dfmaverick2

If you are truly running an unprofitable business and losing money by operating, you are probably done a service in closing for three days.

Gambit

3 days may be the timetable of the show, but it's pretty obvious from the crappy editing that they are spending more than 3 days. I would guess it has to be at least a week, and not necessarily continuous.

TGM

I totally get suckered into the day long marathons SpikeTV has of this show

islandclaws

^ Ditto. As formulaic as this show is, just like Kitchen Nightmares, I can't stop watching it. It's one of the few reality shows I can stomach, mainly because - like Ramsay - I just love watching Taffer lay into people left and right.

Charlie Goose

Yes, enjoying it a lot. I'm sure a lot of it is staged just like other reality shows, but it's still fun watching the regular workers get bent out of shape when Taffer and his experts start barking at them. These bars are lucky the show dumps so much money into them.

Fist of Doom

They do a great job making the bars over, too. These bars get some seriously nice new equipment.

CPA-ESQ.

seems like this season Taffer had calmed down a bit.

In some of these episodes he had broken from the formula of coming in screaming and yelling, then training, stress test, becomes friendly with owner / fixes up bar.

Still a great show, and love watching it.

dex14

New episodes start tonight at 9.

Norm de Plume

Thanks for the heads-up.

TheKing

This show is hilarious sometimes. Tonight for example: everyone getting all pissed off because one of the bartenders wasn't as committed to the job as much as the owners are. Ummm as she pointed out, it's a part time job, why would it be the top priority in her life? I mean they have every right to fire her for leaving, but expecting people on a shit job to drop everything for said shit job is BS.

That's really been the one major disconnect I think the show has. The employees are almost always punished for the problems of the owners on this show. Sometimes they deserve it, but many times they're no better or worse than you'd find at any regular bar.

james2025a

I admit that i take a guilty pleasure in this show. Not sure what it is about the show (as every show is exactly the same....failing bar with out of control staff, arrogant owner, Taffer comes in....shouts and screams, shows them how filthy everything is and how slow they are and that their theme is not working, calms down, stress tests them, changes everything, provides new ideas for drinks i.e. cocktails and food and leaves thinking he has solved their problems. Two months later the bar closes for good), but it is funny at times. I keep watching and cannot fail but laugh how Taffer wears the worst fitting suits in history. He is like a gorilla at times. Its worth watching the episodes with Mixologist Jessie Barnes as she is smoking hot. I saw a repeat yesterday with the Bacon bar and that new bartender girl they brought in was super hot. I would go in their for sure if she was still there.

The show is one of the worst for being utterly fake. But easy watching at times.

devilshalo

Jessie isn't a mixologist. She's the service/hospitality expert. But yes, she is pretty smokin'.

Norm de Plume

It doesn't come across as fake to me, and I can almost always detect these things. Taffer's "blowhard" persona is wearing thin. It's hilarious to see him swagger into a bar, head tilting back and forth like a peacock, as if he's Mr. Big.
I also don't really cotton to how the show provides an expensive remodelling job, unlike, say, Ramsey's U.K. version of Kitchen Nightmares, where he would just go in and diagnose problems and try to help the restaurateurs fix them without the show paying a penny (as I recall).
I agree to a certain extent, but either she's an employee committed to the job, or not. Even as a lowly part-timer, for which I have a lot of sympathy, she has to do the job properly or she's nothing more than a liability.

Count Dooku

http://www.barrescueupdates.com/p/al...e-updates.html

Here's a page that tracks which bars stay open and which close later on.

Looks like most switch back to their old names right after Tapper departs.

LiquidSky

This is one of my guilty pleasures.

Paff

In some cases, I can see why. Tapper tends to have his makeovers "flavors of the week", what's trendy now may not be so tomorrow. Like that one place that became The Bacon Bar or whatever. Will that kind of theme have staying power? Another "botchover" (at least in the name) was The Brixton. That's a cool name for a bar, especially in hipster Austin! I totally see why the owner didn't go for the name change.

Of course there was the infamous Piratz bar. Even though I think the whole pirate theme was stupid and a guaranteed money-loser, the fact that he tried to change it to a yuppie bar called The Corporate was even worse. There's no way free-spirits like the pirate goofballs were gonna be willing to do such a radical change, no matter what the area demographics (many office buildings nearby) dicate. Tapper should have madeover that bar in a way that reflected the owners' personal style. Personally, I think he intentionally did in a way that would piss off the owners.

My biggest question about this and Kitchen Nightmares is, does anyone who's getting a makeover actually SEE the show beforehand? Because in almost every one of these, the bar/restaurant is a disgusting pigsty. I think if I knew I was gonna be on TV, I'd do the massive cleaning BEFORE the cameras came in. The fact that they don't makes me question the veracity of the show in general. (It's like the Vons store in LA that was selected for the movie Go. The producers deliberately found a run-down supermarket, paid the owners for the shoot, and the owners used that money do do a store renovation much to the chagrin of the film producers. THAT'S what really happens when a business is going to be on film)

devilshalo

I agreed with most of his rebranding efforts in order for the bars to make money. It's not about owner's personality reflected in the bar, if they happen to coincide then it's one thing, but rebranding is done in an effort to produce revenue.

Count Dooku

In terms of The Brixton, I agree with Tapper's logic that the name needed to be changed just for branding purposes.
The bar is failing with the name Brixton, it's only word-of-mouth reputation is a bad one, and there's an internet trail of negative media. You need to change names just to get a fresh start.

I am not much of a fan of the make-overs devoted to an elaborate theme, but I am not the knd of person that would spend any time in a themed bar anyways.

Easily the best thing the show does is give your failing business a free remodel that would otherwise be super expensive.

dex14

Paff

I really hope either The Simpsons or Family Guy gets Taffer to do a guest voice on an episode where they do a bar rescue of Moe's/The Drunken Clam.

TheKing

Wow, Bar Rescue broke new ground tonight. Taffer walked out! In what was probably the most dysfunctional bar staff of any in the history of the show, Taffer went through what he said was an extra step and did a background check on the owners and history of the bar. He did this after he had already walked out on them once.

After the check, he pulled the plug on the rescue, saying he couldn't in good conscience do business with these people. Considering the people that got the makeover, that says A LOT!

Seriously, if you don't care about the actual rescue, and just want to see a bunch a stupid assholes tank their own business into the ground, this is the episode for you!

BTW, here's the hilarious website for the bar, which utilizes obvious stock photos:

http://www.ofacebar.com/

Xiroteus

The following is just going to be based on everything we see being real as that's the easiest way to comment.

This would be the type of business you want to see run into the ground because they are horrible people and anyone else working there would be better off doing anything else. (Not always easy to just leave a job) A bunch of alcoholics that drink all day.

Like many of these types of shows it's likely a mix of fact and fiction yet I doubt enough to where they are not horrible owners.

Norm de Plume

I have it PVRed. Looking forward to it. One of the biggest assholes he ever had on the show was the guy whose employees were living solely off tips, or something like that. I can't remember the name of the outfit, but the odious person continued his shady ways after the taping.

dex14

These people were awful. It was a nice change of pace to actually have the rescue NOT happen. I never believe that someone can change in a day and turn the business around.

Count Dooku

That was Headhunters which became a steampunk themed bar in Austin