Sunday, March 15, 2015

Bar Rescue - Stein Haus Brau & Brats (Friar Tuck's) Update

On tonight's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Pomona, California to try to rescue Friar Tuck's.  Friar Tuck's is a castle-shaped bar, and the owner Ivan has anger management issues that has pushed his staff to their breaking point.  Ivan does not get along well with his bartenders, or his general manager Sami, and he is supposedly $100,000 in debt due to the bar.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Friar Tuck's was renamed to Stein Haus Brau & Brats, which has a German theme most likely due to the castle exterior.  The bar has kept the name of Stein Haus Brau & Brats.  Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Stein Haus Brau & Brats since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar:



Positive Reviews:
  • "Cool local place, great German brews, and a nice Brat to boot. Two pool tables and plenty of monitors with sports make this place a local winner. Best of luck to you guys."
  • "First time I had been since the makeover.....much better!! Food looked good and next time I will plan to eat there. Staff was friendly along with the small crowd....I really liked the decor....dark wood tables and chairs. Good job!!!!"
  • "Much better than before. Different crowd. Better beer selection. Would be better with more craft beers on tap. Didnt try the food got here after 12. Cool band playing tonight...Stoked for the future of this place!"
  • "Nice change! Inside is really cool looking now. No more mismatched broken tile. Seams like a new crowd in here. New faces, they must be drawing in lot's of new people...it seems like everyone loves the food who is eating in here."
  • "Stein Haus Brau & Brats has done a good job cleaning up Friar Tucks and still has that home feel to it! They also have a awesome DJ that plays everything and well!"
  • "Great service!  The drinks are tasty and the food is delicious!  I found the bartenders to be very friendly.  My wife had the German heff and pork schnitzel sandwich and I had a  cold stein of Ludwig and the beer poached bratwurst.  Great atmosphere. Definately going back."


Negative Reviews:
  • "I came here at about 8 pm on a weekday night.   I was hungry and looking forward to trying their German food...The menu seemed very limited, but there was a brat sandwich.   Figuring that was the signature dish I asked the bartender for one.   "The cooks gone home.   We are not serving food."...If you want a dive beer bar, it might be worth a try."
  • "Pot holes, pot holes, pot holes! Did Bar Rescue quit the renovation midway through? That can be the only explanation for old Friar Tuck's turning into Stein Haus and still not fixing the awful pot holes laden through the parking lot."
  • "I like the color brown, heck I am brown, that being said wtf is up with the entire inside and outside painted dookie brown? Were no other colors available at the Home Depot?..Another confusing thing is the place is called Stein Haus but yet only pints and pitchers served? No liters served like other traditional German/Oktoberfest type restaurants. The food is really good, the braut was tasty. Also, make sure you have plenty of air in your tires before you come because there are potholes in the parking lot that are bigger than craters on the moon."
  • "Female bartender less then friendly, didn't get a chance to look at the bar/app flyer, didn't get informed about any promoted drinks.  Sad to say the problem with this place is regulars and staff, because this place wants to be awesome and packed, but as I said before it didn't seem inviting."
*Reviews from Yelp

Other News and Links:
  • The Bar Rescue makeover happened in December of 2014.
  • Here are two preview videos of the episode from the Spike TV website:Video 1 (Intro)Video 2 (Recon)
  • Here is the Stein Haus Brau & Brats Facebook page, and here is the old Friar Tuck's Facebook page.
  • Here is the Stein Haus website, which is just a food and drink menu.
  • Here are the Facebook pages of Sami (GM), Trista (Bartender), and Lonnie (Bartender)
  • Here are some reviews of Friar Tuck's before the makeover, which aren't too bad. 
  • Here is an article about the makeover, which gives some background on the building and the bar.  GM Sami is quoted as saying, "With the new look, the new name, the new brand, we want to upgrade.  We want a better clientele that can appreciate the food and the atmosphere.”
  • The author of that article also reviewed the food on a blog post and said he was pleasantly surprised with it.

Conclusion:

Stein Haus Brau & Brats has kept the name given to them by Bar Rescue and they seem happy with the makeover.  The reviews of the bar since the makeover have been mostly positive with people complementing the interior, the food, the better crowd, and the service.   There are a few negative reviews, which complained about service and the large pot holes in the parking lot that are still there.


UPDATE - Stein Haus closed in November 2015 - More info on the closure.

*To see how all of the bars from Bar Rescue are doing, go to the Bar Rescue Update page, and also Like us on Facebook or Follow Us on Twitter to stay up to date with all things involving Bar Rescue.

24 comments:

  1. Wow, for the first time they featured a place I've actually been to. I used to live right down the street from this place, and I can tell you that a lot of the locals considered the place to be a dump and would never consider going into the place. So it's no surprise to me that the place was being rescued.


    BTW, I can't imagine working anywhere for 5 years and not getting paid. I would have called the DOL a long time ago.

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  2. It takes a true idiot to work at a any establishment for 5 years with no pay.. Slice some cheese because this entire staff were idiotic winers!!!

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  3. "dookie brown"..wasn't that a TV show? Wait...that was "dookie howser". Oh...doogie howser. Maybe it was a color in my big box of Crayolas when I was a kid.

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  4. Bahhaha Awesome . Party on ..

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  5. I'm sure he got money in 5 years - he just didn't get a paycheck. As far as the negative reviews - haters gonna hate. But if you look at the ground when Taffer and the owner are outside looking at the map, you can see the parking lot is a crumbling mess.

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  6. Princess StarlightMarch 16, 2015 at 8:31 AM

    I was looking at the Facebook page and they where having a viewing party. Someone asked if kids can come, I'm sorry but since when are kids allowed in bars?

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  7. Slippery Slope GuyMarch 16, 2015 at 4:01 PM

    You serious?

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  8. Even after her training by the mixology expert, one of the bartenders shook a cocktail like she was plunging a toilet.

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  9. But were all her right parts shakin?

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  10. You noticed that too,huh?

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  11. A parking lot filled with potholes is awful, yes, but you can't expect Bar Rescue to fix everything. They are obviously going to funnel most of the money into the bar itself. If the place really is much improved, it will hopefully be making enough of a profit so that the owner can fix the parking lot on his own.

    It sounds like this was an overall positive experience. Best of luck to them.

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  12. So a female bartender makes sexual innuendo jokes to male customers and Taffer and Stanhope let it slide. I know if a male employee did that to female customers he would have been fired.

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  13. My thoughts exactly!!

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  14. Girls making jokes like that to Guys = Guys not offended, probably like it.
    Guys making jokes like that to Girls = Girls are most often offended.



    Of course they would let it slide because it is about making the customer happy, if a guy said stuff the girls like that it would likely make them leave so it is a big difference. They responded the way they should.

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  15. "Pot holes, pot holes, pot holes! Did Bar Rescue quit the renovation
    midway through? That can be the only explanation for old Friar Tuck's
    turning into Stein Haus and still not fixing the awful pot holes laden
    through the parking lot."

    Is one of the dumbest complaints I can think of, Bar Rescue has NEVER fixed a parking lot because most of the time the bar doesn't own the freaking land and they have no right to work on it.

    Landowners are the people who should be fixing the parking lot, not the company using the land . . . it is not their responsibility.

    Edit: Ok I though the pot holes thing was bad but the guy complaining about the color is just moronic. Google Image Search "german castle" and you will find the only two colors that make sense for a castle, grey and brown.

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  16. Most of the parking lots in my town have potholes, they're typically not a big priority for people to fix.

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  17. Depends on the state, Wisconsin allows kids to sit at bars but my state Illinois does not.

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  18. Yeah, if a girl made comments to me like that in a bar, I would definitely stay LOL.

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  19. I am just pointing out the hypocrisy. Even though Jon did kind of balk at "her forwardness" as he stated he didn't go all out like he does when males do sexual innuendos to female customers/employees.
    Sexual Harassment laws should be equally applied or it shouldn't be law at all.

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  20. In PA, as long as the kitchen is open, kids can be there. They usually aren't in a BAR kind of bar, but the ones with floor space and tables, yes.

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  21. Its called Bar Rescue, NOT parking lot rescue. Plus quikcrete is 3 bucks a bag.

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  22. pot holes?? haha you wuss, try living in the northeast.

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  23. As much as Taffer touts "when you _______, people spend 30-60% more time/money", you would think he would address the parking lot, because when a place has a parking lot full of potholes, people tend to not go back.

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  24. Have to check the place out sometime.. Although, Pomona is a desired location, they better have a great reason to patronize. WHO works for free for a day let alone 5 years? Impossible, people have to live, pay bills.. I hope the place doesn't smell as fishy as someone working for free!!!

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