Restaurant Gets Reality Show Treatment

Stafford, Va. –– A struggling restaurant is looking for a second chance, and the owner thinks a reality show just might be the ticket to get things cooking again.

Stafford’s County Fare restaurant near the county courthouse on U.S. 1 will soon be featured on The Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible.”

Film crews are on location this weekend, and show host and chef Robert Ervine will make it his mission to turn around the faltering mom and pop restaurant –– a place that recently held a fundraiser for Marine Sgt. Kenny Lyons, so the wounded warrior could have a new home.

“The whole concept is that they come into a failing restaurant, and we are failing, and aim to turn things around within 24 hours. We were excited and thankful when we heard we were chosen to be on the show,” said Eric Green, the owner of the restaurant.

Ervine and his crew will change the décor and the menu, hoping to jazz up a place now known for country cooking and U.S. Marine Corps flair on the walls.

“We need a signature dish, something that will make us a destination for folks to come to,” said Green.

Once the process begins on Friday night, Green will not be allowed to return to his restaurant until Sunday afternoon, when it is expected to reopen with some major changes –– Green, however, has idea what they will be.

The host of the show has $10,000 to remake County Fare into a place where diners want to eat.

Green said a family friend urged him to apply to be on the show about a month and a half ago. He was selected as one of 18 restaurants out of 1,000 applicants, he said.

The show is scheduled to air later this year.

A Stafford Resident at the Five Guys burger joint next door to County Fare spotted Restaurant Impossible’s producer, Mark Summers, who is also host of Unwrapped also on the Food Network.