The "Perfect Storm" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just finished watching Restaurant: Impossible on the Food Network where a restaurant in nearby Quarryville, PA was featured. If you have never watched the show, that is rated as one of their most watched, Chef Robert Irvine attemps to save America's most desperate restaurants from impending failure in just two days with only $10,000. Over the course of each mission, Chef Robert assesses all of the restaurant's facets and then overhauls its weakest spots with updates to menus, retraining staff and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team. Chef Robert is certainly the man for the job. He is a native of England who joined the British Royal Navy at the age of 15 where his kitchen skills soon came to the attention of his superiors. He worked on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, where the royal family dined. He also trained U.S. Navy chefs and worked in the White house where his culinary creations were served to high-ranking government officials. Well, as my wife, Carol, and I watched, we recognized the restaurant on Rt. 272S, the Valley View, since we pass it on our trips to the Chesapeake on weekends when we travel to the bay area for lunch. Pretty neat watching the show and realizing that Chef Robert was in the area trying to save this restaurant. The more we watched, the more we knew he wasn't going to help at all. The family that ran the restaurant featured three generations of woman: the grandmother, mother and daughter. The grandmother evidently started the restaurant years ago, the mother then took over the restaurant and seems to be the major obstacle, and the daughter seems to be trying to turn around what her mother has done in the last so many years; running it into the ground. As we watched we saw what the place looked like inside. Ceiling tiles discolored and falling down, floor that was coming apart, tables and benches that had tears and cuts in the upholestry and a menu that featured almost everything that had come from the freezer. Not the place you would want to eat! They had an 18-year-old cook who the mother had trained and thought he knew everything there was to know about food preparation. Chef Robert and he went a few rounds with each other throughout the show. Eventually, the place was re-modeled inside and looked presentable and the young cook finally agreed with Chef Robert that fresh was not only better than frozen, but less expensive. When Chef Robert called a meeting of all the employees and declared to them that the daughter, Kelly was now in charge and not the mother, I looked at my wife and said, "That's not going to work. They don't operate like that in Southern Lancaster County. She's probably the youngest one in the place and not a single one of them will listen to her. As soon as Chef Robert leaves, it will go back to how it used to be before he arrived a few days ago." If you have ever been in Southern Lancaster County you will learn quickly that things don't change. People are stubborn. My God, some folks still fly the Confederate Flag! Chef Robert left shortly after the show was filmed, hoping, I"m sure, that what he taught them would help them make the place a success again. But, this morning, the day after we watched the show, I picked up a newspaper from yesterday and saw on the front page of the paper that the restaurant was "For Sale." Place had closed! Mind you, I knew it would, but not three months after Chef Robert was here. I went online to the Food Channel website to see if they knew what had happened. They posted an "Update" that said the mother had decided to close the doors. Ah, ha! Knew it! Mother was still trying to run the place. Then I found a few comments listed and the most intersting was from Chef Matt, who was hired immediately after Chef Robert left to help organize the food preparation. A synopsis of the comment is: Hi, folks. I am Chef Matt that was hired to help with the place. I've been cooking for 20 years and am no way kidding you when I say that Valley View was the most unorganized, unsanitary place that I have ever worked. The episode didn't cover HALF of the MAJOR problems in that place. The freezer was filled from top to bottom with food that was 4 to 5 years old. I found steaks that were 7 years old. The people cooking the food used no sanitary measures! Robert had that meeting to tell that kelly was the boss ...... Kelly wasn't the boss. No one was the boss. Too many hands in the pot. The menu I designed when I came cut costs 45-50%. I found local vendors. Kelly, the daughter, and I did all the work. But I found that fighting the rest was the problem. If you have ever been or live in Southern Lancaster County ....... OK. You get the idea without any more of his comment. Matt eventually quit saying he didn't want to be associated with a restaurant that was circling the drain. Chef Robert has remade more than 38 restaurants over the past two years and 35 are doing very well. Chef Robert told the newspaper that he met "The Perfect Storm" at the Valley View. And the Southern belles did him in! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: Valley View Restaurant with Amish buggy passing, Chef Robert Irvine, Chef Robert works with daughter Kelly and mother Kim in the restaurant's office, For Sale sign in front of the restaurant.