Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": The Speakeasy Edition

We had a new episode of "Bar Rescue" this past Sunday. It was nice to see the show again after last week's check up episode. I prefer my "Bar Rescue" episodes to be new and not "clip shows", if you will.

This time around, Taffer and crew went to a bar called The Speakeasy in New Orleans. This was one of the most middle of the plate episodes that I have ever seen. It had everything you could ever want from an episode of "Bar Rescue". When we first meet the owners of The Speakeasy, it was your typical story. The bar was owned by a husband and wife, and they will making lots and lots of money. They had a nice spot in a town that is known for their alcohol and night life. They were making so much money in fact, the husband and wife decided that they wanted to have kids, so they sold their shares to the other owner and moved on from the bar business to start a family. They had 2 kids, each had solid office jobs, but they missed the bar life. They both liked to drink and party. The wife loved to dance, or as they kept saying in the episode, "twerk", side note, "twerking" is not a popular thing anymore, stop with the "twerking" stuff, it is played out. The husband loved drinking beer and taking shots. They each said that the corporate world was not for them, so they went back to the bar and bought back their shares.

When the couple returned to The Speakeasy, they noticed that the bar wasn't really doing as well, and it was not being properly taken care of. Did they do anything to fix this you ask? Well, if they did, it would not have been on "Bar Rescue". They, of course, neglected to fix the bar up and just let it get worse and worse. The owners cared more about dancing and drinking than they did about training their staff and keeping their bar clean and efficient. They started to lose tons of money, so much so, they were in debt 250,000 dollars. They were in danger of losing their house and their bar. The wife's mom was the other owner, but she did not need to be running a bar. This husband and wife should have been doing everything, but they had other stuff in mind.

Taffer brought a new mixology expert, she was involved in a previous rescue, and my favorite food expert, Aaron McCargo with him. When they got to the bar, all three of them watched from the van outside on the monitor. They saw what we all saw. The husband was drinking shot after shot and beer after beer and the wife was "twerking" and showing off her dance moves in between throwing darts. The staff was getting wasted with the owners and everyone was fighting with everyone. Taffer sent in his spies, one of which was McCargo, and when they got inside, it was much worse than expected. The bartenders could not make the simplest of drinks. The kitchen staff was non existent for about 20 minutes, and when the cook did show up, he did some disgusting things with old and unmarked food. He touched raw chicken with no gloves, and then proceeded to touch everything else around him.

When the food was coming out, it was at that point that Taffer came in and told his spies to not touch the food. He did his usual yelling. He told the staff and owners, after he got them all to stop yelling at each other and acting a fool, that they were in danger of getting many, many people sick. It was your run of the mill kitchen stuff, and it was a sigh of relief. Nothing like something very common to give me a sense of relief. Taffer and McCargo went to the kitchen, and what they saw was absolutely disgusting. This kitchen had clearly never been cleaned and the food was old, and most likely, rancid. Taffer dumped all the food on the prep table, all the while berating the whole staff. Taffer was yelling so much, the wife owner started to have a legit panic attack. It was bizarre.

Taffer ranted and raved, all of which was 100 percent correct and needed, and told the staff to clean the kitchen. They started, but they were all so drunk, they blew it off. This did not make Taffer and McCargo happy. They were pissed, as they should have been. Taffer had his crew clean the kitchen, but the next day, he laid into the owners and the staff. He really let them have it. It was more so a "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed", but coming from Taffer, it sounded brutal. He told the husband and wife that they were failing their kids and the wife's mom. The wife started to cry and Taffer called bull shit on the crying. I loved it. He told her it was a crutch and that when she cries, people lay off her. She told him that was true. He got to the root of her main problem. The husband was simply a drunk that needed to be relegated to the kitchen because that it was he knew. That's not a bad thing either. I know I was put on this planet to do grunt work and I'm fine with that. Each person has their thing, and this guy needed to be in the kitchen. And you know what, he was very good, when sober, cooking food.

Stress test went as expected. Their POS systems were garbage. The staff could not keep up with the orders. The kitchen was not getting their tickets because of the crappy POS systems. And one of the staff, Cassie was her name, was just terrible. She was put on as a waitress for the night, and she was rude and mean and never smiled. She was a nightmare, and she got rightfully fired after stress test.

After the terrible stress test, Taffer and crew got to fixing up the bar and training the staff. They changed the drink menu to make things simpler and they made the food much more Creole/Cajun style, perfect for the area. During relaunch, in which Taffer changed the name to Second Line, I did not care for the name change, I actually liked the name The Speakeasy, the bar was done up like most bars on this show. New tables, chairs, bar stools, big screen TV's, all the usual things we expect.

When they re opened the bar with the new name, things ran very smoothly, of course. During the 6 week checkup, the husband and wife were doing their respective jobs well and not fighting, the staff was doing better, and the bar was starting to make a bit of money here and there. And just to hammer it home, they said that the wife is no longer "twerking". They always do this now. They always have to add something on at the end that makes me say, "stop it with that nonsense".

As I have stated, this was your very run of the mill "Bar Rescue", and I loved it. I liked that he brought a new mixology expert that was part of a previous rescue. I'm always happy when McCargo is his food expert. And when Taffer not only has a bar, but also a relationship to fix, "Bar Rescue" is at its best. Keep up the good work, and I will be back next week to review the next episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sensative about twerking ever since he lost a twerking competition to the head editor back in 2012. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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