Ty Watches Bar Rescue: The Wheel House Edition

The most recent episode of "Bar Rescue" was great, as they have all been this season. The latest adventure found John Taffer and his crew in a small town in California. I don't remember the name, but they said it was about 90 minutes outside of LA. I figured this would be some big time, hot shot place, but this city was almost at the poverty line. They said the median household income was 27,000 dollars a year. That's only $5,000 above being considered in poverty. So, this bar needed to have a niche. Their niche was, the bar was attached to a roller rink. Apparently, the guy who now owned the bar was an employee who climbed the ladder all the way up to upper management at the roller rink. They had an empty space next door, so he turned it into a bar. He didn't give it a name, but the roller rink was called The Wheel House, so he used it for both the rink and the bar.

At first, the owner of The Wheel House said that they were raking in the dough. They had so many customers, it was hard to maneuver for the bartenders. There was also a lineage of workers that went to the rink as kids, got to know the owner, he does a ton of community service, in fact, he's like a local legend, that were now bartenders. It was a "family" owned and run business. But, as of recently, the bar had fallen on hard times. The roller rink was also not immune to the downturn in business, it was also struggling financially.

The roller rink I get, those things are outdated, but why was the bar failing you ask? Well, the owner was very low key and he let his employees get away with pretty much everything. They took money from the tip jar, they drank behind the bar, they basically refused to make food when ordered. Did I mention that the kitchen was over 100 feet away from the bar? Well, it is. The bartenders also argued with and cursed out customers. It was rough and the owner did nothing about this.

When Taffer and crew arrived, they noticed the dysfunction immediately. They saw all the things I just mentioned. They had a spy go in the bar and had him ask why this bar was failing. They all said that the staff was mean and the owner was nice, but needed to be tougher. When Taffer and crew went in the bar, they immediately called out one bartender for complaining about making food. They told the owner all the nasty things she said about him, and they forced him to fire her, one of my favorite things on the show. He did it, and got little backlash. In fact, the remaining employees seemed to take him more seriously afterwards. They did the stress test, the bartenders didn't do great, they didn't know how to pour proper drinks, but they at least tried. The kitchen staff was also good, but there was no system. We had come to find out that the owner was holding everyone back. He agreed to this as well, and he let Taffer and crew do everything necessary to get his money and his bar back in order. They kept mentioning, and saying the word, community a lot during this episode too. This owner was big time in the community, so Taffer and Spike TV ran with the word and they must have said it 10,000 times. After Taffer did his upgrades, he gave the bar a name, calling it Derby's Bar and Grill, a decent effort, and had the roller rink closed to all adults. The bar was for adults, the rink for kids. Great choice by Taffer.

After the rescue, the bar sales went way up, about 60%, and the food sales were even higher, coming in at 75%. This was all due to adding new, and useful systems. Taffer did it again. He turned a failing bar into a moderately successful one. Another strong episode this season from "Bar Rescue". Come back next week for my newest review.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor of SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He visited a roller rink one time, he was there when it was bulldozed to make room for a Starbucks. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.