Brannan Manor (SacTown Sports Bar) - Bar Rescue Update

In this week's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Sacramento, California to rescue SacTown Sports Bar & Grill.  SacTown Sports Bar & Grill is a sports bar that was opened by Chris Eaton about three years ago.  Chris is losing about $8,000 a month and is apparently two months away from closing.  T-Pain is there to help Jon Taffer do recon and they go inside with the "disguise" of a black hat to experience the bar firsthand.  They find that the food is disgusting, the drinks are too strong, and that Chris doesn't have a good idea of the kind of bar that will work in this location.


During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to change the name of SacTown Sports Bar & Grill to Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits and the bar has kept the name. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Brannan Manor since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):





Positive Reviews:

• "Stopped in randomly. Best experience I've had as a late arrival. They were amazing and the food was spectacular! Blue crab pull bread may be the best thing you've eaten in years. It's that good. Then found out bar rescue was here and featured this appetizer. Absolutely worth the visit. Fairly priced with great service. Glad I stopped in. I will be back for sure"
• "Great, food, drinks, and prices! We have hosted multiple ladies night events at this venue they are always a pleasure to work with!"
• "I always sit at the bar for a couple of pints on the way home... Shay, the barkeep, is a great conversationalist, and the locals are intelligent & easy going. I always arrive home relaxed, and ready to kick it."
• "We have always enjoyed coming to Sac Town Sports Bar & Grill, they had a great menu and an awesome bar with a lot of TV's. Now that they have changed to the name to Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits, they have created an even more amazing restaurant and bar. It is real classy and their prices did not go up. Their menu has expanded to include some fine dining options that are very reasonably priced. We love coming here before events at the Golden One, they always have space for our groups, and the post-event parties are fun as well. PS They even have a great breakfast!!!!!"

Negative Reviews:

• "Food was decent. The service wasn't. I watched as three other groups got ignored for half an hour and then got up and left,and it wasn't even busy. Eventually we had to track down a waitress just to pay and get out of there."
• "It was so difficult. Service was slow and appathetic. It took over an hour to get our check. The food was good but not worth the lack of customer service."
• "I had never heard of this place until our recent visit to Old Town Sacramento, and because we saw it was "Bar Rescued" we thought we would give it a try. Unfortunately we were pretty disappointed. The wait staff was polite but not very attentive. The drink we had was good, but the kitchen sent out both meals we had incorrect. The waitress was polite and you could tell she was frustrated with the cooks when we brought this to her attention. Also for a place called Brannon Manor it was pretty devoid of any ambiance and fell short of any expectation we had for a place that was supposed to be a "haunt". 60 dollars later we were pretty disappointed with the food which was good not great, and left without any plans to ever come back. Forgettable at best."
• "Went in to this establishment last Friday night around 9:30 it was pretty empty. I am not a beer drinker at all, so I asked for a drink menu and the bartender lady said they didn't have one but if I told her the alcohol I wanted she'd make something up for me. Hmm, wasn't this place just renovated by Job Taffer from Bar Rescue? I've watched enough of the series to know that they help with the drink menu and create drinks.... The decor is ok, but we won't be back anytime soon. I can pick the alcohol I want at home and create my drinks for a much cheaper price."
• "This place is not so good. The food is alright. Service is a bit slow. The fries are good though! Came here on NYE and got seated so quickly. Maybe it was just a rough night! But I'm not too big a fan as of today!"
• "Horrible service. Took 20 min to get a drink. Food was below average. Would NOT come back. The bar wasn't even busy. To get out 3 drinks in 20 min is very unacceptable. Restaurant had a handful of people. Nobody to greet and seat you. Service was so slow I'm not quite sure how this place stays open. We would have stayed and had drinks had they been able to serve them. Unfortunately they struggled to keep up with 3 drinks."
• "Bad/slow service. The theme is confusing. Pricing isn't bad. Haunted Mansion decor with sports bar number of tvs meets typical greasy bar food. A disappointment for sure."
• "Another place where you can sit patiently at the bar for thirty minutes and not be helped. This was my first experience here and I'm not impressed nor would I care to come back. The only thing I'll remember about this place is probably the poor service. It's not like the bar was near packed either."

*Reviews from Yelp, Google


Other News and Links:

• Here is a 6-minute preview video of the episode from the Paramount TV YouTube page.
• The Bar Rescue for SacTown Sports Bar & Grill happened in October 2019.
• Here is the Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits Facebook page.
• Here a SacTown Sports Bar website and Facebook page which they still post updates to.
• Here is the Facebook page of Chris (owner)
• Here is a 30-second commercial for Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits. (Link)
• Here are the reviews for Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits on Yelp, Tripadvisor and Google.
• The bar responds to a lot of the negative reviews, especially on Google.  Most of the responses are sarcastic.
• Here were the reviews for SacTown Sports Bar from Yelp and Tripadvisor before the makeover.  They weren't to great and averaged 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5.
• Here is a Reddit thread of locals talking about Bar Rescue being in town to do the makeover.  They discuss Old Sacramento and how not many locals go there, but tourists do.  Someone how was supposedly there during filming said they had a customer order beers so the bartender could say they were out even though they weren't.  Another Reddit thread also talks about Old Sacramento being a bad location for locals.
• There is a charity called California Police Youth Charities that got negative press in 2015 due to most of the money going to telemarketers rather than children. The CEO of that charity is Chris Eaton who has a salary of over $80,000. (Link)  Looking at the pictures on the CPYC charity website, it looks like it is Chris from Brannan Manor.  The charity was also sued in 2009 by the state of California for "conspiring and using deceptive practices to defraud donors". (Link)
• There are a lot of athletes as Celebrity Advisers for California Police Youth Charities.

Conclusion:

Jon Taffer decided to change the name of SacTown Sports Bar & Grill to Brannan Manor Restaurant & Spirits and the bar has kept the name.  The reviews for Brannan Manor have been pretty negative with people complaining a lot about service, even in cases where the bar is not crowded.  The reviews for the food are mixed and some people seem to think the theme is not that great or confusing.  Brannan Manor owner Chris Eaton has been responding to negative reviews online sarcastically and he is the CEO of a charity that has received scrutiny in the past because of how they use their money.

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