- [Jon] From the human interaction, to the product,
to what they do, how they do it.
This place is a joke.
As Tracy and her staff play pirate,
they don't even realize they're sitting on a treasure chest,
there's 15,000 workers within a couple of blocks
of this bar, and they're all looking
for a place to go for lunch and happy hour,
but candidly, they don't wanna eat with pirates.
Lunch is worth a half a million dollars to you.
Happy hour is worth $300,000 to you.
It makes sense?
- It does.
- So sit with me for a minute.
We have to win this war,
and we're not gonna win this war as a pirate bar.
- I don't believe in throwing the baby out
with the bath water.
I think there are changes that can be made,
I don't think that the essence needs
to be sacrificed for that.
- If we were in St. Petersburg, Florida,
we could talk about a family attraction.
There's no pirates here.
- So completely and totally changing every aspect of this
that has survived for five years.
- Yes.
You're living in the basement of your parent's house
with your daughter.
When do you say to yourself "This is my enemy."
- It's not my enemy.
- $1 million.
- It's not my enemy.
So Pirate's Tavern becomes yet another casualty
where the soul has been removed because it's not workable.
- I don't understand the hell you're talking about.
- The soul, of here.
- Businesses don't have souls.
Businesses are profit centers.
- So it becomes a martini bar.
- When are you gonna get it in your head,
pirates isn't working!
- You're asking me to throw away everything that's in here.
- Do you wanna be a pirate
or do you wanna send your daughter to college?
- When I started this business I said I was divin'
off a cliff with the hopes that I would grow wings
before hitting the bottom.
- If anything flew from the skies
outta nowhere to help you, it's me.
If you don't take advantage of this,
you'll never forgive yourself.
- Be my wings.
- The reality of the situation is
we're not attracting the bulk of the people around here.
And it breaks my heart
to see all of you look like this right now.
We have to push more towards a corporate atmosphere
and less towards a pirate atmosphere.
- [Jon] Not less, pirates is dead.
- I guess we'll have to play pirate somewhere else.
- Guys, we've gotta fill this bar for lunch.
I gotta fill it for happy hour, or we're dead.
- I think I'll reserve my judgment
to see how well you do exactly what you say.
- Is that the kinda attitude
that is gonna make us successful, guys?
If you don't like what I'm doing so be it,
'cause I'm not here to prove myself to you.
You gotta prove yourself to me.
Are you here tomorrow or not?
Maybe I'm not.
- Right, good night.
(suspenseful dramatic music)
You're walking out on your family
because you'd rather be a pirate.
- I'm walking out
because I've got a (beep) yellin' at me.
- Well, somebody has to crack through
because your attitude, Mr. Pirate, doesn't work.
So, are you gonna be a part of this,
or am I gonna run ya over?
That's the deal.
- I am done with this.
I am not gonna be berated
by some overbearing (beep).
- I'm not gonna let him ruin it for you.
And I'm not going to let them ruin it for you.
And I'm not going to let them ruin it for you!
- I'm not gonna put up, look, just take this (beep).
No, get that (beep) camera out of my face.
I'm done.
- Come on in guys!
(crowd cheering)
- Well, I've got 'em outta pirate gear.
Tonight I'm gonna put this staff under some serious stress
and we'll see what they got.
- Can you take care of these people back here
and put these two at a two top.
- [Narrator] The flood of customers
immediately puts pressure on the staff.
- That is your dutch,
Collins did you put soda in before you shook?
Yeah, you can not do that.
- Get the meatballs, stop worrying about the chicken
and give me the meatballs now.
- Guys, can I take a food order for you?
- Yeah, you already got my order, right?
- Yes.
- We're still waiting on our drinks.
- Okay, yes, they're comin'.
- Okay, are you done taking orders
and putting everything in?
If you can't handle- - I gotta figure out
where everything is real quick,
so give me two seconds, please.
- Guys, we're crashing.
Come on. We gotta move.
- [Narrator] With inattentive service,
and an overwhelmed kitchen,
customers begin walking out.
- Well we've been in here for 30 minutes and we got water,
but that was it.
- Customers are waiting to be served.
They're waiting for food, for drinks,
they're getting frustrated.
- We are missing our drinks. - Drinks.
- Me too.
- [Narrator] Back in the kitchen,
Juciano is oblivious to any of the restaurants problems.
- I'm glad you're havin' a good time,
it's your wife's business,
but you're havin' a good time.
Stop (beep) around.
Can we have a meatballs please?
- [Juciano] Ah?
- Pick up a meatballs please. - What time the kitchen close?
- Juciano. Pick up-
- [Juciano] What time the
kitchen close? - Don't ask me what time the
kitchen closes! - I don't give a (beep)
you're talking 'bout. - You're restaurant!
I learned tonight that Juciano can not run this kitchen.
- Juciano, is this a party to you
or you wanna work?
When he says do something, you do it!
Get your (beep) together!
(beep).
- That's (beep).
Make the (beep) meatball.
(beep) (beep). It's my kitchen.
- Wait.
Come back.
- [Juciano] I'm go home, I don't stay here anymore.
I don't stay here anymore the (beep).
- Juciano! Can you please wait?
Look.
- I'm not talking anything
with you. - Let's give Jason a chance.
You're outta the kitchen, let's see how it works.
- I need a chef.
I think Jason is a very talented chef
and he knows he has a great opportunity in front of him.
Do you want this? You got it.
- Alright.
- [Narrator] In Juciano's absence,
Jason takes control of the kitchen
and tries to make a dent in the large backlog of orders.
- I think with me leading the kitchen,
things will be a lot better.
- C'mon, let's see how it works, okay?
- [Narrator] In Tracy's absence out in the dining area,
there's even more pressure on the waitstaff.
- Wait, Mike, I'm confused. What are you doin'?
- Just give me a minute please.
This is (beep) (beep).
Can't even (beep) breathe with you standin' right here.
Can't (beep) concentrate.
- We're crashin' big time.
- I know.
- Excuse me, ope. Ope, ope, ope.
(woman screaming) (glass crashing)
- The moment of truth,
either Scott, Tommy, and Greg can do this,
or this is not gonna go well.
(intense groovy music)
- Recock our shakers.
- We got about nine minutes.
- I have a lotta new food.
Not sure if I'm a hundred percent ready,
but I'm ready to give it all I got.
- You guys ready?
Alright, you guys make a proud tonight.
- [Narrator] An eager crowd is herded into the Black Sheep,
and the orders pour in.
- [Woman] I'll take the original salad.
- The original salad?
(intense stressful music) (crowd chattering)
- Can you clean around the other way?
- 45 Minutes! I've been waitin' 45!
- I'm so sorry, I'm tryin' to get to everybody.
- Hurry up, hurry up, let's go Donny, move, move, move!
- Awe, this is nuts.
- What cocktail's that?
Donny shake it, just put Coke in it
and top it off with Guinness.
(crowd shouting) - [Men] Apple pie! Apple pie!
(glass crashing)
(crowd shouting over woman)
- Sorry guys, we don't have any glasses right now.
- It's taking a very long time to get served.
- I need another, I need another glass.
- Hey Tommy.
Beer glasses.
- [Tommy] What do you want?
- Need beer glasses washed ASAP,
I'm waitin' on beer glasses.
- Jesus Christ.
- Peter, we got not one empty glass out there.
- Four glasses sittin' on the bar counter top.
- Hey Tommy, Tommy can I get some glasses?
- [Men] Apple pie!
Apple pie! - Where's the beer glasses?
- [Tommy] What happened to all our (beep) glasses?
'Kay, beer glasses.
We had a hundred goddamn glasses
before this (beep) thing started.
I'm (beep) pissed.
- How was that us?
- Because we had 100-
- That was our (beep). That was your bar staff.
- [Tommy] We had enough
till you covered the (beep) bar round.
- No. - We had enough (beep).
- If you had enough glasses
there would be some spare. - No, we did have enough!
(beep). (beep) Irish boy.
Get out of my bar.
- Dude, I'll tell you what.
I'm gonna (beep) punch each other out in a minute.
- Out of my bar. I'm tellin' you-
- This ain't your (beep) bar (beep).
(deep intense music)
- Jon.
- What happened?
- What happened? Tommy was screamin' at me.
I said, "Just because you can't manage your bar,
is not our fault."
- So excuses, they're blamin' you?
- Yeah. If he can't handle the pressure that's fine.
- Then he can't be back there.
- (beep).
- Tommy totally lost his cool tonight.
This was a stress test and he failed.
- (beep) 500 people
and everyone screamin' and yellin' for (beep).
Alright, get the (beep) away from me.
- So I wanna be honest with you guys.
Scott, what was your job in the kitchen tonight?
- To do what to the tickets on the way in?
To check 'em to make sure they were correct.
- The only two voices that should ever happen
in the kitchen are the chefs and the expediter.
Scott, I needed you to really kinda be that expediter.
That didn't happen.
- So you blew it.
Greg, you didn't blow it like Scott did,
but you could have been better.
Tommy blew it. He couldn't handle it.
He walked out on you.
(dramatic music)
Ah, your back. Have you calmed down?
- Yep.
- Why'd you come back?
- Mostly to apologize.
And I am real sorry to Peter.
It was humiliating, embarrassin',
and I took it out on him.
I don't really wanna come up here,
but I invested a pretty good chunk of money, so I'm here.
- I am gonna make this place succeed in spite of you guys,
Tomorrow we come back. All training, all day long.
Alright Mike, let's see what we got back here.
I mean look at this, just tons of crap.
This is one little section of this.
Look at that. Filth, correct?
So Joe, is this rocket science?
To clean dirt off the shelf?
- No, I don't think so.
- I mean wouldn't you think as a manager
that would be one of the simplest of things
that you would do is make sure the place was clean?
Do you care about this place, or are you just lazy?
What's the deal?
- It's unfortunate.
It would happened on my shift
and I take full responsibility for it.
- Look at that rag.
Look at that!
How many times did you look down there
and pull a beer bottle out of it?
You're smiling? Is this fun for you?
- Today is the first day that I noticed that.
- You know what, then maybe you need
to hire somebody who can see.
Because if you can't see, you can't work here.
- Pipe down playa'.
- What?
- I said pipe down.
Don't be (beep) disrespectful homie.
Screaming and talking loud is not intimidating
unless he wants his furniture rearranged,
he needs to pipe it down.
- You're spendin' too much time watchin' the band
and shaking around, go to work instead.
- You want a show I'm gonna give you a (beep) show.
You need to pipe down.
- This is why you're losing,
'cause you got employees who have no respect.
- Whatever, yo.
- Look at me.
- Outta here ,yo.
- Outta here.
- I am! (beep) outta here yo, you can't be serious.
- That's the epitome of failure right there!
Look at it!
(Rodiah laughing) Just leave. Just leave, okay.
- I'm packing my (beep) up,
shut the (beep) up, - Good, pack your (beep) up.
- (beep) no police.
- One employee down,
let's see how many we're left with by tomorrow.
I watched her scoop ice
with a glass all night long in this thing.
How do I know there's not glass in the ice bin?
Don't you know better than that?
- Yo ain't you just send me home?
Talk to somebody else.
- Don't you know better than that?
This is what happens when you scoop ice
out of an ice bin with a glass.
Now I have to clean out the whole frickin' ice bin.
I have to know that that ice bin is clean.
The way I know it is I pour blue Curacao in the bin,
creating a blue dye.
Now when that bin is clean and the blue is gone,
I know my guests are safe.
This is why you're failing.
'Cause you have employees
that either don't know what they're doing,
or are jerks!
- Nobody disrespects me.
- Don't let them walk on you.
- Crazy dude I've never seen before
is not gonna come in and talk crazy to me.
That was the final straw, and that's it.
- [Jon] So this is our beverage cost?
- [Carlos] That's your beverage cost.
- How do you come up with the beverage count numbers?
- We just total our receipt.
- That's all the inventory, basically.
- Beverage cost isn't what you spend,
it's what you consume.
When I sit down to try to get their numbers,
they don't have any.
They don't really understand what their costs are,
and how much money they're losing every month.
Do you not know these things?
- Yeah, I know them things.
- Are you just lazy?
- I wouldn't say that's lazy.
- It is.
Tell me why you've chosen to do this.
- I'm busy with a lot of things here,
and I can't do everything all by myself.
- Other managers do.
- You can beat me up, keep beatin' me, go ahead.
- I'm just exposing the facts Carlos.
That's where it sits. - I'm getting mad.
Give me a minute.
This guy's a joke.
- Right.
The idea is not to break him.
He's got about this much left.
- Why not? Why not break him?
- He.
- If you guys were alone you'd be better off.
You have debt. He has nothing.
So, to think that you have some obligation to protect him,
I don't get it Allie.
This guy is bringing you down.
The facts are what they are, guys.
You're not picking on him.
I'm picking on the facts.
- 'Cause when we first started we were too scared to,
because we didn't think we knew how to do it.
- And he's manipulated you guys and kept ya scared
to be honest with you.
He has.
And you have some belief that you have to have him around.
There's a dependency here, that guys, it's crazy.
(dramatic music)
During the meeting, there was a lotta confrontation.
Carlos couldn't face it.
The owners really couldn't face it either.
And everybody just ran away.
- I'd rather just ride my bike on the beach and chill.
He wants me to be responsible for it, yeah,
I'm responsible for it, alright, whatever.
Don't even talk to me. Just go away.
Now I just wanna punch him in the stomach.
- Here's the deal.
I went through here and it isn't nice.
Seemingly it looks clean though, doesn't it?
But then you open up the dishwasher,
and you see this and you see, you see this.
That needs to be sanitized every night.
Who would lead the kitchen, generally?
- I'm strictly over here.
- [Man] You hear what he just said?
- [Worker] I did.
- There's no such thing as 'That's not my job."
Why is it that the rice was sitting out probably
- Over night. - all night.
Big problem.
We want you to come in every day and make the rice.
- Right, well it's bein' prepared now.
- Okay, good.
This is insane.
Wow.
- Dude, I'm leaving.
- So you see how tough this is - This (beep) ain't working.
to clean this guys?
See this? Tough, huh?
- This is outta control.
- [Worker] This is crazy dude.
- [Worker 2] I'm leaving. I'm just gonna walk out.
I'm gonna get outta here.
- You gotta go? - Yeah.
- Is this emergency? Is this?
It's just like that, just you.
- Yeah.
- [Man] Do you know about this?
- I don't.
- Mark threw his hands up and threw the towel in.
- I don't need to do this.
- Okay. - That's it.
- I mean, literally, he looked me dead in my eyes was like,
"I can't do this."
He wasn't ready for all the changes that need to be made.
You know what?
I just met you, so-
- If I thought it was gonna help,
I would stay.
- Okay.
- Hold on, hold on.
You wanna be a quitter and walk out on this
and leave him hangin'?
- Don't pull that on me.
- Well I'm asking a question,
that's what's going on. - Seriously.
- I just wanna be straight with you.
So you're gonna walk out of here feeling good?
- What? You're not gonna make me feel bad.
Believe me.
- I guess there's no turning around a quitter, man.
Quitters are quitters.
- You know what I think?
- That's really unfortunate man.
That's just not the way to live your life.
Shame on you.
- Wow.
Good one.
- [Jon] Shame on you, man.
Lightweight.
He didn't think that anybody could teach him to be better.
That wasn't a loss.
Losing an employee like that is a gain.
(upbeat rock music)
Hi, this is Jon Taffer.
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