Donnie “Perky” Perruquet has been treading water when it comes to his restaurant, WhaBah, for a long time.

“The biggest part was financial. I had a lack of interest in the restaurant,” he said. “I felt trapped. It’s like a cancer. It got worse and worse and worse. I got lost.”

Perruquet doesn’t feel lost anymore thanks to a makeover by the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible.” He said Tuesday that host Robert Irvine “had him in a headlock for the past day.”

“This guy is for real,” he said. “I’ve been in here for eight years. He showed me how to get down and get back up.”

Irvine was happy to help.

“He told me what the issues were, and we attacked them piece by piece,” said Irvine, who was seen early Monday morning at a local workout facility.

While the show usually helps improve restaurants in two days with $10,000, it used $20,000 on WhaBah, which at 4,000 square feet in the dining room alone, is four times the space that Irvine normally works in. 

“I have no idea what’s going on in the restaurant,” Perruquet said, while standing outside for a press conference.

— Read more in Wednesday’s Daily News.