Employees and regular customers of Stella's Restaurant in New Kensington were ecstatic Thursday with the makeover the eatery got from the Food Network television show “Restaurant: Impossible.”

Even though they weren't sure the restaurant needed to be “saved.”

“There were benches inside the front door where people sat and waited on Friday and Saturday nights when it was packed,” said Regina Namey of New Ken-sington, a regular customer who got an invite to the grand re-opening Thursday.

Those benches are gone now, replaced by a more open atmosphere with the removal of a wall, and installation of vertical beams with rivets, mimicking girders, making it feel like you're walking under a bridge. As an ode to the area's rivers and industrial heritage, shades of steel blue and gray erased the country décor, a huge map of Pittsburgh replaced wooden shelving on the bar back, and thick sky blue pipes now jut from the walls.

Celebrity chef Robert Irvine and his crew showed up at Stella's on Wednesday in a surprise for owner Stacey Mazzotta. Renovations began at noon and were complete by the restaurant's reopening at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Mazzotta said Irvine shocked her by showing up at her door Wednesday morning. Her daughter, Jamie Lynn, who works at Stella's along with other family members, was “in on it,” Mazzotta said.

Despite changes to the restaurant she's owned more than a decade, she had nothing but good things to say.

“It's really cool,” Mazzotta said. “It's fabulous, breathtaking, unbelievable. It's so open. The floor is just fabulous. It's durable and beautiful.”

Although she gushed openly to friends outside the restaurant after the first wave of guests was seated for the re-opening, she declined to discuss how the revamp came about.

“I'm not supposed to talk to you,” Mazzotta told a reporter.

“Restaurant: Impossible” co-producer Jason Elmore said they are working under a nondisclosure agreement, and he wouldn't discuss the Stella's episode because the show doesn't want to give away information before it airs, which is set for Dec. 3.

Since the show started in 2011, Irvine and his team of designers and contractors have taken on restaurants with problems. They clean the place, revamp the menu and redecorate.

But fans who watch regularly believe there may be an overhaul of the show itself since Stella's, in New Kensington's Parnassus neighborhood, has always seemed to do well.

Still, the guests who flowed in and out of the newly refurbished atmosphere were enthusiastic about the overhaul.

“I thought it was great,” Namey said. “There was nothing here that was bad before, but the food and the menu has changed. It's lighter, more creative fare.”

Likewise, Kim Baker of Allegheny Township had no complaints before the TV show's arrival.

“The food had been more bar-style, more traditional, like what I grew up with,” Baker said. “It's a different style now. The gnocchi was light and different.”

Kellee Naviglia of Lower Burrell, a family friend of the owner, was slightly less impressed: “It's not my Aunt Stacey's food.”

Kathy Cheatham of New Kensington, a fan of both the show and Stella's, said she pushed her way into the restaurant while it was still under renovation and scored an invitation to the re-opening.

“I never thought the food was bad,” Cheatham said. “But, now, I think this publicity will help bring more business to New Kensington.”

Abby Yurga, 15, of New Kensington said she and her family regularly visits Stella's for special occasions including a time when she worked as a waitress to raise money for autism research. She brought along the Stella's shirt she wore for her shift and Irvine signed it for her, including a heart, too.

“She's over the moon,” said her mother, Sarah Yurga.

This is the show's second foray into Southwestern Pennsylvania. Impossible did a makeover at the legendary Del's Bar & Ristorante DelPizzo in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood in 2012. Del's closed for good in May of this year.

Maria Guzzo is a freelance writer for Trib Total Media.

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