter whether it's a deal on the phone or cell and post over here that like one of us usually has to watch the counter for a little while so then we're serving and watching the counter he's trying to cut labor cost by taking those shifts and then still do his other overwhelming yourself yeah where I could do this edge will for you are you angry right now yeah I am I mean but wouldn't be yeah well you might be I feel like you might be getting a little misrepresentation of myself I work hard not about working hard they're working smart denny is barking orders but he's got no procedures in place for staff to succeed I came in I don't want to hear that please please don't grab right now yeah I don't nobody did it during the day it's a course you can do it better you know again pakka stuff okay get the boss take a break run run you got really pissy with him we didn't do the prep okay is there a prep sheet is it consistent yeah we are done we all responsibility for us to handle it while using the prep done that day I should have checked on it being able to delegate is part of being a good leader and so is having job descriptions for your staff there are prep steps there are plating cars or a recipes there are posh sheets there are cleaning sheets all that has to be done we're friends outside of work but I can't stand them inside this place that's just how they feel like I'm not gonna ask for help because he's gonna make a smartass comment we're not you know busting balls two guys we're all friends here if I was circulant any way to tell you right now you know your friends okay it's a business and if you can't run your business you want friends leave the business and go and play with your friends all right that's the reality of this it's a business Eagleman a favor service bro and Moe and Joe don't work there you guess your service standards suck when people come in there whether your friends are not there is a certain etiquette of service if he doesn't change his ways um I already know what's gonna fail I just wish he would be a little more willing to take some direction from from out you know somebody else I just wish he would be a little more willing feel I'm getting a different picture of who you are I can see that Denny is stubborn right now the biggest detriment of this business is you Denny needs to step it up he's an ineffective leader still living in his old partners shadows and hasn't made the restaurant total his own something has to change dramatically can I help Denny and this restaurant change in time I just don't know it looks like tomorrow will be another big day of surprises now it's time for trivia impossible on average how many pieces Isis does each person eat per year in this country is it a 20 B 46 or C 59 the answer after the break on average how many pieces Isis does each person eat per year in this country the answer is B 46 I'm in Orlando Florida on day two of a once-in-a-lifetime mission yesterday we pulled off the unthinkable for Restaurant Impossible and pushed an owner of Denny in his own restaurant hey we gotta be friggin kidding me you Danny you've got are you Dan it yes Robin I need to save your restaurant what we accomplished so much yesterday today holds the key to his future success after the ambush I learned that Denny has been living in the shadow of his former partners and lost an important relationship with one of them Pascual II who was his mentor one of my producers managed to get hold of Pasquale yesterday so I'm driving to caffé Positano right now to meet him I'm hoping to rekindle their friendship and maybe renew Pasquale's faith in Denny so Denny can run his restaurant with confidence and call on his old friend for advice so I gotta tell you I you'll like a legend too Danny I loved him like my own brother or a son whatever you wanna call as quality to Danny under his wing and they spent 10 years working together then one day as he asked me and said while we're not opening a small picture I want a family I want to be successful but then he said I want to do my way I don't want your brother and your cousin to tell me what to do and I say okay so we open and the first two three months was okay well it was new but after was start over everything down and I went there and tried the food and I said Danny oh my god are you kidding me no I promise you this and this and this after couple years we lost so much money in there we start almost fighting that's Dan you know what you want to do just buy the restaurant and then do whatever you want she's very stubborn yes I do know that I want to break the legs with baseball buy some time but I like him he was more upset sailing you than anything else yeah anything else he told me one time I feel that Danny was looking for approval from you because he never got it from anywhere else I want to rekindle your friendship to the point that he feels that he has to do something because you're watching does that make sense yes then he has a false sense of confidence and it's finally learning we cannot do everything himself at the meeting Pasquale I know that Denny is ashamed and his inability to ask for help is having a snowball effect before I met Pasquale this morning I called Denny and told him to meet me at Positano later we spent every day together in our office together holidays together and now we don't really talk it's probably been almost a year you know so our relationships not what it used to be he made me the man I am and I was telling you I felt you know I'm gonna tell you first off I'm sorry for all the fights I caused between you and your partner's about the restaurant secondly I'm sorry for all the shame I brought on the name because I really tried to do my best over there and I'm really gonna try to make it right Plus well the successful guy that has told you what to do and how to do it and you thought you knew better well I'm here to tell you you don't I know I don't know if you did you'd be as successful as he is right now because when I leave here after doing what I've done today I'm gonna made sure that that you have the confidence to be able to run your business and not feel afraid or ashamed I got to be able to call you if I need advice and I know you'll give it to me I just my only thing holding me back I think with myself I was working too many hours not too smart right no I had to take a serious look at myself last night and you know I'm gonna do this right yeah you will I believe in you thank you thank you later if I'm not with you you know I love you I love it I want you to be successful I'm ready but I love oh thanks a lot please watch me so here Pasquale's even just say he was proud of me that meant a lot to me because I feel like I've been trying to hear that for years you know and I think for him to see what I'm going to and the changes I'm trying to make I think you got actually is proud of me and it's great to know that is there for me again it's hard worker it said this big eagle but now I think giggle coming down and now we'll do what I need to do meeting with Pascale's given Denny self-esteem a boost and it's the first step in change for Denny what I'm really worried are now heading back so the restaurant is the sign we need to change the restaurant name so he has ownership of it and he can feel that it is his and only he can run it the old sign is coming down I don't have a new sign yet please Ben walked into caffé Positano we saw a very typical Italian decor if you want to get rid of that any means a totally new unique identity style I wanted to go with mod Mediterranean lots of blues and whites really fresh and lots wood molding to really warm up the space I'm gonna head back into the kitchen to help Denny with some menu magic when I think of an Italian restaurant I think of food that has passion what is the physical difference between your sauce and my sauce the consistency the chunks of tomatoes have like more texture to it yours looks like it's just come and we can get serve or something mine has Tomatoes my sauce has basil garlic tomatoes onions and a small amount of carrots blended and then finished with chunks of tomato I want you to bite into something when you eat it over here I've got some Paul Keller four characters pork it's stuffed with sausage roasted and then we braised it nice and slow so you can actually pull it down and to make it like this we know how to make ravioli right yes into boiling water my tomato sauce take a little bit of butter just before we serve ice butter does two things once it melts I'm removing it from the heat and just folding it in there's no direct heat on it so therefore it thickens the sauce and creams the sauce out pick the whole thing pick it up and get it in your mouth and so it's just oh my god Wow whoa that is good that's a winner right there oh my god and I give it to your sauce is awesome the filling is excellent you can't get that any restaurant now except on a party excellent with a new based sauce then is homemade pasta will come to life what is more Italian than Bolognese the fresh meat sauce your homemade pasta excellent and I'm adding unique dishes like this crispy fish I cannot believe we're gonna be solid on real that's spectacular I can't believe we're gonna be selling us this is food we can be proud of I've been running this place the same way for so long it's the only way I knew how put this change now this is gonna make it totally mine not have a pulse of time I was gonna make a card first so this is awesome this is the beginning something great it comes from you yep you are the conduit to the success of this restaurant his food is leadership and everything else that goes in between it's five o'clock and we're still putting last-minute touches on the restaurant but bringing in tables chairs and still cleaning up stuff it's like the restaurant that I work on is done finally but we still can't open the restaurant because the sign has to be done being only person who's ever been ambushed I I'm glad it went like that because if I would have known you guys were coming leading up maybe it won an event is real you caught us off guard you really saw the real operations here when Robert came through the door it was life changing for Denny it would be absolutely devastating for my husband if he had to shut the doors and for me as well mostly because my husband's dreams and all his hard work would be for for nothing right now decided man I really feel like this is the start of a new life for man I feel like I've got a chance to do something special now this show sided with a surprise for Danny and it's about to end with one I'm so excited to show Danny his wife Gina and his sister Amanda this amazing restaurant that is now all theirs from the food to the decor and now even the name I hope they love it as much as I do are you ready to see your new restaurant yes are you sure yeah open eyes courses Oh oh my God look at this table Wow Gina come here this is the same freaking place cool at Wallace I love it I can't wait to spend a ton more hours in here Robert with this direction the food you showed me earlier we can't not be simple here comes to swallow what do you say Holly can you forgive illegal since I messed around look at the so water main oh my god it doesn't even look like the same way what do you think let's go I need the Kabbalistic honor I cannot talk now so sorry you leave is still any preparation man not rare the winds come to man paper I'm so proud of you thank you so happy reminds me we're ready for action i am i passionate back for sure and thank you so much for next I didn't think I would ever get it back you guys thank you so much I know what excited a lot of people out there but I got one last thing that I want to talk to you about just follow me out this way this way stop turning around Danny that's human form Authority welcome to the neutron enjoy pizzeria come on in guys and before it was a lot darker and vibe and it didn't really have as much style to it but now it's lot brighter the colors are great blue and white is so crisp it really pops really modern and this happening behind me with all the takeout sub is perfect because I work long hours I'll definitely be Robinson I take no home who's coming out exacting as hell back there right now but it's like no persons I love you know passion is back insta badging the restaurant has exceeded my expectations I had no idea when I walked in that it was gonna look so beautiful and crisp and clean and the atmosphere really reflects the menu that Robert has done for us it's absolutely perfect Danny the happiest I think I've ever seen I've never in my entire life seen him cry tears of joy it's what we need we need our leader to be like that I'm gonna do my best every day that I come here to dishonor our name and make him proud and thank goodness he changed the sauce yes this has been one of the most exhilarating restaurant Impossibles ever it started with a crazy ambush and ended with a reveal of an amazing all-new tour notorious restaurant I better say I've never meant it more than when I say happy life and much success now go get him for more information on torrent or ease pizzeria go to foodnetwork.com /ri that's done if you own a failing restaurant contact us at foodnetwork.com
