TV show helps Uncle Andy's with $10,000 renovation

Hot coffee and a warm greeting always meet customers walking into Uncle Andy's Diner in South Portland, and new fame and national exposure won't change that.
The 60-year-old restaurant is getting a facelift, thanks to a $10,000 renovation courtesy of the TV show, Restaurant: Impossible. The owners say the look will be different after the film and renovating crews descend there from June 9-11, but the homey, local feel will remain the same.
Dennis and Tina Fogg have owned and operated Uncle Andy's for the past 10 years, with a lot of help from their four children. Amanda, 30, is the assistant manager.
"I started the restaurant with her," Dennis said. "She helps run the day-in, day-out stuff." Jason, 26, cooks there on the weekends. Andrea, 22, is going to school and waitresses, and Kayla, 21, is the restaurant's media person. Even Amanda's daughter, five-year-old Brooklyn, gets in the mix. She waitresses and works the cash register.
"Her mom filled out a release form because they want her on the show, too," Dennis said.
The creators of Restaurant: Impossible were impressed by the Fogg daughters' emails to the show. They detailed how the owners of the popular local food spot operate the business while juggling other careers at night. Tina works at Sedgewood Commons, a specialized Alzheimer's homestead community in Falmouth; Dennis is a stand-up comic.
"I have a lot of shows at the Gold Room in Portland," he said. "I was in Boston this weekend at Faneuil Hall. I go anywhere they send me."
He certainly was in a laughing mood when he heard the news that the Food Network show wanted to feature them in an upcoming episode. Restaurant: Impossible has brought their film crew to more than 120 different restaurants across the country in its six seasons.
Uncle Andy's Diner is the first restaurant in Maine to be on the show and the first breakfast place.
The show's host, chef Robert Irvine, "assesses all of the restaurant's facets and then overhauls its weakest spots by updating menus, retraining staff and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team, before hitting the streets to tell the community about the improved restaurant," according to the show's website.
"We've been running this diner for a while, and now it's like we're getting a whole new place out of this," Dennis said.
A designer from the show will arrive Friday, May 16, to take measurements of the space,
"but they don't tell you what they plan on doing," Tina said.
On Monday, June 9, the camera crews arrive and take much of the "before" footage.
"On Tuesday (June 10), the chef shows up and show really begins," Dennis said. "He'll go over everything. He tries all the food. He will tweak the menu. When he shows up, all he knows is our name and address."
On Wednesday, June 11, the Foggs get to return to their restaurant and discover what renovations have been made. There will be a grand reopening, with a ribbon cutting with South Portland Mayor Gerard "Jerry" Jalbert. The Foggs are not allowed to talk about what Irvine says during those three days until the show airs, which is usually about a month or two after it's filmed. The new and improved interior should help provide a boost to their diner, as well as other area businesses, the Foggs say.
The restaurant dates back to 1954, when the original "Uncle Andy" bought it but then decided he didn't want to run it, and sold it after a month. John Polanza became the restaurant's first operator.
"Back then, buying a sign was a big deal so he stuck with the name," Dennis said. Polanza owned it until about a decade ago.
"It changed hands a few times in between (Polanza and the Foggs). It was Fiddleheads once for a month or two," Dennis said. "It's a landmark. When I found out it was up for sale, I wanted to have it."
Ten years later, his investment has just been given a big boost from the world of television. The Foggs found out about being on the show two weeks ago.
"When they first contacted us, they told us it would be 12 to 14 months," Dennis said. "But it was only two months. They must be excited to have us on, want us for some reason. It's pretty exciting, actually, we think."
Mainers, South Portland residents, and visitors to Mill Creek Park think so, too.