Um, I think I've stayed here so long
'cause it's, like, my family.
Sorry, I don't wanna cry.
I don't know. I just love it here.
I really do.
It's, like, my second home.
So, it's a lot of love
and caring here, I guess.
narrator: For over 30 years,
Jon Taffer has traveled the country
saving hundreds of bars from failure and ruin.
The past few years have been harder on our country
than I've ever seen before.
But now, in a post-pandemic world,
restaurants and bars are seeing a massive surge in business.
And a customer base that has a much higher expectation
for quality food and drinks.
Not a huge fan of this.
So I'm on a mission to save bars
that have been struggling to keep up with
the new landscape of our industry.
narrator: So now, Jon is back out on the road
and heading to Loveland, Colorado
to rescue CJ's Patio Grill.
This is a new era for our country,
so we need to raise the bar and rise to these challenges.
[upbeat music]
narrator: In 2019,
restaurant manager and liquor rep,
Fadil Astafaj
purchased CJ's Patio Grill
in Loveland, Colorado.
Well, I've always wanted to have a bar.
Been in and out of bars and restaurants
and liquor and wine sales
pretty much my entire life.
Can I get a couple of beers for you?
What makes CJ's unique is our home cooking food
and friendly service.
Here's your Fuzzy Smurf.
We were really on a nice trajectory.
It was a successful formula.
Head on.
narrator: After a successful first year,
business quickly ground to a halt.
When COVID hit, there was no handbook
and, uh, we had to make decisions on the fly.
Everything has gone up. Labor cost,
food cost, you name it.
And I did inherit some, some issues with the restaurant
and I have myself been unable to fix.
narrator: So to keep the bar afloat,
Fadil started taking on every role within the bar.
So I work about six days a week
and generally I'm here 16 hours a day.
I consider myself a 100% hands-on owner
because it is mine and I take pride in it
and I want it to be perfect.
narrator: And he refuses to delegate work at the bar.
Fadil does, uh, want things a certain way.
And I'm still working on trying to figure out how that way is.
Fadil been overbearing at times.
Fadil can definitely get in the way in the kitchen
when we're busy and we're going and he comes back
and he tries to help, but he just plows in
and then we got to start it over.
I can't help myself sometimes.
How are we doing back here, boys?
Oh, you know how we're doing.
He's, he's great.
I've never worked for someone that cares
so much about their employees.
Stop making fun of my New York accent, man.
But the guy spreads himself pretty thin.
narrator: Now, with almost $500,000 in debt,
there's only a few months left until they close.
If CJ's were too close, uh, it's, I,
I don't know what I would do.
narrator: So, Fadil has made the decision
to pull back the doors, bust open the books,
and make a call for help to "Bar Rescue".
If I lost this place, I would be devastated
because it's how I provide for my family.
Um, I'd be lost.
- Here we go, buddy. - Oh, boy.
- We've been here before. - Yes, we have.
narrator: For the kitchen, John brings in Vic Vegas,
an executive chef with over 25 years experience.
Vic has worked with major food distributors
while also owning and operating his own successful restaurant.
Because this bar is gonna be a challenge for us.
The owner of this bar, Fadil moved here from New York.
You know I can relate to that
because his son got into Colorado University.
- Okay. - He was successful
selling liquor for a liquor distributor.
So, with some knowledge of alcohol and mixed cocktails
in the beverage space, you figured, he'll buy a bar.
A few years later, he's in debt. You ready?
$472,000
for this little place.
Look at the size of it.
Sixty seats, eighty seats.
The environment isn't conducive to generating
the kind of money that he has to generate
to pay back his debt.
- You got what you want? - No.
Are you getting the devil's backbone?
- Of course, we will. - Of course, you are.
So here's Fadil.
- No need for a menu. - He's the owner.
There's Jade. Jade is his manager.
There's Shawna. She's a server.
There is Dan, he's your kitchen manager.
And Javon is the assistant kitchen manager.
So, they're butchering their own meat in-house.
Look at that.
Right now, that's a lot of wasted meat right there.
- You see that? - Yeah,
he's, he's cutting it in all different ways
against the grain, with the grain.
He's taking a lot of meat with that fat.
Interesting way to butcher.
A good butcher would be peeling that back,
not cutting it back that way.
He's taking meat with every cut.
Now, when we butcher meat in restaurants, we track yield.
You should yield 97% of the meat.
He's throwing away an awful lot of factor
in butchering that meat.
And they're definitely not accounting
for their waste and their price per pound.
Uh, let me throw these.
They're baking their own bread. Do you see that?
Well, you've got a lot going on here, Jon.
Like you have a whole restaurant operation
taking place in this structure.
All right. Now, here is Fadil with his potatoes.
Fresh potatoes. There he goes again
with something amazing.
So Fadil is trying to take a cloudy approach
at what he's doing here.
And I wonder if he's achieving it.
Yeah, looks nice.
All right. After you, my dear.
Oh, thank you.
So for recon, I got two media stars.
I got Kylie Bearse.
Ooh. Lots of brown.
- [indistinct] - Yeah.
She is a Denver-based TV personality,
does the weather on TV.
And then I got her friend Chelsea Thomas, in the left,
who's a radio personality on 106.7.
Hi, guys. How's it going?
- Good. How are you doing? - Good.
They know this town.
They go to a lot of charity events.
They can give us a good Colorado scope on this bar.
Good choice.
It's a very large menu.
- I mean, massive. - Lot of options.
I'm gonna try this Fuzzy Smurf.
- Fuzzy Smurf? All right. - Yeah, thank you.
Can I do the sweet tart?
- Yeah. Of course. - Thank you.
- Okay. - Can we order a food too?
- Yes. - Yeah, okay.
Sorry. The Mac Attack as an appetizer.
I think we're gonna split that.
- Okay. - I'm gonna do
the smothered green chili burger.
Okay. Green onion, tomato, sour cream okay?
Could I have no green onions and sour cream on the side?
Sure.
Um, I'm gonna do the top sirloin steak.
- Yeah. - Thanks.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
All righty. We'll see how much you like that one.
Very well.
Man, that looks like a terrible drink.
That can't possibly be good.
I forgot about it for two seconds now.
- Fuzzy Smurf. - Oh, wow.
- Wow. - Thank you.
- And a sweet tart for you. - That does look like Smurfy.
Right?
Give 'em about, like, 30 seconds on that macaroni,
I have you ready.
Okay, so this is what their famous mac and cheese is.
It goes in a taco bowl.
Those taco shells are greasy, don't they?
Yeah, no. That's not appealing at all.
That's ugh.
Okay. We got the meat now in holding mode.
Ooh, right in the gutter.
The beef goes on top of that.
Okay, interesting item. I...
What you're saying is could be cool.
Could be cool, but it's not right there.
All right.
- Thank you. - The sweet tart.
- Thank you. - Fuzzy Smurf.
- Cheers. - 2Cheers.
- Okay. Ready? - Uh-hmm.
Taste test.
Oh!
Oh, whoa.
It's okay. It's just, you know,
a little sweet, little tart.
She's still reacting to that cocktail
10 seconds later.
Yeah, right.
You know what this reminds me of
is like the really frozen mac and cheese you get from store.
Ooh, she's not-- it's cheese product then,
it's not real mac and cheese.
Not the comparison you want.
Righty. Let's see.
Oh, green chili burger?
- That's me. - Oh, that's us.
- Got ya. - Yeah, thank you.
We'll make some room.
There goes the burger.
There's the steak.
Um, I, I might have done this wrong.
I think I asked for no green onions.
Is she gonna take 'em off
or are they gonna make her a new burger? Let's see.
[tense music]
Green onions, sour cream.
- Um, guys? - Yes, ma'am?
The lady that ordered it
said she doesn't want green onions on it.
- Mac and cheese? - At least there was a cheese.
Yeah.
What's he gonna do?
Sorry.
- He's just gonna take 'em off. - [indistinct]
No, he's not. He's gonna squeegee that right off.
That's unbelievable.
My dude.
I've never seen that in all my years.
Yeah, I see it.
There is the burger.
The refurbished burger.
I can't refurb food.
I hate his food.
I don't use the word hate often.
I hate his plates of food.
It is slob on a plate.
It is shit.
I need to show this to him.
He needs to understand this and see his failure
'cause right now, he doesn't have a clue
this is even going on.
[tense music]
- [laughter] - Does he have a clue?
Yeah.
Jon is here.
This is really happening.
Fadil.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
- Just talk to me for a minute. - All right. Go.
So I noticed when you came here, you baked your own bread.
You're butchering your own meat.
So you had some culinary intentions when you came here.
- Absolutely. - Now, I want you to see
what's actually happening.
- Come with me. - Okay.
These are two dear friends of mine.
- She ordered a hamburger... - Okay.
...without green onions, correct?
- Yep. - It came out with green onions.
- Okay. - That happens.
- Uh-hmm. - So, she sends it back,
the cook in the kitchen, takes the burger
off the bun, holds it in his hand
over the garbage pail,
scrapes the onions off it, puts it back on it.
So, look at this hamburger.
- Is, is that edible? - Never. Yeah.
I mean, does that even look edible?
Yeah.
Then talk about the drinks for me.
And that's a Fuzzy Smurf, I believe.
It is. Okay. Wait.
Smurf has to be blue.
- This is green, first of all. - [laughter]
They would never come back here.
And if I can't get them back here,
I can't get you paid back.
Let me show you something else. Come with me for a minute.
[breathes heavily] I need a drink.
Stand right here. Look back there.
When you were in a liquor business,
did successful operations,
did you look at cases of booze like that?
- No. - Of course, look back there,
when you were in a liquor business,
did you see successful operations
- that looked like that? - No.
Look over there.
When you were in a liquor business,
did you see successful operations
- that looked like that? - We have limited space.
So while your food is coming out
and you're alienating two customers,
you're making mashed potatoes.
Uh, I do know that. It's just hard for me to let go.
Well, if you don't let go, you're gonna lose your money.
- Yes. - Think about that.
Fadil, your priorities are all [bleep] up.
Fadil, your priorities are all [bleep] up, right?
Yeah, I'm trying to do too much.
So that you're your own worst enemy in this regard.
I try not to be, but I get it.
- This is stupid. - This is stupid.
- That's stupid. - Yeah, no doubt.
What happened up there is stupid.
So, you're a smart guy doing stupid things.
Yeah, I am.
So we've got to turn this business around
by $1,000,000 in revenue.
And I know we can do that here.
I wanna meet with the whole staff with the kitchen team.
- Okay. - I wanna find out
- what's going on here. - Yeah.
Get us a little more organized a ton,
when I come in tomorrow morning
then we don't have to deal with these things.
- Okay. Okay. Okay. - Okay?
You should be better than this.
Yeah, I will be. I will be.
You should be better than this.
All right. We'll get you there.
- I will be. Thank you. - Okay.
It's really good to have somebody that knows
what they're doing, walk in and show you
a lot harder than I kind of expected.
But I think in the end, it's gonna be good for us all.
So, we got to make it work.
You know, I think his direction is going in the right way.
[upbeat music]
Hey, I moved on.
Javon, Dan, come on out here a minute.
Okay. So, what I wanna do is I wanna talk about last night
and what happened with, uh,
with that, those couple of orders.
We need to make sure that if we're going to be
changing anything, that we make it fresh from the start.
That's our procedure.
That's the way we've always done it.
- So, we don't... - You know,
we do the best we can, but we don't have time
to read a book back there either.
You know, like, with the green chili burger,
we made it the way they said they wanted it,
and then they come back, say they want it different.
And we just need the front of the house
knowing what goes on these things, you know,
maybe if they knew the green onions
came on the burger, they would have been like, "Hey,
there's still gonna be green onions.
Do you want those still?"
I was a little frustrated
about having to talk about that burger.
And yeah, mistakes are gonna be made.
Things are gonna have to be remade.
But if we're doing it on every little nook
and cranny on something that's easily fixed,
then, then we're gonna-- we're gonna go under real fast.
But the key factors here, we have to make sure
that we're doing it the right way,
one way or another. All right, guys?
Last night, I saw good people that care,
trying to do a good job,
great intention, terrible execution.
- Hi, everybody. all: Hello.
Come on over. Let's all talk.
How can the execution be so bad
when the intent is so good?
I have to figure that out today.
Well, you survived last night, didn't you?
Yeah.
- Hi. What's your name? - I'm Jade.
Jade? And how long have you worked here?
- About nine years. - Nine years?
- You've been here a long time. - I've been here very long.
From before he bought it, huh?
Before he bought it, yeah.
So what do you do here now?
I'm a GM, bartender, and server. All three.
So you do a little bit of everything?
- I do. Oh, yeah. - Okay.
- So you GM while you tend bar? - I do.
Okay. That's not always so easy to do, is it?
Sometimes it gets overwhelming. Yes.
- Yeah, I bet. - Yeah.
- What's your name? - Malissa.
Malissa. How long have you been here?
I've only been here for about two and a half months.
Okay, so you're one of the newer ones, if you will.
- Yes. - And what do you do here?
I'm a wait staff and training behind the bar.
Got you. Okay. What's your name?
- I'm Shawna. - Shawna.
And how long have you been here?
I've been here two years now.
And what do you do here?
- I'm a server. - Server? Okay.
Hi. What's your name?
- Javon. - Javon.
How long have you been here?
Been here going on three years.
- Two and a half years. - Three years.
And what do you do here?
I'm a sous chef/lead.
Okay.
- Hi. - I'm Dan.
- Dan? - Yup.
How long you been here, Dan?
I've been here off and on
for a total of nine years.
Wow. So when was the last off and on?
Uh, I've been on a three-year stretch.
Okay, I want to tell you what I saw last night.
You guys are all well-intended,
but last night was terrible execution.
Let me share why, you served my two friends at the bar.
- Yup. - One ordered a burger
- without onions, was it? - It was, yeah.
- And it came out with onions. - It did.
It went back in the kitchen.
If you saw what happened to that burger in the kitchen,
you wouldn't have reserved it as a general manager.
You took that burger in the kitchen,
scraped off the burger, and the onions,
put the burger back on the bun.
Tell the rest of the story for me.
Put it back on the bun-- on a new bun
and just switched plates and sent it out.
Is that the way you want it to be?
That's not our procedure.
We did have a discussion about it since last night,
- a couple of times. - So refurbished the burger?
Refurbished burger, yeah.
Drinks. They order a Smurf.
- What color is a Smurf? - Blue.
- What color was the drink? - Green.
Was it blue when you named it Smurf?
- Yeah. - So are we following a recipe?
I do follow the recipe, but--
Terrific. Tell me what the recipe is.
Uh, I believe it's a half ounce of Captain Morgan,
uh, half ounce of Malibu--
or I could be wrong. [chuckles]
Blue Curacao. Um--
- So you think there's a recipe? - I--there is. I--you're right.
We have no consistency here, do we?
- No, we don't. - Now, let me show you
something else.
You're serving cocktails in a pint glass.
When you fill this to the top with ice,
this is gonna hold about eight to nine ounces, right?
Maybe more. You know this
from your beverage merchandizing days.
Generally speaking, the ratio of liquor to mix
is one part liquor to three parts mix.
So now if we put the right amount of liquor in here.
Can't taste it. It's too weak.
So now you're forced to over pour.
So, it's all engineered wrong from the get-go.
Let me show you the result.
I had Partender come in here.
What Partender does is they weigh
every liquor bottle in the bar.
We then let you run for three days.
We then weigh everything again.
We then compare that to the cash register.
So based upon your prices,
you poured $2,095 worth of alcohol,
but you only collected $1,459.
If you take a look, we lost $636
in one night of beverage potential.
Now, let me take it a step further.
That equals $9,673 a month.
And Jade, how much a year?
$116,000.
- Say it loudly. - $116,000.
- That's crazy. - Wow.
And it's happening as you sit at the bar watching it.
Uh, that's a reality check right there.
Liquor costs being lost about $116,000 a year.
That hurts.
You're a general manager.
You don't even know what the beverage cost should be.
- Do you? - I don't know.
Shame on you.
You have a general manager who doesn't even know
what her goals are.
You're a glorified hostess,
and it's not your fault.
He's never made you a manager.
I use this term, a stupidvisor.
It's somebody who you give a title to,
but no real authority,
they really don't have the knowledge
or the basis to succeed.
So, we got to teach you these things
because you don't see it.
What do you guys think when I say this?
Do you agree with what I'm saying?
- Yes. - Right? Do you see
this kind of failures when you work here on occasion?
- Yes. - And he's in the back
making mashed potatoes.
Why does he do that? He comes in your kitchen.
You guys aren't that busy.
Meanwhile, the food's coming back and forth from the bar.
Drinks should be blue or green,
Abut he's pouring the milk in the flour blender.
So I wonder if you do what you like to do
rather than what you should do.
Does he like doing those kinds of things, chef?
He likes to do it all.
Under your watch it's not working, is it?
Based on what happened last night,
in the current way that you're running this business,
- is it working? - I need help.
- Okay. - Yeah.
He's in a jam.
He's put in about a half a million dollars.
So think about this. At the end of the year,
he's gonna lose about another $50,000.
Son of a gun. We can flip that.
- That's flippable. - Very flippable.
If we do this right together.
But we got to do better than we did last night.
All right. Let's get my experts in here.
Hi, sir. How are you?
So this is Alex Goode. Great mixologist.
narrator: For the bar,
Jon brings in mixologist Alex Goode.
Alex has served as brand ambassador
for several major spirits labels,
and has won cocktail competitions around the globe.
His mission is to deliver a dinner
and movie experience to guests,
by ensuring his bartenders
are as unforgettable as the drinks they served.
- Are you guys ready? all: Yeah.
- Are you ready, guys? - We're ready, Jon.
All right, let's go to it. Come on.
All right.
Jon told me a little bit about what's going on
behind this bar. So we've got a few issues
we're going to be addressing today.
Going into training today,
I need to know where these bartenders stand.
So, Jade, I would love to invite you back
behind the bar to make a couple of drinks for me.
A good bartender should really bang out
three cocktails in 60 seconds or less.
- I have here a stopwatch. - Okay.
Jade is the general manager,
so I'm absolutely expecting more from her.
I'm going to have you make
three of your menu cocktails for us,
and I'm gonna time you.
Three, two,
- one, mark. - Yup.
Going in a stress test, I want Jade
to be the captain of this team,
so she should know that menu
front to back.
Um, is this sour?
- I don't know. - Good work,
- believing on your gun. - Oh, yes, it is.
How it works here?
Alex watching me making my drinks
was very intimidating.
I was definitely nervous.
I don't know if I feel as confident as I want to be,
but I want--I want to get there.
- [bell rings] - Okay.
That took one minute and fifty-five seconds.
Not bad.
However, a really good bartender
who knows their way around their own bar
should have made all three of those drinks
in 60 seconds or less.
So we have our work cut out for us.
Guys, come on in. Come on in.
Last night, I saw the guys cutting a lot of corners.
So, this is the starting point to see where the issues are
and where we could fill in.
I wanna talk about last night,
the scrape. Never again.
- Just promise me that. - For sure. I promise you that.
Okay. Now I can work with you.
I'll introduce a new dish to you.
But it all starts off with watching you guys
so I can see what's going on.
- All righty. - Show me a burger, brother.
Barbecue, bacon, cheeseburger,
because that seems to be one that everybody likes.
Then we get three onion on the bottom.
Mayonnaise on the top.
Lettuce and two tomatoes.
The barbecue sauce on top of the bacon.
Roll in with some cheddar cheese.
You know, watching what you're doing up close,
we got a lot to work with. That's good news.
You know, the burger that he's making,
there's a lot of steps to it.
So we're gonna give him a better dish
that people don't have to wait so long for.
Pork Chile Verde.
The longest part of this is grilling the bread.
My man Javon, come here.
Take me one piece of that ciabatta bread,
rub it with a little bit of that garlic butter.
While he's doing that,
let's go with three nice scoops.
We're gonna take a little bit
of the queso fresco,
cilantro, little fresh radish.
That looks perfect.
Three cuts.
And look at that.
Get in there and try your delicious
two-minute and eleven-second dish.
The pork chili, that's an easy maker
and it's, it's dang-well delicious, man.
It's amazing. Taste all around.
Uh-hmm. That's--uh-hmm.
All right, my brothers.
Just, hmm, so good.
Bring chili here in Colorado, man.
Just makes the world go round.
Gentlemen, go get yourself a cool drink,
take a breather, and get ready
for your stress test because it's coming.
Stress test is gonna be a little--
we're gonna have to fight it.
But, I wanna prove to Vic and Jon tonight
that we know what we're doing here.
[tense music]
Jade, could you pull everybody together for me?
Yes, sir.
I'm feeling stressed. [laughs]
My role as a GM right now, all of it right now,
it's just a little overwhelming and new to me,
but, um, I'm just gonna do the best that I can.
What's the plan for tonight?
Uh, my plan right now is the first part for me,
I am gonna be behind the bar to start this off.
Why?
Uh, because I am one of the better-ish bartenders.
How are you gonna become a manager
if you're behind the bar?
- Well, I can't. - You can't?
Yeah. I'm not gonna let you
get in your comfort zone tonight
which is behind the bar.
You're gonna run this place tonight.
- Okay. - And you play owner,
but let her take the lead tonight.
They can do this, right?
So I'm gonna have 30 guests come in.
I'm gonna put 30 minutes on the clock.
At the end of 30 minutes, I want everybody served.
- Okay, are we ready? - Yeah, we're ready.
All right, let's go to it. Let's go.
I am ready for this stress test.
I'm excited.
I'm not worried about getting overwhelmed tonight.
It is a stress test,
but I think that that's something
we handle on a pretty regular basis.
Here they come.
All right.
Everybody, thank you for coming.
We're putting a little stress on this team
to see how good they can be.
So, we're giving them 30 minutes to serve all of you.
So, we're gonna start the clock on three.
- Are you ready? - Yes.
One, two, three. Let's do it.
Go ahead, everybody. Let's go. Come on.
- How are you guys doing? - Good.
Good? You got our menu on the little scan.
All right. Do you all know
what you would like to drink yet?
[tense music]
Come on, guys. We've got to move faster than that.
- Here we go. - Let's go. Come on. Move!
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Faster. Faster.
I can't mess around.
Fadil has a half a million dollars in this business.
Jade needs to learn to lead.
And this team needs to learn how to deliver.
They got to watch their pours, they got to watch
their portions in the kitchen.
They have to seize the revenues
that are here in the room.
Everything is critical
the next few minutes as orders go in.
If it's not right, we need to remake it for you.
[indistinct]
Okay. I need another red rocks on the fly, please.
Yes, sir. All right.
- You heard that, didn't you? - Oh, no.
Barbecue bacon on a split plate.
Red Rocks. I'm having a brain fart.
Um, it's the, uh, the Red Rocks
- is the old-fashioned. - Just faster. Stay focused.
Come on, guys. Let's get this.
Twenty-two and a half minutes left, guys.
Twenty-two and a half minutes left.
How we doing, ladies?
- We need help. We need help. - Okay. Okay.
Um, can you go get the drinks for 71?
- Seventy-one-- - Because I gave them a QR code,
but they do need some drinks.
[upbeat music]
Okay. Food is coming out of the kitchen.
Here we go.
Let's see. I have a flip burger
over here for you guys. Yeah.
Dan, talk to me. Are we okay?
Oh, yeah, man. I'm doing good, man,
lead ticket is six minutes.
Then who's-- what's going on here now?
No more tickets and he's cool as can be.
They're rocking. Good job, buddy.
Yeah. Yeah.
Let's go, guys. Don't stop now.
Come on. We're getting here.
Fifteen minutes left. Fifteen.
Come on, guys. Let's get these drinks out.
What are you doing? Five over there. Here we go.
Look at you, girl. Go.
At that rate, we should have been out of here 10 minutes ago.
It's what we've been looking for.
Five cocktails at a time.
It's what we've been looking for.
Give her some plates, she'll spin them.
This is the bar business.
Friday night, Saturday night, every minute counts.
The clock is actually always ticking in every bar.
The more volume we create primetime,
the more money we make.
They're getting a simulation of primetime.
If they can do this,
they'll seize their Friday and their Saturday nights
and make money.
Seven minutes, ten seconds.
Who still doesn't have food?
- Uh-oh. - Oh, man.
- Medium. - Medium.
Come on, guys. We got six minutes.
Let's get that food out of here.
Guys, cross this finish line, please.
Yes, sir.
What's our lead ticket?
How long on our lead?
- Here's my lead right here. - Right here.
Come on, guys. We're down to three and a half minutes.
Come on, we're almost there, almost there.
[cheers and applause]
Medium well burger, please.
- Medium well coming your way. - Thank you very much.
Who hasn't gotten a drink? Anyone?
Come on. One, two. Come on.
- One... - [cheering]
- Two. - [cheers and applause]
Now let's get the food out.
Come on, guys. We're down to one minute.
- Right behind you. - What are we waiting on?
- Two more, buddy. - Two more burgers?
- That's it? Yup. Two more. - And we're done?
- And we're done. - Yeah!
Let's make this. Come on, guys.
You're very welcome.
[dramatic music]
Guys, one ticket to go here. Let's roll!
One more. Let's go. Last one.
Come on, guys.
[dramatic music]
Eight, seven, six, five...
all: Four, three, two, one.
- [buzzer buzzes] - Remember, school.
- Put your pencils down. - Pencils down.
Okay, guys. How did we do? Everybody got a drink?
all: Yeah. - Did you like them?
- Yeah. - Whoo!
Who didn't get food?
One, two, and it's coming out right now.
They're gonna miss it by about a minute. Can you believe it?
So right-- food's coming out right now.
- So... - [cheers and applause]
Thank you.
Come back in two nights, we'll even be better.
- [cheers and applause] - Great job you guys!
- This is the way you run a bar. - Thank you.
- With pressure. - Yeah. Uh-huh.
With speed, right? It's never complacent.
- And with good people. - And with good people.
If this was a Friday night, you'd be making so much more--
- I know. - --money than normal.
- You agree? - I totally agree.
- We seized it tonight. - We did.
Tonight felt really, really good.
Jade was amazing, Dan handled that kitchen
as well as I've ever seen anyone
and, um, we're gonna do great moving forward, I know it.
That's what I wanted to teach you.
Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.
- Good work. - Thank you.
- Jade? - Yes?
- You did great tonight. - Thank you.
- They did great tonight. - They really did.
Think of what you did in sales in a half hour.
- Yeah. Probably a good amount. - Yes.
- And it feels really good. - Yeah. You did a good job,
- I'm proud of you. - Thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
[dramatic music]
You guys should be very proud.
The stress test was successful.
So today, we're gonna build on this new menu
with our simplified, elegant, elevated cocktails.
And the first one is called the Blue Mustang.
Half an ounce of lime juice,
one half ounce of butterfly pea syrup.
One and a half ounces of vodka.
Add ice,
and top it with some ginger beer.
A beautiful spring of mint, and voila.
Oops.
- There we go. A Mustang. - [laughs]
This is a drink of one horsepower,
the Blue Mustang.
A blue drink that is actually blue.
[laughter]
Thirty-seconds away
from knocking every item out of the kitchen.
You guys did well.
So for the first time ever on "Bar Rescue",
we are going to be doing a little baa...
- Oh. - A little lamb.
Lamb is an excellent alternative to beef
due to its high-quality protein,
outstanding source of iron,
zinc, and vitamin B12.
Additionally, lamb is often more expensive than beef
and therefore its presence on menus
often suggests a finer dining experience.
Marinated lamb, give it a little salt and pepper shot,
hit the grill.
Fingerling potato.
Boil them, a little al dente,
press it together like that, into the deep fryer.
Hit it with your herbs.
Now, let's take the lamb and put her on top,
and drizzle delicious mustard sauce.
It's strong but so amazing to the palate
once it hits that lamb.
Delicious scallions,
put them right on top.
This right here is the CJ's kicked-up lamb dish.
Never seen before on Rescue.
Nobody's ever got the rack, you're welcome.
And there's our new identity in the kitchen moving forward.
[dramatic music]
Last night was a great stress test.
There's nothing better than training a team
and watching them succeed together.
Now, I wanna talk to Jade and Fadil,
and I want to really set parameters for Jade
to take over and become the manager of this business.
Fadil's problems are solved with Jade.
Hello, hello.
- Hey, Jon. How are you? - Hi.
- Good to see you. - Good. How are you, Jade?
- How are you? - Oh, good. Yeah.
You know what's interesting? Last night was sort of
a great example of the bar business
because it's never really complacent.
Yup. Exactly.
So, did you learn anything this week?
Learned a lot. I learned to, uh,
let my staff do what they have to do
and, uh, be in order a little bit more than
- just fully hands-on. - Yeah.
You functioned like a manager last night.
- I'm so proud of you. - Thank you very much.
I must really tell you. So, what do we do
to let him let go a little bit?
I think, you know, he, he just needs to trust me.
Um, obviously, we need to communicate though too,
if I do have questions and I--and I need, uh,
some sort of leadership.
Um, I'm hoping that he has answers for me
and then I can build off of that too, and...
You see, if you step back,
- she will grow more. - Yeah.
And weeks from now, she'll be a superstar.
Now, there's one thing I'd like to put in your head,
I showed you numbers yesterday.
Thirty percent labor cost, right?
Thirty percent food cost, twenty-five percent beverage,
those numbers should be her goals.
- So you should share-- - I [indistinct]
--the numbers with her.
When she hits those numbers,
- give her a bonus. - Absolutely.
Now, we have a real general manager
who's empowered to succeed.
An owner who's inclined to step back and let you do it.
You have everything you need to succeed now.
- I'm really excited. - Only one thing left.
I got to get your bar built.
It's gonna be beautiful.
But I gotta get back to work, so...
All right. Appreciate you. Thank you.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you, Jon.
This week has really proved to me that Jade can do it,
and moving forward, if she needs anything from me,
I'm here for her.
My heart's always been in the right place
and I believe in my staff.
But now it's time to let them shine and do it on their own.
- It's gonna be life-changing. - Yeah.
- It's gonna be good. - It's gonna be awesome.
[upbeat music]
[cheers and applause]
Hello, everybody.
What do you think of this week, Fadil?
It's been amazing, actually.
You opened this place with the best of intentions,
but you put a half million bucks into it,
you never dug yourself out.
And then I learned how you micromanage.
So during stress test, I made you step back.
- What happened? - They killed it.
- We did. - They really did.
They killed it because you stepped back
and let them shine.
- And you did, didn't you guys? - Yeah.
I mean, you guys really stepped up and did a great job,
so I can't wait till you see the bar
that we built for you.
You ready? Does that make you nervous when I say that?
- Yeah. Very nervous. - [laughter]
You trust me?
I have to at this point.
[laughter]
- But I do. - You ready to see it?
all: Yes. - Here we go.
- [cheers and applause] - One, two, three!
[cheers and applause]
Whoo!
- Here we go. One, two, three! - [cheers and applause]
- Oh, here we go. - Whoo!
Love it.
- Oh, I love it. - I love it.
- Yeah. - [laughs]
Oh, my God. That looks so good.
Look at that. That looks amazing!
Yeah. All the flowers and everything.
- That looks so good. - Kept the brand.
What do you think, Jade?
Um, I love it. It's amazing.
Uh, I can't wait to see inside.
So I wanted to build you a great bar,
not only because of him, but because of you.
- Thank you. - So, are you ready?
- I'm so ready. - All right, guys.
Go take a look.
[cheers and applause]
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Holy smoke.
- Oh, my... - Oh, my God.
- Wow. - Seriously?
- Oh, my. - Wow.
When I walked in, I was, uh,
completely surprised and overwhelmed.
Yeah. I had to sit down.
The place looks spectacular
and it still looks like CJ's, which I love.
Holy smoke. Look at the stools.
- Wow. - Look at these.
This is cute, bro.
Yeah. Look at the back bar. It looks amazing, yeah.
- It's badass. - Yeah, it is.
I love the wood kind of, like the wood on the wall.
- Oh, my. - I can't believe that
this is still the same place.
Grab a seat at the bar, I wanna show you all what I did.
- There's more to talk about. - Okay.
So are you surprised?
Actually, knowing you now, no.
- [laughs] - No.
There's a lot going on. Take a look at the walls.
We had all the walls with televisions put in place.
I got Timberline Audio and Video to come
revamp your video system and your audio system.
- Yeah. - I got PathSpot.
After you wash your hands,
you put them under the PathSpot device.
If you get a green light, there's no viral
or bacteria matter in your hands, you go to work.
If you get a red light, wash them again.
- I love that. - I got Standard Restaurant
Supply to give you guys all the bar tools,
all the small wares, the plate ware,
everything in the kitchen.
I got BarProducts.com
to give you guys all the tools that you guys need.
Then I got Partender, remember those numbers?
I got you lifetime Partender for free.
Next, Dan?
- Oh! - [cheering]
Yeah!
- Javon. - Yeah.
[cheers and applause]
Whoo-hoo!
- [laughs] - Wow.
Now the food's worth another $3, isn't it?
[laughter]
So, did I give you everything you need to succeed?
Absolutely. And I have the team to,
to move forward as well.
So are you ready to do it, guys?
- Yeah. Yes. - All right. We got uniforms
to put on, a kitchen to get ready,
bar to set up, and I guess about 50 people out there,
- so let's get to it. - That's awesome.
- Thank you. - Thanks, everybody.
Thank you.
[upbeat music]
[cheers and applause]
Welcome. Come on in.
Oh, wow.
[upbeat music]
Oh, look at the bar!
Oh, my God, look at the bar!
Hi! How you doing?
- Hi, honey. - Hi, Jade.
What are we gonna have to drink, babe?
Okay. I want you to take them,
I want you to take 53.
Red rocks? All right. Cool.
Doors are open, people are in.
Food's already fired.
Gotta be able to back off. I didn't change my clothes,
- so that's sign number one. - [laughter]
[upbeat music]
Okay. We're off and running.
- How you doing? - Yes. Doing good.
Look how cool and calm you are
- compared to two nights ago. - Right.
Whoo.
Order going out, Jade.
Walking in, we got one three cheese mac,
one brisket chili.
- That looks amazing. - Three cheese mac there.
Going four all day.
[upbeat music]
- How is that? - Perfect.
- Yeah? You like it? - Perfect food, yeah.
- Good. - [indistinct]
[upbeat music]
Ready to plate when you are, bud.
Yes, sir.
Guys, you're almost done, aren't you?
Jon, they're rocking it.
Comments on the food
are unbelievable, guys.
Everybody loves everything.
Javon, good job, buddy.
Dan, good job.
Coming behind you, Fadil.
Yes, ma'am.
It feels amazing that Jade is blossoming into a wonderful GM.
I knew she could do it, that's the reason I hired her,
and, um, I'm gonna let her do her thing and step back.
Look at these drinks going out. Here we go.
That's what you call a production line here.
- [cheers and applause] - Here we go. Let's go.
- [applause] - Thank you, guys.
Tables are served, food is coming out
flawlessly, drinks are caught up.
And rather than making mashed potatoes in the back,
Fadil is helping out what he can in operations,
making a difference but letting Jade run the place.
[upbeat music]
- It's rocking. It's rocking. - Yeah.
You're a great guy, buddy.
- You really deserve this. - Thank you. Thank you.
And the community's reacting well to it, isn't it?
- Yeah. - With Jade running the place,
you're able to sneak a night off every once in a while
to be with your family.
I'm looking forward to it, actually.
- Yeah. Congratulations. - I really am.
- Thank you very much. - My work's done, buddy.
- Now it's up to you. - Thank you.
I appreciate it. Thanks.
- Thank you. - I appreciate you, man.
- Ah, no problem. - Thank you.
A great neighborhood bar appeals to everyone,
and that's what's going on here.
Old, young, tall, short, everybody's here,
they're eating, they're drinking,
they're enjoying this bar.
But the greatest thing, Jade.
She's taking control of this business,
and I see Fadil smiling and feeling good.
[dramatic music]
[upbeat music]
Promotional consideration provided by: SkyTab POS,
PathSpot, Partender, Cleaning Pros,
Timberline Audio Video, Alder Plumbing,
Mile High Beverage Brothers, TiCoat, Bar Products,
Standard Restaurant Supply, Ink Monstr, Door 222,
One Stone, and ESRI.