Restaurant Irresponsible

I’ve only seen a couple episodes but in both cases the restaurants were closed within months of the show revamping them.

My belief is that if someone is could’t run the restaurant in the first place, they won’t run it well when it’s cleaned and renovated.

The show focuses on the physical updates to the location. They do some (re)training of the owner and staff, but I think it’s fairly surface. It’s some recipes and some motivation to take control. I bet that fades pretty quick. Then they’re back to their old habits, comfortable menu items and not cleaning.

Sudden Wealth Syndrome stats say that “The rate of lottery winners filing for bankruptcy within five years of winning is double that of the general population,” (source). I think the same thing holds here.

Cinderella story, rags to riches and second chances are AWESOME! However, w/o a true change, I fear that sometimes these things (e.g., Restaurant Impossible, legal issues, bankruptcy, sudden wealth, etc.) are not really preparing a person for handling the same thing (or more) again and if anything may be telling them “It’s ok. If you mess up, the down side isn’t that bad.”