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Rising Sun Bistro
Rising Sun Bistro…
Re s t a u r a n t I m p o s s i b l e t o Re s t a u r a n t P O S S I B L E ! By Kristen Hamilton Photos by Scott Wilson Photography
Robert Irvine and the Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible” crew were in Kalispell recently to work with the owners and staff at Rising Sun Bistro. True to form (as its depicted on the hit television show), it was a crazy two days that included lots of tears and a completely new look for the struggling restaurant. The story starts following Rising Sun’s move from Whitefish to a larger location in downtown Kalispell in the summer of 2011. The move offered the popular bistro a lot more space and a much larger population to draw from. Personally as a huge fan of the restaurant (and a Kalispell resident), I was thrilled by the move. Although the plan was to quietly open and slowly build a new clientele base, the customers were lined up from day one. “The response was great, but we were overwhelmed from day one,” said Jennifer Griffith, one of the owners. Jennifer, along with the other owners, Sally Truscheit (also Jennifer’s mom) and Peggy Kirby, settled in to their new surroundings. Jennifer ran the business side of the operation including staff and Sally and Peggy covered the kitchen and all that goes along with serving great food. They were open seven days a week offering breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, but long hours and the general stress of owning a restaurant took its toll on the partners (and the
family). Although each partner was working long hours, over time they stopped communicating and the restaurant began to suffer. As a chef, Sally has been a long time fan of the Food Network and in particular the hit show Restaurant Impossible. She had mentioned it on more than one occasion to Jennifer and even told her at one point, “get us on that show.”
Jennifer recalls, “After a particularly bad day and a terrible fight with Sally last winter, I went home and ended up watching a marathon of Restaurant Impossible shows.” At the end of each show, the Food Network invites struggling restaurants to apply. “I finished watching about 2:00am and went straight to the computer to apply. I was pretty dramatic in my responses,” she added. “We weren’t necessarily failing at that point but the potential to fail in the future was definitely there.” If the Rising Sun was even to be considered, she knew she had to
get the attention of whoever might read the application.
Jennifer provided photos of the restaurant and was interviewed via Skype. At first, the show was hesitant as the Rising Sun was a pretty cute restaurant and a big part of the show is the makeover. But she was persistent and stressed the fact that the partners were going on about eight months of not communicating – they needed help! Finally, Shooters Inc (the company that produces all of the Food Network reality shows) sent a representative to the restaurant to interview the owners and staff. Jennifer admits that the communication between the three owners was so bad at this point that she wasn’t sure if they would show up for the interview. Thankfully they did. Following that interview this summer, Jennifer contacted the show about every ten days. She didn’t want to be pushy but didn’t want to lose the opportunity. The owners were still not talking, and they got in an-
other big fight about the restaurant. That’s when she finally heard that they were chosen and made the call to her mom simply saying, “We got it.”
From there everything moved very quickly. “The crew that was assigned to show 504 (season five, episode four) was incredible,” Sally said. Their main contacts were Nick Smalarz, Associate Producer; Paul Perrymore, Producer; Jill Litman, President; and Julie Roberts, Emotional Support; all from Shooters Inc. They arrived in Kalispell a day in advance of Restaurant Impossible star, Robert Irvine, to work with the staff and owners in mid-September. The restaurant had to be completely wired for video and audio for the show. “They (the network) invests a lot of money to make these shows, and they expect good TV,” Jennifer said. Of course the show has a crew, but they rely heavily on over 100 volunteers in every
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