TV Restaurants

What Happened to Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering? (Pineville, NC)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering has closed — confirmed via foodnetworkgossip.com, July 2014.

Primary source
foodnetworkgossip.com ·
Secondary source
Yelp ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Food Network Gossip reported that the owners posted on Facebook on July 20, 2014 that Sweet Tea's would be closing; Yelp's listing for the address still carries a permanently-closed tag as of a May 2026 update.

  • Season / episode Season 5, Episode 13
  • Original air date
  • Address 9101 Pineville-Matthews Rd, Pineville, NC 28134

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited Pineville, North Carolina for "Sweet Tea's Restaurant and Catering," which aired March 24, 2013. Owners Dana and David Cohen had built a catering business over about three and a half years, then opened a storefront restaurant roughly three years before the show; the episode found a nondescript building that was failing to draw customers, with the couple facing about $80,000 in accumulated losses, and a menu and building identity that Irvine felt did not communicate to Pineville what the restaurant actually offered.

Irvine spent part of the episode simply trying to locate the restaurant himself, using its poor visibility from the road as the starting point for the renovation. His team then updated the exterior signage and dining room so the building would read clearly as a Southern comfort-food restaurant from the road, and reworked the menu around a tighter list of dishes tied to the Cohens' catering strengths, aiming to give Pineville a clearer sense of what Sweet Tea's served and why it was worth stopping for.

The two-day turnaround closed with a relaunch dinner for the Cohens, their staff and local guests, centered on the new Southern-food menu and the refreshed, more visible storefront, with the Cohens expressing hope that better visibility and a clearer menu would finally let the restaurant match the success of their catering business.

The restaurant operated for roughly 16 months after the broadcast. According to Food Network Gossip, the owners posted on the restaurant's Facebook page in July 2014 that Sweet Tea's would be closing. A Yelp listing for the address, 9101 Pineville-Matthews Rd in Pineville, still carries a permanently-closed tag as of a May 2026 update, and the restaurant's own website domain is no longer active, returning a domain error when visited. No reopening or successor business at the address has been identified in the sources reviewed for this entry.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 5, Episode 13
Original air date
Episode title
Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering
What was featured
catering business's storefront rebranded with new signage and Southern menu
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering

Frequently asked questions

Is Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering has closed — confirmed via foodnetworkgossip.com, July 2014.

What happened to Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited Pineville, North Carolina for "Sweet Tea's Restaurant and Catering," which aired March 24, 2013. As of September 2026, Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering has closed — confirmed via foodnetworkgossip.com, July 2014.

Is Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering has closed — confirmed via foodnetworkgossip.com, July 2014. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering located?

9101 Pineville-Matthews Rd, Pineville, NC 28134. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering?

Season 5, Episode 13 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired March 24, 2013. The episode is titled “Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering”.

Did the makeover last at Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering?

The episode first aired March 24, 2013. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 13 years later —: As of September 2026, Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering has closed — confirmed via foodnetworkgossip.com, July 2014.

What do reviews say since Restaurant: Impossible?

No reopening or successor business at the address has been identified in the sources reviewed for this entry. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is Sweet Tea's Restaurant & Catering still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

Owners Dana and David Cohen had built a catering business over about three and a half years, then opened a storefront restaurant roughly three years before the show; the episode found a nondescript building that was failing to draw customers, with the couple facing about $80,000 in accumulated losses, and a menu and building identity that Irvine felt did not communicate to Pineville what the restaurant actually offered. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
9101 Pineville-Matthews Rd, Pineville, NC 28134
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2014/08/sweet-teas-from-restaurant-impossible.html
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/sweet-teas-restaurant-and-catering-pineville-2

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