TV Restaurants

What Happened to Zest Bistro After Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Zest Bistro has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, November 2025.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
patch.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Yelp's listing for Zest Bistro at 935 W Burlington Ave is marked closed, updated November 2025.

  • Season / episode Season 11, Episode 4
  • Original air date
  • Address 935 W Burlington Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) filmed at Zest Bistro in Downers Grove, Illinois for the episode "When Life Gives You Lemons," which aired April 8, 2015, as season 11, episode 4. Local outlet Patch.com covered the production while it was underway at the Burlington Avenue storefront. Zest Bistro operated inside the Lemon Tree Grocer, a gourmet grocery store, and the two sides of the business were run together by longtime friends Shaun and Tim, who had opened the combined grocery-and-bistro concept roughly five years before the episode. According to the show's account, both the retail grocery side and the full-service bistro side were carrying mounting debt by the time host Robert Irvine arrived. On air, Irvine's team addressed the shared space's layout and menu, working to give the bistro a clearer identity distinct from the grocery operation it shared a building with, while also tightening kitchen procedures and cost controls across both sides of the business. Later coverage compiled by the fan-tracker site Food Network Gossip and by Reality TV Revisited (unverified for the specifics that follow) describes the bistro side of the business closing at one point, with stated plans to expand the restaurant's footprint and reopen, plans that, per those sites, did not ultimately proceed. Restaurant-review aggregator Yelp's listing for the 935 W Burlington Avenue address is marked closed, with the listing showing a November 2025 update, and no subsequent reopening announcement was located during this research pass. No dated 2026 evidence of current operation at the address was found for either the bistro or the grocery side of the business. This record reflects the Zest Bistro portion of the combined grocery-and-bistro operation featured in the episode. Given the absence of any dated 2026 confirmation either way, this record documents the most recent closed determination available rather than assuming a reopening that has not been independently reported.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 11, Episode 4
Original air date
Episode title
When Life Gives You Lemons
What was featured
Renovation of a bistro operating inside a gourmet grocery store
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Zest Bistro

Frequently asked questions

Is Zest Bistro still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Zest Bistro has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, November 2025.

What happened to Zest Bistro after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) filmed at Zest Bistro in Downers Grove, Illinois for the episode "When Life Gives You Lemons," which aired April 8, 2015, as season 11, episode 4. As of September 2026, Zest Bistro has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, November 2025.

Is Zest Bistro permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Zest Bistro has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, November 2025. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Zest Bistro located?

935 W Burlington Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Zest Bistro?

Season 11, Episode 4 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired April 8, 2015. The episode is titled “When Life Gives You Lemons”.

Did the makeover last at Zest Bistro?

The episode first aired April 8, 2015. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 11 years later —: As of September 2026, Zest Bistro has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, November 2025.

What do reviews say since Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant-review aggregator Yelp's listing for the 935 W Burlington Avenue address is marked closed, with the listing showing a November 2025 update, and no subsequent reopening announcement was located during this research pass. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is Zest Bistro still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

On air, Irvine's team addressed the shared space's layout and menu, working to give the bistro a clearer identity distinct from the grocery operation it shared a building with, while also tightening kitchen procedures and cost controls across both sides of the business. 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
935 W Burlington Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515
Venue type
market
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

  • patch.com — https://patch.com/illinois/downersgrove/restaurant-impossible-filming-zest-bistro-lemon-tree-grocer
  • patch.com — https://patch.com/illinois/woodridge/restaurant-impossible-filming-zest-bistro-lemon-tree-grocer-downers-grove-0
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/zest-bistro-downers-grove
  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2015/04/restaurant-impossible-zest-bistro-lemon-tree-grocer.html

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Record ri-129 · last verified .