Status: CLOSED (December 2020)
Starlite Restaurant and Pizza in West Orange, New Jersey was a 59-year institution that couldn’t outrun its debt. Despite Restaurant Impossible’s makeover, owner Patty Spango – who had worked there since age 13 – closed the family restaurant in 2020 after decades of declining profits.
Six Decades on Pleasant Valley Way
Starlite Restaurant and Pizza opened in 1961 as a pizzeria. Over the decades, it evolved into a full restaurant and bar. In its heyday, Starlite was a West Orange institution – the kind of neighborhood place where everyone knew your name.
But heyday gave way to decline. The restaurant hadn’t changed with the times.
The Episode (Season 13, Episode 1)
Air Date: March 9, 2016
Filming: January 2016
Location: 993 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ
Robert Irvine arrived after owner Patty Spango’s son Jim contacted the show. What he found was heartbreaking: Patty had worked in the restaurant since she was 13 years old. She hadn’t made a profit in ten years. She had cashed in her retirement and mortgaged her home to keep the doors open.
Starlite was eating Patty alive.
The Intervention
Restaurant Impossible gave Starlite a complete overhaul – new look, new menu, new systems. The goal was to modernize a restaurant that had been frozen in time while the world moved on around it.
But some holes are too deep to climb out of.
The Long Decline
Reviews after Restaurant Impossible were mixed. Some customers appreciated the changes; others mourned what the restaurant used to be. The tension between nostalgia and necessity is a constant challenge for legacy restaurants.
Starlite held on for nearly five more years before finally closing in December 2020.
A Lifetime of Service
Patty Spango gave Starlite most of her life – from age 13 to closure. Restaurant Impossible couldn’t save the business, but it gave her a few more years. Sometimes that’s all any intervention can do.
Former Location
Address: 993 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ
Established: 1961
Closed: December 2020 (after 59 years)
Cuisine: Pizza, Italian-American
Starlite Restaurant and Pizza is a reminder that some restaurants carry burdens too heavy for any makeover to lift. Fifty-nine years is a legacy. Closing isn’t always failure – sometimes it’s finally putting down a weight that should have been released long ago.
Last verified: January 2026
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