Tomorrow night on the Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible reality show, Nora’s very own Snooty Fox (1435 E. 86th St., 317-257-6033) gets its 15 minutes of fame as the subject of host Robert Irvine’s revision. Restaurant owner Tim Queisser applied for the spot, having kept a worried eye on the restaurant’s bottom line for the last couple of years—though a family-run restaurant that has survived 30 years could probably teach its own seminar on how to run a business.
When we visited in June, the Fox was still getting used to so many changes at once—cooks and servers trying to learn a whole new menu and everyone navigating the physical changes to the space, which has given up its plaid Hunt Club look for a chalkboard-menu-centric pub theme. “We are still working on what they suggested,” Queisser admitted at the time, though he promised that all of Irvine’s additions would be on the menu as soon as the kitchen perfected them.
Whether all this will build a younger crowd of regulars—which is the Snooty Fox’s long-term challenge—remains to be seen. We will stay tuned.