Grace's Place - Restaurant Impossible Update - Open or Closed?

In this Restaurant Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Grace's Place in Palm Coast, Florida.

Grace's Place Bagels and Deli is owned by Grace Tutak and her husband Eddy.

They have been running the restaurant for two years.

She runs it full time but her husband works as a teacher in high school.

Grace's place is the only bakery that makes their products fresh.

In the restaurant they serve breakfast and lunch and two nights a week they also serve dinner.

Grace’s passion is feeding people and her husband has always loved her food.

They always wanted a restaurant to feed the locals but they didn’t have the funds to open a restaurant.

When a local restaurant closed, Grace and Eddy seized the opportunity to buy it with the help of Eddy’s father.

His father provided all of the money to be able to open the restaurant.

The restaurant cost a lot more to open than they thought it would cost.

The plan was for Grace to take care of the employees and day to day operations.

This would allow Eddy and his father to look after the business side of the restaurant.

Eddy works as a teacher and was supposed to do the bookkeeping.

However, when the restaurant opened Eddy continued teaching and coaching.

He decided to hire a bookkeeper instead of taking on the role.

Grace ended up taking on more and more of the business side of the restaurant.

Eddy disagrees with Grace’s management style and thinks that he is the perfect business owner due to his maths skills.

Grace has never worked in the industry and has never been taught how to run a restaurant.

The restaurant has hurt their relationship because Grace doesn’t feel like Eddy is on her side.

To Eddy making money and paying back his dad is more important than his relationship with his wife.

If the restaurant closes then Grace will probably leave him.

There is a lot riding on the success of the restaurant and if it fails then everything will fall apart.

Robert arrives at the restaurant and sees that there is a bakery on one side and the restaurant on another.

The dividing wall between the two doesn’t make sense to him.

The walls are in a poor condition and there are leaks in the roof.

The roof tiles are sagging and there is generally no identity to the restaurant.

Robert asks the owners together for a brief so that he can learn more about the restaurant.

They have all been in the community for more than 20 years and they know Grace’s love for feeding people.

They paid $130,000 for the business with $100,000 coming from Eddy’s father.

They put in $30,000 and later an additional $20,000.

The restaurant is currently $320,000 in debt and Eddy’s father was writing cheques to cover the payroll.

They took $70,000 the previous month but the food costs were 39% and Grace doesn’t know the expenditure.

Eddy makes jokes about his wife having a secret bank account with the missing funds.

Robert is shocked that the two don’t know anything about the finances and can’t agree on anything.

The couple have been married for 27 years but Eddy doesn’t respect his wife as the manager.

Robert asks to see the service at the restaurant so that he can see reasons why the restaurant is failing.

It is clear that Eddy and Grace are both responsible for the restaurants position as they can’t sit and talk to each other for longer than 3 minutes.

Robert sees that the staff are working hard during the service.

The only one not working so hard is Grace, as she is chatting to customers instead of working.

Eddy isn’t good at serving food and the food isn’t well received by the customers.

Robert wants to sample the food and he wasn’t impressed.

He asks the owners to try the food too and they aren’t impressed with the food either.

Robert meets with his designer Cheryl and they discuss ideas for transforming the restaurant.

The design team will have just 48 hours and $10,000 to redesign the restaurant.

Robert asks the staff and the owners to help empty the restaurant ready for the design team to get to work.

Next, Robert meets with the staff to discuss how the quarrelling in the family has affected the business.

It is clear that the couple aren’t food leaders and don’t give the staff the support that they need.

Robert checks in with the designers to see what they have planned for the restaurant and he likes their vision.

As the couple can’t agree on anything Robert decides to be a referee between the two.

He even dresses up in a referees outfit.

Robert asks them to air their grievances and he acts as a ref between the two and blows his whistle.

At the end of the exercise Robert gives them homework.

Eddy needs to write down how he can change how he supports his wife.

Grace needs to reconsider how she will run the business as it is not working.

The next day, Robert arrives and checks in with the design team.

They have made a lot of progress overnight and Robert is impressed.

Robert leaves the design team to meet with the owners and check if they did their homework.

Eddy has come up with a great way so that the can support his wife better.

Grace did a good job too of coming up with ideas to be better at the business.

They both felt a lot better after revealing their plans for the restaurant.

As Grace told Robert that she has a passion for cooking Robert asks her to cook a dish that portrays her in 20 minutes.

Robert wants to find out how well she knows food and if she does well than she can run the kitchen.

Robert thinks that with some training and experience she could handle the kitchen and he thinks she will be an asset in there.

Robert trains the kitchen staff on some new dishes that will bring in a lot of money.

They enjoy the session and it gives them confidence about the relaunch that evening.

The last thing that Robert does for the couple is give them the tools so that they are able to track their profits.

The design team have finished in the dining room and it is time to reveal the new look to the owners.

They are overwhelmed by the changes and can’t believe the changes that have been made to their restaurant.

On relaunch, there is a queue of eager customers waiting.

Once inside they love the new decor at the restaurant.

They also think that the food and service are great and they promise to return to the restaurant.

What Happened Next at Grace's Place Bagels and Deli?

A month later, business is steady.

The customers loved the new decor and food.

They returned a few customer favourites to the menu.

They later reverted to the previous menu.

Grace's Place Bagels and Deli closed in December 2014.

They closed after theft by employees and a rodent infestation that was not resolved.

Two employees stole $4000 from the restaurant and were fired.

The landlord blamed them for the rats and they blamed the landlord.

The infestation led to multiple temporary closures by the Health Department.

There was a lot of negative press following the health inspection and rats, leading to a poor reputation amongst locals.

Reviews were mixed after the show.

They filed a lawsuit against their landlord after they were evicted.

Grace's Place Bagels and Deli was Restaurant Impossible season 8 episode 11 and aired on 4th June 2014.

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