What Happened to Pappas Restaurant After Restaurant: Impossible (FN)?

Pappas Restaurant, a Greek family restaurant at 1654 East 2nd Street in Benicia, California, appeared on Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) in an episode that aired May 9, 2012. As shown in the episode, owner Mike Anastasios ran the business with his sons Nicolas and Andreas, and the restaurant was struggling with an aging look, a cluttered menu, and friction among family members working in the kitchen together. Chef Robert Irvine and his team spent two days and about ten thousand dollars redesigning the dining room and rebuilding the menu around a more focused set of Greek dishes, aiming to give the family a clearer identity in a crowded local dining market.

For a period after the show, business improved: an update from the Food Network reported a meaningful increase in profits in the months following the renovation. According to the Benicia Herald, however, the couple running day-to-day operations also faced personal health setbacks around this time that made it harder to sustain the changes. The Benicia Herald reported that regular customers missed several of the restaurant's original dishes that had been dropped in the makeover, and that bringing those items back took longer than the owners wanted.

In spring 2013, according to the Benicia Herald, Anastasios announced Pappas would close for good. He told the paper that Benicia, a city of under 30,000 people, had grown to more than 80 restaurants, leaving too small a pool of diners for his business to sustain itself, and that a last-minute plan to refinance the restaurant's building fell through over a parking-space shortfall. Anastasios, then 78, said he planned to retire rather than reopen elsewhere. A Yelp listing for Pappas Restaurant at the East 2nd Street address is marked permanently closed, with an update dated August 2026, consistent with the restaurant's 2013 closure.