TV Restaurants

What Happened to Dinner Bell After Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Dinner Bell has closed — confirmed via Yelp, April 2026.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
foodnetworkgossip.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Yelp's listing for 1568 Gallatin Pike N carries a permanently-closed tag, last updated April 2026, consistent with Food Network Gossip's April 2013 report of an early closure citing rising costs.

  • Season / episode Season 5, Episode 9
  • Original air date
  • Address 1568 Gallatin Pike N, Madison, TN 37115

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

On Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network), Chef Robert Irvine traveled to Madison, Tennessee, for the episode "Dinner Bell," which aired February 27, 2013, to help owner Tommy save the four-year-old Dinner Bell Restaurant, which the episode said was two days from closing for good. The show depicted a strained walkthrough of the kitchen and dining room, and Irvine's blunt feedback about food quality and service triggered a heated, near-physical confrontation with Tommy before the two men moved toward a tense reconciliation later in the two-day process.

Irvine's team focused the renovation on basics that had been neglected: the kitchen was deep-cleaned and reorganized, a malfunctioning point-of-sale system was addressed, and staff habits Irvine considered unprofessional were retrained. The dining room was refreshed with new paint, lighting and furnishings to replace decor the show described as run-down, and the sprawling menu was cut down to a shorter list of freshly prepared Southern comfort dishes, replacing the frozen and pre-made items the crew found in the walk-in cooler.

The two-day turnaround ended with a relaunch dinner that brought Tommy, his staff and local diners together around the new menu and refreshed dining room. The episode closed on a note of cautious optimism, with Tommy voicing hope that the changes, and the on-camera reconciliation with Irvine, would be enough to keep Dinner Bell open for the long term.

That hope did not hold. According to Food Network Gossip, Dinner Bell closed within about two months of the episode's original broadcast, in April 2013, with rising costs cited as a factor. A Yelp listing for the restaurant's former address, 1568 Gallatin Pike N in Madison, still carries a permanently-closed tag that was last updated in April 2026, consistent with no reopening at that location in the years since the closure. No successor business at the address has been identified in the sources reviewed for this entry.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 5, Episode 9
Original air date
Episode title
Dinner Bell
What was featured
family Southern restaurant near closure, saved via menu and staff overhaul
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Dinner Bell

Frequently asked questions

Is Dinner Bell still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Dinner Bell has closed — confirmed via Yelp, April 2026.

What happened to Dinner Bell after Restaurant: Impossible?

On Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network), Chef Robert Irvine traveled to Madison, Tennessee, for the episode "Dinner Bell," which aired February 27, 2013, to help owner Tommy save the four-year-old Dinner Bell Restaurant, which the episode said was two days from closing for good. As of September 2026, Dinner Bell has closed — confirmed via Yelp, April 2026.

Is Dinner Bell permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Dinner Bell has closed — confirmed via Yelp, April 2026. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Dinner Bell located?

1568 Gallatin Pike N, Madison, TN 37115. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Dinner Bell?

Season 5, Episode 9 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired February 27, 2013. The episode is titled “Dinner Bell”.

Did the makeover last at Dinner Bell?

The episode first aired February 27, 2013. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 13 years later —: As of September 2026, Dinner Bell has closed — confirmed via Yelp, April 2026.

What do reviews say since Restaurant: Impossible?

No 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 Dinner Bell still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

The dining room was refreshed with new paint, lighting and furnishings to replace decor the show described as run-down, and the sprawling menu was cut down to a shorter list of freshly prepared Southern comfort dishes, replacing the frozen and pre-made items the crew found in the walk-in cooler. 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
1568 Gallatin Pike N, Madison, TN 37115
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/2013/04/dinner-bell-from-restaurant-impossible.html
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/dinner-bell-madison
  • foodnetwork.com — https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/restaurant-impossible/episodes/dinner-bell-restaurant

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