TV Restaurants

What Happened to Island Kine Grinds? (Nampa, ID)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Island Kine Grinds has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, March 2025.

Primary source
realitytvrevisited.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Reality TV Revisited's tracker page reports the restaurant, later renamed Aloha Island Grille, permanently closed in March 2025; the packet's original Places match pointed to an unrelated restaurant in Arcata, CA, and the corrected Nampa, ID address was confirmed via the Census geocoder.

  • Season / episode Season 22, Episode 3
  • Original air date
  • Address 140 Caldwell Blvd, Nampa, ID 83651
  • Current name Aloha Island Grille

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) sent Chef Robert Irvine to Nampa, Idaho, for "Clueless in Idaho," which aired January 12, 2023, to help owner Renus Domingo save Island Kine Grinds, a Hawaiian-style plate-lunch restaurant he and his wife Ludi opened in 2011 after moving to Idaho. Domingo told the crew that a sudden illness had left him paralyzed and hospitalized for three months, followed by a second health crisis that required open-heart surgery; the medical bills and lost income pushed the couple roughly $250,000 into debt and nearly wiped out their savings, according to the Idaho Press's coverage of the show's arrival in Nampa.

Irvine's team spent two days reworking the restaurant's dining room and its menu of island-style meat and vegetable plates, aiming to lighten the workload on Domingo as he continued recovering and to put the business on stronger financial footing. Robert Irvine (Restaurant: Impossible, Food Network) has said the two-day, budget-limited format is meant to give owners a working blueprint they can sustain on their own after the crew leaves, a test the Nampa restaurant would face in the years that followed.

Idaho News and ListenBoise both covered the show's arrival in Nampa ahead of the taping, describing Island Kine Grinds as a local favorite for Hawaiian plate-lunch fare in the Treasure Valley region of southwestern Idaho.

The restaurant did not stay open under either its original name or its rebuilt finances. Reality TV Revisited's tracker page for Island Kine Grinds, later updated, reports that the business, by then operating as Aloha Island Grille, permanently closed in March 2025.

The location supplied with this batch's evidence packet pointed to a same-named restaurant, Big Island Kine, in Arcata, California — an unrelated business roughly 700 miles from Nampa. The Idaho Press's coverage of the 2023 filming placed the restaurant at 140 Caldwell Boulevard in Nampa, Idaho; that address was confirmed against the Census Bureau's geocoder, which returned matching coordinates for the street number.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 22, Episode 3
Original air date
Episode title
Clueless in Idaho
What was featured
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Island Kine Grinds

Frequently asked questions

Is Island Kine Grinds still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Island Kine Grinds has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, March 2025.

What happened to Island Kine Grinds after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) sent Chef Robert Irvine to Nampa, Idaho, for "Clueless in Idaho," which aired January 12, 2023, to help owner Renus Domingo save Island Kine Grinds, a Hawaiian-style plate-lunch restaurant he and his wife Ludi opened in 2011 after moving to Idaho. As of September 2026, Island Kine Grinds has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, March 2025.

Is Island Kine Grinds permanently closed?

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

What is Island Kine Grinds called now?

Now: Aloha Island Grille (formerly Island Kine Grinds). As of September 2026, Island Kine Grinds has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, March 2025.

Where is Island Kine Grinds located?

140 Caldwell Blvd, Nampa, ID 83651. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Island Kine Grinds?

Season 22, Episode 3 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired January 12, 2023. The episode is titled “Clueless in Idaho”.

Did the makeover last at Island Kine Grinds?

The episode first aired January 12, 2023. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 3 years later —: As of September 2026, Island Kine Grinds has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, March 2025.

Is Island Kine Grinds still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

Irvine's team spent two days reworking the restaurant's dining room and its menu of island-style meat and vegetable plates, aiming to lighten the workload on Domingo as he continued recovering and to put the business on stronger financial footing. 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
140 Caldwell Blvd, Nampa, ID 83651
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
Facebook

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

  • idahopress.com — https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/nampa-restaurant-to-be-featured-on-food-network-show/article_8fe0152b-4b74-53d8-9241-50bfc297ae30.html
  • realitytvrevisited.com — https://www.realitytvrevisited.com/2023/08/restaurant-impossible-island-kine-grinds.html
  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2023/01/island-kine-grinds-aloha-island-grille.html
  • idahonews.com — https://idahonews.com/news/local/restaurant-impossible-to-help-struggling-nampa-business
  • listenboise.com — https://www.listenboise.com/trending/food-networks-restaurant-impossible-coming-to-nampa

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Record ri-167 · last verified .