TV Restaurants

What Happened to Rising Sun Bistro? (Kalispell, MT)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Rising Sun Bistro has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2025.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
foodnetworkgossip.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: A Yelp listing for Rising Sun Bistro at 25 2nd Ave W shows a permanently-closed status as of an August 2025 update; the fan blog Food Network Gossip (unverified) reported in March 2014 that the restaurant had closed.

  • Season / episode Season 5, Episode 4
  • Original air date
  • Address 25 2nd Ave W, Kalispell, MT 59901

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited the French-themed Rising Sun Bistro in Kalispell, Montana, for an episode that aired December 19, 2012. A preview in the local Daily Inter Lake newspaper reported that the two-day renovation, led by Robert Irvine and his crew, began in September 2012 and concluded with a grand reopening dinner, ahead of the episode's December broadcast.

Secondhand coverage summarizing the episode's content described a restaurant carrying about $500,000 in debt, an unfocused kitchen operation, and outdated decor, along with visible strain between the business's co-owners on camera (as shown in the episode). As is standard for the series, the team reworked the menu, kitchen workflow, and dining room over roughly 48 hours on a budget of about $10,000.

The bistro did not recover long-term. According to a fan blog covering the show, Food Network Gossip (unverified), the restaurant was eventually listed for sale at $499,000 before its owners chose to close it instead; one of the owners, referred to in that account only as Sally, retired, and the restaurant's chef was reported by the same source to have retired to France as the business wound down. That blog reported in March 2014 that Rising Sun Bistro had closed, roughly fifteen months after the episode aired.

A Yelp listing for the restaurant's 2nd Avenue West address currently shows a permanently-closed status, most recently updated in August 2025, consistent with the business remaining closed. No successor restaurant at the address was identified during this research, and no independently named news outlet was found to corroborate the closure account beyond the maps listing and the fan blog. Kalispell sits in northwest Montana's Flathead Valley, near Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park, a tourism-driven local economy against which the bistro's roughly $500,000 debt load and eventual closure were notable to residents who had watched the business operate for years.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 5, Episode 4
Original air date
Episode title
Rising Sun Bistro
What was featured
menu, kitchen workflow, and dining-room renovation of a debt-laden French bistro
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Rising Sun Bistro

Frequently asked questions

Is Rising Sun Bistro still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Rising Sun Bistro has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2025.

What happened to Rising Sun Bistro after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited the French-themed Rising Sun Bistro in Kalispell, Montana, for an episode that aired December 19, 2012. As of September 2026, Rising Sun Bistro has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2025.

Is Rising Sun Bistro permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Rising Sun Bistro has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 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 Rising Sun Bistro located?

25 2nd Ave W, Kalispell, MT 59901. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Rising Sun Bistro?

Season 5, Episode 4 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired December 19, 2012. The episode is titled “Rising Sun Bistro”.

Did the makeover last at Rising Sun Bistro?

The episode first aired December 19, 2012. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 14 years later —: As of September 2026, Rising Sun Bistro has closed — confirmed via Yelp, August 2025.

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

As is standard for the series, the team reworked the menu, kitchen workflow, and dining room over roughly 48 hours on a budget of about $10,000. 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
25 2nd Ave W, Kalispell, MT 59901
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

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Sources

  • dailyinterlake.com — https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2012/sep/19/restaurant-impossible-at-rising-sun-6/
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/rising-sun-bistro-kalispell
  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2014/03/rising-sun-bistro-from-restaurant.html

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