I have a radio show, so it's rare that I'm lost for words,
but tonight I was pretty speechless.
King: For over 30 years, Jon Taffer has traveled
the country, saving hundreds of bars from failure and ruin.
Jon: I started rescuing bars decades ago
because they're part of the backbone of America.
Let's go! And we're doing it. We're doing it!
But as the industry continues to explode,
the amount of failing bars is increasing at an alarming rate.
[dramatic music]
When do I have you say, "That's not gonna work?"
So, I'm on a mission to save as many bars as possible
and give worthy owners a second chance at success.
I'm gaining more respect for you by the minute.
King: Now Jon's heading to Boca Raton, Florida,
to attempt to rescue One11 Boca Raton.
We are determined to raise the bar and rise to the occasion.
[upbeat music]
King: In 2020, music producer J Ambroise
opened up One11 in Boca Raton, Florida.
J: For the past 20 years, I made a lot of my money
producing music and doing bookings
for different venues.
I got tired of making everybody else
millions and millions of dollars, and I always wanted
to have my own supper club, so I opened One11
and I was like, "I'm ready to start making money."
I'm very excited for myself. It's hard work.
King: From the start, J relied on multiple marketing events
to draw in customers.
Tuesday nights are the college party.
J: Wednesdays we got the ladies' night
and then Rollback Thursdays. Fridays is more of a Latin.
I feel like it's always been jumbled
a little bit, like, "What are we doing?"
Enjoy it? Don't do nothing I wouldn't do.
I wanted to have more of upscale supper club vibe
where you could come in and eat,
and after you're done eating, the tables go out,
the lights go down, music up and just party the night away.
There is nothing like this in Boca Raton.
King: But the bar's lack of cohesive identity
failed to bring people back.
How you think tonight's gonna be?
- Hopefully busy. - Well, busy night...
The atmosphere is fun, but I'm having
hit-or-miss days and nights.
King: And J's lack of bar-management experience
has left his staff without a leader.
So we don't have general management.
King: And the bar in complete disarray.
Sammy, where's this two calamari going?
Yeah, I have to check the POS system.
Some of the issues behind the bar that we have is space.
Kat: I mean, we are running into each other all the time.
Listen, obviously, you see the space is super tight.
Our furniture is so outdated
and the layout is very hard to get around.
The whole setup is just terrible.
The service isn't the best since it takes me a long time
to get to the tables.
Hi, guys. I'm so sorry about the wait.
King: As the losses have started to add up,
J spends more and more time in the bar,
trying to save the business.
At least now you get to see what I do all day.
J: You know? And you get to helping out. No?
My dad's definitely stressed 'cause he has to be here
six-seven days a week. Whenever we're open, he's always here.
Jose: I definitely don't like it because
we don't get to do any family stuff.
Charles, do you know how to put this thing together?
I really feel like I miss a lot of moments
that I could be doing more with my family.
It is mostly draining, but I'm not a quitter.
King: Now J finds himself over $800,000 in debt,
so before he has to shut the doors,
J has agreed to pull back the doors, bust open the books
and make a call for help to "Bar Rescue."
Everything's on the line, 'cause if I lose this,
I lose everything.
Jon: Welcome to Boca Raton.
- Not far from you. - Yeah, not far at all.
King: For the kitchen, Jon brings in Chef Michael Ferraro.
With his Italian roots and decades of experience
in some of the finest restaurants in New York City,
Chef Ferraro has cultivated menus
at high-end establishments
as well as local neighborhood restaurants across the country.
We are here at One11 Boca Raton. There is our bar.
[indistinct chatter]
Jon: Take a look at the kitchen.
Need to get another trash can right here, please.
J, he's the owner.
He doesn't seem so happy about it, does he?
Mike: No. - There is J's son, Jose.
I'm gonna drop this.
[indistinct chatter]
There's Kat. She's the manager.
Do you guys know what you want? I can grab you guys menus.
Like, drink menu. I have a small food menu.
There's Henrique.
Jon: Looks to me like he's handling that garnish
with his hands, instead of tongs,
being completely unsanitary.
And Rex.
Thank you, sir.
Jon: So as I understand it, J personally designed
this entire layout himself.
Look at this freaking place, look at the seating
with walls around everybody.
Jon: I mean, how do you get anybody in there?
Not the best way to utilize the space for sure.
There's no flow, walk-through, social aspects. It's terrible.
It's one of the worst layouts I've ever seen.
So for recon, I got a Amelia De Vita.
Jon: She's a very well-known radio personality
here in Southern Florida.
And when she's not on the air,
she reviews restaurants and bars.
So she's not only an on-air
radio personality, she's a foodie.
King: Jon's spies enter One11 Boca Raton,
a 2400-squarefoot space with a small bar,
a tight kitchen and a lounge-like layout
with wide couches and seating
sectioned off from an underused DJ booth.
Jon: So there's Amelia in front and there's Sarah
right behind her in a black leather jacket.
I wanna put my bag on the corner 'cause it's like--
Yeah, I don't want my bag to touch the seat.
They don't wanna put their purses down
'cause they think it's dirty.
Mike: I don't blame 'em.
Amelia: Hello. How are you? - Hi, good. Thank you.
How can I... what can I get you guys?
Would you guys like-- Yeah, well, a drink menu?
- Yeah. Perfect. - Food, too.
How are we, Rex?
Falling a little behind? A little behind?
Rex: Yeah, the oven took a while to warm up. So did the fryer.
- Oh, the fryer, too? Alrighty. - Yeah.
He walks into the kitchen, he says, "You're behind."
Guy says, "Yeah," he says, "Okay."
Jon: And then he walks out. - See you later.
What's the point in asking if you're not gonna help?
Amelia: Can we do the Little Miss Chris?
Sarah: And I'll get the One11 tiki, please.
We'll do the Buffalo wings, the egg rolls,
the crab cakes and the flatbread.
Thank you so much.
- I got, I got them. - Please. Just gonna go see--
Kat: I know, but please, I...
You guys want something to eat?
What do you think of the way J's dressed?
He's got a customer sitting there in a sport jacket,
and the manager comes up in jeans.
- What do you think about that? Mike: Yeah, I mean...
Obviously, what, the clientele that he's trying
to attract here, it doesn't match.
[rattling] You wanna give it to Sammy for me?
Who'd have shaken those two cocktails at once?
- Here we go. Kat: Yeah.
Okay, those cocktails are bruised at this point.
Your lemon tiki.
Alright, here we go. Cocktail time.
Sarah: Thank you.
[dramatic music]
There's an aftertaste. Where's the mint?
There's no mint. You wanna try it?
- You wanna try mine? - Yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
- Little face. - Well...
You definitely don't have to worry about
too much alcohol. This is all juice.
I mean, this one, to me, just kind of tastes like ice.
Like, it's really watered down. I...
She's over-shaking those drinks.
But the cup looks nice. The cup is very tiki.
Just what we were saying. See, they tried.
Cup is nice, but what they put in it sucks.
Yeah, maybe the food will be better.
Hopefully.
Kat: Is something in there? I see you, like--
- Little speck. - Let me see.
[clears throat] There's a floater in that glass.
I don't know if it's actually a speck or maybe it's...
- A bug or a piece of malt. Kat: Yeah.
Kat: I'll just get you a new one. It's okay.
I'll leave the water.
Jon: I find it interesting how he's worn
the same gloves this entire time.
So what's the point of wearing gloves if you never change them
after you touch raw and cooked protein?
Yeah.
[oil bubbling]
- Look at that oil. Mike: Oh!
Mike: That oil is completely disintegrating.
I mean, that hasn't been changed in a very long time.
Jon: It's almost not even oil anymore.
I'm worried about them eating this food.
Aren't you? Especially out of that oil.
The cocktails are just lousy,
but that's not gonna get 'em sick.
That food might get 'em sick.
I think we should go inside, sit down with them,
make sure the food is edible before they eat it.
She's got the real cool-looking drink over here.
- Yeah, the cup is really nice. Amelia: The cup is really cute.
[dramatic music]
Amelia: What else have we got? - Hi.
- Oh, hi.
Can you make some room for us?
- We're gonna join you. - Absolutely.
Say hi to Mike Ferraro. Good friend of mine.
Hi, Mike. Nice to meet you.
Mike's one of my favorite chefs in America.
- Oh, wow. - Oh, really?
I'm gonna tell you why we came in.
We're worried about your health right now.
We were watching the cooking oil and some of the things going on
in the kitchen, and we were a little uncomfortable
with you guys eating this food.
So we wanted to be here when it comes out.
Okay.
- Hi, J. - How are you, Jon?
- Good. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
They've been waiting for food now for, like, 20 minutes.
Right. I just checked on their food, and it's coming.
When?
I think you should go back there and see what's happened.
- Go take a look. - Okay.
I mean, we ordered wings. We ordered...
Everything is fried, right? Well, like...
It could be prepared really quickly.
[indistinct chatter]
Mike: Hey, guys. - Hey, how's it going?
Where we at with the ticket time for this order there?
We're at 950. Is this typically as long as it takes?
- Sometimes. - So I gotta ask you a question.
Do you own this place or you the busboy?
Jon: Because you look like a busboy.
Why are your customers dressed better than you are?
And if customers dress nicely to come in here,
shouldn't you class the place up?
Jon: Dress at least as good as your customers,
if not better, and then you elevate the room.
You're taking your concept and you're turning it into trash!
Look at the way you're dressed as the owner.
Are those hot? It's okay, you can touch it.
Are those hot? No, they're not hot.
This fryer here was, like, smoking and bubbling over.
Mike: I've been a chef for 22 years.
I've never seen oil froth up like that.
When was the last time you changed the oil?
It's been, like, two weeks, I believe.
- No, you can't even hold it. - Is this the way it should be?
- No. - You can't even hold it.
- That shouldn't be that way. - Okay, so we're two for two.
Jon: If you had 50 girls like this
in your bar tonight, you'd be a rich man.
- Wouldn't you? - Right, I would be.
Jon: So these are your target customer, correct?
- Yes. Yes. - Upscale. Boca Raton.
Fit the neighborhood, right? Withdraw...
So they come here, they get a cocktail that sucks.
You go in the kitchen, they blew the food in front of you.
You walk back there and stand in front of that fryer.
Did you see the color of the grease in that fryer?
- Yes, I did. - It's disgusting!
When was the last time it was changed?
[dramatic music]
There's nothing to say.
There is nothing to say. You blew it, right?
J: You're right. - So this is, by the way...
The worst floor plan I have ever seen
in almost 40 years in this business.
From a seating plan, two girls sit here.
Now they control this entire space.
So two people are now using six people's worth of space.
Here is the restaurant-bar industry.
- It's called sales per foot. J: Right.
You have to generate a certain amount of money per foot.
In order to generate the money per foot,
you have to have a certain amount of people
per foot in the space.
Jon: You don't have people.
You have freaking walls everywhere,
so you can't even get enough people in here
to generate the revenue to make the money
even if you did fill it up.
Then the shitty food comes out
with the shitty drink dropped off
by Mr. Busboy, the owner.
with the shitty drink dropped off
by Mr. Busboy, the owner.
You have no freaking chance of succeeding.
Zero.
How much you lose in a month?
- Let him hear it. - Thirty thousand.
Jon: How much in debt are you over this?
How much you put into it?
Well, over eight-eight fifty.
Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars
you put into this piece of shit
and then you completely disrespect your own money.
[tense music]
First thing you got to do is clean your freaking kitchen
because it's disgusting back there.
Jon: Go back there, get that place cleaned.
When I come here tomorrow,
if this place is clean, kitchen and bar
- I will help your ass. J: Okay.
If you don't clean it, I don't come.
J: I-- I'll go deal with it now.
Thank you. Thank you, ladies.
Don't eat any of this.
J, I mean clean.
My standards of clean, not yours.
J: We're on it.
Nobody ever come in and scream at me. Period.
And when Jon came in, started screaming I was like, oh shit.
But my mindset is if someone's here to help me,
I have to take the criticism
and listen to what they're saying
because this is my first rodeo.
I have to understand that there's people
that knows more than I do. So you know what?
He was right. The oil needed to be changed.
You got to change out the grease,
and make sure everything is on point.
It's like kept my mouth closed,
took it like a man.
[instrumental music]
[laughter]
Jon walked in and was screaming at J.
Henrique was staring, dumbfounded,
didn't know what was happening.
The way how he was shot, I didn't expect that.
How do you feel about yesterday, J? Like--
It is what it is, you know?
I mean, maybe I deserved it. Who knows?
J: Shit happens. - Yeah.
Yeah, what can I do about? It's the past.
- Exactly. - I was trying to move forward.
We gotta Learn from our mistakes.
J: Exactly.
Jon pointed out my clothing,
which I didn't think was bad.
But you know what? I changed.
I upscaled, you know?
So, um, got that fixed.
I got the kitchen cleaned up,
straightened up the bar a bit, you know?
So today we're ready to open back up.
Kat: Okay, Jose, what did you think about last night?
Because I saw you standing there, like watching your dad.
I've never seen anybody yell at my dad like that.
So it was just definitely different, I guess.
Jose: I guess he needed it,
so things got
changed a little bit
and hopefully things come out better.
Jon: Last night, I saw a bar that had great intentions,
terrible execution.
I think J has a vision,
but he doesn't have the ability to execute that vision.
Hello. You guys ready to do this?
- We're ready. - Come on over. Let's go.
Today, I want to get his passion going
and direct that passion to make him successful.
- Okay. What's your name? - I'm Samantha.
- And how long you been here? - Two years.
Jon: Two years? Can I call you Sam?
- Yeah, of course. - And what do you do here?
I'm a cocktail waitress and I'm a host as well.
- Okay. What's your name? - I'm Katherine.
- And how long you been here? - Since we're open. Four years.
Jon: Four years. And you go by Kat, right?
- I go by Kat, yes. - Okay.
And what do you do here, Kat?
- I manage and I bartend. Jon: Okay.
So when you say you manage, what do you do?
Do you do the schedule?
I do scheduling.
I help out, like, with whatever is needed.
So we'll take some stress off of J
and because he is doing a lot.
So you guys got to be honest with me.
I know you love him. He's a good guy, right?
Kat: Yeah. Jon: But we got to be honest.
I'm not challenging him as a human being,
I'm challenging him as a business owner.
Why are we failing, Kat?
It's more like a night time spot,
so I don't know if,
you know, when people come by,
they're like, "we don't even know you're open,"
because we don't open till 9:00 at night.
Most of the time, there's nothing clear.
Everything looks dark and we always look closed.
My mom lived just couple of blocks from here.
And I get to tell you, I would want to have a happy hour.
- Right. - Especially...
In this is sort of a retail kind of an area here,
but opening at 9:00, we miss a whole audience, don't we?
Kat: Right. Jon: So that makes no sense.
So what is it?
Well, this, I built it more like,
because there's nothing like this in Boca
where you could come here and have small bites
and party at the same time and enjoy yourself.
There's no really real identity because people are confused.
J: They're like, yes, they have food,
but they're also like a club.
But we're not a club,
so I'm trying to create that identity.
Boca is a pretty upscale market.
- Is it? J: Yes, it is.
Jon: And there's a lot of competition around here.
- Isn't there? A whole lot. - A whole lot.
Five more restaurants just opened up
in the past three months.
So it's getting more and more competitive every day.
Okay, so this was an upscale vision again.
Yes.
So explain last night to me,
because I'm walking into a place.
I see glitter chandeliers.
Jon: I mean, this looks like it should be at a Christmas party.
Chicken wings were ice cold.
Pizza bread was soggy.
- What's your name? - My name is Rex.
Rex, how long you've been here?
- About three years. Jon: About three years.
Jon: You work in the kitchen? - Yes.
Who gave you the recipes?
Most of them were already here.
Jon: Okay.
When we first opened,
I had management that was here
that worked at another bar that closed down.
And I brought most of the team here to help me open the place.
And you opened right before COVID, too, didn't you?
Three days.
It ran open in March 14th of 2020
and March 17th the country shut down.
I know you-- you built this place
for about 350,000 when you opened.
J: Yeah, yes.
Jon: How far in are you right now?
- [scoffs] A lot. - How much?
Like about eight fifty.
Jon: $850,000 in this place.
Let me tell you something and you're not going to like this,
but I'm going to say it anyway because I think
you need to hear some things.
You know you made a lot of money
when you were pretty young, didn't you?
- Yes, I did. - You did pretty good in music.
So you say to yourself, I'm the man... in music.
I made my money. I'm the man.
I got this confidence now.
I know what the hell I'm doing.
I'm going to go open this bar.
And then you realize you're not the man.
Jon: Here, you're not the man. - No. No.
And you don't have that knowledge.
Jon: Everything about this is wrong.
I walk in here past this stuff.
I don't understand what the hell this is.
This makes no sense to me at all.
I don't know if I'm at a wedding in Hawaii
or what the hell is going on here.
Now I walk in, I see this tiered seating
and everybody's facing this way,
so I immediately look this way, expecting a stage.
- It makes no sense to me. Samantha: Yeah.
And then I walk in and I have this huge wall...
between me and the bar.
Samantha: The layout is [bleep] terrible.
I hate it. It's terrible to work in.
So I'm glad he pointed it out.
Everything creates discomfort
and disconnection... rather than connection.
So, why didn't you do anything about it?
Like--
I'm saying all this stuff
and you're standing there shaking your head.
[tense music]
Why haven't you changed or done anything?
Because COVID.
J: COVID didn't allow-- - Oh, stop that excuse.
That was years ago.
The food took forever. It sucked.
Every single thing that you wanted to accomplish
didn't work.
If you're so committed, why don't you fix it?
Jose, does your dad have
a bit of a thick head sometimes?
- Sometimes, yeah. Jon: Yeah.
Jon: Doesn't listen as much as maybe he could?
- Doesn't really, no. Jon: No.
What happens when you tell him he's wrong?
When I feel like he's wrong, there is a discussion
and it's just a lot of "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get to it."
There's so much that could be done.
But yet he picked you as manager.
You think he'd listen? How come you don't?
I look at it as if it seems like it costs extra money
that has to come out of my pocket,
I just put it aside.
It's interesting that you'll spend $850,000 on this...
I'm going to say a piece of shit. But when your staff
comes to you with an enthusiastic idea
that you don't want to spend money on.
So I'm going to ask you this question.
Why are we failing?
We're failing because I think I'm not doing the right things.
I've asked an owner, why they're failing 249 times,
never wants you to look at me and say
I'm failing because of me. You just said that to me.
Yeah, I'm not doing the right things.
- You got a team you believe in? - Yes, I do.
So if I train them and train you, you ready to step up?
- I'm ready to step up. - Okay, let's do this, guys.
J: Everything Jon said, he was right.
Because I didn't get any training
prior to entering this place
and I should be on top of everything
that's going on in my establishment.
Mike Ferraro is a chef from New York,
one of my favorite in the country.
Jon: Carlos Ruiz,
great bartender from the New Jersey, New York area.
Male narrator: For the bar, Jon brings in Carlos Ruiz,
a native of Lima, Peru.
Carlos is a multi award-winning mixologist
and a hospitality industry consultant.
Carlos has spent nearly two decades
in the New York nightlife scene,
where he has worked tirelessly to master his craft
and to rise to the top of the custom cocktail for years.
Okay, so we got to train all day today,
stress test tonight.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thanks. - Thank you.
[up-tempo music]
So Jon mentioned two things specifically.
One was Kat over diluting the cocktail
and then we had Henrique
grabbing Brute with his bare hands.
Carlos: Going to the training,
I want them to learn cleanliness
and proper drink making.
So today, we're going to be making the button up.
If you like whiskey sours,
you're going to love this cocktail.
It's all equal parts,
so it's going to be really easy for you.
So we're going to grab our Cocktail Kingdom shakers
and three dashes of aromatic bitters or blackberries.
We're going to do three of them.
Anytime you're touching fruit, you have the tongs.
I don't want to taste dirty hands in a cocktail.
Now we're going to muddle. [clinking]
Next we're going to do a three counts
of Twisted Alchemy cold pressed lime juice.
One, two, three.
Three counts of Twisted Alchemy Demerara.
One, two, three, four.
Same thing. One, two, three, whiskey.
One, two, three, Caribbean Rum.
One, two, three. Add ice.
Now with the shaking, what you want to do is
aerate the cocktail, not over shake it,
because the dilution comes very quickly.
A trick is, as soon as this gets really cold,
that's when the cocktails ready.
Shake it up. [ice rattles]
Fruit glass, fresh lime juice in here,
and then we have a little nutmeg and now we just strain.
And there you go.
The button up. Give it a taste.
It's supposed to be a bit stronger
but also refreshing at the same time.
Yes, we have the rum, yes, we have the whiskey
and then the bitters, but the blackberries
is what's tying everything together.
And there's a nutmeg. You need a little spice in life
and that's why you have that.
- Beautiful. - Alright, I like it.
So we are going to be training a little bit more,
tonight it is stress test. You got to be on your game.
Carlos: I want to see this cocktails coming out.
Boom, boom, boom. Stay focused and just make sure
the cocktails tastes good and look good.
- Hey, guys. J: Hey, chef.
Mike: How you guys doing today? - We're good.
So last night, the kitchen was filthy
Mike: and we saw some of the dirtiest
fry oil we've ever seen.
Heading into kitchen training today,
we need to focus on cleanliness
and producing some better quality food.
Thanks for putting in the effort
and clean the kitchen. The fryer got cleaned out.
We have some fresh fryer oil in there. We're a lot closer.
I wouldn't say we're there, but we're a lot closer.
So the first dish I'm going to introduce is
crispy chicken tikka marsala.
So it's a finger food, it's fresh.
It's something that you guys make here.
It's something that we're going to be able to
lower the food cost on
and very few steps.
So half a large chicken breast
pounded thinly, standard breading procedure. Okay?
Mike: These are all done before service
and they're not frozen,
so they're going to cook really quickly.
Okay, last night we had a problem
with keeping some of the food hot, right?
That breading and that thin cutlets going to stay hot.
Here what I made is a tikka masala sauce,
a super easy recipe,
and it's something that can be done ahead of time.
So for service,
you're able to get those orders out really quickly.
- Alright. Mike: A little bit of salt.
Mike: And we're going to cut this into strips.
Finish with some fresh cilantro.
This is the crispy spiced chicken breast.
Mike: Give it a taste? Rex: So good.
Rex: Really delicious. - Very juicy.
Definitely something that can be made quick
and go out and be presentable on the table.
Awesome. You think you can pull this off tonight?
- Yes, I can. - Alright, guys.
So we got a lot more work to do
before stress test tonight.
- Best of luck, gentlemen. - Thank you.
Rex: It was definitely inspirational working with chef.
The chicken was delicious and flaky and really easy to do.
So I think I'm going to perform really great
with the stress test.
[upbeat music]
So tonight, I want you to think of yourself
as a music producer.
Right.
You got to keep all these
instruments on time.
- Watch your bar. - Right.
Watch your ticket times in the kitchen.
- Be a leader. - Right.
Your energy becomes their energy.
- I'm with you. - Okay.
You're going to keep them all on time.
- Time and line. - Okay.
- Open them up. - Thank you.
Here we go. [claps]
Come in in everybody.
[upbeat music]
[indistinct]
Kat: Hi, guys. Welcome to One11.
J: Sit wherever. - Welcome. What could I get you?
Woman 1: Tequila City within a...
Two crispy chickens and an egg roll.
Okay.
I've got one crispy chicken
and five egg rolls.
Alright. Super fast, pick up on that.
In and out.
Jon: Next 15 minutes are everything.
Either they get ahead of it or they don't.
[ice rattles]
Shake the cocktail a little longer.
This was a little too quick.
[ice rattles]
That's your two... guys.
[indistinct]
[tense music]
- How we doing? Mike: Coming along good.
Jon: We got that clean oil. Jose: Yeah.
How's that ticket time?
Mike: Right now, ten minutes.
If we can stay under 12 minutes,
Jon: I'm a happy guy. Jose: Okay, sir.
J: Alright, guys, have you guys ordered your drinks yet?
- No, we haven't. - Alright.
Let me grab a handheld. One second.
J, just went to get a handheld POS.
Jon: He's going to start taking orders
because he saw tables are falling behind.
Jon: But ringing in orders is just the start.
He needs to get the kitchen and bar staff to pick up the pace.
What would you ladies like?
Woman 2: A bottom up, please.
Rex: I've got the egg rolls ready with the ticket.
And then I've got the calamari salad here ready.
The first order was chicken and then the egg rolls.
Those are two separate tickets.
You got to go off of what's in the ticket.
- Okay. - Let's go, guys.
We should be having more drinks out here.
Jon: Let's go, Henrique. Let's do it.
Carlos: There's no simple syrup.
I think you gotta dump the pot here.
So we're open, what now, about 15 minutes--
Fifteen minutes and only a few people have drinks already.
So we are failing already, right?
- Yes, we are. - Come on, Henrique.
That's over, you have a lot of booze in there.
Do it again.
Oh, my God, this is so much stress.
Let's go, guys, you're about 15 minutes on this ticket here.
Jose: 15 minutes? Oh, my God.
Just made three drinks over there without simple syrup.
Jon: So he's dumped how many down to drain?
- Six. Yeah. - Six cocktails down the drain?
Jon: We don't have one drink out in any of the table stalls.
Not one. So if they don't think out soon we're in big trouble.
Carlos: Oh, yeah.
Right now things are falling apart all over this place,
and J's oblivious to it.
Jon: Not 'cause he doesn't care,
because he's a waiter right now.
Calamari and egg rolls are here?
- Yeah. - Here is your calamari salad.
- No? - No.
Did you guys order the calamari salad?
You guys didn't order a calamari salad?
- Nope. Samantha: The ticket is wrong.
It said ten, but it's obviously not ten,
so has to be for something at the bar--
Well, somebody ordered it, so...
We're completely unraveling here, aren't we, folks?
Twenty minutes of waiting, and who doesn't have a drink?
Who ordered food and doesn't have it?
Jon: Nice job, J.
You kept this coordinated well.
We haven't gotten one table right.
Not one.
Who ordered food and doesn't have it?
We haven't gotten one table right.
Not one!
What do you need?
Man 2: The city within a park and the bottoms up.
Mike: We got another order up here.
Where are these going? Table 11.
That's waiting for this egg rolls right here.
And that's this ticket.
They're picking and choosing
the orders on the handheld
and not what's on the ticket.
So we're sending the wrong food to the wrong table?
Mike: Correct.
J tried, but the fact is
he doesn't have the systems in place
where he can be an owner tonight.
Jon: The bar has been a complete failure.
The wrong food went to the wrong tables
because the systems didn't work in the kitchen.
And J, as an owner, has been completely ineffective.
J, I've seen what I need to see.
We need to close this down.
Apologize, own this.
Alright, guys, I apologize for the inconvenience of your time.
J: You know, we're going to close it down
and invite you guys back in two days,
for our grand open.
Thank you guys all for coming.
[applause]
With Jon, either you fail or you succeed
and tonight we failed.
Jon: Alright, guys, we got a lot of work to do.
Every one of these yellow dots represents a competitor.
This is as competitive a market as we've ever been in.
I don't think he was so far off in his concept
of almost a supper club-ish
type of an environment with small plate food.
So if we stayed with that direction and said,
okay, we're going to do almost a New York City style
clubby bistro-ey kind of a concept,
where do you land for cocktails?
This area of more affluent, so high end ingredients, fresh,
just easy cocktails that tastes delicious.
What do you see for food, chef?
You know, Jon, we're right by the beach.
We need some seafood, fresh seafood.
Alright, guys. So we got a whole menu to develop.
We got a whole signature cocktail program to develop.
- I'll buy the coffee. Okay? - Sounds good.
- Let's go do it. - Sounds good.
[Carlos speaking in foreign language]
- How's everybody doing? - Hola!
Yeah? Alright.
Well, yesterday, you know, it was stressful.
Carlos: So one of the key things is
trying to get multiple orders at once,
because if you only take one cocktail order
and then you start making that cocktail,
people are still waiting.
Alright, so let's make some cocktails now.
You have affluent people around here,
so you need affluent cocktails.
Things that look pretty, things that taste delicious.
Alright, so we're going to be making the Florida Air.
First ingredient is going to be
our Agave 3/4 of an ounce.
Twisted alchemy cold fresh lime juice, 3/4 of an ounce.
Twisted alchemy, pineapple juice,
fresh cucumber juice,
rum flavored with lemon.
Let's add some ice. [ice rattling]
Cocktail kingdom Hawthorn strainer
and for garnish, a cucumber.
And there you have it.
The Florida Air.
Salud.
I'm pretty excited to do those new recipes.
It makes me realize cucumber was made for rum too,
not only for the gin. So I love that.
Alright, guys, so we're almost there.
We have a little bit more training to do.
[clapping] Alright, let's go. Come on.
[upbeat music]
Last night concerns me. J is a winner.
He's made good money in his life.
He's a successful record and music promoter.
But in that bar, he's failing.
And that's on him.
- Hey, guys. - Hey, how are you?
He needs to learn that. So we need to talk.
Got beat up a little last night, huh?
Oh, yes, I did.
The definition of management to me
is the achieving of objectives through others.
So if you want the drink perfect,
you have to achieve it through them.
You can't make every drink yourself.
You can't make all the food yourself.
So you have to achieve this through them.
Yes.
Has this week been what you thought it would be?
Oh, no, no, no, not at all.
Jon: In what way?
I just thought you was going to come in
and not do all the screaming.
But I needed it.
I needed to get that fire lit
so I can get moving. It's your passion.
And the same thing with me, with my passion.
When I see an artist or someone that I'm working with
aren't doing what they need to do and I'm going to scream,
I'm going to shout. Because you know what?
Either you're with me or you're not,
there's the door.
- Bingo. That's the deal. J: Yes.
That's how you protect your money.
- That's how you make a legacy. - Right.
And you want to hand that legacy over there.
J: Yeah, I want to hand it to him. Well, like I told him,
you know, this is something that he has to want.
You know, I mean, I still got my work ethic on to him,
but whatever he choose to do with it,
is what he choose to do with it.
- Cool dude, isn't he? - Very cool dude. Yes.
So what do you want to do?
You want to run this bar one day?
Maybe one day if the business is doing better
and with the proper business training as well.
I can't go into it with no business training.
- He's a good kid, isn't he? J: He is.
A good father, good kid.
And when the bar's making money, you can take some time off.
You guys can get some good time together.
We'll have Sunday fun days.
Jose: Yeah, like we used to. - Exactly.
J: That's something that I miss, you know, doing.
So I got to go back to work.
- I got a bar... - Thank you very much.
- Rip to shreds. - Alright.
So get some sleep tonight,
get some time together. I'll see you guys tomorrow.
It's been a big learning experience for me.
J: We're going to train the rest of the day
and I'm going to make sure
that I make Jon very proud.
[upbeat music]
You know, this is a tough one
because Boca is a pretty discerning market.
Jon: So we're doing an upscale food program,
upscale cocktail program,
so we need that upscale environment to match it.
So we got to get just the right concept.
And so much of that is going to be color.
We want rich colors, but not loud,
but we still want to be Floridian.
How do we find those right colors to really nail this?
Well, this week I was so excited to be able to use Benjamin Moore
because their palette is so much richer.
I've had actually a hard time thinking the colors
because there's so many good ones.
Jon: It's the centerpiece of what we're doing here is
going to be the paint.
And then this floor plan.
Oh, my God. So the question--
I've never seen anything like this.
We've got to blow this out
and there's no floor underneath it
when we blow it out,
so we've got a real problem.
Can we blow it out?
Can we get the floor to replace it?
And not look like we've puzzled piece things together,
- Right? - Can we do it?
That is, we won't know until we get into it.
Laura: And that's what my guys are really worried about.
- So it could go either way? - Either way.
Okay, guys, let's go to it.
[whirring]
[tapping]
[up-tempo music]
[scattered applause]
Jon: Hello, everybody. - Hello.
To think about this, J... opens up a bar...
- Your dream, right, buddy? - Yes. Yes.
Jon: Losing money month after month after month.
So I came here. We had a rough first night, didn't we?
Yes, we did. I thought you was out of your mind.
But then I started thinking, and you was right.
A hundred percent.
- So I had to take your vision. - Okay.
Tweak a vocal here and there,
change the instrumentation slightly.
But the feel of the song...
- Okay. Jon: Is the same.
Jon: You guys nervous? - Oh, very.
- You ready? - Yeah.
One, two, three!
Wow!
[cheering]
Wow!
Boca Luna.
Jon: I wanted to be a little sexy,
just like the bar needs to be a little sexy.
- You guys ready to see it? J: Yes, we are.
Alright, go ahead.
Ooh!
[cheering]
Wow!
- Oh, my! - Wow!
Kat: Oh, my God. Jose: This is beautiful.
Oh, I love this.
J: Nice touch. Wow.
Now you can walk through in there.
You can just take a stroll.
Kat: I love the color. J: I like that.
And you wanted to keep going late.
J: Well, I have to go to the DJ booth.
Jose: They got the logos on the TV.
Nice.
That's an Orange Door
entertainment system.
J: Okay. Wow. - Has about 57,000 songs.
You can program it in beats per minute, curves, by key,
by artists, by music type.
- Nice. - Come on, sit at the bar, guys.
I want to show you everything we did.
I'm speechless. And it's really over exceeded my expectations.
First, I got you a SkyTab POS by Shift Four,
two brand new systems and handheld.
It's a speed system.
Jon: Then I got Cocktail Kingdom to give you guys
all the bar tools, all the supplies. Classy?
Everything is designed to enhance our experience.
I got Dark Horse Miami to do all the interior wraps,
the vinyl wraps, the logos. In addition to that,
I got Benjamin Moore, the paint company.
You got to pick just the right color.
So we land on Benjamin Moore because the color was perfect.
So I called my friends there,
they gave me the name of a local store,
they mixed all night long
to get this special color for you guys.
I got Commercial Kitchen Stop
to set you guys up in the kitchen
with the griddle, a new work table,
an equipment like this we can do this better
and not fall behind.
So, did I give you everything you needed to be successful?
- Yes, you did. Jon: Is this what you hoped for?
I love it.
It exceeded my expectations.
You realize now, right,
that you're the leader here?
Now you need to lead them to victory.
- You with me, right? - I'm with you.
Okay, get 'em back.
- You ready? - We will. We're ready.
Alright, let's go do it.
Let's go to it. Let's get set.
Welcome to the new Boca Luna, guys.
Come right in.
[upbeat music]
Come in. I hope you guys like it.
Hello, guys.
Jose: Welcome to the Boca Luna. [laughs]
So, what can I get you guys started to drink?
I'm going to have the button up.
- I'll have a Boca Paradise. - Florida Air.
- The Florida Air? - What about you?
Boca Paradise.
- Unbelievable. - You like it?
- Yeah, it's a whole makeover. - Nice. It is.
Man 3: And a crab cake, one of everything.
One of everything? Beautiful. [chuckles]
J: How we looking, Kat?
Kat: Good. I just don't know which one's first.
Just lay them all, like, side by side
and then we'll do it by time.
I got it. I got it. Here.
You got it? Perfect.
[music continues]
Mike: What's that main bar ticket?
Jose: Teriyaki skewers and lucky crab cake.
Mike: Okay, so you're almost ready?
- How you feeling? Good? - Good.
Jon: Much faster than the other night, isn't it?
Carlos: Look at that. Beautiful.
Well, we're off and running.
What a difference from stress test.
Already in the first five minutes,
Kat has made more drinks
than she made half hour during stress test.
I bet we're gonna have a great opening.
J: You guys ordered a Boca paradise, am I correct?
- Yes. - Yes, Boca Paradise.
- Hi, Amelia. Hi, Sarah. - Hi, Jon.
Does it feel like the same place?
- Not at all. - Absolutely not.
It's way more elevated,
way more loud, warm and inviting.
The food is really good, too.
Jon: Excellent.
Mike: My God, it looks so delicious.
- How we doing, chef? - We're kicking ass here.
Food looks great, guys. You're catching up.
We're running great ticket times.
[clapping] Really well done. I'm proud of you guys.
all: Thank you.
That table right there, did you take that order first table?
- Yes. - Alright.
Well, they haven't got their food.
Can you go check, please to make sure?
I love how you're in the middle of it, buddy.
You're running this place, aren't you?
- I have to be. - Jon: Feeling good?
Yes, I'm feeling great.
Feeling great. Alright.
[upbeat music]
I know you love your daddy long before I got here.
But he's been pretty amazing this week, don't you think?
Oh, absolutely, yes.
You've got a lot of character.
You have to these days, you know,
if you want to be successful, you have to listen.
He's an amazing guy. You got a great father.
- You got a solid son, too. - Yeah, he is. He is.
- My work's done, buddy. - Thank you.
Alright, group hug.
[laughter]
[cheering]
♪ Yeah, we live, yeah, we live yeah, we live ♪
♪ Yeah, we're gonna turn the party up turn the circle up ♪
♪ Yeah, we live, yeah, we live yeah, we live ♪♪
This one feels good.
Jon: You know, J was a good guy in a bad place.
He was losing money. He didn't see a way out.
He didn't know what to do, when to do it.
Tonight, completely different story.
He led this place. He solved problems.
He got involved when there were issues.
He was a manager.
Male announcer: Provided by Benjamin Moore & Company,
Skytab POS, Orange Door Music, Twisted Alchemy,
Cocktail Kingdom, Commercial Kitchen Stop, Dark Horse Miami,
Erica's Plumbing AC and Restoration, Alley Cat,
Onestone and ESRI.