The typical U.S. bar goes through ups and downs, and it's Jon Taffer's job on the "reality"
show Bar Rescue to take a failing bar and mold it into something that will work.
Sometimes that's a drastic change, sometimes it's a change of attitude, but it's always
good TV.
But is it real?
Here's a look at the untold truth of Bar Rescue.
The Troubadour and the NFL
So how did Taffer land this show in the first place?
Well, his resume is quite extensive, managing bars and coffee shops on both coasts before
opening his own bar in 1989.
But probably the most famous bar Taffer ran was the Troubadour in West Hollywood, where
Bob Dylan allegedly first plugged in, Elton John made his U.S. debut, and where John Lennon
and Harry Nilsson were thrown out for heckling the Smothers Brothers.
And he also has ties to the creation of NFL's wildly popular Sunday Ticket.
Back when Taffer ran a sports bar, executives with ComSat approached Taffer to find out
how well out-of-market NFL games would do at sports bars.
Taffer wrote up a market analysis, and ComSat took the idea to the NFL.
They loved it so much they just decided to do it themselves, hiring Taffer away.
He worked on the Advisory Board for NFL entertainment for a few years, so while he didn't technically
"invent" NFL Sunday Ticket, he certainly shaped what it is today.
How they pick the bars
The actual task of getting on the show is pretty straightforward: bar owners simply
fill out an application.
But producers sometime choose bars based on geographic location, canvassing specific cities
for potential fixer uppers.
Fake news
Despite his broad experience, plenty of people don't like Taffer, in part because he says
stuff that's just flat out wrong, like when he claimed that "Tequila is inherently made
from mezcal, which mescaline, the hallucinogenic drug is made from.
So tequila can have a hallucinogenic component, you might be talking to someone who's not
there."
One problem: that's totally not true, as tequila and mescaline come from different plants,
something an expert on alcohol should probably know.
There have been failures
Just because Taffer and his crew of expert mixologists enter your tavern it doesn't mean
that you're on Easy Street.
In fact, through the first three seasons, about a quarter of the bars rescued were actually
not rescued at all and closed instead.
Schafer's Bar and Grill summed up the whole experience in a Facebook post, writing, "We
should have stuck to our gut when #barRescue called us the 1st time.
Our answer was NO they should be called #BarF---ups cause we could have done everything they did
ourselves without drama and [them] telling us what to say."
And that's a bar that's still in business!
Piratz Tavern of Silver Springs, Maryland, didn't make it and also lashed out, blaming
Taffer for the bar closing and going as far as calling the show fake.
"I think Johnny Taffer is really f---ing stupid.
We had taken off the sign, and burned, and drink.
The best thing I do in my life."
Speaking of which…
Fake fake fake
Lots of people who have been on the show are happy to explain just how fake it is, like
Schafer's Bar and Grill owner owner Ryan Burks, who said, "During my first interview I was
asked how much money we are losing each month.
My exact words to the producer were, 'What would you like me to say?'
Producer's response: 'For our story you are losing $10,000 a month and losing your house
and closing down next month.'
All of which isn't true."
And the folks from Piratz Tavern said just about the same thing.
"It was basically coerced and staged to be an opening act for a re-rescue.
I was told to bring in several changes of clothes to make it appear that filming covered
several days.
As usual they brought in a bunch of extras to fill the house and we were told what to
say and with whom to speak."
The shooting schedule is intense
Once a bar does agree to appear on the show, things move pretty quickly.
Taffer and crew take five days to complete a bar rescue.
That includes Taffer evaluating the actual bar being redone and scouting competing bars.
Each day is about a 12-hour shoot with the second day being the crazy one; that's where
he yells at the bar owners and tells them what a horrible job they're doing.
"Look at this!
This place is dangerous for chrissakes!"
According to a Reddit post written by someone claiming to be a Bar Rescue producer, hidden
cameras are placed before the full crew arrives, and the normal pre-production shooting takes
place then as well.
By Day 5 the bar is back open with the remodel, and that's that.
'Shut it down!' is trademarked
Any TV show is only as good as its catchphrase.
Taffer stumbled into one when he began shouting "Shut it down!"
any time a bar is in violation of a health code… or pretty much any other time he feels
like it.
Taffer wisely trademarked the phrase, making him the exclusive seller of Shut It Down merchandise.
Controversy
In 2013, Taffer and the Bar Rescue crew went to Nashville to save the Pit and Barrel, run
by a short-tempered man named Chris Ferrell.
After learning his lesson from the hosts, a graphic claimed Ferrell had changed his
ways, and hadn't lost his temper with his staff.
Before the episode aired, though, Ferrell was arrested for fatally shooting country
singer Wayne Mills during an argument at the bar.
Spike TV announced they were going to pull the episode, but then ran it anyway, leading
to widespread outrage.
A jury eventually found Ferrell guilty of second-degree murder.
He received a 20-year sentence for the crime.
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