- Back when my grandfather was here
he would not serve nobody, no barbecue three days old.
- Everybody was eating the food fine and everything.
- This is wrong for you to serve people
and call it barbecue.
I was not born to eat barbecue off the fridgerator.
I ate off the grill.
(bell dings)
- So this bar is losing $5,000 a month.
And John is married,
has a beautiful son who's six years old.
John's house is on the line.
He's in debt $100,000.
So John is stressed.
He feels they only have about 8 or 10 months left
till their outta money.
Louie has no wife, no kid.
So he doesn't feel the stress like John does.
- Uhhhhhhhh. We alright back bere
- Yeah, I'm cool John.
- All right.
- I'll call you if I need you bro.
- [Jon] There's Billy and he's the cook.
So look at this.
- Ehhhh
- What's the matter?
- Nothing, I gotta move my car.
- [Jon] So I've had this place under surveillance
for the past 3 nights.
John, he makes that food at home.
Brings it to the bar.
Serves it in the bar, I have health concerns about that.
Its illegal to serve food in a commercial environment
that was produced in a residential kitchen.
Cause that can't be inspected by a health inspector.
(investigative music)
(Bar patrons talking in the background)
- This is really good.
- Like to me its great food.
- Problem is he's cooking at home
and I've gotta change that.
- You've got some work to do.
- I do.
- Now I know you like the barbecue,
I had your ribs, they real good
you know what I mean?
Only problem is we don't have no smoke.
We we gonna give you some recipes
that you can cook here as opposed to doing 'em at home,
like you do your ribs.
- Yeah
- [John] I bought a smoker that's on a trailer.
I can't even leave it here
because I'm afraid somebody's gonna steal it.
As a result, I take the food back
to my house and I smoke it there.
- So what we finna do now we gonna do some chicken.
- [John] All right.
- Okay? Mustard that down poultry seasoning.
Then come a little heavy
with some of this coarse black pepper.
Open up that oven, get 'em in that oven.
That's it.
We gonna come back to these in about 45 minutes.
- [John] Okay?
- As they order we going get 'em
on your grill right there.
- [John] Right.
- And then finna make this,
in less than five minutes though.
We don't have no smoker but we do barbecue.
Kind of weird, but that's what we do here, right?
Tonight's the stress test.
We got you ready. Imma be in there wichu.
- [Billy] Quick, fast and easy
when it's a one man show in here.
You don't need an expediter for anything like this.
- Let's do it baby.
- All right.
- Got it. - Dog pile.
- Dog pile. - Its ruff! Ruff!
- I'm gonna do everything that I'm supposed to,
to make this place great.
- Good.
- So Kev, we do barbecue back there?
- No, we can't do real barbecue back there.
There's no smoker.
We need a little help.
- Take a look over there for a second.
(chimes chime)
- Wow
- Oh my god.
(cheering)
- [Jon] This is an electric smoker
- Oh my god.
- Yeah baby.
- That's what I'm talking about.
- Since it's electric, the heat is 100% consistent.
Load it up at night.
When you come here in the morning, everything is smoked
and ready to go and look at the capacity.
- That is awesome.
- [John] No more smoking at home, traveling.
Louie was worried about the change and this is
the first step to show
that it's gonna go in the right direction for us.
- [Narrator] Surveillance cameras
have been placed around the bar
for John and Russell to observe the service
from a customer's point of view.
- [Patron] I'll do the barbecue chicken here.
- Yeah.
- I can't stand her.
She's rude, she's obnoxious.
- That bartender's name is yum yum. And she's drinking too.
- I gotta get a cigarette.
I gotta get a cigarette.
- What the hell?
- Now I wanna see you in a kitchen.
That's Tommy, the kitchen manager
and he's doing prep in the middle of dinner.
And that's Matt the line cook.
- How much longer am my barbecue chicken?
- It'll be ready in just a minute.
- [Jon] Look at this they dunked it barbecue sauce.
So it's not real barbecue.
It's barbecue flavored food.
The sign on this building says badass barbecue.
There is no barbecue here.
Just doused in barbecue sauce.
Let's see what she thinks of it.
- All right.
- Its so covered. Bleh.
It was really just jar of sauce on your chicken.
It was horrible.
- We ate dinner here last night
and I had to do the same thing.
I had to send it back and get something else.
- How's everything tasting?
- [Genevieve] It's very heavily covered in barbecue.
- [Alleah] You want me to get you something else?
- What the hell.
- There's some people that are mad about their food.
I'm gonna buy 'em some shots so let's do it.
- [Alleah] She's mad about her food.
Are you buying her another shot?
- (slurring) What'd she eat?
You're mad about your food too.
- Yeah.
- No she just didn't like it.
- Can we get her a shot too?
- Oh, I don't need one.
- This is really not a good way to fix our food
but let's have fun with it.
- Jesus (beep)
- Right behind you, we do have food.
Unfortunately, you have to order from the window and
I'll have to give you your card back
if you want to get food.
- Oh my god.
(bell dings)
- Ryan
- It's ridiculous.
- Seriously inconvenient.
- Hi. I feel like I'm scared,
like being away from our drinks
like someone's gonna spike 'em.
- [Jon] I wouldn't leave a drink
if I was a girl these days, would you?
- Oh absolutely not.
- [Jon] Look at that meat. That looks good Russ.
- [Russell] It does look good.
- Nice and juicy. - Nice and moist.
- So look at the barbecue.
Everything goes in a to go container.
- Beautiful girls don't wanna
eat out of that kind of stuff.
- [Jon] Course not, it cheapens the whole environment.
- Ladies how's the food?
- So good.
- They like it. They're eating it.
You make some good barbecue.
- Yes.
- We could put together a decent food program
in here working with him and turn into a real,
you know cooperative arrangement.
So guys, after last night I called some of my best experts.
Kevin is the most passionate
about barbecue of anyone I've ever met.
- [Narrator] To facilitate a relationship
with the barbecue restaurant next door.
John brings in Kevin Bludso.
Having recently opened the hottest barbecue spot
in Los Angeles, Kevin knows the importance
of pairing and presentation.
- This is Russell Davis.
Russell Davis was mixologist of the year 2012.
So Kev, I'm gonna have you check
out the barbecue place and Russell go behind a bar.
I get a barbecue restaurant next door
to a bar that doesn't have a kitchen
and I got a window connecting to two spaces.
Even though these are two separate businesses
I can increase the sales
to the barbecue restaurant and increase the sales
for the bar by perfecting this relationship.
- [Kevin] Excellent flavor man.
Nice bark on it.
- These guys can cook, huh?
- [Kevin] Oh yeah man.
Try some of this brisket right here.
- Wow.
- Show me a dinner.
- Sure thing.
- [Kevin] Do you do styrofoam for here too?
Or or just the go?
- Yes, we do styrofoam for here also.
- [Kevin] Okay. The big problem, you know, no presentation.
- [Jon] What we're trying to do guys,
is we're trying to just set up
plate presentations that make sense for the bar.
Smaller portions, you know plate, not a to go container.
- [Kevin] So tonight we gonna try to
fix it up a little bit.
Present me right now some ribs on this plate.
(electronic music)
Some sides with that too.
Excellent.
- So cool, you're in? We'll make some money together.
- Yes.
- Thank you señor.
- Good to see you buddy.
- Always man. Good to be here.
- It's been a long year.
- Been a long year. We got through it though.
- Yeah, we di
- [Narrator] For the kitchen
John brings in legendary pit master, Kevin Bludso.
Kevin can turn any culinary cadet into a barbecue captain.
- You know these guys here
they didn't get through it so good Kev.
- Yeah. I've done a lot of 'em wichu,
but this is incredible and I, you know I
just lost my brother
almost two years ago.
And my brother was a vet in the Navy and Marines.
- Wow.
- So Imma take this one personal
and do him proud and bring some
of the best barbecue down to these people in the world.
- That's why I wanted to have you here buddy.
- I'm glad to be here
- I'm glad you feel that way.
So take a look at this place.
So there is Marty.
- Hey Marty
- [Kevin] Okay.
- He's the commanding officer.
- [Kevin] Okay.
- And his wife Sue has been key behind the bar.
And then right there is Steve
and Steve is the vice commander.
- [Kevin] Okay.
- You got a chicken quesadilla for Joe. Joe at the bar.
- There's Bonnie. Bonnie's the auxiliary president.
- [Kevin] Okay.
- $4 please.
- Can I get you another cocktail here?
- [Jon] And there's Vicky, she's a bartender.
- [Kevin] Okay.
- Keeping it open?
- [Jon] There's Remi.
- [Kevin] Okay.
- [Jon] She's another bartender.
- Two soft tacos, beef.
- Uh, over here.
- [Jon] Then there's Tish, the kitchen manager.
- Already one of my pet peeves.
She didn't cook that to a T all the way through.
That drives me crazy.
It's rubbery and
- [Jon] Yep, doesn't have the right consistency.
- [Kevin] Yeah.
- [Jon] That meat looks pretty dry doesn't it?
- We are in the desert.
(both laughing)
Add some taco to my lettuce.
- [Jon] Yeah, they're not thinking of the ratios.
- [Kevin] Nah.
- [Jon] On that and a great taco
is all about the ratios
- [Kevin] Yeah. - [Jon] of lettuce
- [Kevin] Yup. - [Jon] Tomato
- [Kevin] Yup. - [Jon] to cheese to meat.
You don't get that ratio right,
no matter how good the individual ingredients are
taco won't be good
- You gonna bite into that cold lettuce
you can barely taste that meat.
- [Jon] Yep.
- [Patron] Thank you very much.
- You're welcome darling.
Did you guys order dinner?
- Yeah.
- I think I'm scared, but
- [Jon] All right, so Kev, here's what I think we should do.
We know we want to do barbecue.
Obviously it's working for them.
We gotta teach 'em how to do Bludso barbecue
and do it right?
- [Kevin] We do.
- [Jon] If we give 'em good food, that's hip.
- [Kevin] Yeah.
- [Jon] Right, we can make it youthful.
We can give 'em a decent cocktail program,
but we gotta make this place look decent Kev.
- [Kevin] Yeah. Yeah.
- So can you get protein, spices,
everything you need here by tomorrow?
- You ain't needa say nothin but a word Jon
it'll be here baby. I'm ready to go.
- Excellent.
- Let's do it man.
- Okay buddy. - Have a good one.
- See ya tomorrow buddy. - All right.
- [Kevin] What's up y'all?
- How we doing?
- How you doing? You good?
- Oh yeah, we're good.
- [Kevin] I know you see this beautiful gift that
bar rescue and Lang sent you guys.
Anybody that knows barbecuing know how Lang gets down.
They make some of the best smokers around.
So we are setting these people up.
Bludso brisket is a staple.
You guys are gonna have access to my brisket rub.
That's, I'm gonna be sentimental,
in fact, I'm gonna set you guys up for six months on me.
- Nice.
- Oh wow.
Because I like y'all so much all right so.
- That's awesome.
- [Kevin] But I like to get the sides and everything too.
We about to put these on for about a 15 hour
uh smoke bath. Fat side up.
- Okay.
- [Kevin] You know you want that fat to render down
in that meat.
So we got your briskets going.
That's only the first step.
- Right.
- [Kevin] Got a few more tricks of the trade.
I'm gonna show you guys.
We gonna get in this kitchen.
So y'all gonna be ready to go baby.
- All righty, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Awesome.
- [Kevin] The good thing about barbecue is
that you can do ahead of time.
This brisket was done on your smoker last night.
I broke your damn smoker in for you.
And see this, it's still gonna be juicy.
Yeah, it cuts like butter
- Just glistens.
- [Kevin] Little mac on there, get some fries on there.
Warm sauce. I can't stand no cold ass sauce on my barbecue.
That's gonna, that's your signature.
Low and slow, like post 54.
- Yep.
- [Kevin] Y'all ready to dig in that?
- Oh yeah.
- What flavor isn't that good?
- That is the best brisket I've ever had.
- [Kevin] And it was done right here.
- I think this is gonna put us on the map
for about a thousand miles around.
That food was totally awesome.
It looked like a piece of art.
I have never had such good brisket in my entire life.
I can't believe it wa it was cooked here.
- Tonight's the stress test.
Y'all know it's gonna be incredible.
It's called the stress test for a reason.
Y'all know y'all got some good food.
Let's show 'em what we do tonight. Let's do it.
- All right.
- Awesome.
- Sounds great.
- All right.
- Let me get the smoked brisket filet.
- Okay
(background chatter)
(Rock music)
- We got a order. Okay y'all, let's go.
- Yeah.
- Brisket plate. Grab that brisket out of there.
- [Jon] Here we go. And this is very realistic.
The evening began, people are lined up for food.
Now Tish has barbecue, it's slice and served.
It's pre-ready, that's the beauty of barbecue.
She should dig through this line quickly
now let's hope it happens.
- [Kevin] What you can do on on the brisket plate
is french fries and mac and cheese.
- Fantastic.
- You happy with the way everything is going?
- The bartenders are doing excellent.
- [Jon] Yeah and kitchen served the food incredibly quickly.
- Yes, fast as hell.
- Barbecues so quick.
- Just like I knew.
- [Jon] Slice and serve, you can't beat it.
- Excellent. - Fantastic.
- Order up.
- Look at Steve. He hasn't stopped for a second.
- Oh, I know.
- Not one. - I know
- He's hitting tables. He's hitting the bar.
He's going in the kitchen.
- Right.
- He's on it.
- I, I knew he would.
- So what did everybody say?
What are the comments?
- Oh, they love it.
- [Jon] The young people seem to like it.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- So, excellent, excellent. Thank you.
- Thank you.
- [Kevin] Nice looking plates there,
Tish and Barb. Nice.
- So what do you think?
- Great.
- Delicious.
- Good barbecue?
- Outstanding. I saw it smoking out there.
- Yeah.
- What's good on the menu?
- You have to order in the back.
- We can't do it from here.
- You have to go to the kitchen.
- There's no waiters, then no one's running any food?
- The bartenders strictly work on the bar.
The cook strictly works in the kitchen
and nobody's helping anyone else.
- I'll be with you in one second.
- I'm not in a hurry.
I'm chillin, I'm reading the paper.
- Okay
- Let me get a order of wings.
And then a brisket.
- Brisket.
- Do I pay here or?
- Yeah, you pay here.
- This is an incredibly inconvenient way
to take care of guests.
- They got separate registers for the front of the house
and the back of the house.
It is divided.
- One guy is both cooking and cashier and order.
- This bar is known for barbecue.
The food should be fresh off the grill
not stored in containers.
- Wow, that brisket is dry.
This bar's a legacy and and
they've let the legacy go down the drain.
It's like friends our waiting quite a bit here.
- Can I ask you to check with the folks about the food?
Thank you.
- Brisket and wings?
- Brisket ready. Just waiting on the uh chicken.
- Brisket is done but the chicken not.
Should I bring them the brisket?
- I would not serve that barbecue to anybody.
- She doesn't even want her staff selling the food.
That's lost money to her.
- You should see the brisket. It is so dry.
He has 'em in the oven, he's in the oven drying it out.
- Kitchen does not support the bar.
- At all.
So I'm not gonna support the kitchen.
- Everyone's sitting around and nobody's being active
in any way to solve the problem
because they are the problem.
- That is a lot of sauce.
- Thank you.
(pitch winds up getting higher)
- Look at that mess.
- The brisket, it's dry as hell.
I Honestly, I don't understand this so dry
with so much sauce.
It's a lot of sauce.
- Can you taste the meat?
- I mean, I can tell the meat is there cause I chewin it.
- You want me to take it back for you?
- I'm not gonna finish it. Yeah, please.
- Okay sweetie.
- No worries guy.
- Ruth publicly shamed Alan's food.
Now the customers are afraid to eat it.
- For every person that complains about their food
there's 26 quiet people that just don't come back.
- The guy that you just sold the brisket to,
he took one bite. He said it's drowned in sauce.
It's dried out.
- Brisket is not dry, but.
- It's dried out.
Special oven made.
- Okay (beep).
- Look at the lack of respect here.
- I told him to throw that barbecue in the garbage.
Check on it.
- You gotta to back up to the quality level that
we were at that your father taught you.
- On the real side, I think my food is excellent.
- When my grandfather was here, he would not serve nobody
no barbecue three days off.
- Everybody was eating the food. Buyin it.
- This wrong for you to serve people and call it barbecue.
I was not born to eat barbecue off the fridgerator.
I ate it off the grill.
- [Jon] This bar's problems are far deeper than the filth.
There's a dysfunctional family resentment, attitude.
Alan will not listen to Ruth and Vicky about the food
and Ruth's negative comments.
Just pull this business down.
(Rock music)
Hi, this is John Taffer.
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