Restaurant Revisited: Whistle Stop by Maria Russo in Shows, October 3rd, 2012
When Robert Irvine arrived at Whistle Stop restaurant in Hot Springs, Ark., he found an outdated dining space and dirty kitchen in desperate need of a makeover. Linda Todd, employee-turned-owner of Whistle Stop, needed Robert’s help to transform her restaurant into a profitable business and effectively manage her staff. We checked in with Linda to see how the restaurant is doing a few months after its Restaurant: Impossible renovation. Hear from the owner below then take a photo tour of the restaurant and see before-and-after snapshots of the Whistle Stop’s dining room and buffet station.
Since Robert left, the restaurant has begun breakfast service, which Linda says “is doing pretty well” so far. “We started doing breakfast a little over 2 weeks ago and it is doing pretty well. Hopefully it will continue to grow.” She also notes that Brett does not work at Whistle Stop anymore.
In terms of the decor, Robert turned to designer Lynn Kegan to take what was once a dark and drab dining room with multicolored holiday lights, faux greenery and dated black chairs and turn it into a bright, relaxing area with comfortable, contemporary silver seating.
Additionally, the team improved the flow of Whistle Stop by moving the buffet station from one side of the restaurant to the other.
“What I love about the Whistle Stop,” said Lynn, “is that we took an outdated buffet and layout that just consumed space and reimagined the look and layout to make it more customer friendly.”
Tell us: What do you think of the new space?
More From Restaurant Revisited:
The Maple Tree Cafe (September 26)
Michele’s (September 19)
Paliani’s Restaurant (September 12)
Frankie’s (September 5)
Gusanoz (August 29)
Stella’s (August 8)
Italian Village (August 1)
Zandi’s (July 25)
The Main Dish (July 18)
Longbranch Steak and Seafood (July 11)
Horton’s Kids (June 13)
Pollard’s (May 30)
University Grill (May 23)
Ristorante Barolo (May 16)
Pappas (May 9)
Mama Lee’s (May 2)
Pelican Grill (April 25)
Valley View (March 14)
-
More posts from Maria Russo.
Tags: Restaurant Impossible
It’s sad to see so many negative comments about R.I. and the show. The purpose is not to treat the healthy but to treat the sick. God Bless Robert and Food Network for the hard work they do for great every day Americans that are simply trying to follow their dreams or simply eak out a living. Remember you negative comment posters- the restraunts employ people, and in some cases it’s jobs some folks will only ever know. Robert knows this and he GENUINELY CARES! Keep up the good work you do Robert & Team, you are the only ones doing it.
I agree! Even if some of the restaurants don't make it afterwards, he's giving people hope (me included). I can't imagine running a restaurant, but I appreciate Robert and truly believe he and his staff are doing God's work. I guarantee I'm not the only one he inspires. Thanks for posting Tj.
"Americans that are simply trying to follow their dreams or simply eak out a living". It shows the pretty sad state America is in as what we mostly see is ignorant people buying restaurants who really shouldn't be buying restaurants. We see quitters who let their establishment go to pot, serve terrible food to their fellow citizens and then whine about hard they have it. The owner in this episode "takes the cake". How in THE H*LL does an owner of a four year old business *NOT KNOW* the revenue/expenses/profit/loss for ANY time period?!?!? "Oh .. I had nobody show me how to do it" Damn, you couldn't figure BASIC MATHEMATICS?!? I was surprised she even knew what Excel was, one would assume she didn't have a computer
As someone else mentioned, I'd rather see someone that has taken initiative and PUT AN EFFORT into learning the business and has failed for reasons like a bad economy or bad business decsion(s) than someone who has ZERO IDEA about how to run a business, serves crappy food, has a filthy restaurant and put little to no effort in learning. Don't give me this B.S. sob story about how she wants to help her fellow employees. If you continually serve garbage food in a filthy rtestaurant that can make people seriously ill or even kill them, don't sit there and tell me how much you care about people.
Then again, I guess why the name of the show is Restaurant IMPOSSIBLE. LOL!
Love the TV show! Sometimes it's best to clean house of all the employees & start fresh. I believe in second chances but come on, Really, Robert?
Hey, Robert, have you checked around these restaurants to see if customers have actually gotten sick?
If so, put them on TV. Maybe that would determine whether to keep these restaurants open. Let's hear from the victims.
Put the victims of food poisoning on TV. Especially the ones in the hospital. That would be great
entertainment!
If you are not going to have the info at the end of the show, then you are going to have to do a much better job on the follow-up than you did hear. Why on earth should I come to the site, figure out how to drill down to only get a few words.
Leona, after watching these shows very seldom I eat out. My kitchen is spotless and I am starting to enjoy cooking again. Great comment
Your comment is under the wrong restaurant. This blog is for The Whistle Stop, not the Valley Inn.
Just another case where GOVERNMENT is doing a terrible job.
Here's one way to look at it…
Who pays the health inspector's salaries? The taxpayers, of course… including restaurants. Why would a government official want to shut down one of the payers of his paycheck?
Here's how it works…
The health inspectors tell the people they need to clean up or get rid of their bugs or whatever… but they still give them a passing score. I used to work for a restaurant INFESTED with roaches. They were everywhere. The health inspector, who came by religiously every 6 months, actually stomped on at least 10-15 roaches during his inspection. He gave us a score of 93 and mentioned that we needed an exterminator in the fine print comments.
He passes us… and we continues to pay taxes. He passes us… and we continued to send all our employees down to the health dept to get their "certified food handler" card for $20… every couple of years. If he shuts us down, we stop generating revenue for the government who is paying his paycheck.
It's like everything else the government does… inefficient, costly and ineffective… because someone's always getting around the system… or the system is designed to get around itself.
Why do you think the cops spend more time patrolling main street… writing you tickets… instead of patrolling the neighborhoods protecting your property? It's all about revenue generation.
A private consumer protection company could/would do a much better job because it would be THEIR business on the line if they didn't do proper inspections. No one would trust their word. People HAVE to trust the government's word… because they are forced to. There is NO COMPETITION.
What you're seeing is the results of a 30 year Rpeublican campaign to deregulate pretty much everything. They couldn't care less if everyday people get poisoned; they just want their giant bonusues. That's how the record number of the ultra wealthy, and the record level of their wealth has happened. There is no free lunch – it came out of our pockets.
No, what you are seeing is the Democrat way of turning a blind eye to failing systems, letting people work out their problems, giving them a hand out instead of a swift kick in the tosh to get their act together. I bet any amount of money that the town you are in is run by a dem and they haven't closed anything poorly run or a big wasted drain on the governments coffers in years….
I like how tarc tried to turn this into a political issue. What you're actually seeing, albeit through biased deluded glasses, is failing government. And I'm afraid Republicans are for small government and letting the private sector to do these jobs the government can't handle, so I fail to see how it has anything to do with republicans. You liberals are so funny.
What an idiot. I think it's time to sit down and shut up tarc before you embarrass yourself further.
the episode aired about 30 min ago, pay attention.
and no he isn't there any longer.
That was actually a repeat, it aired originally on October 3, 2012.
We have also received conflicting reports on whether Brett is still there or not. He's there, he's gone, we don't know for sure. Same sh@$ different day at the Whistle Stop.
You're asking "everyone" to adhere to a modicum of common sense.
Humans are pathetic.