Is The Trails Eatery Still Open? Restaurant: Impossible (FN) Update

Part 1 — Season 15, Episode 8 Aired August 10, 2019

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) checked back in on The Trails Eatery in San Diego, California, in the episode 'Revisited: The Hidden Costs of Business' (S15E8), which aired 2019-08-10. Robert Irvine had originally rescued the cafe, run by Stacey Poon-Kinney alongside her father, Larry, near Mission Trails Regional Park, in a Season 2 episode that aired 2011-09-21, after the business had fallen into serious financial trouble. Coverage tied to the original episode reported that sales nearly doubled following the initial rescue. The 2019 revisit examined the business costs Poon-Kinney faced in keeping the eatery running years after the makeover. Reviewers on Yelp, Google, and Tripadvisor continued to rate the restaurant highly in the years that followed, according to aggregated review scores reported by Hungryones.com in 2022.

Part 2 — Season 2, Episode 10 Aired September 21, 2011

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) featured The Trails Eatery, a counter-service breakfast-and-lunch restaurant at 7389 Jackson Dr in San Diego, California, in the Season 2 episode "The Trails Eatery," which aired September 21, 2011. As shown in the episode, the restaurant, known locally as a neighborhood brunch spot, was contending with an inconsistent menu and a dining room that Robert Irvine's team felt needed a refresh to match its potential. The team's renovation followed the show's usual format: updating the dining space, sharpening the menu around breakfast and lunch dishes, including gluten-free options that remain part of the restaurant's identity today, and retraining staff, before a relaunch service for the neighborhood and the show's cameras.

The Trails Eatery has continued operating in the years since its television appearance. The restaurant's own website, still active under owner Stacey Poon-Kinney, lists the same Jackson Drive address and phone number, advertises current hours of 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, and links to an active online-ordering page through a third-party ordering platform. Separately, Yelp's listing for the restaurant, which is not marked permanently closed, was updated in August 2026 and shows an actively growing base of customer photos and reviews, including many that reference the restaurant's original Food Network appearance.

Because these are two independent sources, one of them the business's own site, this record meets a stronger evidentiary bar than a single listing alone would provide. No indication of a closure, relocation, or ownership change was found. The restaurant appears to be operating under the same name, at the same address, as when it appeared on Restaurant: Impossible. The open status here is supported by the restaurant's own website and an independently updated, non-closed Yelp listing. No other Restaurant: Impossible or Food Network appearances tied to this address were identified.

Part 3 — Season 7, Episode x99 Aired March 1, 2014

Robert Irvine returned to The Trails Eatery in San Diego, California, for a Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) revisit segment billed as "Restaurant More Impossible," which aired March 1, 2014. The café, owned by Stacey, had originally been featured in a Season 2 episode. The follow-up segment checked on the business's progress since that first visit. Unlike several other restaurants covered in the same run of revisit segments, coverage describes The Trails Eatery as one of the show's success stories: local reporting at the time of the original episode noted a sales increase after it aired, and later reality-TV fan sites describe the business as still operating years afterward. This record covers only the "More Impossible" check-in segment; the eatery's original episode and its full, current status are documented under its separate, earlier restaurant record.