Bar Rescue - Phish Tales (Phish Heads) Update

On this week's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Lake City, Florida to rescue Phish Heads.  Phish Heads is a bar owned by couple Toni and Philip Crenshaw who are supposedly $250,000 in debt.  Their "stubborn, lazy" son James has been working at the bar for 9 years and doesn't think he can run it by himself.


During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to slightly rename Phish Heads to Phish Tales and the bar has kept the name. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Phish Tales since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):

Bar Rescue - No Name Saloon Update

On this week's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Edgewater, Florida to rescue No Name Saloon. No Name Saloon is a family owned biker bar and the father is struggling to hand over control of the bar to his daughter.  The customers at the bar are unruly and do not have any respect for the employees of the bar.  No Name Saloon also doesn't have a drink menu and the portion sizes of their food are way too big.  The bar is supposedly losing $7,000 a month and the owner Jim Kelly is supposedly $800,000 in debt.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to keep the name of No Name Saloon. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for No Name Saloon since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):

Bar Rescue - R. Lee's (Schafer's Bar & Grill) Update

On tonight's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Sumner, Washington to try to rescue Schafer's Bar & Grill.  Schafer's Bar & Grill was owned by Jeff Schafer and he decided to sell the bar to Ryan Burks and Nita Wyatt.  When they bought the bar, they decided to keep Jeff as a bartender and he is apparently sabotaging the business. Schafer's is supposedly $500,000 in debt and a month from closing.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to change the name of Schafer's Bar & Grill to R. Lee's.  The bar quickly went back to their original name of Schafer's Bar & Grill and didn't like the makeover. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Schafer's Bar & Grill since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):

Judge Says O'Face From Bar Rescue Should Be Allowed To Renew Liquor License

You may recall back in May, the Council Bluffs City Council voted against renewing O'Face's liquor license due to their appearance on Bar Rescue and the negative publicity surrounding the bar.  O'Face appealed this decision to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division on July 28th, and on August 11th an Iowa judge ruled that O'Face should be allowed to renew their license.  The judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to support the denial of the liquor license, and that Council Bluffs didn't provide the episode of Bar Rescue on which it relied on to deny the license.  The only evidence was owner Matthew Overmyer's testimony, and based on the limited evidence, the judge ruled to reverse the decision of rejecting O'Face's liquor license renewal.

This decision is still not final, as it can be appealed by either party within 30 days.  Also, the Iowa Beverages Division does not have to agree with the judges decision.  If they do not agree with the judges decision, Matthew Overmyer can then appeal to the district court.

Another thing that is interesting is the testimony of Matthew Overmyer at the hearing. The full document is here, but the highlights include:

• He was told during their audition video, which had a staged fight, that the footage would only be shown to Jon Taffer and Spike TV executives.
• When the film crew arrived, they "wanted to show chaos at the bar, including fighting, disorderly conduct, and an empty bar without customers."
• The bar was not open to the public or regular customers during the filming, and Bar Rescue provided the customers for the stress test to complain about the food, drinks, and service.
• Both fights on the episode were done after the Bar Rescue crew suggested they needed more drama.
• He said he told the film crew that he was done with the "shenanigans" and would not cooperate with filming any more staged scenarios.  The crew left saying they would use the footage they had.  
• Matthew was surprised and embarrassed to see the casting video as part of the footage of the actual show.
• O'Face has seen a decline in business since their Bar Rescue episode aired.

It is pretty much things we assume and have heard with other Bar Rescue episodes, however it is interesting that he says they told the crew they were done staging scenes which caused them to leave. 

Would Jon Taffer have walked out on this Bar Rescue if O'Face continued giving the film crew what they wanted?  Or are we to even believe what Matt claimed?  I guess the only people that know for sure were the people involved in the taping of the show.

Dual Ultra Nightclub (Cashmere) From Bar Rescue Has Closed

Dual Nightclub in Raleigh, North Carolina, which was featured on season 3 of Bar Rescue has closed. They seem to have closed some time in May 2014 as they stopped updating their Facebook page and had the following statuses on their Twitter page:

When somebody asked them on Twitter if they were closed, the bar responded with: "Yep. Bar sold. #RIP #ThatShowIsTheKissOfDeath"


I reached out to the bar to ask why they closed, and they said "owner received offer on the property and decided it was time to sell. The owner got out of the bar industry."


This episode is mostly known for the "All In" manager James aka DJ Blue Steel. I reached out to James to ask him why the bar closed, and he decided to take a shot at Jon Taffer.

A local article shortly after the Dual Nightclub episode aired said that James wasn't even the manager at the time the Bar Rescue episode was filmed.  He left the bar in February of 2013, but was asked back to do the show because Bar Rescue supposedly said they wouldn't do the show without him.  While filming the show, James said it was "coached reality" with the producers egging him on to behave badly.  The article also said that one of the cocktail waitresses on the show was a friend of the owners and never actually worked there.

Dual Ultra Nightclub has now been marked as 'Closed' on the Bar Rescue Update Page.  Visit that page for updates on all bars that have appeared on Bar Rescue, and Like Us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter for additional updates.

Is Bar Rescue Fake? - Lawsuit Says So

While Jon Taffer always claims that Bar Rescue is real and nothing is ever scripted, most people who watch the show feel otherwise.  Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed by Dr. Paul T Wilkes against Bongo LLC (a Bar Rescue production company), Jon Taffer, and his wife Nicole Taffer.  Paul was an owner of the Sand Dollar in Las Vegas, which was on season 3 of the show and renamed to Bar 702.  You may remember the episode titled as "Don't Mess With Taffer's Wife" where Jon gets mad that Paul was hitting on his wife.  The full lawsuit is here from Deadline, but here are some of the highlights that give a lot of insight into the Bar Rescue process: