Friday, June 29, 2012

Robert Irvine's Restaurant Impossible In Las Vegas

Would you want to advertise this?:
From the Las Vegas Sun: Robert Irvine didn’t ask producers why they chose the Maple Tree Cafe in Las Vegas for his show “Restaurant: Impossible.” He never does.
“When I first pull up in my car, I’m really seeing everything for the first time, and I don’t want to spoil that,” Irvine said this morning as the Food Network program prepared for its final day of production for the restaurant makeover.
Producers search for restaurants near financial failure and in need of renovations, checking bankruptcy records and making sure the eateries are really in dire situations, Irvine said.
He saw as much at the Maple Tree on Spring Mountain Road near Jones Boulevard, when he arrived early Wednesday.
“The decor and the food was awful,” Irvine said. “And like so many places we visit, we had to fix the relationships first. There was a huge rift in the family that owns it. They don’t get on at all. It’s a bit like having children.”
The crew shot from 7 a.m. to midnight, as Irvine and his crew set about to change the face of the Maple Tree.
“It’s a real two days and a real $10,000,” Irvine said of the time and budget constraints of the program. “We really have less than two days, because we’re constantly stopping and starting. That takes away time.”
 http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jun/28/tvs-restaurant-impossible-gears-reopen-las-vegas-r/
I've heard of the Maple Tree through a review in the LVRJ and they received an A- grade, so what happened since the review in 2006?
From the LVRJ:  I would've overlooked The Maple Tree myself were it not for a few loyal readers who e-mailed shortly after a review of another breakfast place ran. As I said, it's a fairly small spot, tucked into a strip shopping center. The sign doesn't scream out as you're whizzing by on Spring Mountain Road, and such small places rarely have budgets for much advertising. But -- bless those readers -- I found it, and so should you.
The Maple Tree bills itself as a "countryside kitchen" with "old-time rural country cooking in the tradition of a New England-style sugarhouse restaurant." Redundancies aside, that's just what it is -- a charming little spot, such as used to dot rural areas of the Northeast (and still do, in some places).
We were there for breakfast. As you'd imagine, maple's got a prominent place on this menu, including real maple syrup served with the pancakes. We'd have been remiss to pass that by, and so decided on a Sugarhouse Sampler ($7.99), which included not only pancakes but also two eggs, two links of sausage, two strips of bacon and maple-baked ham. Yes, the ham did taste of maple -- but just pleasantly, not overpoweringly so -- and the pancakes were high and light, gently browned and nicely fluffy, and just right with that syrup.....
 Maybe the Monte Cristo crowd should go right away, for a fix. As for the rest of you: I think The Maple Tree will be around for quite a while.  http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-21-Fri-2006/weekly/6877579.html
Strange that they went from great food in 2006 to awful food in 2012.  Again, I wonder what happened.

2 comments:

  1. I love you guys I love the show. Marnetta

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