Remember how Torontoist hates Restaurant Makeover? Last night they aired the Church Street Diner episode, shot sometime last summer/fall and like some of the post-RM shows, Church Street Diner is closed to this day. Churchies who are in the know, know that CSD was opened and then closed sometime soon after the Restaurant Makeover crew left their special brand of reality tv drama all over the scrapped bunkheads. The title card at the end of the show mentioned that Alfredo and Richard “continue to have hope for the business”, or some such fluff. Well they’re off the radar, apparently, with the diner surreptitiously having an “opening soon” sign on their door through the winter.
This show is approximately 22 min long (with commercials) and contains 20 minutes of fake drama built up between the designer and the contractor. With clever editing and lots of recycling shots of people dancing while they work, they’re able to pad out the show to the hour (with commercials). In last night’s episode, Richard and Alfredo were treated nicely, compared to some snide comments the show hosts would utter on camera regarding the restaurant, the owners, the working conditions. As I suspected, the menu was perfect, with only a few edits and no real complaints to speak of by the hosting chef (she actually complimented them on their use of home made sauces), but the reason the diner was doing poorly was the cramped room it occupies, which (in my opinion) killed the previous restaurant in that space, The Five Alarm Diner. Backing up that theory is the surprise reveal of the owners acquiring of the second floor, sprung on the designer to jazz up just before the makeover started. Act surprised, everyone! Now act worried about time. Now act worried about money.
All my Googling and gossip searching came up with no leads as to why the diner is still closed. I suspect they might have had some issue with licensing the upstairs part of the diner because at one point the designer mentions having problems with “red tape” and mysteriously it’s never mentioned again. The upstairs was a clothing store prior to the makeover and I suspect they couldn’t get a food service license within the 5 days allotted for the show and they went ahead and reno-ed the upstairs anyway. There was a curious lack of discussion regarding the upstairs space, other than the old Restaurant Makeover standard drama of a “load bearing wall” that befuddles the designer (shock!).
I’m saddened by Alfredo and Richard’s struggles since I knew Richard when he was the manager of my local Starbucks (and did a pretty damn good job making the place a fun cafe!). I’d go back to the Cafe if it opened, but it doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon.
One more for the Restaurant Makeover deathwatch!
8 thoughts on “Restaurant Makeover Farts in Church”
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run! the spelling is out of control!
rm may be the kiss of death, but can you imagine a stable restaurant wanting those twits in there to ‘help’? every place they’ve featured has probably had one foot in the grave before they let in those tasteless fools.
the only place they’ve blighted that i visit still exists – bulldog coffe.
Well like so many others caught with the spending up when the economy went down they probably just couldn’t afford the reno’s or the taxes, or the rent, or the staff cost……….
Mind you the Royal Bank Group still managed to eek by with a $1.05 billion dollars profit even with the 27% drop in the first quarter – BASTARDS!!
Alfredo! I’m editing as I type! woops…
BTW, is it Alfonso or Alfredo?
I saw it too! First I realized that I used to chat with Alfredo online and I actually met both Alfredo and Richard for coffee a few years back (well, 2001). I didn’t recognize him because back then he was way bigger and had long hair. Anyway, that show is the touch of death really, the restaurants all go bankrupt after a while. One thing that really annoys me about Restaurant Makeover is that if you watch the last segment you will have a recap of the whole show, so you don’t need to watch the previous hour or so. And this is not just in the last segment, but for EVERY segment they start with a recap, so damn repetitive!
Not sure if you control the spelling of the above or not, but it says “It’s quite in here!” instead of the “It’s quiet in here!” – just a friendly FYI. š
Wow – I need to watch Restaurant Makeover more – but than again, every time I have, I just keep thinking how Kitchen Nightmare’s is a far superior show (with at least a marginally better success rate with maintaining business).
Keep us posted!