Cocoamoda - Restaurant Impossible Update - Open or Closed?

In this Restaurant: Impossible episode, Robert Irvine visits Cocoamoda in Calvert, Texas.

Cocoamoda is owned by Ken Wilkinson.

The show has been contacted by his daughter Courtney Wilkinson.

She says they have high-end food and that’s not what Calvert is.

Cocoamoda is all about chocolate.

Courtney asked Robert to meet her in a location near to the restaurant so she can fill him in on everything.

Courtney’s father has always had a passion for chocolate.

Her father has 45 years’ experience as a chef and he even had his own television program.

Courtney called for Robert’s help because her father is stubborn and he doesn’t think he needs help.

Courtney is worried about her father’s future.

Her father is dismissive about needing Robert’s help but Courtney manages to convince him to listen.

Robert meets Ken and his wife Jaqueline.

The inside of the restaurant is really fancy but the tablecloth isn’t pressed and the floors are dirty.

Robert brings in designers Lynn and Tom.

They tell Ken their first impressions of the restaurant.

There is also an attached factory.

The restaurant makes around $150,000 a year.

Ken doesn’t seem to take Robert’s help seriously.

Robert thinks this restaurant needs major help but Ken is too stubborn to admit it.

Ken seems to think that his restaurant is doing a lot better than it really is.

Robert tells Ken that he should get ready for service because he wants to see what people drive two hours to get.

Robert meets with Lynn and Tom to discuss what they want to do with the factory.

Robert heads back to the restaurant to see how the service is.

Robert talks to a group of customers who say they drove two and a half hours to get to the restaurant.

Jaqueline says Ken doesn’t adapt to change very well.

Robert orders a handful of things from the menu to try.

He doesn’t like the food.

The beef is very overcooked and dry and the ratatouille has no texture.

Robert says he expected better from such an experienced chef.

He likes the creativity of the dishes but the execution sucks.

He tells Ken that he was very disappointed with the food.

Ken is upset with Robert’s opinion on the food.

He says he’s got a feeling that this is going to ruin Cocoamoda.

Ken says it is great for television but for them it sucks.

The producer confronts Ken about his attitude about Robert helping them.

He tells Ken to explain his frustration with Robert.

Robert says that the quality of food is not acceptable for the level of chef that Ken says he is.

Jaqueline is crying and she is upset about the cameras.

She continues to complain about the show being scripted.

The producer asks them if they want them to move forward.

Ken says he does want them to move forward and help the restaurant.

They begin taking everything out of this restaurant so they can start on the renovations.

Robert says they are behind schedule after having to talk things through with Ken.

Lynn says they are around over two hours behind schedule.

Robert talks to locals and asks them about their opinion on Ken.

They say Ken is very arrogant and he thinks that he is above the locals.

They say that the prices are too high compared to the average income of the community.

Robert wants to have a casual, cocktail type dinner to cater to the community.

The construction crew is taking a lot of time since they have to cross the street.

The ceiling in the restaurant looks like a chocolate bar.

The next day, Robert arrives and discovers that Ken didn’t make the chocolates last night.

They are behind on the hors d’oeuvres.

Robert says he is really angry with Ken right now and thought they turned a corner yesterday.

He says that if they can’t fix this then Ken is out of business.

Robert asks Ken to change his attitude and he isn’t changing.

At the moment it looks like Robert cares more about Ken’s business than Ken does.

Robert shows Ken the video footage of what the community has said about him.

Ken says he can’t see where the negative comments come from.

Robert tells Ken how he also thought he was acting arrogant.

The construction team begins making the finishing touches on the restaurant and factory.

They have repainted the tables in order to save some of the budget.

Robert asks Ken to prepare samples of the lunch menu.

They head over to the fire station to give out the samples.

Ken apologizes to them and says that if he was arrogant then it wasn’t intentional.

He shakes their hands and hugs some of them.

Ken says that financially it would be better for them to move to a bigger city but he loves it here.

The firemen admit that after trying the samples, their attitude about this restaurant is a lot better than before.

They look forward to supporting this business in the future.

Lynn admits that he was worried about having to renovate not one but two spaces at once.

He says he spent more time standing at the stop light than he did getting work done.

They begin setting up the tables ready for the reveal.

There’s still a little bit more cleaning to do.

Ken admits that this has been a lot of work and a lot of attitude adjustment.

There was a lot of soul searching on his part and he thinks that he probably needed the wakeup call.

He is thoroughly excited to see his new restaurant.

Ken and Jaqueline enter their new restaurant.

The inside of this restaurant looks incredible and Ken says it looks elegant.

Robert says he sees Ken in a different light from when he first met him.

Now, Robert shows them their new event space.

They think it looks very nice and Ken is in tears.

He says this surpasses anything that he could ever imagine.

Ken hugs Robert.

Ken invites customers into his restaurant and Jaqueline is happy they got help from Robert.

On relaunch, the customers seem to love this new and improved restaurant.

Robert says that he hopes their experience with the past two days sticks with them.

What Happened Next at Cocoamoda?

A few months later, they started opening at lunch.

They also started serving soup and sandwiches.

They planned to start a brunch service.

Cocoamoda is closed.

They closed as Ken fell from a ladder in 2016 and has ongoing health issues as a result.

The chocolate boutique remains open but has moved location.

Cocoamoda was Restaurant Impossible season 11 episode 3 and aired on 1st April 2015.

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