Pollard’s Bar-B-Que, which was featured on Restaurant: Impossible, is still open in 2023 and it seems like the business is thriving.
Pollard’s Bar-B-Que is only one of the many restaurants featured over the course of Restaurant: Impossible’s 22 seasons.
However, it seems like its owners, Tarrance and Torria Pollard, managed to take all of Irvine’s valuable advice on board, as the restaurant is still operational more than a decade later.
About the “Pollard’s Bar-B-Que” episode from Restaurant: Impossible
Restaurant: Impossible was on the air for over 20 seasons before its cancellation was announced in 2023.
During those 22 seasons, the chef and restaurateur, Robert Irvine, visited struggling restaurants ranging from small cafes to decades-old family-run businesses in the hopes that his expert advice would help to take these businesses to the next level.
This includes Pollard’s Bar-B-Que, a family-owned and run Southern-style barbecue joint, located in Memphis, Tennessee, which Irvine visited back in the twelfth episode of the third season of the show.
An update on Pollard’s Bar-B-Que from Restaurant: Impossible
By the time that Irvine visited Pollard’s Bar-B-Que in 2012, the restaurant was not even a year old yet.
However, making the transition from the Pollard’s mobile catering business (which was first established in 1995), and the carry-out catering business which followed in 1996, to a large-scale dine-in restaurant had proven much more difficult than Tarrance and Torria Pollard had ever anticipated.
During the episode, Irvine and his team immediately got to work, not only transforming the outdated look and ineffective layout of the restaurant, but also finding a way to get through to Tarrance, who was initially unwilling to change many of the things on the Pollard’s Bar-B-Que menu.
Although this proved to be quite a difficult task, Irvine did finally manage to convince Tarrance that change was a good thing. In the end, the episode concluded with an incredibly successful re-launch.
It has now been over a decade since Irvine and the rest of the Restaurant: Impossible team travelled to Memphis to try and save Pollard’s Bar-B-Que, and many fans have wondered whether this barbeque joint made it past its first birthday, after all.
There is no guarantee that the restaurants that appear on Restaurant: Impossible will be able to survive in this unforgiving industry, even with Irvine’s expert inputs and upgrades.
But Pollard’s Bar-B-Que has actually gone on to become one of the show’s greatest success stories, and it is still fully operational to this day.
What happened after the “Pollard’s Bar-B-Que” episode from Restaurant: Impossible?
At the end of the “Pollard’s Bar-B-Que” episode, it really seemed like Tarrance and Torria Pollard had been newly-invigorated by Irvine’s décor and menu updates, and that they were finally ready to run their business as a fully-operational dine-in establishment.
When Irvine later revisited the restaurant just a few months after the successful re-launch, the Pollards confirmed that their sales had increased by an impressive 20 percent since Irvine left.
They also said that their new social-media marketing strategies had proved to be an invaluable tool in bringing in even more new customers.
Pollard’s Bar-B-Que is still very active on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where the restaurant has amassed a following which totals in the thousands.
It seems like business at Pollard’s Bar-B-Que is booming
The Irvine intervention seems to have worked its magic, as Pollard’s Bar-B-Que is now a thriving business which has expanded and grown significantly over the years.
Pollard’s Bar-B-Que has now expanded the business to include an online ordering option on top of the catering and dine-in options which were offered before. Moreover, the restaurant is still currently hiring new staff via its website.
What do the Pollard’s Bar-B-Que reviews have to say?
Restaurants that appear on reality television shows like Restaurant: Impossible (and even restaurants which are tied to famous football players like Tony Pollard of the Dallas Cowboys) do not always live up to the expectations of the diners who visit these spots in real life.
Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case with Pollard’s Bar-B-Que at all. Pollard’s Bar-B-Que currently has an incredibly high rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, from over 100 reviews on Yelp.
One reviewer from February 2023 even stated that Pollard’s Bar-B-Que had “Some of the best ribs and pulled pork I’ve ever had”.
Pollard’s Bar-B-Que has many positive reviews on Trip Advisor, earning a score of 4.5 out of 5 from 37 reviews.
Pollard’s is also a favorite among local football fans (for obvious reasons) and reviewers like William Thomas from BBQ Revolution have voted the restaurant among the 20 Best BBQ places in Memphis for 2023.
