Friday, October 10, 2014

The Fork Diner From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Photo - Food Network
The Fork Diner in Calhoun, Georgia, which was featured on the current season of Restaurant Impossible (season 9) has closed.  I received multiple emails and comments from locals regarding the restaurant being closed.  The restaurant originally had a "closed for maintenance" sign on the door, but it appears they are now closed for good.

Also, both of the restaurant's Facebook pages have been taken down, the restaurant's website no longer works, and the phone number to the restaurant is disconnected.

You may remember The Fork Diner as they boldly had a GoFundMe fundraiser set up to try to raise money to avoid bankruptcy and to pay employees.  Despite the Facebook pages and restaurant website being taken down, the fundraiser is still active.  Also, just a day ago, Gray posted an update to the fundraiser to advertise a rental house that she has for sale.

This is the first restaurant from season nine (2014) of Restaurant Impossible to close and the Restaurant Impossible Update page has been updated with this information.

37 comments:

  1. Incredibly tacky to not say anything on FB or their website to their long time customers and to leave the GoFundMe page active. Just SMH here over how very poorly these people have handled everything.

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  2. I posted on the original page for this restaurant: "Stick a fork in them...they're done." 3 months later I was proven oh so correct.

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  3. Isn't this te restaurant where the friend was basicaly drained of all her money by these friends.

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  4. i beieve you are correct.

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  5. whatare they gonna do with $$ in the fund-- they should have to give it back to the contributors!

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  6. I think they should not only give it back, but shut down their appeal. They will probably throw some of it at the IRS or if they haven't paid employees, maybe they will do that.

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  7. Yes. $300,000 or so inheritance and her friends bought in for a very low amount, but were 50% owners. Then she gave it to them. Nuts, the whole set up.

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  8. I've noticed the restaurants that always fail are the ones where the owners are clueless w/ money. The ones that know their finances but serve crappy food seem to fair better.

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  9. It's hilarious all these restaurants fail. How exactly is Irvine "saving the day"? Dude is just overrated, period. I don't get his role at FN, I really don't. I also notice he rarely works with other chefs on FN. Look at Geoffrey Zacharian or Alex G. They are all over the place and everyone loves them. With Irvine, it just seems like he's ignored unless necessary. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen him on TV w/ Flay or Symon. That says a lot.

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  10. He was on the finale of last season's Food Network Star.
    I believe he was also had an episode on the season before last as well.
    But you are right, they don't bring him out very often.

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  11. I think he tries to save them. As you noted in your first post, the places that serve crappy food fare better after he leaves, because they learn his menu items and/or get in a chef. Too many of these places just want to get onto the show so they can turn around and sell.


    Oh, and I love Chef Alex and GZ!!

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  12. I think he doesn't do a lot of FN's different shows because his personality isn't what they look for in one of their bigger 'stars'. Geoffrey Z. and Alex G. are much more laid back and easy going. I'd think you could meet one of them and feel very comfortable almost immediately. I'm not sure you'd get the same feeling from Robert Irvine. IMO he is much more intense and I think he's that way most of the time. He was even that way during his wedding, which says a lot.

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  13. True. Not everyone is an ensemble-type either.

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  14. Agreed. Why not work on having a business worth supporting, rather than mooching?

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  15. As my dad (an accountant) likes to remind me: you don't have to make a profit to stay open, you just need to break even. A place with shitty food that can make payroll doesn’t have to close, but shitty food and no k owledge of $$ = doomed to fail.

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  16. isn't it illegal to have a fund raising charity enterprise under false pretenses? They may be breaking a federal law.

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  17. Unless one is Hawaiian.

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  18. Or maybe they bring in the next contestant who's waiting in the wings.

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  19. Well, she's like the eternally infamous Omarosa from The Apprentice: Season 1. Somebody who's thoroughly vile, who you want to see get s**tcanned off the show! Food Network viewers should take some heart, though. We get to see good ole Penny's blender disaster from Cutthroat Kitchen not only on promo's for the show, but during the show's opening each week!

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  20. I did some research, and I think I found a possible reason why Davidi gets so many second chances! From an LA Times article: "Susie Fogelson, Food Network's senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy, who is constantly chiding contestants for not staying true to their authentic selves, says of Davidi: "She really is an empowered woman. Whether you like it or not, Penny is who she is." The article continues with Davidi endlessly going on about being "empowered." Now, empowered women are great! But, with Davidi and Fogelson on the same page, I would very much guess this is why Food Network viewers are getting Davidi continually shoved down our throats! Fogelson might be the one to thank. (Article Reference: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2011/06/food-nextwork-star-meet-penny-davidi-of-los-angeles-.html)

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  21. Great find John! Thanks for sharing that. I'm with you, that would likely explain why this bad penny is given so many chances.

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  22. It seemed like, within a few seconds of seeing the Kitchen Inferno promo for the first time, I almost said out loud, "Oh my gosh! It's Food Fighters!" This is as close to an exact copy of a show that I think I've seen for quite a while.

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  23. He certainly strikes me as a Celebrity Chef who's more "celebrity" than "chef!"

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  24. To be fair I have only seen him cook a couple times, so he may be very good. Seems like more of a personality than a chef though these days

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  25. This would be my guess. Not every show just has 1 contestant.

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  26. "Today, Guam consumes more than 16 cans of Spam per person, per year — more than any other country or territory."


    Still not that much, I thought it would be more.

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  27. Cat decided to make a "medium-rare" pork chop. Of course the middle America judges thought it was way undercooked.

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  28. A homely woman that talks about bringing sex to the kitchen wearing heals to cook is empowered?

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  29. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam
    Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam
    Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam
    Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam

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  30. OK the prizes make no sense.


    round 1: Beat a Jabroni win $5k - OK sounds great
    round 2: Risk your 5k against a decent chef for another 5k - OK, worth it if you are the better chef
    round 3: Risk your 10k against a very good chef to win another 5k - Yeah that is kind of dumb, pass
    round 4: Risk your 15k against a top chef to win another 10k - Ok another bad bet pass


    Win 2 rounds and quit unless you don't need the money makes the most sense to this financial analyst.

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  31. Penny is the executive chef at Lisa Vanderpumps's new hot spot PUMP so will access to any and all chefs...the fact she chose Penny gives her cache'

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  32. No one will probably see this but it will make me feel better! This whole thing about Paula Deen makes me just plain mad!! I'm 64 so am close to her age. One evening back when this all happened I was having coffee with my sister and our cousin and they started talking about what Paula was accused of saying and I said both of you have used that word many times! Boy howdy, I thought I was just about to become dead meat!!!! Of course they were positive that neither one of them had ever used that word and my reply was that of course they had. So, as smoke was coming out of both of their ears i said have either of you had a filbert lately and do you remember what they were called when we were kids? Well, that left them both speechless, which is really rare for these two. Then to drive it home, I said, remember how we used to say "eenie meenie miney mo catch, I won't finish that old nursery rhyme. I remember asking what word were we supposed to substitute but I don't remember what the new word was but I don't do nursery rhymes now but will when I'm a Grandma and I will know the new version. Changing a word or dropping a nickname is a good thing, hopefully it shows that we are growing into better human beings?! The last point I want to make is Paula Deen was born and raised in the South, I'm from the North West, two completely different worlds.

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  33. "IMO he is much more intense and I think he's that way most of the time.
    He was even that way during his wedding, which says a lot."

    Please to explain, sir...

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  34. I'm a she, not a sir, but in the special that was aired of Robert's wedding, he was very intense. Everything, even table settings had to be just so and he wouldn't be happy until it was that way. How many grooms do you know that handle everything involving the wedding because they are that much of a perfectionist?

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  35. Sorry about the gender mix-up. Heh. Thanks for your reply. :) I seem to have a vague memory of a wedding special, but I'm not sure I've seen it.

    Now I'm wondering if perhaps it simply didn't air on Food Network Canada, like the Restaurant More Impossible ones don't, as far as I know. Stacey Poon-Kinney posted on Facebook about a RMI version of her episode, but I wasn't able to see it. :(

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  36. It's okay Ripplin, it's an easy mix-up to make! The wedding special was an hour long, I think. If you'd seen it, you'd probably remember. His wife flew his family in from England, including his daughters. Guy Fieri was there & Morimoto was there cooking. Other big names were cooking also or provided the rehearsal dinner.
    It might not have aired on FN Canada. Not sure how different that programming is from the US version. Nice chatting with you!

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