What Happened to Bronk's Bar and Grill After Restaurant: Impossible (FN)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited Bronk's Bar and Grill in Lake City, Minnesota, for an episode that aired December 5, 2012. The bar and grill, owned by husband-and-wife team Erik and Tracy Brunkow since 2001, had a sprawling menu of more than eighty items, most of them frozen, and had fallen into a sales slump by the time Robert Irvine and the production crew arrived in September 2012. According to a report in the Republican Eagle, a Lake City-area newspaper, Irvine's crew pared the menu down to about twenty items prepared from scratch -- including hand-breaded chicken and made-from-scratch condiments and dressings -- and updated the dining room with new carpet, signage, pendant lighting, bar stools, and booth upholstery, while removing a small stage and leaving the restaurant's existing tin ceiling in place.

The same report described Irvine's on-air treatment of the Brunkows as including pointed questions about strain in their personal relationship tied to the stress of running a struggling business. The newspaper reported that the reveal night drew more than two hundred customers, served in roughly three and a half hours, and that the restaurant saw a sustained lift in traffic through the fall before business slowed again in November 2012. Some regulars pushed back on the loss of familiar items such as quesadillas, nachos, and the restaurant's signature burger, prompting the kitchen to restore about fifteen of the previous menu's dishes.

Despite that initial rebound, the business did not remain open long-term. The fan blog Food Network Gossip reported in November 2013 that Bronk's Bar and Grill had closed effective November 4, 2013, just under a year after the episode aired. A Yelp listing for the Center Street address currently shows a permanently-closed status, most recently updated in June 2026, consistent with the business remaining closed since then.