In this Restaurant Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Sweet Tea in Chapin, South Carolina.
Sweet Tea is a Southern style restaurant.
It is owned by Christine and Jeffrey Spence.
Sweet Tea has been open for just nine months.
Before they opened the restaurant they had no experience in running a restaurant.
Christine worked in the medical software field and Jeffrey worked cleaning pools.
Christine always wanted to open a restaurant.
Her mother had run a restaurant and she had fond memories.
She came to work part time at Sweet Tea.
Three months later the owner put the restaurant up for sale.
They thought buying the restaurant was a good idea.
They already knew that business was good at the restaurant.
The couple didn’t have the money to open a restaurant.
They approached her father Mike to help them to buy the restaurant.
Mike has invested his entire retirement fund into the restaurant on opening it and keeping it open.
They are currently losing $10,000 a month.
They only have money to stay open one more month.
Christine wants to do anything she can to be able to pay her father back.
Robert arrives at the restaurant and finds that it is dark.
He is confused as to whether it is a sports bar or a restaurant.
He thinks that it is the dullest and drabbest place that he has ever visited in his career.
Robert meets with Jeffrey to discuss the restaurant.
They thought it was a great business to get into as Chrstine’s mother used to run a restaurant.
He tells Robert that he runs the front of house and Christine is in the kitchen.
They have no other kitchen staff to cook the food other than Christine.
The couple initially put $20,000 into the business.
The rest came from her father and they are losing $10,000 a month.
It has been nine months and they haven’t been able to pay anything back to Mike.
Her dad has just turned 68 years old.
He should have already been retired but he has no retirement fund to do so.
Robert wants to take a look around the restaurant to see any problems they have.
He thinks the side tables are clumsy.
The carpets are ripped and torn and the restaurant is generally quite filthy.
Robert wants to sample the food and speak to other customers.
Robert orders a variety of dishes from the menu and Sweet tea.
He speaks to regulars and they tell him that the table and cutlery is dirty.
They think the service is poor and that that the food is clearly frozen.
Robert suspects that the clam chowder has frozen clams.
The sandwich tastes good but is piled with costly prawns.
The chicken tastes old and the Campero is too salty.
The sweet tea he ordered was disgusting.
He finds that the fresh soup is actually canned soup.
They also serve canned green beans and pre-prepared mashed potato.
He puts a thermometer into the macaroni cheese.
It isn't stored at the correct temperature and is dangerous to serve.
Sandy helps Christine in the kitchen to do 90% of the prep work.
Robert tells Christine not to feel too bad.
No one has ever taught her to cook and he will teach her as much as he can.
Robert calls the staff together to discuss his plans for the restaurant.
Robert teaches them a chicken broth.
It can be used as a base for bechamel sauce as well as for soups.
This will both improve the taste of the dishes and also save them money.
Their weekly order of forty cans of soup costs $240.
They should make one big batch of stock and make soup using their existing produce.
Robert also teaches them a base sauce.
They can use it to make other sauces.
They taste it and think it tastes great.
These small changes will save them thousands of dollars each month.
Robert meets with designer Krista to discuss ideas for the transformation of the dining room.
Robert asks the staff to help them empty the dining room.
This will enable the design team to be able to get to work.
Their first job is to repaint the booths.
It would cost double the budget to replace them.
Robert suggests that they remove the booths and take them to an auto shop.
They will be repainted as it will dry quicker and it only costs $900.
Robert wants to improve the management.
He calls a staff meeting to discuss the issues with the owners.
He asks the owners to define their roles in the restaurant.
This is so that the staff also know what their roles are.
Robert thinks that Christine seems to be running the restaurant on her own.
Jeffrey should be doing half of the jobs in the restaurant.
He is happy to coast and let Christine do everything.
Robert asks the staff to gather in the kitchen.
He tells them he is going to create a new menu based around what they can deliver from their kitchen.
He plans to introduce new dishes including Brined Pork Chops with Apple Hash.
The staff taste the new dishes and are impressed with them and know they can sell them.
Robert meets with the servers to introduce the new menu.
He gives them a copy so they can learn the menu ready for the relaunch.
He will be testing them on the new menu the next day.
Anyone who hasn’t learnt the new menu will be let go from the restaurant.
The next day, Robert checks in with the design team to se how they have progressed over night.
He is impressed with their progress but there are a lot of unfinished jobs.
He tells them to speed up the pace to be ready for relaunch.
After being disappointed with the sweet tea he challenges the staff to recreate four sweet tea drinks.
They struggle to make sweet tea.
Robert has to step in to show them how to prepare a base mix they can use to create the drinks.
He reveals that they will have signature glasses that will help with marketing the restaurant.
Robert takes food and the new sweet tea including a Pomegranate Iced Tea into the neighbourhood.
They plan to show off the new menu items.
They tell the locals that the restaurant is being relaunched as a comfort style restaurant.
The locals enjoy the samples of the food.
They promise to return for the relaunch evening service.
Robert returns to check in with the design team.
He was disappointed that more hasn’t been done.
Krista promises that she will have the restaurant ready for relaunch.
As customers complained of poor service Robert needs to tackle this.
They are losing money to this and the servers are also losing tips.
He puts them through an extreme bootcamp.
They will lose dollars for each mistake they make.
Server Jenna owes Robert $45 by the end of the exercise.
Robert feels it is simply the pressure of a test.
The booths have returned from the auto shop and they are fitted.
The design team complete the last touches to the dining room.
The transformation is finished and it is revealed to Christine and Jeffrey.
On relaunch night, the restaurant is packed with a queue out the door.
The customers love the new decor and are impressed with the menu.
The service is great and there are extra staff in the kitchen.
The customers love the food and the locals promise to return.
What Happened Next at Sweet Tea?
Reviews after Robert's visit are average.
There were negative comments on service and food.
There are however noted improvements in the taste of the sweet tea they were serving.
Sweet Tea closed in the fall of 2011, posting the below on Facebook.
"It is with a very heavy heart and great sadness that we are closing Sweet Tea's.
This was the hardest decision we have ever had to make.
We loved that our customers became our friends and our employees our family..."
Ava’s Copper Pot Bistro opened it's place.
Reviews were very good but this closed in 2014.
Sweet Tea was Restaurant Impossible season 2 episode 3 and aired on July 20 2011.
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A restaurant named sweet tea deserves to fail if it doesn't know how to prepare sweet tea properly.
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