Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Celebrities Edition
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This past Sunday, after a 2 week break, "Bar Rescue" was back. This episode featured a bar called "Celebrities" that was about 30 miles outside of Palm Springs, Florida. The bar was being run by 2 brothers that were former Army men. They were deployed in Afghanistan, which is where they were from, but they were raised in America, and when they got home, they wanted to run a bar. The main reason they were sent home, one of the brothers had a bomb go off very close to his face. He has a lot of PTSD from this incident, and he has many, many problems with his eyes, as one would expect. The other brother never really got over what he saw, and asked to leave the Army, which they obliged, so he could go home with his brother. I felt bad for these guys off the bat.
We come to find out that when they first opened "Celebrities", they were raking in the dough. They were making 6 figures every month, breaking even after only 2 months in the business. After making a good amount of money for almost a year, the brothers decided that they were going to give back to the community, and mainly, the veterans. They gave a good amount of money to charity. In fact, one of the brothers filmed himself picking up what seemed to be a homeless veteran, and giving him a good amount of money. After he filmed all this, he put it on social media.
Well, some people did some deep internet diving, and they found out that the homeless man was actually a scam artist. After people realized this, you'd think the brother that gave the money to this guy would apologize, but he did the exact opposite. He attacked people that attacked him on social media. When people came to the bar to confront him, he would yell and scream at these people and eventually would kick them out of the bar. He had become very angry at his mistake, but instead of owning up to it and swallowing his pride, he decided to take the offensive. Seeing his outbursts in person, and on social media, this made people stop coming to the bar. They didn't want to deal with a confrontational owner and a guy that wouldn't take heed of his own mistakes. They immediately started to lose lots and lots of money. They even tried to sell the space because they could not make ends meet.
By the time Taffer and crew showed up, they were 750,000 dollars in debt. When Taffer and crew got there, they had it set up so people that have confronted the main owner on social media would be the patrons of the bar that night. This escalated very quickly. Many complaints started right away. People were waiting 30 or 40 minutes for drinks. A lot of people would leave after 20 minutes of waiting. The food that patrons were ordering would arrive at their table cold and 40 minutes late. Bartenders were even giving away drinks without making people pay. It was a total mess. But, instead of trying to make things right, the owner argued with customers, and kicked the majority of them out. He is a hot head for sure.
Taffer came in and laid into this guy. But, the owner did not take his berating sitting down. He fought back and told Taffer that he did not like being treated like a child. After cooler heads prevailed, Taffer sat down with the staff and they got to the root of the problem. We come to find out that the bartenders have no real training. The kitchen staff is good, but they get no help from the owner on anything, in fact, he spends most of his time yelling at them. We finally realize that the brother who is the main owner has taken a lot of money from his brother to keep the bar running, and he feels that he has failed him. The owner is also very skeptical about giving more money to the community because he thinks that people will come at him even harder on social media, and he doesn't want to take it anymore. For the most part, this was a pretty laid back episode. There was the yelling and screaming, but everyone involved knew they needed to change if they wanted to become successful again.
After the whole heart to heart with the staff and owners, Taffer and crew got to work. They painted the whole bar with brighter and nicer colors. The staff got proper training from a renowned mixologist, a word I loathe. The kitchen staff got a new menu, which they knocked out of the park. And the owner, he started to act like a real person, instead of an asshole. He knew he needed to change his attitude, so he could help pay his brother back, and get back in good terms with the community and the social media people.
Once Taffer and crew did their thing, they revealed the new bar. They changed the name from "Celebrities" to "The Victory". I think that is a dumb name, but what do I know. The inside looked much more inviting, and everyone loved what they were seeing. He set them up with new POS systems, flat screen TV's, better liquor, all your basic "Bar Rescue" stuff. During the re opening, the bar seemed to be doing much better, and the owner seemed very grateful to Taffer.
This was your classic, right down the middle episode of "Bar Rescue". It is nice to have it back on air, that 2 week break seemed much longer, and I'll be here to review every episode until this season ends. Come back next week for more.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is not one to lash out on social media at anyone. Want proof? Go follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.