What Happened to Pier West Restaurant After Restaurant: Impossible (FN)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) featured Pier West, a waterfront restaurant on Lake Mary at 511 Wilmot Avenue in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, in the episode "Sink or Swim," which aired June 16, 2013. FOX6 Milwaukee reported ahead of filming that owners of the small, family-run grill said sales had fallen by roughly 25 percent over the prior two years, and that online reviews at the time described slow, inconsistent service and food that arrived overcooked, cold or incorrect. The station also noted that longtime regulars in the small village of fewer than 6,000 people had a far more favorable view of the restaurant than those reviews suggested, with several telling FOX6 they were excited about the national television attention coming to town.

As shown in the episode, host Robert Irvine and his crew spent roughly 36 hours reworking the restaurant's menu, kitchen operations and dining areas, which included indoor seating for about 150 guests, a full bar, a lakeside tiki bar, a patio seating around 75, and boat-up dining along a private pier with multiple slips. FOX6's report noted that the owners were contractually barred from discussing the renovation with press before the episode aired, and that FOX6 itself was not permitted inside the restaurant during filming. Coverage of the show's aftermath described an initial sales increase of around 25 percent in the weeks following the relaunch.

That recovery proved short-lived: secondary reporting on the show's aftermath indicates Pier West closed within roughly seven months of the episode airing, around January 2014. A Yelp listing for Pier West, updated as recently as July 2026, currently marks the business as permanently closed, and the waterfront property has since been marketed to prospective tenants as available restaurant space, according to a real-estate listing for the address. No subsequent reopening under a new name or ownership has been identified in the sources reviewed for this record.