Salt Works II

What happened after

posted farewell message: "today was our last day to be open for business"; closed after 6 years, loss of key employees mid-day; blog noted it was "the last remaining restaurant from season 1 ... still open with the same owners"

Closure date on record: 2015-11-06

What happened on the show

Salt Works II advertised good home cooking, yet nearly everything on the plate had started life in a can, a gap between promise and reality that Irvine zeroed in on first. He reworked the interior of the North Carolina restaurant, tightened the menu around dishes actually made from scratch, and spent much of his two days pushing a scattered staff to function as one crew. Reading the location, he argued the owners were missing a younger crowd entirely and had them court nearby college students to come taste the new food. The redesign and retraining fit the compressed schedule and modest budget the program is built around. Irvine left believing the room could hold its own, and among the season one restaurants Salt Works II would hang on longer than most of its castmates.

After the cameras left

Salt Works II outlasted every one of its season-one castmates. The Wilmington, North Carolina restaurant kept going under the same owners until November 6, 2015, when it posted a farewell noting that day was its last open for business; the closing followed six years of operation and the loss of key employees. A blog had earlier flagged it as the final season-one restaurant still running under its original owners, which makes its 2015 exit the true end of that first class. We rate the closing high confidence on the strength of the owners' own farewell message.