Anna Maria's Restaurant - Restaurant Impossible Update - Open or Closed?

In this Restaurant Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Anna Maria's in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.

Anna Maria's is owned by Mary Sileo and her husband Jack Sileo.

The restaurant is currently run by Mary and her son Tucker.

Anna Maria’s opened 26 years ago after Jack decided that he wanted to open a restaurant.

Jack was in charge of the restaurant with Mary helping him.

For the first eight and a half years Tucker had his own cleaning business.

The first twenty years of business were good but for the last six years they have struggled.

They used to have good Saturdays where they would have over two hundred tables.

The previous Saturday they only had six people in the restaurant.

They feel that due to the economy of the small town they can’t raise their prices.

They are no longer making money and won’t be able to stay open much longer.

Twelve years ago, Jack was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Everything was fine until around a year and a half ago.

His health has declined and this has been difficult for the family as Mary often has to take him to appointments.

Jack isn’t able to come to the restaurant and Tucker has taken a more active role.

Mary doesn’t want to be in the restaurant business anymore without Jack.

Robert arrives at the restaurant and isn't impressed by the dirty restaurant.

There is peeling wallpaper and wonky pictures hanging on the wall.

He calls the owners together for a brief on the restaurant and the issues at the restaurant.

Tucker tells Robert that he only returned to the business 9 months ago to try and help them turn the business around.

Neither are taking a paycheck as they haven't made profit in 6 years.

He also tells Robert that he wanted to take down the wallpaper and pictures but Mary refused.

Mary is adamant that she doesn't want to lose the pink tablecloths and Robert rips one off the nearest table.

Robert thinks that Mary is in denial and can’t see that the restaurant is outdated.

Robert wants to see a service and has invited to locals in to eat at the restaurant.

Robert sits down to order food from server Dana.

She tells him the kitchen is filthy and she wouldn't want to take a customer in there.

He asks her to pick a customer to take into the kitchen with him and they both see how filthy it is.

Robert removes the cooker hood and takes it into the dining room to show other diners.

He stops the service and tells the diners that he can't let them eat from a filthy kitchen.

Upon returning to the kitchen he finds a number of food safety issues and the place is a mess.

There is fish and veal together in the fridge, open meat containers, cross contamination, filthy chopping boards and plenty of dirt and grease.

The floor is also filthy and there is a container of bread crumbs stored on the floor, used for breading fish and meat.

Robert doesn’t want to push too hard as Jack is in hospital after being taken in by Mary but he encourages Tucker to be a better leader.

Robert questions head cook Rudy on the state of the kitchen and is surprised to learn that he owns a cleaning business.

He tells Rudy to call his company in to clean the kitchen and the clean will have to come out of his design budget.

As the cleaning takes place, Robert meets with the design team Nicole and Tom.

He tells them that this time they only have $9000 as a design budget and they discuss ideas.

Robert asks the staff to start removing the furniture from the restaurant ready for the design team to get to work.

As the kitchen is being cleaned it can’t be used for preparing dishes.

Robert finds some more old food down the back of the fridge that causes him to be sick!

Tucker arranges a commercial kitchen for them to use so that Rudy can see Rudy cooking.

Instead of ordering from the menu, Robert asks Rudy to cook his favourite dishes from the menu.

In the rush to cook the food he shows poor techniques but it is clear that he does know the basics of cooking.

Robert and Rudy have a cook off making the same dish, with Robert's dish being the winner and is to be put on the menu.

Robert heads back to the restaurant to see the progress that they are making.

The kitchen is still cleaning the kitchen but making progress.

The design team want a clean slate and want to change pretty much everything in the dining room.

Nicole thinks that only the chairs and chandelier are worth saving.

Robert can see that this is stressful for Tucker so he gives him some words of encouragement.

The next day, Robert checks in with the design team and is impressed with the progress that they have made overnight.

The kitchen was cleaned by six people for nearly 21 hours from noon the previous day and it is spotlessly clean.

Tucker wants to learn how to run the restaurant successfully and Robert needs to start from the basics.

In order to keep the kitchen clean, Robert creates a cleaning schedule for Tucker to focus on one big cleaning task each day.

Robert reveals his plans for a new menu to Rudy.

It will be filled with smaller basic dishes for the wait staff to be able to upsell soups and salads to increase profit.

Robert leaves the kitchen and goes into the basement.

He discovers that the basement storage room is also filthy with chemicals stored next to food.

Tucker promises to clean this himself whilst Mary sees the new clean kitchen.

She thinks that there are new tiles as she has never seen them so clean!

Tom will build some shelves in there and repaint it after it is clean.

Tucker reveals the new clean basement and Robert's next task is to assign the roles for the restaurant.

Robert sits down with Mary and Tucker to decide who would be best to run the restaurant.

He says that Tucker must be the General Manager and she will be the hostess.

The makeover of the dining room is revealed to the family and they are overwhelmed by the changes.

For relaunch night, Tucker is recharged and the family are happy in their new roles.

The relaunch is a success and the customers love the new beautiful decor and menu.

What Happened Next at Anna Maria's Restaurant?

The owner Jack Snr sadly passed away before the show was aired.

Anna Maria's Restaurant closed in September 2013.

Business tripled after the airing of the show.

There have been accusations that the state of the kitchen had been exaggerated for the episode and that the grime shown was staged by the producers for the show.

It appears that before closing they reverted to their old menu.

Reviews are mostly negative and Roberts additions to the menu were all removed.

The property was sold for $405,000 in October 2013.

Anna Maria's Restaurant was Restaurant Impossible season 3 episode 3 and aired on February 22 2012.

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