Cafe will host Food Network production
WILLIAMSTON – If you’ve ever wanted to be in a restaurant for the filming of a Food Network show, now’s your chance.
“Restaurant: Impossible” host and chef Robert Irvine is looking for diners who want to eat at Williamston’s Sunnyside Cafe while the show films an upcoming episode next month. The show, now in its 21st season, showcases Irvine’s efforts to help “a failing restaurant turn things around in two days,” according to its description on Food Network. “He and his team use all the ingenuity, elbow grease and heart they’ve got to give small business owners a fighting chance at turning their restaurants around.”
Friday, Jeanette Ellsworth, co-owner of Sunnyside Cafe, said she can’t discuss the upcoming filming yet, due to a contract with the network.
The 1,900-square-foot restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch, has been open for 18 years, she said.
Seth Hyman, a spokesperson for Food Network, declined to release any additional details about the scheduled filming at the business or the episode.
“As Restaurant: Impossible is currently in production I don’t have any additional information I can share at this time,” he wrote in an email Thursday.
The show plans to film at the West Grand River Avenue eatery on June 8 and 9, according to a Facebook event created on Irvine’s page.
Diners are being selected for lunch on June 8 and a “grand re-opening” dinner at the eatery on June 9, according to the event details.
“Come dine with us and be one of the first patrons to see the newly renovated space,” it reads. “If you are interested in making a reservation at SUNNYSIDE CAFE for either service, please email the Restaurant: Impossible production at: reservationsimpossible@gmail.com by JUNE 2ND at (3 p.m.). Please use the following in your subject line: 2017 / SUNNYSIDE CAFE RESERVATIONS.”
The show is planning to cover the cost of lunch for diners there on June 8, according to the event details, while diners there for dinner on June 9 will be expected to pay their own bill.
“Reservations are first come, first served by email and we CANNOT guarantee everyone who responds will get a table,” according to the event details. “If you are selected, you will receive a confirmation email close to the date of the dinner.”
See the event listing at www.facebook.com/events/ 331588132 417797?ref=newsfeed.