Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles (upbeat music) - Alright everybody, come on in! - Yeah, lets do it! - Welcome to Sac-town. - Thank you, thank you, thank you. - Lot of dudes. - I love that we got called back tonight. I'm fully prepared, ready to eat, ready to drink. How's it going? Ready to shut it down! - Shut it down! (tense music) - So for recon tonight, I got two friends of mine. This is Dan from Barstool Sports which is one of the most popular sports websites in America. I've had Dan do recon for me before. - How you like that? - I've never had lighter fluid but it's like it. It's a hot drink. - If Dan likes a bar he can make it successful, if he doesn't he can make it fail with the push of a button. Next to him is Chris Long who's a current player with the Rams. As a Ram, Chris Long knows this town, he knows the sports market and I've asked the two of them to come into your bar and give me feedback. - [Narrator] Jon's spies enter O'Kelley's Irish Pub, a 3500 square foot bar grossing $3 per square foot in sales, $147 less than the required break even point of $150 per square foot. In addition to the cameras following the staff, Jon has placed surveillance cameras around the bar to capture the action and watch it live. - [Woman] Hey guys! - What's going on? - [Woman] Can I get you something? - Yeah, can I get a Bud? - And how about you, hon? - I'll have a Bud Light. - Whoa, what kind of pouring is he doing? - Are you kidding me? - Thanks a lot, man, appreciate it. - What were you saying? - Tastes a little, uh, flat maybe? - How can you succeed pouring a bad beer in St. Louis? This is the home of Budweiser! - That's an embarrassment. - I got a burger, no cheese, medium well will fries. - Absolutely, thank you. - I'll do Reuben nachos. - [Jon] And that's our cook Anthony. - [Anthony] Freezer burn, freezer burn. - Now he's microwaving the burger meat to thaw it out. He should already have the meat prepped and thawed before service begins. This is just lazy cooking! - [Cameron] Whoever wants to put these goggles on can have a shot for free. - [Woman] Cameron, no, come on. (cheering) - Pam tries but she doesn't have a clue. He does not behave like this when I'm there. - This is the real him. - Is our food coming? - Is that burger done yet? - So they don't have their food yet. - Oh no. - Which has been what, a good 15 minutes or so? - [Woman] Yes. - That's totally wrong. The cheese is wrong. You know what (beep) it, just put the french fries, I'm done. - What is that? - [Woman] That's the Reuben nachos. - Oh no. You're a restaurant person, you know how important food quality and consistency is. - That is a huge issue with me. - [Waitress] Who gets the nachos? - [Dan] I'm the nachos. - Please be good. - These chips are awful. There's so much sauerkraut, thousand island and none of the cheese is cooked. How's the burger? - I'm not a stickler about hamburgers but (beep). For us it was disappointing because they were the basics. How do you mess nachos up, how do you mess a burger up? It wasn't good. - Alright, so let me you why I'm at this bar. Billy wrote me a letter and I wanna read it to you. Dear Mr. Taffer, I've been to two of your seminars in Chicago a few years ago. You said if I ever needed anything you would remember me and help. I'm willing to step back in and do whatever it takes not to lose my business. Please, Mr. Taffer, help me. I will do anything. - [Woman] Hm. - [Jon] Kev, what's Billy doing right now? - Playing pool and taking shots. - He's not doing anything! - Mm-mm. - There's Waterman. - Where the hoes at? - Waterman is a friend who worked there for years who chose to step up and be a manager. He doesn't want to. But if he doesn't, this place is gonna go down. - Let's get (beep) up, let's get high, let's get drunk. - There's Razzo, she's a bartender. - Look at her, no. - She's pulling the beer with a cigarette in her hand. - Look at that, right there. - [Jon] Over the drink! - [Kim] And grabbing it on the mouth is always a great option. - And there you go, Kev, you just licked her cigarette filter when you take a drink of that glass. - No drinks here. - There's Crystal, she's a bartender and assistant manager. There's Caroline, she's a server. - I don't know what's going on with that. And there's Rob, Kev, he's the kitchen manager. - Give me a little while, they just put in a big order. - So for recon I got two Kansas City Chiefs offensive linemen. Mitch and Andrew. They know bars, they know this town, I thought they'd be perfect to give us the scoop on recon. So this is a big moment for Billy and the staff, let's see if they deliver. - What are we having tonight? - I usually do something mixed, maybe a little sweet or fruity. - I can do like a Long Beach, which is basically a Long Island but with cranberry juice. - I'll give that a shot. - Did she give 'em a menu? - I don't know what to order, I need to look at the menu. - So she's made no effort to sell them anything. - We need to get in line over there. - So the shot comes first. Let's see, now she's gonna clean up the shots. She now has everybody's saliva on her hands, right, from touching the rim of all those glasses? Wipes her mouth with her hands, puts her hands through her hair, she's doing it all wrong, she hasn't done one thing right! - Long Beach. - [Jon] Oh, look at the color of that! - I'm actually confused at what she just put in there. Even if it's sweet and sour and cranberry that color is not normal. - Taste good? - It's not doing much, it's just kind of watered down. - Oh man. - So what's the deal with ordering this food again? - Okay, so you're gonna go to the food window, you're gonna order from the food window. - Now the fact that she couldn't write it down and bring it over there with the nine customers they have in the room is absurd. - I don't get why you can't just order there but whatever. (fryer sizzling) - You guys got any questions about the menu? - Now would you ever order food from a guy with a towel on his shoulder like that? - I would ask him, did you clean your neck with that towel? I just wanna know. - What can I get for you? - How about an order of just the big burger? - Can I just get grilled chicken? - And that's gonna be at least a 30 minute wait, you guys okay with that? - 30 minute wait, at least! - Razzo, I was supposed to have a shot with the girls over there. - [Waterman] I know. I wonder how many shots she's had tonight. - I don't know. - What kind of owner would just say whatever. - Shrug it off. - She can get drunk, steal money, you know what I'm saying, I don't understand it. - And who's booze is she drinking, Billy's! - Yeah. - Exactly. - Here we go. So he's throwing raw chicken on the grill, Kev, has he washed his hands? - Not at all, look, going in the bag. - [Jon] Now he's going in the bag for, oh chips. - So that whole bag would have to be thrown away. Look at that. - So those aren't nachos, those are more like death-o's. You're gonna eat some raw chicken on your nacho chips, can you imagine? - No, I don't want to. - Look at that grill. Now I thought that was a char broiler it's so black, that's a flat top. - That thing ain't been cleaned since the early 70's. - Now whatever he's cooking has gotta come out with some black on it. - Yeah, no doubt. - Wipes that rag again, touches it all with his bare hands. Oh man! Now with his spatula he goes to scoop up that chicken and what goes with the chicken on a bun? Some of that disgusting grill. (tense music) - Her eyes are definitely glazed over. - You guys doing alright down here? - You guys have tequila? - Oh yeah, you want some D? I'll take the D. (laughing) - You can do mine like slightly less. - Stop being a vagina. - She's getting drunker and drunker. - I will (beep) you up, bro. - So he writes me this letter, tells me he's failing, he's losing everything, Razzo's drinking, he doesn't even care about it, she's getting drunker by the minute and he's taking shots and playing pool. You know what, I wanna see if he's ready to do anything. I'm gonna go in and talk to him. - Go get him, Jon. (tense music) - How you doing, sir? - The question is how are you doing? - Could be better. - So I read your letter, you said you would do anything to save your business. Do you have any idea what's going on up there? No. So how are you gonna save anything? - I guess I'm gonna have to do something. - What did you do tonight? - Play pool. - Did you even look at what's going on at your bar? So what the hell are you doing, Billy? - I guess I'm doing it wrong. - No you're not doing it wrong, you're not doing (beep)! So you're a race car guy. When you lose and lose and lose and lose, what do you do? Do you do something different? - Yeah, fix it. - What did you do here? - Nothing, I didn't do anything. - But you're losing every day, right? - Yes sir. - And now you call me to bail you out! Let's go over to your bar for a minute! So girls, why don't you light up another cigarette back here, there we go! So, is this legal? To smoke behind a bar, Billy, is it? Because things like this happen and now you can't consume any of those beers, right? - Right. - You are pulling a beer with the cigarette over the beer! But you didn't see that, Billy, did you? What about you, Waterman? Did you do anything other than drink water tonight? - No. - Who does she work for? - Us. - How many more shots you gonna have? You have one more drink, I will fire you! Do you understand that? - I am a little intoxicated, I'm a little drunk. I have taken shots after shots, I'm admit that. I feel stupid right now. I should've been sober, on my A-game and I wasn't. - I want you to go in, buddy, I want you to sit at a table, a big table, I want you to order one of every pizza. It's about 11 pizzas. We're gonna slam the kitchen. - This grill's probably gonna overcook all these (beep) burgers. - And then I'd love to send you in and do your magic on all of them. - Oh yeah, I'll put 'em all through the wringer, give 'em a fair test, I'd love to see it. - Let's see what they got, Frankie, alright? Go and order one of everything, buddy, let's put 'em under some pressure. - See what they got. - [Narrator] Frankie Borrelli of Barstool Sports enters Gil and Rick's, a 2,000 square foot sports bar including a 1,000 square foot pizza kitchen with only one working oven. - I'm just a cheese freak, man. I'll go constipated for three weeks eating cheese. (laughing) It is a good cheese, man, it is a good cheese. - There goes Gil, nobody's taking his order. Look how frustrated he's getting. He has a menu in his hand. Hello! - Hey, to Wisconsin, never (beep) been there but to ya! (cheering) - There's Mike, he wants to order a pizza. - Hi guys, what can I do for ya? - Alright, so I actually wanna do one of every of 'em. So we're gonna go one of every pizza here. - One of all the pizzas for ya? - One of all the pizzas, yeah. - One of everything? - Yeah, that's how much I want those pizzas. - [Waiter] Gotcha, gotcha. - And also, can you add a stromboli and a calzone 'cause I'm a New York guy, I love. - Gotcha, gotcha. That works, be back, alright? - Let's see how Azz handles the sanitation, how he handles his arm, so put him under pressure. - Ted, you got a big order coming in. - Oh boy. - One of every pizza medium and then a stromboli and a calzone. - A what? - One of every pizza, medium. And then a stromboli and a calzone. (beep) - Kidding me? You're kidding me, right? - No, I'm being serious, pretty sure. - [Cook] Mother (beep). - If you have a popular pizza place, guess what, 10 pizzas isn't that crazy. You're gonna have 10 different people in there ordering pizzas at once. - So this is a guy who's pissed off that he actually has to work. - Yeah. - Who's waiting on the kid that ordered all the pies? - I guess me. - Well he needs to prepay or something. - Prepay? - You want me to have him prepay, I gotcha. - Why don't you say, here's the (mumbling). - Prepay? - What's he gonna, run out of here with the pizzas? - So we got the check here just 'cause it's a large, large order for you, want to make sure you don't go nowhere or nothing. - They're making it seem like he's robbing this place. How uncomfortable can you make somebody? - [Jon] That is a terrible business practice. He's gotta read the menu. - [Dave] It's like he doesn't know his own menu. - Nah. You know there's a cheese, you know there's a pepperoni, you know there's a sausage. - Gonna be quite a few (beep) minutes. - Last one, last one! Last round for me, last round for me. - As you can see Rick's aggressively helping in the kitchen making sure that these 11 pizzas are flawless for us, Dave! - Noogie, noogie, noogie, buckaroo! - Rick is really committed to the success of his business. - Alright, that's a supreme. - Supreme? Hey guys, do you want a slice of pizza? I'm not gonna be able to finish the whole thing. - Thanks, dude. - No problem. - (beep) ridiculous. Four god damn tickets back there and he's dying. - Which one is this (beep)? - [Man] That's the veggie. - That's the veggie. This is (beep) veggie. - (beep) veggie. - That's the (beep) veggie. - Guy comes in, spends more money than anybody else in their bar, is smiling and getting along with the customers, giving out pizza. This guy is the best thing he's got going for him and he calls Frankie an ass (beep). - For putting money in his pocket, unreal. - Here you go. - Which one's this one? - [Man] That's the veggie. - [Woman] This is the garden veggie. - Veggie. - We got an oven down, that's why we're a little slow. We'll keep 'em coming. How are the ones you got so far? - I gotta be honest, the people behind me, they like the crust but I wasn't a big fan. I gave it to them. - Alright. - [Frankie] Thank you. - Why don't you go and sit next to Frankie, try some of these and I'll come in and meet you in a few minutes. I wanna give you some time to check 'em out and come up with your own opinion. - Alright, perfect. - When I sent Frankie in to order 11 pizzas, I knew there was no way they were gonna achieve it but when I really understand failure I can find the path to success. But sometimes failure is so deep it's astonishing. - This is horrible. Screams horrible. Super doughy. These are wildly doughy, there's more dough than anything else. - [Frankie] Wanna talk about grease, look at this. Oh boy. - I mean, this beer stinks. Flat at this point. - Someone over here said it was flat too. - I'm hearing the one guy with the beer talking a bunch of (beep) so I'm gonna stay over here because if I go over there I'm gonna slap him right in the God damn cheek. I don't care who the (beep) he is. - That's the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten in my life. - I wanna try this one with those guys to see what's going on here. - For recon this week, I have Lisa Marie Joyce and I have Anthony Lamas. - Oh right! - I put 'em in disguise. - Hi, good, how are you? - [Man] Hey, how are ya? - [Man] Good, how are you doing? - [Man] Good, good. - [Man] How are you? - [Woman] What can I get for ya? - I'll take any draft, pick one for me, something light. - [Woman] Rum and Coke or something? - Rum and Coke? Sure. (chattering) - Those are the tacos there? Are these yours? - Are these yours? - Are these yours, he could've said yes and gotten them right away. - Eat 'em and shut the (beep) up. Shut up for at least five to 10 minutes, that's all I ask. Five to 10 minutes, shut the (beep) up. - Here's to me, here's to you, whoever disagrees (beep) here's to me. - How does he make money here? - He doesn't. - Mine's a little warm. - Is it? - So Anthony said the beer is warm. - Can you give me a credit card? - No, they're on me. - On him. - Now what does that mean, is he gonna pay for it? - Tom's paying for 'em. - Good game, brother. - These people are probably his friends and they'll come in here and drink all his booze night after night after night. So they're taking advantage of him. He's really a chump, letting them take advantage of him 'cause if he wasn't giving it away they wouldn't come here. - You're right. - What do we got going there? - [Man] They call 'em little mini beers. - [Jon] Okay, so is that beer with heavy whipping cream? - Oh my gosh! - [Jon] This is a drink that probably costs, I'm guessing, $2.10 a drink. - Wow. - So you start giving these away, it's $20, $200, $2000. Imagine this after a month, they've given away hundreds and hundreds of these. - Have you had one before? - Are they on the house or something? - I will buy it myself. - Sure yeah, if they're free I'll take 'em. - Oh my gosh, free, okay. - [Anthony] Might as well. - I believe in you. - Go, go, go! - Swish! - I never knew cream floated honestly because I would never wanna do it. - Never. - We'll do the BLT and then I wanna do those tacos that I saw. - I'll do the wrap, I think. - Look at this place. Look at how messy all this looks. - [Jenny] I can already smell it and I haven't even been inside yet. I can't imagine the contamination. - Looks like a file cabinet. Okay, look at this kitchen. So let's see the fryer, look at the color of it. You see it's all wrong in color because the filth in the oil. All the filth, look at the side! - [Jenny] It's disgusting! - Look at the smoke coming up, that's not the oil smoking, that's the dirt in the oil that causes that smoke 'cause oil doesn't smoke, you know that. - Uh-huh. - Look at the color of it, you see its all wrong in color 'cause the filth in the oil. - [Jenny] It looks like there's dead bugs in it. - It does but look at how it's sticky and gunky up there, you know that this hasn't been rotated. Oh, those should be white! - Oh no, oh no! - So you know what makes that color? Bacteria, so that is E. coli colonies and filth on there. - Okay, here we go, some food. - [Jon] They can't eat this food. - [Jenny] They can't. - Let's go in and stop this together. - Let's do it. (shouting) - Oh my God. - I can't believe what I'm seeing right now. - [Man] Oh (beep), Jenny McCarthy. - [Jon] I wouldn't eat anything if I were you guys. - Jon Taffer's here. - [Jon] Can I have your attention for a minute please? What do you think? - Can you see all that? - Ooh, God, oh my God. - I think it's deep fried tacos. - Every one of 'em. When did you buy this bar? - Eight months ago. - [Jon] How much in debt are you from it? - Half million. - Half a million freaking dollars! - Yep. - [Jon] How much you losing a month? - 6,000. - [Jon] $6,000! How long till you're out of money? - Month and a half. - You're done in a month and a half! Did you know that? You're done in a month and a half, did you know that? - No. - This came out on your watch. - I wasn't watching. - Exactly! I watched on camera one of the most disgusting kitchens I've ever seen. - Was that somewhere else? - No, it's yours. Come with me, I wanna show it to you. Anthony, come with me, Jenny, I want you to see this. - Oh, it's vile. - You guys stay here, come on back. - You're gonna be scared. - [Jon] What's this? - Refried beans. - This is three weeks old! - Oh my God! - Touch it. Slimy, isn't it? - [Owner] Yes sir. - Let's get rid of that. This is your fricking life, you're in debt a half a million dollars, look at this! These are your french fries, they should be frozen, right? Are they? - No. - [Jenny] Oh my God! - They need to be cooked frozen! - You have a specialty? - Not really. - Not really? He asked for a specialty, she said no, it's a daiquiri bar. What about all of the daiquiris behind? Recommend one. - Sell the daiquiris. - We (beep) Long Island but its blue. - Let me try your blue (beep). - [Bartender] You wanna do a blue (beep), alright. - Ask 'em about the daiquiris. - What did you want to drink? - What kind of daiquiris do you have? - The only daiquiris we have is blue raspberry, orange or fruit punch. Cherry is melted too much and the apple and strawberry are out. - I thought this was supposed to be a daiquiri bar? - I know, our daiquiri machines are not very good. (laughing) - [Man] Wow! - My favorite daiquiri is the orange and the green mixed together. I could possibly get some green out for you. - Let's try it. - Oh my God, are you kidding me? - So if its not coming out is that spout dirty? - Oh, I don't even wanna see that. I'm glad that's your department. (laughing) - There we go. - There you go. - [Jon] Yuck, see how the green is melted though? - That looks terrible. And here's the boss still in the back. I understand you're trying to count the money but you're not making any money to count. - So for recon tonight I wanted to bring in some great musicians so I brought in American Authors and I got actually all four band members to come tonight, Zac, James, Dave and Matt. - We've been going to dive bars forever. We've been in a band for 10 years. We've literally go out to bars and we'll play our own pretend Bar Rescue in our heads so it was really cool to finally be a part of it. - [Narrator] Jon's spies enter the Airliner, a 3,500 square foot music venue with one stage inside and another on the back patio with a tented awning. A full kitchen with a ticket window offers up food to patrons and music-goers. - James, a half drunken beer. - Oh great, welcome to the Airliner, what can I wet your whistle with today? - Do you have a drink menu? - [Bartender] I don't have a cocktail list. I have a few specials that I can tell you all about. So we have the Miss Mary Jane, it's a regular margarita with our well tequila. - I don't know why she told them it was the well tequila, it doesn't make any sense. - You can upsell it but you wouldn't downsell it. - No. - [Man] Can I get and Old Fashioned? - You bet. I'm gonna try that Miss Mary Jane. - [Bartender] You got it, so one, two, ooh, that was a lot. This was like pouring out a lot. (sighing) - [Kevin] Just a couple of dashes of bitters goes a long way. - Is this the main stage here? - This one we do mostly DJs and smaller bands. We have another stage outside on the patio you're welcome to check out if you'd like. - Oh okay. - They have a big back area, it's awesome. - Not only is nobody out there, it doesn't seem like they're using that space at all. Wow, pretty good pour, huh? - [Bartender] Little short. - Did she just pour more of it? - Oh yeah. - [Man] That's awesome. - She took out a bar spoon and she does not know how to use it. The way she's stirring it though. - You could tell she's never done it before. - No. - How is it? - Do not order the Old Fashioned. (fryer sizzling) - What's that sound? - The fries in the fryer. - Those are the fries in the fryer! - [Bartender] Yeah! - I just see all that bubbling up and I'm just thinking somebody's gonna eat that. - To see smoke like that coming out of the oil, that's because of all the debris in the oil, correct? - Yes, it'll get to the point where it could just bubble right over. - [Jon] Look at it go! - Oh God! - [Jon] Look at that. - [Kevin] Oh my gosh. - [Jon] That's the worst we've ever seen, Mike. - [Mike] Yeah. - Luckily he was standing right there. That's a serious fire hazard. How gross is this? He has no gloves on, he's been touching everything in that disgusting kitchen. Now you're touching someone's cold cuts? - And there's our owner who has no idea that any of this is happening. - [Mike] He looks like a miserable owner. - [Jon] He does. What is this? - Processed cheese. - [Jon] Okay, so he's taken the cheese, he's added some water to it. - Very special recipe going on here. - Look at it, it's all lumpy. - You're using crap and then you're watering it down and then you're putting it on more crap and more crap and then you're sending it out. - Nacho fries! The nacho fries, yeah? - [Man] Yeah. - [Man] Thanks man, appreciate it! - I wanna see if they're actually gonna eat this the way this looks. (mumbling) - That's not real cheese. Honestly, this looks like a joke. When it came out on that styrofoam plate with that gross, fake nacho cheese. That was greasier than my face back in middle school. (laughing) This thing, it was so wild. - So there's our owner, have you seen him do anything tonight other than sit there? - He sat at the end of the bar and just had a drink and didn't do (beep). - [Man] Alright, we're going in? - Those have to taste awful. - [Man] The cheese kind of tastes like water. - If I didn't ask them to come into this bar they'd leave right now, wouldn't they? - Absolutely. - It's a little weird, there's like a bitter aftertaste. - Oh my God. - I can't even get through this. - I can't watch this anymore, somebody's gonna get sick! - Stop 'em. - I can taste the freezer burn. - Yeah. - [Man] Really? - It's a little funky, man. - [Narrator] For nine years, local Akron boy Tim Ripper Owens led as frontman for legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest, who sold over 45 million records solidifying their place in heavy metal history. - I became the lead singer of Judas Priest in 1996, touring the world until 2003. They got their old singer back and I moved onto other bands and other artists and toured the world ever since then. - [Narrator] In 2012, after many years on the road, Tim decided he needed a change of pace. - I've always tried to play this part of keeping the rock image of the guy who does have a movie loosely based off of him in Rock Star but I wanted to stop touring as much. I wanted to come home and spend more time with my kids. - [Narrator] So he banded together with Micah Posten, a local businessman with a vision of opening a bar. - When the local rock star and he is a real rock star wants to go into business with me I was very excited. - [Narrator] Jumping at the opportunity, Micah made an initial investment of $170,000. - I liquidized two different retirement accounts, two or three credit cards that were completely emptied. - The agreement when we first opened up, he was gonna spend the money and put my name on the sign. - The percentage of ownership is 60-40. - [Narrator] In July 2013, Tim and Micah revealed Ripper's Rock House to the Akron public. - The first two months we were open, the doors did pretty much come off the hinges. We brought in $90,000 in the first month, $90,000 in the second month. - We had people coming from all over the world. - Ripper! - I thought there was no way we could fail. - [Narrator] Soon Micah realized that running a bar took more than a rock star's name on the sign. - Even though we were making $90,000, we were spending $110,000 in expenses. Payroll, food inventory, it was way out of control. The servers throw away more silverware than they can actually make. - He's the guy with the business degree but in the long run Micah didn't know how to run it. I started promoting things by taking the pictures and letting people see the food on social media. The food is really the big thing here. - Oh yeah. - [Narrator] Desperate to turn a profit, Micah made a last ditch effort to save the business. - So I cut prices to get people in the door hoping that they would come back in. - The people come in for the really cheap food. They're not coming in for the food that's not on special so all you're selling is your cheapest stuff. - That's what Micah wants to eat. The two-dollar burger. - [Narrator] Losing $4,000 a month, Tim and Micah were unable to agree on how to get the bar back on track. - So I'm trying to market food at full price. Sometimes we butt heads on what's right or wrong. I actually took that responsibility to try and promote the food part. That's why I started doing it because nobody knows a chicken wing doesn't advertise themselves, somebody has to do it. - Six more sub sandwiches aren't gonna pay the electric bill. - [Narrator] Now, after exhausting all of the resources, Micah and Tim are six months away form pulling the plug on Ripper's Rock House. - The big thing about me losing this bar would be my name. I gotta live off of my name, tour off of my name, that's the way I make my living. If I would lose any credibility, we could lose endorsements, we could lose gigs. I don't know how long it would take me to recover from having something fail. - If this bar closes, I will be bankrupt and I'll lose everything. It's not easy to say or think about. - [Narrator] So Tim and Micah have agreed to pull back the doors, bust open the books and make a call for help to Bar Rescue. - Let's go inside, I wanna sit with Micah and let's see what he has to say. - Okay. - Okay, let's do this. (beep) Come on over. (chattering) Tell me if this is right, the two of you guys started the bar together. - Yup. - Now you're in a hole 200-ish? - Close, about 170. - So if things don't turn around, what happens? - I go bankrupt. - What do you think happens to him? - [Micah] Financially I don't see him hurting too bad. - You realize he makes money on his name? - Correct. - [Jon] How do you feel about it? - Well, I feel when I'm trying to give a suggestion on what I would like to have happen, it's never looked upon seriously. - I have to do what I gotta do to get the doors open for the day. - So you have another company? - Yes, I've taken loans from my landscape company. - Do you think you're making money on 50 cent wings? You're allowing people to walk in and walk out for next to (beep) nothing. And you put your name on him! I wanna show you guys how stupid you are. Where's one of those tour shirts? Come here! Look at that shirt, the word of disappears. World Tour Wings 2015. Where (beep) Paul McCartney! The food is served in fricking baskets! It looks like (beep)! You're selling drinks that look like dishwater for Christ sakes! You got a stage that those people sitting in a booth behind the bar can't even see! I got you who's a wimp, who's not even protecting your own name! And you can't operate (beep)! How moronic is that? (beep) (laughing) - I'm so excited. - I brought in Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro. - [Narrator] Maria Menounos is a well known film and television star and cohost of the popular show Extra. Maria's fiance, Keven Undergaro, a new media producer, is also a restaurant industry veteran. Together, Keven and Maria co-created the entertainment oriented podcast network Afterbuzz TV. - I want this to be the most successful recon mission ever. We can speak in Boston accents. I really would like a wicked big plate of nachos and some Buffalo fingers please. - Okay. (giggling) I have three years in the bar business and 10 years in the food service industry. - We're big fans of Bar Rescue, big fans of Jon Taffer's and when he asked us to come do this we jumped at the chance. - We're all in. - Yeah, we're all in. - All in! Oh, I'm all in! All in! - This guy says all in one more time I'm gonna put my fist all in his (beep) mouth! - We're all in. - Can you tell we're fans of the show? - [Narrator] Keven and Maria enter Scoreboard, a 4,000 square foot space with a single bar featuring two service stations and a lone kitchen in the corner. - [Maria] Is someone sitting here? - [Narrator] In addition to the cameras following the Scoreboard staff, surveillance cameras have been placed around the bar to capture Keven and Maria's recon. - They're waiting a while for any attention form the bartender. - Okay, so now we're at one minute, they have no drink. They're getting the bar wiped down, that's a good thing. - [Woman] Mm-hmm. - [Jon] Look at them staring at him and nothing is happening. He could've said hello and asked them what they're having! - Yep, even if you have a busy bar you should always acknowledge the guest. - What can I get you guys? - I'll have a strawberry margarita. - Margarita? - Whiskey cola. - He made the wrong drink. That's not what she asked for. - This is supposed to be a strawberry margarita. (beep) - My bad, one second. I've already made like five margaritas today so it's in my head. - I've already made five margaritas is not an excuse to why you don't give your guest what they asked for. - [Jon] He pours it in with the ice in the step glass. - And topped it with soda, what was that? - And what comes on the sampler? - Everything. (laughing) - Robert. - Oh, thank you. We'll order the sampler. I'm gonna get the chili cheese fries too. - [Jon] Look at them puckering up. - It tasted like dirty dish soap. How's yours? (coughing) - So they're gonna microwave the chili, did you see that? - Yep. - Oh thanks, couple of drafts. Thank you. The cheese isn't melted. - [Keven] The french fries are soggy. - Thank you, we still have the sampler coming out, right? - What's the ticket time on this? It's been a while. - Eight minutes. - I think I forgot to put that in. - Oh no. - Forgot to put it in! - Forgot their order. They are responsible for leaving the bar to put in the food and he was taking care of the bar guests. - Where's all my bartenders? This lovely gentleman might need some beers. - We're now at 11 minutes on that platter. Now normally a potato skin would be fried so its crisped and then topped off so I'm guessing this is gonna be very soggy. - Soggy. - [Jon] Look at those wings, they're not crisp, you can see it. - [Woman] Mm-hmm. - Potatoes are raw. - [Keven] Yeah? - Yeah. Kev, it's raw. - That's raw. - It's raw. - Oh, that's gross. - Don't eat that, Keven, don't eat that. - I can't let this go on, I'm going in. - That's called saved. - That's a little strong. - Okay, so you want-- - We're already at what, six? - So Maria, he's opened six bottles now. Ask if there's another one that he thinks you should try. - I wanna try your favorite. - This is the gre-nav. - He's now opened, this is his seventh bottle of wine. - [Woman] Yeah. - [Man] And how many sales? - Not one dime. - Alright, well you've given me like every bottle at this point. (giggling) Get another one, get another one, get another one. He just wants to be the good times guy. - [Keven] It was clear why this guy was failing. - If you can get him to open one more bottle you'll be my hero forever. - Can we try one more? - I have, so, two doors down from (speaking in foreign language) is a little town. - [Jon] So now he's opening bottle eight? - That's 32 potential glasses, so let's say he's easily given away $250 at least. - He's losing $4,000 a month and with his ego that'll never change. So what do we got here? - Wings with a little pepper, the mild and hot. - Any decent bar should know how to cook chicken wings. Dry, look at it. See the dark color of the meat? See the dark bone? That tells you this is a frozen product. I'm not sure I want you to eat this. Take this out of here, would you? Let's go see what's going on in the kitchen. - Okay. - The dry chicken wings worry me so before my recon spies eat anything I wanna go inside and see the kitchen. Does that feel cold to you? - Not at all, that looks terrible. - None of this is stored at the right temperature. Sour cream, warm. - How are you guys doing? - Hey, how's it going man? Could I get a burger? - Okay. - Monica, what are you doing? You don't want them to be juicy? When you do this, all of the grease comes out of the burger, the burger is now dry. You never, ever squish a hamburger. Who taught you to cook? - Richard. - Where's Richard? Richard! - 12 and a half minutes on the food so far. You should be able to crank out a burger in 12 minutes, there's not even anyone in this place. - Richard, I'm Jon Taffer. - Jon, nice to meet you. - My friend Maria Menounos. - [Richard] Maria, it's nice to meet you. - You're the one who taught her to squish burgers? - Can speed the process up. - For who? Your bar is empty! - I'm not the one serving the (beep), they are. - Are you gonna get people to come here doing that? - I don't see any signs of any food coming up soon. The staff ignored us a little bit and it took forever to get food. It just really felt like we were on an island out there. - What is this? Old cheese? Does it look fresh? Smells like your refrigerator. Somebody eats this, they don't come back, right? What else we got? - Thank you. - Old sausage. Are they gonna come back for that? - No. - So then they're not gonna come back for that either! (tense music) There's cool restaurants coming down here now, aren't there? - Yes. - And this is what you got! You're failing 'cause you should be. This bar really sucks. The food is spoiled. Richard, who owns the place, doesn't know how to cook. Monica works for him, doesn't know how to cook. I gotta check in on my recon spies before they eat this food! - That is awful. Oh, it's awful. - Let me see. Look at this, guys. - [Man] Wow. - This burger is raw. This is your burger. - Oh my God. - This is what your future is banking on! Here we go, guys, we're opening up! - Let's sling some (beep) drinks! - Alright everybody, come on in! - Yeah, let's do it! - Welcome to Sac-town. - Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. - Lot of dudes. - I love that we got called back tonight. I'm fully prepared, ready to eat, ready to drink. How's it going? Read to shut it down! - Shut it down! - Peach sours. - Bang 'em out, guys, bang 'em out. One, two, three, four, one, two, that seems like a lot more than two. - [Jon] This is the way we do this. - This is the way we-- - And you're smiling, you're moving, look at this, Tommy, right? We got real potential here! - [Tommy] Yup! (upbeat music) - We have a hot pepper and a pesto fried chicken. - Alright, the first crab should be going out in two minutes, alright! - I want you to manage this one table. Take their order, get their drinks, get their food order in. If you can't manage one table, you can't manage your restaurant, would you agree? - I agree. - This is my wife Amber. - Hi Amber, what can I get you? Peach sour, okay. - I literally want everything. Whole thing. - One of each? - Yep. - Okay. (laughing) How about you guys? - Chris took our order, he's sweating, he's nervous, he's all over the place. - (beep) me making drinks. - You should have a drink in five minutes, right? You should have your food in 15 minutes, right? - Okay, I will start this timer. - Like, this is not gonna go well. - I don't even know what I'm doing here. - First thing, we're not building in these, right? We're building in pint glasses. - I really want this to go well but as I'm doing stuff that I'm not used to doing, I feel the burden, I feel the pressure. (glass breaking) God damn it! Help. - Help? You can't serve that drink now. (beep) - Oh you just (beep) up. - [Chris] Lord have mercy. - Chris has owned this business for three years, how does he expect to make money in the bar business when he's almost incapable of pouring a glass of water? - Get 'em, Jon! - How do we make it? - We're making six peach sours. - Six at a time! (cheering) - Alright, let's get this going. - I need five orders of chicken right now, two of them are gonna be hot pepper, the other three are gonna be pesto. It's very busy, we're whipping the food out as fast as we can. - These are the peach sours. - Okay cool! - And I'll be right back with the rest of it. - [T-Pain] We got a drink! - We got a drink, now is it good? - I don't know, let's see if it's nine minutes good. That's pretty good. - Okay, so it's only a few minutes late. - I got candy in the drinks! - Let's go, runner, let's go! - So Tiff, how we doing on the line? - We got a lot of tickets and we're gonna start running behind if we don't get them out. - If we don't do it in the next 10 minutes we're gonna lose it. - I'm gonna go ahead and run these myself. - [Tiff] Alright, thank you so much! We're pulling Ricardo from the kitchen to help go run. - The pesto hot chicken, here you go, my friend. - And then at that point he gets behind in the kitchen. One more chicken, one more pesto, one more, we got three more. So things are kind of getting off but the cooks are doing amazing right now and you could tell that they have true experience. - [Amber] That food looks amazing! - You should've saw it last night 'cause that looked like a dumpster fire. (laughing) - Peach sours? Ginger shanty, ginger shanty? - I don't know guys, this is kind of getting a little hairy back here. - Chris, can you help me get some of these waitress tickets down, please? I was hoping for Chris to jump back here and know (beep) and he's just made a bigger mess for us. It's (beep) annoying because this is where our liquor cost is going. Are these clean or dirty? - I don't know. - Chris was doing this mess. - Chris, this was the table to take care of. How long ago did we order our food? - 22 minutes ago. (beep) - [Chris] It was easier being a cop. - This is a train wreck! - Welcome to my (beep) world. - Jesus Christ. - Holy shit. - Chris, can you grab some ice downstairs? - Chris, when you get a second, falling behind! - So I thought to myself, for recon, who do I know that spends a lot of time on the road that know bars, that know good food, so I got Ryan Reaves, Nate Schmidt, two of my favorite hockey players in the world. These guys tour major cities, go to the best venues, they're always treated incredibly well, they're VIPs and Ryan is even a part owner in 7Five Brewing Company, so he really knows his stuff. - Here's some of our cocktails we have here. - Thanks. - Alright. - I'm gonna get out of my comfort zone here. - Me too. - I'll try this huckleberry limeade. - Huckleberry limeade? - Yeah, is it good? - It's good. - You wouldn't lie to me, would you? - I wouldn't lie to you. - Okay. - I think I'll take a Kiss Me then. - [Bartender] And a Kiss Me? - That's definitely outside my comfort zone. - Oh man, yeah. - Alright, well I'll see you when I get out of here, I guess. - So there's Brandon. He appears to be in some kind of crisis management, doesn't he? What could possibly be going on with six customers or so in this bar that would have him in the office at that time doing that? - A real owner is gonna be out there talking to their guests, talking to their people, he can go talk to Ryan and Nate, make them feel welcome inside the bar, that's all they're really looking for. - What's this? - Huckleberry. (tense music) - Oh, that is sweet, oh, that is sweet. It's like sugar cubes. - Like a Fun Dip? - Yeah. (laughing) What's in that? - Whipped cream. (chattering) - There's whipped cream in that? - Yeah, there's whipped cream. - Oh, I can't wait to see this. - Do we not have any whipped cream? - No, we don't have any, no whipped cream. - Why would they be out of whipped cream in a can? You put a can in the fridge, it stays there for months. It's not like they have to buy it every week or rotate it. You'd think if they have a drink with whipped cream that would be one product that they would have plenty of in the fridge. - Exactly. - Try that, if you don't like it let me know. - Imagine it with the whipped cream. - Imagine it with it! - Oh boy. - Not bad? - Is there a margarita on the possibility? - You want a margarita? - Yeah. - Can I actually do a margarita too? - [Bartender] Yeah, two margaritas? - Yeah, thank you. - Yeah, thank you. - Maybe that's where the time for two comes from, the first drink sucks so it's time for two. - [Phil] It's time for two. (drink shaking) - Okay, what kind of mixer is that? Is that a plastic cup? - [Phil] They don't even have proper tools back there. - [Jon] That's an old style martini cup, it has a strainer built into the lid. Look at how little it filled the glass. - [Phil] Oh, and then she's adding ice after. - [Jon] How's that working out, Phil? - [Phil] It's horrible, now she's adding more mix 'cause she has to fill it up. - [Jon] By not measuring properly there's no way this is gonna be a balanced cocktail. - Can we do an order of the wings, the tenders and the wedges? - What's the point of shaking it if you're gonna pour more mix in when you're done? What's the point? - Cheer, big fella. - Cheers. - It's very sweet. - Sweet. - I like mine kinda spicy. - And there is a very small, almost residential deep fryer. - Right, something that you could have in your own kitchen at home. - With a deep fryer like that you put more than six or seven wings in that thing, the temperature drops right away. You can't cook in a commercial environment with that thing, Phil. - No way. - [Jon] You see any gloves anywhere? - [Phil] I see zero gloves, I was just about to say that. - So is a bartender trained in kitchen sanitation? - Come on. - This is a completely different discipline. Bartenders make drinks, kitchen personnel are trained to run a kitchen. Do you think that she has any idea how to work in a kitchen? - [Phil] No, absolutely not, absolutely not. - And where the hell is Brandon in all of this? It looks like he's still screwing around in his office! That's just absolutely insane. - We have wings. - I'm gonna dive into this little guy right here. - Look at his face! - Super, super, super greasy. - Phil, the food is absolutely terrible, there's not enough customers in there, we're not gonna learn much about the bartenders watching this. What about if you go in? I wanna see if the bartenders react to you well. Right, can they make it for you? We'll at least know where they stand and then we can deal with it then. - [Phil] Let me go see what these guys are working with in there, Jon. - [Jon] Great, let's give it to 'em, buddy. - Alright. (tense music) How you doing? (chattering) What's up, I'm Phil. How you doing, what's your name? - Anthony. - Anthony? - Yes sir. - What's your name? - Amanda. - Amanda, nice to meet you. My two friends right here, they have margaritas. - Yes. - I wanna see how you guys make those margaritas because I do that Trina made 'em wrong so I wanna see how you guys make 'em. We have margarita glasses? What's the size of those margarita glasses? Do we know? - I don't know the size of those, no. We don't have free pour so I've never been trained on it. - Let's make this margarita, let's taste it. One, two, three, four. Holy shit that's a lot of juice. - [Bartender] I'm making them-- - Let's pour that drink. What are we doing? (beep) takes forever. What is this? Whoa, okay. - We always use the ice that we have. - Go ahead, do your thing. So you made two drinks in one, right? - I tried to. - I can't watch this anymore. - Oh (beep). (upbeat music)
B1 beep jon bar drink narrator micah Best Celebrity Recon Moments of Bar Rescue 4 0 林宜悉 posted on 2021/01/27 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary