What Happened to Ristorante Barolo After Restaurant: Impossible (FN)?

Ristorante Barolo, an Italian restaurant inside the historic Bayview Hotel at 8041 Soquel Drive in Aptos, California, appeared on Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) in an episode that aired May 16, 2012. As shown in the episode, the restaurant's outdated decor and an unfocused menu were holding back a business with a strong location in the landmark hotel building, and the owners were struggling to translate that location into steady sales. Chef Robert Irvine and his team spent two days and about ten thousand dollars modernizing the dining room and streamlining the pasta and pizza offerings while keeping the restaurant's elegant, authentic Italian identity, according to Food Network's own description of the completed makeover.

The goal was to give the historic space a cleaner, more contemporary feel that matched a tighter, more focused menu. In the months after the episode aired, the restaurant reported real gains: according to a Food Network update cited by Capitola-Soquel Patch, profits at Ristorante Barolo rose 37 percent roughly three months after the show aired. Around the same time, the couple running the restaurant faced a personal health setback, according to that update, which made it harder to keep up the momentum from the renovation and to manage day-to-day operations.

By June 2013, according to Capitola-Soquel Patch, the effort to keep Ristorante Barolo going had not held, and Booka Restaurant & Bar, a California-fusion concept staffed by an entirely new team, opened in the same Bayview Hotel space in late May 2013. The Register-Pajaronian covered Booka's Memorial Day weekend soft launch, according to Patch's report. Ristorante Barolo closed after an April 20, 2013 farewell event, when its owners announced they had sold the restaurant portion of the business, Food Network Gossip reported. No source was found indicating that Ristorante Barolo itself continued operating anywhere else after the Bayview Hotel space changed hands in 2013.