In this Restaurant Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Snooty Fox in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Snooty Fox is an English Pub owned by Tim and Cathy Queisser, that has been operating for 29 years.
The first 26 years of business were great and they were successful but the restaurant has seen a severe decline in the last 3 years.
The decline is due to the decline of the local economy leading to a loss of customers and a loss of sales.
Their regulars are mostly elderly customers, who only want to spend $15 per head and they are not making enough money from them.
They are currently losing $45,000 each month and they have been forced to invest $30-40,000 of their savings into the restaurant to keep the doors open.
They currently have one child in college and twins who will be heading to college next year.
The couple have taken funds from their childrens college funds to keep the family afloat.
Tim is proud of the restaurant he has built and doesn’t want it to end.
He will do everything he can for the restaurant to remain open.
Robert arrives and is unimpressed with the dark and dirty decor.
The owners tell him that they have put in £100,000 over the last three years.
There is $40,000 on credit cards, they lose $6000 monthly and Tim has not paid himself in a year.
On a busy Friday and Saturday night, they used to do 250 covers each night but now they are only doing around 40.
They have spent their retirement funds, their childrens college funds and they will close in two to three months.
Both Robert and Cathy think that Tim is stressed out and has become complacent as he hasn’t changed anything in the restaurant in the last 29 years.
Robert has arranged some guests to come to the restaurant so that he can observe a service.
But Tim drops a bombshell, he has no head chef at the restaurant as he had walked out the previous night.
He says that there are some people he can call who could come in to do the service.
Robert however has noticed the disgusting state of the kitchen and he orders the kitchen to be shut down.
There is no way he can let anyone cook out of the stinking kitchen caked with rotten food.
There is a number of other hazards including roaches and it is revealed that the kitchen hasn’t been cleaned at all in a year.
Robert delivers the news to the guests he has invited that he has closed the kitchen and apologises for making them wait.
They need a new head chef urgently and Robert gets on the phone to two candidates to invite them to come in to interview for the position.
Robert leaves the owners to meet with Cheryl and the design team and the discuss the vast amount of work that needs to be done.
The two potential head chefs arrive and both have significant experience.
Brandon has been a chef for ten years and Chris has been a chef for 14 years.
The kitchen isn’t ready for them to be able to audition for the role so he asks everyone including the two potential chefs to help clean the restaurant.
They help to empty the dining room and start on the kitchen but the smell for the dirty floor is vile.
However, they barely make a dent in the filth of the kitchen and Robert is forced to bring in professional deep cleaners to help finish the job.
Robert meets with the staff and tells them of the state of the kitchen and that it has made his plan much more difficult.
Next, he speaks with Cheryl and tells her that he has had to deduct $1000 from her budget to cover the deep cleaning of the restaurant.
She will have to be creative with the remainder of the $9000 budget.
Although the kitchen has been cleaned there is only one stove working so the new chefs are unable to compete for the job.
Robert decides to show them how to make a bangers and mash dish and they will replicate it the next day.
Before the end of the first day Robert checks in with the design team.
They promise him that the bar and floor will be ready for the next morning.
The next day, Robert arrives and checks in with the design team.
He is disappointed as not much has been done since the previous evening.
Robert tells them that they must get the area ready by 3pm as he needs to get the restaurant ready to open at 6pm.
Robert meets with the head chef candidates from yesterday and challenges them to cook an English dish of their choice and the bangers and mash dish.
Robert is looking to see their cooking style, creativity and range of flavours.
Chris is cooking pasties and the Brandon is cooking fish and chips.
He quickly checks in with Cheryl whilst the chefs are cooking and she is upcycling several old items to save money.
The chefs have finished cooking and after tasting the dishes he concludes that they are both great chefs.
The decision will have to be made on who gets on the best with Tim, so he asks Tim to meet with both and get to know them better.
After meeting with the chefs he chose Brandon for the head chef position.
He knows he has a tough night ahead of him and Chris kindly offers to stay on for the evening and help with the relaunch.
With a new chef in place and great support in the kitchen Robert feels like a lot of the pressure is taken off of Tim and he can focus on other details.
Robert revamps the menu and transforms it to a English style menu to match the name of the restaurant.
He teaches Brandon and Chris all of the new menu items so they are familiar with them before the service.
Whilst the chefs prep in the kitchen Robert and Tim go into town to work on marketing the restaurant.
They take to the streets of Indianapolis and give traditional English food to the locals.
They love the food and promise to come to the restaurant to try the food properly.
For the evening relaunch there is a huge crowd waiting to get in but they are two hours behind schedule and customers are forced to wait.
The new restaurant is revealed to the family and they are overwhelmed at the changes.
The customers are also pleased with the changes to the restaurant.
There are some plating issues and the kitchen struggles with the number of customers at first.
They turn it around and the customers love the new food.
What Happened Next at Snooty Fox?
The restaurant closed less than 3 months after the episode aired in October 2011.
Owner Tim Queisser said that there was a short term boost in their sales for a few months after the show had aired.
They were unable to maintain this and the customers stopped coming.
Reviews after the show aired were mostly average or negative with comments on poor food and bad service.
Big Lug Canteen and Brewery opened in its place in 2014 and reviews are excellent.
Snooty Fox was Restaurant Impossible season 2 episode 5 and aired on August 3 2011.
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Another greedy owner who wanted out, so they got a free reno to sell it almost as soon as the TV walked out.
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