The most recent episode of "Bar Rescue" got back to its greatness this particular season. There was no stupid puns or stories of war, it was a trashy, ridiculous episode, which is what I adore about this show.
The bar they went to "rescue" was called "Fort One" in San Francisco. This bar had a lot of problems, mainly their spoiled brat of an owner. This guy was something else. He was a rich kid whose dad bought him a bar as a "gift". Also, this bar never really was on fire at first like a lot of bars on the show. They did okay at first, turning a small profit, but nothing like the other places that always claim to be "raking it in". After their okay start, the owner started to get heavily involved in drinking and buying things for patrons he deemed attractive. He was giving away free alcohol to try and get phone numbers basically. He brought on a friend that gave him a sizable loan to have a stake in the bar. After getting this money, the owner did not change, and in fact, he demeaned the friend and treated him as one of his employees, instead of a part owner himself.
On the night that Taffer and his "expert" went to do recon, what they saw, they did not like. For starters, when they are watching from their car, they despised the outside of the bar. They do not like the sign, and they claim that it is uninviting. They can't park on the street where the bar is located, so they park in a lot and go to another bar where they can watch from their monitors. One of the first things they notice is how empty this bar is. This is a huge space, I think they said 6,000 plus square feet, with a downstairs nightclub, but this place was dead. They also notice how terrible the décor and the furniture in the bar and nightclub have become. The chairs are old and creaky, the VIP room couches have ripped apart upholstery and the bar is incredibly dirty.
Taffer and the expert also see that the majority of the bartenders, and the primary owner, are hammered. They are taking shots with the paltry amount of patrons and they keep going and going. Taffer sends in 2 more recon spies, 2 attractive, young ladies, to see if the owner lives up to his reputation. As soon as the women enter, the owner makes a beeline for them, sends them to bottle service and sits with them. He orders a bottle immediately for the table. We come to find out that it is an 80 dollar bottle, but the bar sells it for 400 bucks. This is a very common practice in bars we, the viewers, are told. So, he right off the bat gives away a free 400 dollar bottle of liquor. But, he doesn't stop there. He gives them not just 1, but 4 free bottles. That is 1,600 dollars he flat out gave away. That is terrible. When his employee in charge of bottle service and his partial owner ask him to maybe charge the ladies for the bottles, he cusses them out and tells them to leave him alone.
Now Taffer makes his entrance. He doesn't go straight to the owner first, but picks the one bartender that he has seen take the most shots that evening. He goes up to the bar, the bartender has her back turned, and there is about 20 seconds of awkward silence before the bartender finally turns around and drunkenly tells Taffer that she is closed. Taffer then talks to her about how much she drank, asks if she made any money that night, asked about her family and then proceeded to tell her to go home to sober up. After this interaction, he goes to the partial owner and bottle service worker, they tell him how terrible things are, and Taffer finally asks to speak to the main owner. He saunters over drunk as a skunk. Taffer immediately begins to lay into him. He is calling him everything, and then some, and the drunk owner keeps saying things like, "you're stressing me out", or, "could you stop cursing at me like this". It was hilarious, and we all need a laugh right now.
After Taffer closes the bar for the night, he makes everyone go home to sober up and come back in the morning. The next day, they get to business. Taffer asks all the employees about what they think is wrong, and they all say it is the owners fault. The claim he doesn't care, they don't get paid and he is a blowhard. Then, Taffer and the expert do their cleanliness check, and it is a total nightmare. They find mold all over the ice machine. There is mold on the pipes. The owner doesn't know the smallest things about cleaning the stuff that makes the ice. The bottles, and the bar itself, has fruit flies flying everywhere. It is a mess. They find 2 dead mice behind the ice machine, and that is the topping on the crap cake that is this bar. Taffer excuses every employee, rubs some mold on the owners shirt and tells him to clean the place by himself.
Much to my surprise, he does everything that Taffer says with no complaints. Once the bar is finally up to standards, they get to training. Now, I do want to say, the staff at this place was great, when sober. They made quality drinks, and they made them fast. One of the bartenders in fact, was awesome. She was cranking out drinks, making them properly and did it all with a smile. So, training was not as important as getting this owner to get his head out of the gutter. They all get ready for the stress test, and I have got to say, this was the best stress test I have ever seen on "Bar Rescue". They left the rock star bartender at the main bar area, by herself, to see if she could handle it. She did incredible. She was making 5 and 6 drinks at a time, making them right and smiling all along. She was incredible. They put the 2 other bartenders downstairs at the nightclub bar, and even though they started shaky, they came through in the end. They picked up the pace and started making drink after drink the more comfortable they got. The partial owner was running everything great. He had his eye on the prize, and he kept everything running smoothly. The bottle service employee was doing a great job, and making more money than she ever had at "Fort One". Even the owner, who they made be a bar back, showed promise. He worked hard all night, he helped wherever help was needed and did not have one single drink all night. This was the best stress test ever.
When they get to re launch, Taffer tells the whole crew how proud he is, and the rock star bartender I keep mentioning, Taffer tells her that he is going to bring her on some later episodes to be one of his "experts", and she is thrilled. They turn to see the new bar, and Taffer has changed the name to "The Roc". This is actually a good name. It makes sense because of the location near Alcatraz. The inside of the bar is a hell of a lot nicer, with new furniture and a new style. It is so much better looking than when they first arrived. When they re open with the new name and new stuff, they do even better than stress test. They crush it. This "rescue" was so much more about giving this spoiled rich kid a kick in the ass than anything else, and it seemed to work.
After Taffer leaves, they do the 6 week update and sales are up, and things seem to be doing well. This was a refreshing return after the terrible episode last week. There is only one episode left this season and I will be here next week to review it for you.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks we need hope in our world, and Bar Rescue is the epitome of hope. Thank you Jon Taffer. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.
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