Getty Chef Robert Irvine onstage during a culinary demonstration.
Chef Robert Irvine and the Restaurant: Impossible crew visited Perella’s Ristorante in Warren, Rhode Island. The crew had 48 hours to turn the restaurant around. In the episode, titled “Old Habits Die Hard,” Irvine meets the owner, Chef Lou, who hasn’t updated the restaurant in over 25 years.
The episode synopsis says the decor and opinions are the same as they were 25 years ago when the restaurant opened. Lou is in danger of losing his restaurant and his legacy if Robert doesn’t succeed in convincing him to change his ways.
Chef and owner Louie Perella was approached by producers when the show started filming again after the hiatus it was on between 2016 and 2019. They were one of the first restaurants approached for the new season.
The Restaurant Underwent Renovations in October
The Restaurant: Impossible crew showed up to Perella’s in October and told owner Louie Perella that it was time to modernize the restaurant. It has been open and in business for 25 years, and this was the first time the restaurant underwent extensive renovations.
When asked about what it was like to work under Irvine when he was there, Perella said it was difficult, especially when he was told his menu was too large and he had to get rid of the Sistine Chapel-inspired mural that was in the restaurant.
“That made me so sad,” Perella told the Providence Journal. “But by the end, I believed he was sincere about wanting the restaurant to succeed.”
The journey to Restaurant: Impossible began a few years ago, when Perella’s son Lou graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and planned to take over the family business. He knew, however, that the restaurant would need a makeover, but his dad wasn’t willing to pay for that. He reached out to the show, but didn’t hear back until 2019.
Though the show pursued the plot about Lou taking over the family business, that is no longer the plan; Lou is not planning on joining the business, even though it has been renovated and mostly fixed at this point. Perella also said that producers fed some lines to him, telling him what to say when the cameras were on.
The Reviews Range From Negative to Neutral
Perella says that no one has complained about the new menu, but his regulars do miss the old dishes. He also said that he will be bringing back some of his signature dishes in the future, saying his belief is that his restaurant’s niche is a home-style, neighborhood place, which means serving comfort dishes.
The Yelp page for the restaurant has only 31 reviews with an average of 2.5 stars. Since the remodel, there are only four reviews. User Cheryl P says the restaurant looks a lot better than it did before and the food was good and reasonably priced, but she probably would not revisit the restaurant in the future.
User Betty B left a review after her first time revisiting the restaurant since the remodel. “The transformation is amazing. Food very good. Calamari was great. Check it out. We will go back. Waitress was very friendly,” she wrote in the five-star review.
The Facebook page has a rating of over four stars based on 63 recommendations. Most of those reviews, however, are from before the restaurant was renovated.
Tune into the “Old Habits Die Hard” episode of Restaurant: Impossible on January 16, 2020 at 9 p.m. on Food Network.
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