Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Casual Tap Edition

Just because it's the Fourth of July, that doesn't mean Ty is taking the day off. Enjoy. 

This past Sunday we got the glorious return of "Bar Rescue". That's right, Jon Taffer and crew are back to save some failing bars. I hadn't realized how much I missed this show until I watched it on my DVR yesterday. I was so happy to see that crazy looking, mean yet helpful old man, Taffer. He is a national treasure. I needed to hear that shrill yell again. I missed it so much.

On the season premiere or mid season premiere, or whatever this show and Spike TV decide it is, Taffer and one of his drink experts visited a bar that shut down 3 months ago in Chicago. The bar was, and still is, called Casual Tap. The guy who owned the bar doubled as a firefighter, so it was hard for him to be at both jobs. His firefighting job, as it should be, was priority number one. His wife also has a disease called Huntington's Disease, which is kind of like Alzheimer's. So, his bar was pretty much number 3 on his important things list.

The bar started off strong, as most do, so the owner decided to step away and let his employees run the place. This is always a disaster. Everything went down hill. The people didn't know what to do, or they just didn't care. When the owner realized that he was nearly 700,000 dollars in debt, he decided to close the place down for awhile. He didn't give up, promising to reopen the bar soon, but he was close to letting it go. In fact, when Taffer shows up, he has to meet him at the firehouse. As I said, the bar was shut down. The owner told Taffer about the employees, the firefighter job and his wife. Just then, this became not only a bar rescue, but a family rescue too.

This is Taffer's personal wheelhouse. So, instead of a stress test, Taffer decided to see the crew in action in a very small sample. He had the owner reopen the bar and invited some guests. The bartenders, minus one guy, were not that terrible, they were just out of practice. The guy though, Louie, struggled mightily. This was bad news for the owner because he wanted Louie to be the new manager. Taffer warned against this, and even told the owner to let the newer bartender, Zee, be the manager. Taffer even went so far as to have the 2 take a mangers test that he set up, and Zee crushed it, where Louie, he crapped the bed. They had some intense training after this, and the owner still hadn't decided who was going to be the manager.

Taffer and his crew did their magic and gussied up the bar. They kept a lot, including the name, the bar was a mainstay, but they gave them some POS systems and other, newer things. They also tidied up the floor and walls too. At the reveal, everyone loved the place. They like that it looked the same, only a bit newer. They loved the new menu, and in classic Taffer fashion, he named a drink after the fireman and decided that some of the proceeds would go to Huntington Disease research. He also cut a check himself. Taffer may come off as an asshole, and then he does stuff like this. The owner was moved to tears, as was his daughter.

After they all gathered their emotions, they got ready for the reopen. During this though, Louie cut his hand getting garnish ready. He cut it so deep that he couldn't work. It looked dire for Casual Tap, but the rest of the crew stepped up, and Louie was not really needed. They had a great reopen.

During the end credits it said that the bar was taking a hiatus before reopening later in 2017. They didn't specify, but I hope the owner's wife and daughter are okay. I want this bar to succeed. The people deserve it.

I'm very happy that "Bar Rescue" is back. I missed it so, but now it's going to be here for the next couple months or so. They are taking one week off, but they'll get back on July 16th, and I'll be here to review it. Welcome back BR, you were missed, and I'm so pleased that you are back in my life.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wants to one day open a bar called "Need Rescuing". Maybe the name will be enough for Ty to meet his idol Jon Taffer.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": The Dug Out Edition

This past Sunday was one of the most excellently trashy episodes of "Bar Rescue" that I have seen. Now, it's not on the level of gross that "The Landing Strip" episode achieved. But, this was trashy for other reasons.

First though, let me explain the nuts and bolts as I like to do. The bar that Taffer and crew came to rescue was in the heart of downtown Chicago. The bar was called "The Dug Out", and it was located literally right next to Wrigley Field. During baseball season, "The Dug Out" would make a ton of money from people coming and going to the game. It was during the off season when the bar would hemorrhage money. Well, that and the owner was a complete mess. This guy was so much worse than any owner I have seen, "Landing Strip" and "Piratz Tavern" included. This guy was completely clueless and did not seem to care about anything at all, except getting wasted. To the staff's credit, they tried very hard. They did the best they could, but they were never trained properly and the owner did not seem to care to train them. It was his way or the highway.

During baseball's off season, and during the regular season for that matter, the owner did not make the staff clean the bar. This was where I felt the staff could have done a bit more. This bar was disgusting. But, to the staff's credit, whenever I had a manager or owner that I worked for that showed no signs of caring, I took that as, I should not care as well. He didn't seem to mind that the bar was a disgusting mess, so why would the staff clean? They were still getting paid either way. And when I say this bar, and the kitchen too, were disgusting, I mean they were absolutely barf worthy in the filth that had piled up. I have never seen so many fruit flies in my life. The staff was swatting away flies left and right, the flies were on the walls, cups and trays, they were everywhere. The stools and tables in the bar were old and broken down. Cushions were coming undone and the tables just looked worn down. I also saw caterpillars, ants and some cockroaches crawling around in the front of the bar.

The kitchen was just as bad, if not worse. Nothing looked to have been cleaned one single time. The owner doubled as the chef, and when Taffer and crew watched from the van, what they saw, and what I saw, made me sick to my stomach. The owner did not wear gloves and cross contaminated everything. He also refused to clean anything, as I have already stated. Condiment bottles had so much build up he didn't even use the cap anymore because he could not close them. There was mold, grim and possible grease fire traps from all the loose grease everywhere. Taffer had his spies order food, but when he saw what was going on, he rushed into the bar to tell them not to eat anything. Taffer then told the kitchen expert to throw all the food out and close down the kitchen. He also told the bar expert to close down the front as well.

When they came back the next day, the kitchen expert had asked what happened to all the food he threw away, he did not see it in the trash, and the owner stated that he took it home to freeze. HE DIDN'T WANT RANCID FOOD TO GO TO WASTE! THIS IS VILE! The bartenders were sat down to train, and they were clueless. All they had known before was pouring random alcohols into a big fish bowl that was dubbed non ironically, "The Fishbowl". He also had a lemonade pitcher filled with multiple bourbons. He called this "concoction", "The Hot Pussy Shot", and they kept saying it over and over again throughout the whole episode. It was so gross.

Mind you, all this has happened, and I checked the time left in the episode, and we only had abut 25 minutes left. I soon realized that Taffer was probably going to walk out. Back to training for stress test.

During the training, the staff was on board with everything that Taffer and his crew were showing them. The owner though, he couldn't have cared less. He just sat through all this, questioned everything and told anyone involved with Spike TV and Jon Taffer that he wasn't going to do anything they told him to do once he and his crew left. He was a real asshole. The staff desperately wanted all the changes. What has become a recurring theme on the show, the staff needs the job way more than the owners do. They live paycheck to paycheck, so they need the bar to work out, or else they are back on their own looking for a new job. That can be very tough and stressful. So, the fact that this owner was so cavalier in his attitude really made me dislike him. The failures, as Taffer loves to say, were solely on him. If you cannot succeed with a bar that close to Wrigley Field, you should not be in the restaurant or bar industry. This guy had a goldmine and he was letting his childish attitude flush it down the toilet.

They eventually got around to stress test and it was, to no one surprise, a total disaster. The owner screwed everything up. Oh, he also decided to have a few drinks before stress test right in front of Taffer's front of house expert. This owner was a real piece of shit. I cannot stress that enough. During stress test and training he just floated and never paid attention to what needed to be done. When they were finally drowning in a sea of customers not getting food or drink, Taffer shut it down.

The next day Taffer gathered the staff and not the owner and told them that he was going to remodel the bar for them, but he was leaving immediately after that. He was leaving it in the hands of the employees. This was a first for me in watching "Bar Rescue". When he was telling the staff the plan, a few of the employees literally broke down in tears. It was sad. He let the staff see what he had done. He changed the name to "The Press Box". Not great, but not bad. He added some ivy to the outside and totally refurbished and refurnished the inside. It looked like a legit sports bar. It was one of Taffer's better "rescues".

The icing on the cake was just about to happen right near the end of the episode. After the staff saw the new bar, who should show up but the uninvited and incredibly wasted owner. He walked through the crowd and yelled, "JON! MY MAN!". He then went on to berate Taffer and his staff. He was slurring his words and couldn't say a single sentence coherently. It was a total nightmare. His whole staff quit on the spot. He yelled at them as they were walking away, but they did the best possible thing, given the situation. Then, after the staff and Taffer split, the Spike cameras followed this moron inside and chronicled all the nonsense he said when he saw the bar. It was total gibberish, and he even tried to do a line from "A Few Good Men", which came out horribly wrong.

They did do a 6 week checkup and 2 of the 4 employees came back, but the owner had changed everything back to the way he wanted it, even bringing back "The Hot Pussy Shot", which they just had to throw in there one more time. This bar was a total and complete disaster, and when I fully side with Taffer, there is a serious problem with the people involved with this particular bar. This owner was horrendous, and while I wish no ill will towards anyone, I hope he is no longer involved the food and bar industry because he is going to get people seriously sick due to his lack of caring. This owner was an abomination and he deserves to have his bar taken away from him. It's as cut and dry at that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The head editor has been to Wrigley Field a few times, and has been to many bars in the area. There is a good chance that he was victim of "The Hot Pussy Shot". Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches Bar Rescue: Schaffer's Bar Edition

"Bar Rescue" this past weekend had some stuff on it that I had never seen before.

Taffer and crew traveled to "Schaeffer's Bar" in some small town in Washington state. This bar was the talk of the town when it first opened. According to the first owner, they were making upwards of one million dollars a year. He said that he couldn't count his money fast enough. After the third year of making a lot of money, 2 outside buyers came in and bought the bar from the first owner. They paid a hefty sum for it too. For some inexplicable reason, they asked the first owner to stay on as a manager. I've never heard about anything like this ever. I just assumed that when you sell, you leave it to the new owners, but that was not the case. The guy stayed on, but he had clearly mailed in his effort after selling. The bar started to tank with the two new owners too. Neither had any real experience being owners, so they had little to no idea how to run a bar. They also believed that the original owner was sabotaging their bar so he could buy it back at a much lower price.

When Taffer came with the experts, he sent them in the bar and had one of the new owners come and watch from his car. He wanted her to see how poorly the bar was being run. First thing they both saw, the bartenders had to look up how to make drinks. They had no idea how to make the simplest of drinks. Entry level stuff was foreign to them. The next thing they saw was the kitchen staff being highly disgusting. They weren't spitting in food or anything, but they were touching uncooked meat with bare hands, then touching other stuff. There was cross contamination everywhere. Then, they both saw how long ticket times were. The two experts ordered a medium temperature steak and a medium rare burger, and it took over 45 minutes for both to come out. That should have been 15 minutes tops. The food was also a total mess. The burger was well done, the steak was undercooked and the nachos were gross. The whole bar was a mess. At one point, one of the bartenders got so upset at the drink orders from the experts, she quit. The owner that was in the car with Taffer rushed to try and stop her, but to no avail. To quit a job because of this is ridiculous.

Finally, after all the nonsense, Taffer came in and laid down the law. He crushed the bartenders and the owners. He slammed the kitchen staff for their poor work and the uncleanliness of the kitchen, it was disgusting. He also attacked the former owner and said he agreed with the new owners that he may be sabotaging them. It was classic Taffer stuff.

When they finally cleaned everything up and got ready fro stress test, this was another time I saw a first for me on "Bar Rescue". The stress test was going as usual, terrible, and one of the new owners shut down the bar before Taffer could. She told everyone that they were done for the night, and that the bar was closed. Taffer was shocked, as was I.

The next day Taffer talked about how that had never happened before, and that it showed weakness. This kind of woke up both the new owners. They now seemed on board with Taffer and his plans. They even amicably parted ways with the former owner. It was nice to see that for a change. No one was forced to fire anyone, they both mutually agreed that it would be for the best.

We then got the big reveal of the new bar. The name was changed from "Schaeffer's" to "R.Lee's". I don't get the name, but it had something to do with the names of the new owners. Whatever. Everyone seemed to like all the changes, but one of the owners was not happy. She wanted to keep the sports bar esthetic, but Taffer went a different way. She was visible upset at what Taffer and crew had done. She let it be known that she was upset as well. Taffer left after this, thinking all was good. The bar, during reopen, seemed to be doing well, and they looked like they could be profitable.

When they went to do the 6 week checkup, we came to find out that they changed the name back to "Schaeffer's", and the new owners refused to talk on camera. They even tried to get the old owner back because they didn't seem to think they could handle doing all the work by themselves. The old owner did the right thing and refused to come back, and we may never know what happened at "Schaeffer's". These people thought they wanted change, but they just clearly wanted to be on TV.

This was a waste of Taffer, his experts and Spike TV's time. I do not like when bar owners do this type of stuff. It is tacky and pointless. I do not know when the next episode is on, but I know that I will be here 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 hates restaurant name changes, like St. Louis Bread Company being called Panera. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of generous donors. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches Bar Rescue: City Bar Edition

This past Sunday, "Bar Rescue" premiered another new episode. Now, this is the last new episode they will air until September 18th. They are taking what some would consider a mid season break. It's no big deal, but I will also take a break from writing about the show until they air the new episodes. I will still write on Tuesdays, but it will be something different until "Bar Rescue" comes back.

I will say, they went out with a bang at this midseason finale, if you will. The "Bar Rescue" people found themselves back in Vegas, Taffer's hometown, he seems to be "giving back to his community" a lot more, to a bar called City Bar. This bar had never really had any big money making moments since the owner bought the bar. He said during his interview before Taffer got there, that the only nights that they really had customers was when they had events planned. He said that if they didn't have an open mic, live concert or comedy event, they literally had no customers. The bar was a ghost town on the off nights. So, this owner decided that he would schedule something every night, and he let the bartenders and other employees plan some of the nights events. Now they had something going on every night, but they were still losing money, and there was a ton of in fighting.

When Taffer pulls up to the bar, he is by himself. He wanted to watch the interactions alone, so he could properly assess the situation. What he saw when he got there was a bar that had no customers. He also saw that the bartenders, two in particular, did not like each other. They were openly insulting each other verbally, in front of the two or three patrons at the bar. Taffer sent in his recon spies and they were less than impressed by what they saw and ordered and how the bartenders worked. The recon spies said that the bartenders looked like they had no idea. They couldn't make simple drinks like Bloody Mary's and Manhattan's. That seems to be a running theme this season, bars that can't make the simplest of drinks. The spies, and Taffer, then saw one of the bartenders smoking behind the bar. They also saw that same bartender sticking her fingers, ungloved, in some olives for drinks she was serving. It was all very, very disgusting.

It is at this point, Taffer calls the owner and tells him to come out to his car so he can watch the madness with him. The owner joins Taffer, and what he proceeds to see, especially one certain thing, makes him lose his mind. The owner saw the fighting, the drinking behind the bar, the arguing between employees, the smoking, everything, but that paled in comparison when he saw someone walk into the bar with what looked to be a wooden cross. He was baffled, as was Taffer. Taffer asked him what this could be, and he had no idea.

The people at Spike TV then cut to a patron of the bar saying that when the owner leaves on certain nights, they have a fetish and BDSM night. Some disgusting looking douchebag of a guy and one of his BDSM girls walk in the bar, with the cross, and explain what is about to happen. This sets the owner off. During this whole sequence, Spike kept cutting to videos of people doing these things. It was odd, but also a little funny. The owner bursts through the doors of his bar, screams at everyone, and takes the wooden cross and tosses it outside. This makes the douchebag guy and his BDSM girl very upset, and they leave the bar in a huff.

You'd think the yelling and screaming would've stopped after they left, but that was not the case. Taffer proceeds to lay into the owner. He keeps calling him a failure and telling him that it's his fault that he let the bar get this way. I couldn't agree more with Taffer. The owner of City Bar did not take this new laying down. He yelled back at Taffer. He called him names, including, "surfer boy". They are almost face to face, but after a commercial break, they both seemed to calm down, obviously.

After this altercation, Taffer brings in a drink "expert", and he is stunned at how bad these bartenders are. They can't make any drinks, even the simple ones I mentioned earlier. He also is taken aback by how much fighting goes on between them. He has them work on making drinks, to get ready for the stress test, and they are a complete disaster. They are not ready for the stress test, but the owner says to bring it on, so Taffer sets it up. The stress test goes off the rails very quick. The bartenders can't keep up. The owner is yelling at people and running around like a crazy person. One of the bartenders starts to break down and cry, and another bartender "comforts" her by telling her to "prove to everyone that you aren't just an addict and a stripper. Prove that you can do this". I mean, how crazy is that?!

Once the owner realized that his bartenders may not be as decent as he thought, he finally relented and let Taffer and crew do their thing. They fixed up the bar, and got it up and going. When they get to the big reveal, we see that the owner has gotten a haircut and shaved his bushy beard down to a trim goatee. He stated earlier in the episode that he wasn't going to shave until his bar started doing better. Everyone was shocked at his new look, and then we got the big reveal. The crew turned around, and the bar's name was changed from City Bar to Bradley's. The owner's name was Brad, so I thought it was a good name change. They also fixed up the inside. They had new seats, stools, a bar top and POS(point of sale) systems. It was the typical Taffer and "Bar Rescue" stuff. The bar was packed for the re opening, and all the patrons loved it. They had a band, got rid of the other "special events" nights, and the employees seemed to be getting along. Taffer left with his head held high. At the end of the show, we got the 6 week update, and the owner said that they were busy pretty much every night, the staff was getting along and the sales were up. Again, typical "Bar Rescue" stuff.

The first half of this season of "Bar Rescue" has been wonderful, and I cannot wait for the next half to start in a few weeks. I'm so happy that "Bar Rescue" has returned to its greatness, and I'm very humbled and privileged that I have readers that look forward to my reviews. I'll be off the reviews for a few weeks, until the show comes back, so my Tuesdays will be different for awhile, but come back in mid to late September when "Bar Rescue" returns with new episodes. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love that I've been getting for this "Bar Rescue" updates.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The editor wants to buy him a drink for a good half season of "Bar Rescue" recaps, but Ty's does not drink. That means two drinks for the editor. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik. 

The trashy "Bar Rescue" performs a record breaking dumpster dive

This strip club is way below my trash standards

ed note: Since the popularity of this article, Ty has decided to review each new episode of Bar Rescue. Look for his column on the latest episode every Tuesday.

I'm a big, big fan of the show "Bar Rescue" on Spike TV.

It's everything you'd want in reality TV. It's staged, it's trashy, people talk over one another so you can't hear what anyone is saying and the host is ridiculous. Jon Taffer is utterly insane. First of all, during the opening credits, he claims to be a member of the Nightclub Hall of Fame, whatever the hell that is. Second, his best way of delivering advice is to scream and yell and demean the owners of these failing bars. He also looks like a goblin, literally. He calls everyone failures and forces people to fire friends and family. This all sounds bad, but it's quite hilarious. His "specialists" that he brings in are just as absurd. They're all yes men and women. They look like bobble heads, anything Taffer says, they nod and agree, no matter how absurd or terrible the idea is. This show is the perfect reality show.

Taffer and his people have "rescued" a lot of bars. In fact, you can go to their website and see how many of the bars are still open. Last I checked, he had about a 50 percent save rate, not that good for all his talk. Well, on their latest episode, they did something I thought I'd never see on this show. I mean, it's pretty classless, but last night, they took it to a disgusting level.

Last night, they "saved" a strip club in Detroit. And yes, it was as gross as you'd think it could be. When they arrived, the club was called Chix on Dix. Ewwwwww! That's so appalling and very foul. When Chix on Dix first opened, the owners claimed they were making millions, I don't buy that. Then, the problems started. The club became dirty, the workers and strippers were disinterested and one of the co owners just stopped showing up. The strippers were not happy and they looked like it. They started to drink, sleep on the job and flat out quit doing their job. They also changed the name from Chix on Dix to Industrial Strip. Another terrible pun. What was the worst though, the new owner wasn't reprimanding customers that physically touched the dancers. Even I know that's illegal and I've only been to one strip club in my 33 years on Earth. I think strip clubs are depressing and gross, but that's not the point of today's blog. At this point, Jon Taffer and his "experts" are outside the club watching the action on a video in the car. Typical Taffer, he sees something he doesn't like, storms into the club and starts yelling almost immediately. Now don't get me wrong, these people deserve to be put down a couple of pegs, but Taffer could've gone about it differently. But, his go to move is to yell and berate. Taffer and his team assess the situation and get ready to go to work. His bartending expert actually had the easiest job because the current bartender was okay. She was lively and energetic, she just needed to be taught how to properly pour drinks. But, his cooking expert and his strip club consultant had their work cut out for them. The chef was the owner of the night club. Taffer hates this and addressed it right away. He made the other owner show up and be the boss and made the other owner become the chef. Needless to say, he struggled mightily. My only question, who eats at a strip club? Is the club not disgusting enough? Who goes to a strip club and thinks, I could use a meal? My only guess, A monster, but that's just my opinion. The strip club consultant, aka a lady who got to old to strip, but couldn't find a new job, had little to nothing to work with. The dancers were still disinterested no matter how hard this lady tried and she really tried. She showed them her tricks of the trade. She showed them how to interact. She showed them how to make extra tips. It all fell on deaf ears. Try as she might, these girls weren't interested. Instead of really pushing them, they just decided to bring in newer, more professional dancers. This is another Taffer staple. When he doesn't get results, he fires the old crew and brings in his people. That's pretty lazy in my opinion. After all this and the remodel of the club, Taffer renamed it The Power Strip. Another god awful pun. He put in new drink systems and new poles and cleaned the place up a bit.

As with the end of every episode of "Bar Rescue", the club looks like it's saved. Everyone is happy and flashing money along with their smiles. This episode was no different, but they went back six months later. The owners admitted that they weren't making as much money and the staff was going back to their old ways. Not surprising if you ask me. I was grossed out by this whole episode. I don't like strip clubs, as I said before. I don't drink and I definitely would not drink at a strip club. The people were flat out mean and nasty. I knew that this day was coming on "Bar Rescue". They were bound to do a strip club, but why did they pick such a gross one? It was very upsetting. I won't stop watching "Bar Rescue", but I will read what each episode is about now because I don't ever want to see them try and save another strip club.

This episode will forever haunt my nightmares.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. Little does he know that the head editor has had plenty of meals at strip clubs, they were all for business meetings. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.