In this Restaurant Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Valley View in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.
Valley View is owned by Ann Wilmore and is located deep in Amish country.
The restaurant has been run by three generations of women.
Ann's daughter Kim Church is the back of house manager and runs the kitchen.
Ann's grandaughter Kelly is the General Manager and is learning how to run the restaurant and does the books.
They have been in business for 28 years and the first 23 years were good.
Five years ago they noticed a decline in customers and numbers have continued to decline.
Kelly's brother Eddie worked in the restaurant and was next in line to take over the restaurant.
He sadly passed away following a kidney transplant.
Ann has invested a further $1.1 million into the restaurant that she hid from the rest of the family.
She is unable to be in the restaurant due to her health declining after a number of mini strokes.
They are now only a month away from the restaurant being forced to close.
Robert arrives at the restaurant and he thinks the restaurant is old fashioned.
He notices that the ceiling is close to falling in.
Robert meets with Ann to talk about the restaurant.
Ann tells Robert that the restaurant underwent a 500k renovation and they added a room on the back and invested in the kitchen.
Robert looks around astounded as he can't see what was done to improve the restaurant and thinks they got ripped off.
He speaks with the women and no one knows the food costs.
They reveal that they are now $1.25million in debt.
Robert is left confused as to who it in charge of the business and how much they know about the business.
Robert asks locals to come in for a service so he can see how the restaurant operates.
They customers aren't impressed with the decor as they think the place is falling apart.
One diner compares it to a trailer park and many customers notice the falling in ceiling and peeling wallpaper.
The food isn't much better, one customer orders a well done steak and it arrives raw.
Another thinks that the apple sauce tastes like it is from a can.
Robert sits down to order the food and he orders a variety of dishes from waitress Sherri.
He orders the liver, crab cakes, stuffed flounder, pork chops, a pie and a haddock dish.
Sherri tells Robert that the haddock, pies and pork chops are all frozen and not fresh dishes.
Robert hates the food as the flounder is raw and the pork chop is freezer burnt.
The crab cake is cold in the middle and the potatoes are made from powdered potatoes.
He asks Sherri to try the cabbage dish and she chokes on the cabbage as it is covered in pepper.
Robert goes into the kitchen and meets chef Jessie, who is defensive of the food.
He asks to see all of the freezers and the frozen food that they serve.
Robert tells him the frozen food is why they are failing and Jessie challenges him to a cook off.
Jessie tells Robert that he is self taught and didn't go to culinary school.
Robert tells him that neither did he and he learnt from books and on the job from talented chefs.
Robert meets with the design team, who are taking down ceiling tiles.
They find a dead mouse but it is old and petrified so they don't have an active problem.
In the kitchen he challenges Jessie to cook a haddock dish with fresh versus frozen.
Robert is finished in 3 minutes but 10 minutes later Jessie's fish is still not cooked.
Despite Robert finishing first he is still not convinced fresh is better.
Robert sets Kim an overnight task of working out the food costs for the top 10 dishes on the menu and what they should be selling the dishes for.
The next day Robert arrives and checks in with the design team and the new ceiling has been fitted.
Taniya continues with her modern, nature inspired makeover of the dining room.
They talk through the home work and she is surprised to learn that the top selling items are breakfast items.
The costs are revealed to be 49% and over three days they actually lost $264.
Every day they open they are losing money with every service and might as well be giving the food away.
Robert reveals that if they make their own french fries then they could save around $15,000 a year.
Robert will be adding a new menu that is easy for the kitchen to cook.
He tells them he is also adding a hot buffet as they can make a lot of money with this with little effort.
Robert reveals that using fresh pork chops rather than frozen will save them $3 per pound.
The buffet will include dishes such as Pork Chops with Apples and Onions and Southern Fried Chicken.
As Robert doesn't know who is in charge he calls the staff for a meeting to find out who they think is in charge
None of them know who their boss really is and they don't give any respect to Kelly.
Robert tells them that it is Kelly who is the boss and some seem surprised that she is in charge.
He tells the staff that Kim answers to her daughter in the restaurant and not the other way around.
Robert takes Kim on an outing to let off some tension as he can tell that she is in need of a release of tension. She shouts and screams and lets it out all, she says that she feels better for it.
It is time to reveal the makeover of the restaurant and Ann and her husband attend the reveal that includes a touching tribute to Eddy.
On relaunch night, the customers love the new decor and love the food.
The hand cut fries and fried chicken especially are a huge hit with diners.
The hot buffet takes a lot of the pressure off of the kitchen as the diners serve themselves to the buffet and they simply refill it.
Both new customers and old customers alike love the changes and promise to return to the restaurant.
What Happened Next at Valley View?
Robert revisited in February 2012, they have hired a new chef and hold regular staff meetings to make improvements.
They have struggled with the hot bar and Ann has struggled to stay away and let Kelly run the restaurant.
Valley View closed on 8th March 2012, 4 days before the episode aired.
The restaurant closed as Ann was not willing to invest any more money into it.
The single Yelp review reads that they had crossed out most of the menu items, served tinned tuna and the service was slow.
Valley View was Restaurant Impossible season 3 episode 6 and aired on March 14 2012.
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Dang I wanted to go there
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