TV SHOW RETURNS TO RESTAURANT
Incredible Café had its best year after Food Network episode, then pandemic
Back in April 2019, the Incredible Café restaurant in Rancho Bernardo went from a struggling operation to a huge success after it was featured in a makeover episode on the Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible” TV series.
“We had one of the best years we ever had after the show aired and we’d hoped to ride that momentum for a while. But it came to a pretty stark halt when the pandemic hit,” said Stephanie Sunwoo, whose mother, Liz Song, has owned the breakfast and lunch eatery since 1998.
Over the past year, the restaurant struggled by with just a handful of employees — Song’s family, a chef and a dishwasher — working together to fulfill a small number of takeout orders and, more recently, serve some onsite diners. But the family’s hopes are rising
again after the “Restaurant: Impossible” crew returned with their cameras on Monday. The new episode — where chef/host Robert Irvine checks in with restaurants he’s revamped in past shows — should air in a few months.
“With Robert’s visit, we’re hoping that with the show, COVID restrictions easing, the vaccine and a decent summer when we always have the most visitors, we will be OK,” Sunwoo said.
option to view reports submitted by neighbors.
The city launched the app four years ago. It has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. City officials said on average there are 19,000 active users each month.
The app received 362,000 complaint reports in 2019. Residents in some neighborhoods, such as City Heights, organize “Get It Done” days where residents walk up and down streets to report issues.
The city’s response times to Get It Done requests vary. Last year some City Council members raised concerns about backlogs and equity issues.
Council member Vivian Moreno, who represents south San Diego neighborhoods of Logan Heights, San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and Barrio Logan, raised concerns in November that some constituents complained reports went unresolved for months.
She also pointed to an analysis by The Union-Tribune that showed reports of graffiti take much longer to get resolved in lower-income Districts 4, 8 and 9 than they do in wealthier parts of the city.
City officials have said they plan to conduct an analysis of responses time to see where there is room for improvement.