Restaurant: Impossible · S3 E9
Pappas Restaurant
Benicia, California
It has since closed in 2013.
The short answer
closed Sunday March 24 2013 after 23 years in business; covered by Times-Herald (Vallejo/Benicia local paper) and Patch
What happened on the show
During the third season Robert Irvine reached Pappas Restaurant in Benicia. Lasting sources keep little of the Pappas Restaurant taping in Benicia, and the Wikipedia list carries no summary text. So we outline the Pappas Restaurant format: Irvine tried the food, combed the Benicia kitchen, had it out with the owners, and let his carpenters remake the Benicia room across two days. Instead of dressing up the Pappas Restaurant story that Benicia never documented, we hold to what the record supports. What survives as fact for Pappas Restaurant is the format and the Benicia setting, with nothing invented added. Twenty-three years of Benicia history could not be turned into a lasting rescue, and the well-documented closing carries the rest of the account.
After the cameras left
Pappas closed on Sunday, March 24, 2013, after twenty-three years in business. The shutdown was covered by the Times-Herald, the Vallejo and Benicia local paper, and by Patch, giving it two local-news sources and a high-confidence rating. A restaurant that had served Benicia for more than two decades could not convert its television rescue into a lasting turnaround, and closed within about a year of the visit. The precise date and the tenure both come straight from the local coverage.
Location
Benicia, California
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Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.