Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Big Mike's Sports Bar and Grill

This week's episode of "Bar Rescue" was so much different from anything I have ever seen on the show before. They have done rescues of bars that have been damaged before, they did one in the Northeast after they had their big storm, but this one was just different. This was the first ever episode I have seen where I was legitimately moved by what happened over the course of 44 minutes. I literally thought I was going to shed a tear or two, and I do not cry at anything, except Pixar movies.

For this rescue, Taffer and crew go to a bar in a small town in Louisiana called Big Mike's Sports Bar and Grill. This town just three months ago was absolutely destroyed by a horrific storm. During the cold open they were flashing stats of the storm, and some of the things I remember where, there was 2.3 billion dollars worth of damage, they said there was more rain and flooding than Hurricane Katrina and that 90 percent of the businesses in the town had still not re opened and may never open again. Right off the bat the music was sad and the announcer's voice reflected that sadness.

When we finally get to meet Big Mike, who seems to be one hell of a nice guy, he tells of the terrifying tale of what has happened to him and his family since the storm. Big Mike, and his wife Jocelyn, are being interviewed and they show pictures of the damage to their house first. It is absolutely wrecked. They needed to have, pretty much, their entire home fixed due to flood damage. They show pictures of their children sitting on cars that are in 4 feet of flood water. It was so goddamn sad. Big Mike has a water damage stain on one of his walls and shows the viewing audience that the water got as high as 64 inches in their home. That is almost 5 and a half feet. That is so scary.

Taffer comes by himself to talk to Mike and Jocelyn about the bar and their home and their lives afterward. When he shows up they tell him that before the storm, Big Mike's was the place to be in this town. During LSU games on Saturday and Saints games on Sunday the bar was packed to the rafters. People would come in after sporting events, have kids parties there, basically anything that a restaurant and bar could handle, Big Mike's handled and then some. They were making almost 2 million dollars a year, and they deserved every cent of that. Jocelyn and Mike where hard working, nice people that their employees and their neighbors and the town loved. Hearing all this almost brought Taffer to tears. That was crazy. When they showed him where they were living while their home and bar was under construction, I got even sadder. They were living in a mobile home and their daughters were living in a different mobile home. They were separated because they did not have the space to live together. The kids were older, teenagers I believe, but still, that would be very hard. I cannot imagine not living with my kids.

At this point I found out that Jon Taffer is a dad. I never knew that. He told them that he has a 28 year old daughter. I was floored. But he sympathized with them not being with their kids. This was the point where Taffer promised them that he would fix up the bar in a week, they were told it would take up to 6 months to get the bar up and running.

Taffer brought Jocelyn and Mike out of the bar after he had them show him around and at this point we see the entire town there ready to help anyway they can. Again, I almost shed a tear. There was so much crying I could not help myself. Taffer brings in his best construction crew to get to work, and while they are getting the bar ready, he has 2 experts, one of which was McCargo, get the staff ready at a different bar that was back up and running. This staff had not worked in a bar or restaurant for about 3 months, so they were rusty. But, following the theme of this very off the cuff episode, the experts and Taffer never demeaned the staff, instead they encouraged them the entire time. Sure, he told them they needed to speed up and shake off the rust, but he never called one person a failure or told them that they were letting their loved ones down. The training was all very civil and respectful. McCargo helped out the kitchen staff with a big smile. The mixology expert was always complimentary, even in his criticism. It was a very nice change of pace.

There was one point during the training and construction where it looked like Taffer's construction crew may not get all the work done. This was a 10,000 square foot bar and restaurant. This place was big and needed a ton of work.

At another point, Deuce McCallister, formerly of the New Orleans Saints, showed up to lend his support and help any way he could. This whole town was coming together to get this well known and loved establishment back up and running.

After working throughout the day and night the construction crew got the job done. I would usually have a snarky comment about this, but this was such a touching episode, I'm not going to say anything mean. When the staff and Jocelyn and Mike see what the bar looks like, they cannot stop crying tears upon tears of joy. The place looked spectacular. This was the best rescue they have ever done in my opinion.

They kept the name too, thank goodness. While looking around at everything, the television crew kept showing old pictures with all the flood damage next to the new look of the bar. It was amazing. When Taffer sat the staff down, he showed them a video of the bar owners that he helped get back on their feet in the Northeast, and they donated 10,000 dollars to Jocelyn and Mike to get another trailer for their daughters to live in while they house got fixed up. Again, I was just about to cry until I realized that I was watching "Bar Rescue".

During the re-opening, everything, thankfully, went so smooth and the staff crushed it. I was so, so happy that these people were getting back on their feet. Taffer left the enormous bar to a great ovation. It was well deserved.

When they did the 6 week checkup, Big Mike's was doing great. They were recording record sales and their house was nearing completion for the family to move back in. This was, I kid you not, the best episode I have ever seen of "Bar Rescue". It was so different from the norm, but it was incredibly touching and moving and I was taken aback at how sweet these people on the show can be. I loved this episode so much. I actually wish more were like this, but "Bar Rescue" has made its dime on trashy people. But, this was such a great change of pace and I applaud them for doing something like this.

An episode like this of "Bar Rescue" makes me like this show so much more than I thought ever possible. Thank you for this "Bar Rescue" and Spike TV. You guys did a tremendous job on this episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If Taffer and the crew ever make us shed a tear for a run down super trashy strip club, they deserve a goddamn Nobel Prize. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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