- And I was like, oh, OK.
All right.
But I'm surprised I haven't broke an ankle yet.
Peter.
[soda gun spraying]
NARRATOR: For over 30 years,
Jon Taffer has traveled the country, saving hundreds
of bars from failure and ruin.
(OFF) JON TAFFER (VOICEOVER): I started
rescuing bars decades ago because they're part
of the backbone of America.
- Let's go. We're doing it.
But as the industry continues to explode,
the amount of failing bars is increasing at an alarming rate.
When do I have you say, that's not going to work?
But I can't be everywhere at once,
so I've handpicked some of the nation's
top hospitality experts--
- You got to interact with guests.
- --to help me lead the charge.
- You don't have a fucking clue
on how to run a bar, do you?
NARRATOR: Now, Jon is sending legendary mixologist
Phil Wills to San Marcos, California,
to rescue Inland Tavern.
- We are determined to raise the bar
and rise to the occasion.
NARRATOR: In 2012, experienced hospitality
industry veteran Pete Zacarias decided to buy a bar
in San Marcos, California.
- I've been in the bar industry, restaurant
industry since I was about 18.
I've been the lead server in a high-end boutique hotel,
been a food and beverage director in a hotel,
kind of done it all.
So I started looking for something that was my own.
[music playing]
So, late 2012, I purchased a British Pub.
It was kind of a San Marcos staple.
NARRATOR: But after Pete took over operation
of the British Pub, he quickly realized
that he wanted a different vibe for his Northern San Diego bar.
- So in 2015, I rebranded to Inland Tavern.
It's a coastal themed bar.
I just wanted to have this really fun,
killer place where you get great food,
great people, good drinks.
NARRATOR: And the bar's rebrand
was initially a hit with the affluent suburban town.
- So amazing, Chef.
[laughter]
When we opened Inland Tavern, we were killing it.
We were really busy.
We were packed for lunch all the way until we closed.
NARRATOR: But in 2020, a massive city
renovation project caused long-term road
closures around the bar.
- The main bridge right behind us has been
out for almost two years now.
It's just a kick to the gut.
NARRATOR: Now, Inland Tavern is struggling
to return to its former glory.
- Always gonna be trouble.
I think Pete needs to take more responsibility,
because he thinks it's a lot of other outside issues
when it's very much in-house.
- We struggle on what kind of restaurant or bar
we're trying to be.
- People don't walk in here
and want dumplings and bao buns with their nachos and wings.
NARRATOR: If things don't change soon,
the days are numbered for Inland Tavern.
- We're losing 18,000 per month.
If nothing changes, I would give Inland Tavern less than a year.
NARRATOR: Before the sun sets on this beach bar dream,
Pete has agreed to pull back the doors, bust open the books,
and make a call for help--
- I've tried everything.
[laughs] And I am going under.
NARRATOR: --to Bar Rescue.
[air blowing]
- I hate that sound.
It's like mist.
- For this rescue,
I've asked one of my long time experts, Phil Wills,
to lead the charge.
Phil has been helping me rescue bars for almost 10 years.
He's one of the foremost experts in mixology,
and he knows exactly what it takes
to build a loyal clientele.
[music playing]
- Here we go.
(ON) DERRICK TURNER: We're going.
- How are you guys doing?
- Good to see you, Phil.
- Good. Yes, sir.
- I've seen Phil grow as a real leader
in the hospitality industry, and I can't think of a better
person to rescue this bar.
PHIL WILLS: All right, guys.
So this is it.
Inland Tavern.
And the whole theme of it, get this--
it's a coastal beach bar--
- [chuckles] (ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: What?
- --but Inland. (OFF) JENNIFER MURPHY: Wait.
Hold on.
Inland Tavern is a coastal beach bar?
- Yes.
- Make that make sense.
NARRATOR: For the kitchen, Jon brings in Chef Jennifer
Murphy, a 15-year veteran of Las Vegas fine dining
who has overseen kitchens at the Bellagio,
MGM Grand, and Caesars Palace.
- Look at the outside of this place, guys.
It's very drab, a lot of dark colors.
There's nothing that really pulls your attention.
You see that on the lefthand side?
Looks like a--
JENNIFER MURPHY: Is that a telephone booth?
DERRICK TURNER: [laughs]
PHIL WILLS: That's kind of odd.
That doesn't really make sense with an Inland Tavern.
- It's giving pub vibes.
Right? (ON) PHIL WILLS: Yeah, yeah.
Exactly. Exactly.
NARRATOR: For the bar Jon brings in Derrick Turner,
a mixologist from New York City who's named a top 10
bartender by Time Out Magazine.
Derrick has worked with both craft
spirit brands and major breweries across the country.
- All right, guys, so here's Pete.
- How you doing, man?
- [bleep], dude.
I'm like, infinitely tired these days.
PHIL WILLS: He's in debt $800,000.
- Jeez.
- That's $800,000.
- That's absolutely terrifying.
- [laughs]
- I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
- I mean, are you kidding me right now?
- At all.
- Are you doing good, hun?
OK.
- Pete bought this bar in 2012,
and he changed it into this, the Inland Tavern.
So he tried to bring, you know, that beach vibe to this place.
And what about this place speaks beach?
- Nothing.
(OFF) JENNIFER MURPHY: I wouldn't
have picked up on that at all.
PHIL WILLS: No.
What's crazy is that Pete has a fine dining background.
So you would think that he would know what to do
with a small place like this.
Should be a cakewalk, right?
(ON) DERRICK TURNER: Clearly not.
- Doing good, guys?
PATRON: Good, thank you.
- That's one of your bartenders, Paul.
- First of all--
And I guess
he's a decent bartender, who knows?
We have to watch him
- Now, Cara's another bartender.
She's been here for about three years now.
Looks like she has a little bit of, like,
an authoritarian attitude with her?
DERRICK TURNER: For sure.
- Hands on the hip, she's kind of like--
DERRICK TURNER: She's in charge.
- She looks like the boss, yeah.
- So those are our two bartenders.
And then, down here, you can see that's our chef.
- 15-minute timer.
- That's Corey.
Corey is an executive chef, and he's been
doing this for a long time.
Looks like he has some decent skills.
- Yeah.
PHIL WILLS: So for recon tonight, we have Chris
and we have Owen.
And they're both professional beach volleyball players,
so they really know what a beach vibe is supposed to be like.
- What are we drinking, guys?
- Can we see a menu?
PAUL: Yeah. (ON) CHRIS SHAFFER: Awesome.
Yeah.
- We got food menus, but we don't
necessarily have drink menus. (ON) CHRIS SHAFFER: OK.
- If you scan the back, it'll show some of the beers.
If not, I got it all memorized, so I can help you out.
- Where's the menu?
A simple menu doesn't have to be 18 cocktails.
It could be five cocktails, something that's theirs.
- Absolutely.
- Wait, what's-- what's your some
of your favorites? (ON) CARA: What's your base?
- I'll go whiskey first.
CARA: Whiskey? You want an old fashioned?
- Sure. Old fashioned is great.
OWEN KARLENZIG: I'll do a spicy marg.
- Spicy marg? (OFF) OWEN KARLENZIG: Yeah.
- You got it. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Look at Pete.
Is he managing the place?
- Dude, that's so great.
That was the funniest text, dude.
- Or is he just walking
around socializing with people?
JENNIFER MURPHY: If he's not managing
and there's no bar manager, who's in charge of this place?
It's just a free for all.
- Clearly, nobody's
in charge of this place.
- Here's some jalapenos.
DERRICK TURNER: OK, so she's making a spicy margarita.
- How do you like those knife skills?
- That's crazy.
- [laughs] Is that a steak knife?
[laughter]
(OFF) DERRICK TURNER: It has to be.
- She's using a steak
knife to cut up the jalapenos.
JENNIFER MURPHY: And those nails.
(OFF) DERRICK TURNER: Oh, come on.
- Oh, no. (OFF) DERRICK TURNER: Come on.
That's nice bacteria underneath your jalapenos for you.
PHIL WILLS: Mm.
That's going to be so good.
DERRICK TURNER: It seems like there's
no measurement at all.
She's just squirting away.
- You know what's interesting
to me is that they keep working out of this one side.
And if I'm not mistaken, there's a whole 'nother well that they
could be working out of.
Looks like the one well is not working.
She's making a beat right now with that tin.
[music playing]
- What's that? You're joking, right?
- That's a hazard.
Not even knowing how to open a tin?
- Amateur hour here.
- So-- so clearly, these bartenders
aren't trained.
DERRICK TURNER: Oh, guess what?
No strainer.
There's no-- oh, so you have the dirty ice that's
going inside the new cocktail, because you
have no proper strainer.
- You know, one thing I noticed
is that Pete looks like he's just kind of lost right now.
He's an owner that doesn't know how to manage his own bar.
- Spicy.
- Thank you.
- No problem.
- This is going to be interesting.
Let me-- let me listen to these guys.
- Cheers, dude.
- Salud.
[sighs]
- [laughs]
That can't be good.
[laughs]
- It's kind of gross.
[laughter]
- It's kind of gross.
PAUL: Did you guys want to do any food?
- Yeah, can we do the ahi poke?
PAUL: OK.
- And then I'll
take the lemongrass chicken dumplings.
PAUL: OK.
- And a double smashburger.
- All right. No worries, guys.
Get that going. (ON) CHRIS SHAFFER: Thank you.
- Cheers.
- I'm looking at the menu here.
Dumplings, and poke, and ceviche--
I'm confused, man.
It's all over the place. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Yeah.
Obviously, there's no identity to what they're doing.
Let's check out Corey and hear in the kitchen.
Corey's our executive chef, so he should
have executive chef tendencies.
The first thing you do when you go into the kitchen
is you put on gloves.
I don't see any gloves on this guy.
- I think I only have one more
dumpling left tonight, Pete.
- OK.
- Is that the cooler?
Is that a cooler with kegs everywhere?
(OFF) DERRICK TURNER: Oh, my gosh.
PHIL WILLS: Are you serious?
JENNIFER MURPHY: I have never seen anything like that.
What in the world?
- You can't organize your own cooler?
That's a health hazard.
That's going to get an employee hurt.
(OFF) JENNIFER MURPHY: There's Corey
plating up with his bare hands.
I haven't seen him wash his hands once.
This is not safe.
- He's going to get
somebody sick back there if he continues to operate like this.
And Big Pete is just walking around watching
his money go down the drain, not doing anything about it.
You ready to go into the bar? (OFF) DERRICK TURNER: I'm ready.
- You go into the kitchen.
You go into the bar.
I'm going to have a talk with Pete.
Let's go.
[music playing]
- Just get the bridge open now.
I mean, that's what's the hard part.
How are you doing? (ON) PHIL WILLS: Phil Wills.
- How are you, pal?
DERRICK TURNER: So Jon sent us here.
You got a second to talk? (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Let's do it.
- Come on, Pete.
PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- There we go.
- So Jon said that you
had a lot of problems going on. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- And he's really worried about it.
So he called me up and he asked me
to come down and help you out. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: OK.
- From what Jon has told me,
you've been in the business for a long time.
- Yeah.
I mean, you know, I opened a restaurant
with a good friend of mine.
We won Best New Restaurant by the CRA.
Yeah. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Wow.
- Yeah.
And then the recession hit, and that actually went under.
And then finally, it just came to this point where I said,
it's just kind of time to do my own thing.
- This is what I don't understand.
You won Best Restaurant in San Diego.
You have fine dining experience. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yes.
- And I'm wondering
that if you have so much experience, why am I standing
in your business right now?
- I don't have the answer for you.
- No.
- I honestly don't.
- No.
Well, we're going to find out the answer.
- I hope so. (OFF) PHIL WILLS: Right?
- Yeah. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Let's go.
- You can see all
the mold and mildew back here.
- It's disgusting.
- It's not disgusting.
It's dangerous. (OFF) PHIL WILLS: Hey, Jen.
JENNIFER MURPHY: Hi. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Hi.
(ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Jen Murphy.
- Pete. How are you?
- I'm OK.
I'm very concerned about your operation.
I mean, one, we've been watching your chef.
- OK.
- He has not washed
his hands one single time.
Handling raw ground meat, then handling raw tuna poke,
touching everything-- cross-contaminations
all across this whole kitchen. (ON) PHIL WILLS: OK.
All right. Well, you know what, Pete?
At one time, did you ever say, hey, Corey,
guess what, you might want to put on some gloves?
- I wasn't really focusing on his hands.
- These are the small things
you got to start looking at.
Because if you don't, that dollar
amount that you're in debt is going to continue to go up.
- This is all you have?
- Correct.
- That's crazy.
- How's this bar looking?
- It's not looking good.
It's just dirty, trash, bottles not cleaned.
That's crazy.
Like this-- you got to see this.
You got to see this.
Oh, come on.
Look at it.
Look at that.
How can you not see that?
- What the [bleep]?
Anybody have anything from the soda gun?
You probably have a bunch of this inside of your bellies
right now. And I apologize, guys.
[intense music]
- What the [bleep]?
Anybody have anything from the soda gun?
You probably have a bunch of this inside of your bellies
right now.
And I apologize, guys. Do you know what this is?
PETE ZACARIAS: I do. (ON) PHIL WILLS: What is it?
- It's runoff from the gun.
- No.
It's laziness, is what it is.
It's just one other thing that I just--
I can't get my head around.
Walk back this way.
[music playing]
What's going on in here?
PETE ZACARIAS: Our walk-in doubles as a keg storage
and a walk-in for the kitchen.
- How is somebody supposed
to get a pineapple up there?
They're going to have to crawl over these kegs, right?
PETE ZACARIAS: They have to.
Yes, they have to.
- What if somebody
slips in between those kegs and breaks an ankle?
You know how easy of a fix this is if you just stack [bleep]
up and put everything in order?
How many establishments have you worked
at that things were in order?
- Just about all of 'em.
- The one where you
run the Best Restaurant in California,
was everything in order? (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: It was.
- So all of this experience
that you have going on-- (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- --why wouldn't you implement it here?
And you wouldn't be losing $800,000.
- I'm fairly hands-on here.
I'm here about five days a week. (ON) PHIL WILLS: OK.
- I'm not trying to make an excuse,
but there is a lot on my plate.
And, you know, I try and do my best with what I can.
- All right, Pete.
This is what's gonna happen.
We are gonna come back tomorrow. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: OK.
- We are gonna sit down with your staff.
Because I need to find out what is going
to light a fire under your [bleep]. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: OK.
- Because everything
that you've told me is just an excuse of why
your business is failing.
Let's get out of here, Jen.
[music playing]
Derrick, let's go ahead and roll, man.
- You've been on this [bleep], right?
- I've been wiping them down.
- I know you have.
- I wipe them down every shift, pretty much.
- Feel good to me.
- It's not even that dirty.
- To have an interaction for about three
and a half minutes, and to try and explain
everything that's happened in this [bleep]
place, is not ideal.
So I don't really appreciate the fact
that someone's going to come in here to tell me what the hell
I'm doing wrong when he has no [bleep]
idea what I'm doing in here, how hard we're all working.
No.
I-- I can't take that right now.
[music playing]
PETE ZACARIAS: How are you feeling about last night?
- Still feeling pretty disappointed,
but just really hoping that today's a new day.
- I can just tell you this, man.
I know you. (OFF) COREY: Yeah.
- And you wouldn't be here
if you weren't exceptional.
I think I'm more pissed off today than I was last night.
I don't like people being presumptuous on how
my team runs things.
I don't like my chef getting kicked in the nuts,
so I'm going to back him.
It's not [bleep] systems.
There's extenuating circumstances here.
The main bridge right behind us is out,
and that's why we're in the hole right now.
I got your back, bud. We'll be good tonight.
- Appreciate you.
- All right, bro.
- Yeah.
- I've done a lot of rescues
with Jon over the past 10 years.
We've always been able to identify
the problems of each bar from the second
that we walk in there.
Pete didn't have any systems in place.
He wasn't consistent.
There's little training.
The place is a fricking mess.
What's up, guys? (OFF) CARA: Hi.
- How's it going? Come on over.
Let's have a talk.
And I'm curious on what the staff really
thinks of Pete as a manager and a owner,
because he's the biggest problem.
I don't know.
I didn't get to meet everybody last night.
I'm Phil Wills.
I've been in this business for a very long time,
opened up over 200 different restaurants
all over the country, whether designing, training, helping
them develop their concepts.
This is my opportunity to really find out what's going on.
I want to build this from the bottom
up so you guys have a foundation to build on.
And if you guys aren't honest with me,
then I can't fix anything while I'm here.
I know that we do have some people here that I haven't met,
so start here on the end.
- I'm Michelle.
I'm a bartender, and I've been here for about six months.
- I'm Alyssa.
I'm a bartender here.
I've been bartending here for about a year and a half.
- And is this your only bartending job?
- Correct, yeah. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Yeah?
First one ever? (ON) ALYSSA: Mm-hmm.
- Oh. (ON) ALYSSA: Yeah.
PHIL WILLS: OK. Yeah.
Pete. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- So you've owned this place for how long?
- I've had this since January '15.
That's when we rebranded. (OFF) PHIL WILLS: OK.
- Yeah.
- So 2015 is when you rebranded
and became Inland Tavern. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Correct.
- And how has business been going since then?
- Yeah, we opened up killing it.
COVID hit, and business started to slowly trickle down a bit.
- What do you think
has been the major decline in business since COVID?
- San Marcos is
going through this big creekside project.
They're building new parks and bridges,
and they're really sprucing the-- the town up.
But the main bridge, which is right behind us here,
has been out for almost on two years now.
So we have not been able to have a free flow to our clientele.
- So what have you done to pivot?
- Not many venues around here
can say they have an executive chef on property.
- But what I'm asking
is, what have you done to counteract those reasons
why you haven't succeeded?
People aren't coming to see Corey the executive chef here.
When they land here and they have your food, if it's great,
then they might say, wow, that was an unexpected experience.
But he's not some, like, you know, celebrity chef.
So people aren't going to come here just because you
have an executive chef. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- How much are you in debt?
- Collectively over the years, about 800,000.
[intense music]
PHIL WILLS: You guys know that?
That's tough.
- What the [bleep]?
Like, I had no idea how much we were in debt.
That definitely rattled my brain a bit.
I did not expect that.
- Alyssa, let me ask you.
Why are we failing here?
- To be completely honest, like, the identity.
Like, there's no consistent vibe here.
It's kind of all over the place from, like,
our menu being one way and then our look being
very, like, surfer, beachy.
- This is surfer beachy?
All right. What about you, Michelle?
- I think it's just,
you know, there is a lot of turnover.
The menu is changing constantly.
It's just not consistent.
- All right, so what I'm hearing from all
of you guys is consistency.
So who manages this place then?
- It would be me.
Mm-hmm.
- You're the manager?
- Yep.
- [sighs] You feel
like you're doing a good job?
- I feel like I'm
doing the best job I can for the time that I'm here, yes.
- I didn't ask you if you feel
like you're doing the best job.
Do you feel like you're doing a good job?
- I do.
- Even though the staff says that we're
failing at consistency?
If you were the owner and you had a manager that
was like you, would you be satisfied with how
you've been performing?
Because I walked into there and I saw that keg room last night.
- Yeah.
- I swear to god, if I owned
a restaurant and my manager had their keg room like that,
their [bleep] would be gone.
And I'd hire somebody in there that actually knew
what the [bleep] they were doing. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: OK.
PHIL WILLS: Straight up.
- Mm-hmm.
I think you were being presumptuous.
I just don't believe that you guys
have the big picture of what we do here
and how much we do care.
- It's not about being presumptuous, OK?
I know that things are not right here, OK?
- All right.
- It's to get you to realize
that you have to step it up.
And if you're not going to respond to it
and you're going to think that we're just being presumptuous
about everything, then you're on the wrong side of the rope
right now.
Because it's not just that the pandemic happened.
It's not construction.
It's not that people are not coming here anymore.
It's that you're not doing a good job.
And maybe it takes somebody from the outside to come in and tell
you that you [bleep] suck.
You're not doing a good job.
Maybe it takes somebody from the outside to come in and tell
you that you [bleep] suck.
We have to get to a place right now
where you've got to stop making up,
like, there's a reason for this, and a reason for that.
I want you to hold yourself accountable for the things that
are not working in this place.
You need to find something that you want to fight for.
Do you have any kids? (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: I do.
I have a four-year-old.
PHIL WILLS: A four-year-old?
- Yeah, Malia.
- What you're doing
right now is you're setting Malia up
to take on $800,000 in debt.
Do you want to leave this legacy to your four-year-old daughter?
- Absolutely not.
- This has to be a turning point for you.
Because if we don't change, you're
leaving them with nothing.
So I'm going to ask you again, as a manager,
do you feel like you're doing a good job?
And would you keep yourself on?
- I think, obviously,
after you saying all that, I would need to check myself.
I think a lot of what the staff's
saying, that I'd agree with it.
I'll own that.
- We got a lot of work to do here.
And I'm going to bring in two experts to help me do that.
Hey, guys. (ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Hello.
- Good to see you.
- How you doing, Phil?
- Guys, these are my experts--
Chef Jen Murphy and mixologist Derrick Turner.
This is how you succeed, Pete.
You train your bartenders to be consistent and correct.
And you make sure that your executive chef can properly
manage a kitchen, allowing you to actually
manage your business.
So, everybody, we're starting from zero, OK?
I'm going to have my experts train you guys,
and we're going to get ready for tonight.
All right?
- I think Pete was taking
a little aback by everything.
You know, it's not fun getting called out,
but, you know, sometimes I feel like you need a check.
- Don't worry about what you guys said.
I know how thin I'm stretched.
If you guys feel that way, that's how it is.
- I think we all just know that we're a team,
and we're just going to do this together.
- So it's all good.
(ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Pete, Corey.
- Hello, Chef.
- Before we get started today,
I would love for you to put together a dish for me
just so that we can gauge where your skill set is at.
- Yeah.
I could put together my cheesesteak dip.
It's a cross between a French dip, which
is one of my favorite sandwiches ever since I
was a kid, and a cheesesteak.
So instead of bell peppers, I go with Fresno chilies
for a little bit of a bite.
In the past, I've always had someone
to push me to keep striving to be better,
and I haven't really had that here.
So I think I felt complacent.
- Well, I have to say, it looks great.
You did wash your hands before you prepared--
- I did wash my hands. Yes, Chef.
- --this for me, right?
OK, just checking.
[intense music]
Corey, this is excellent.
- Thank you, Chef.
- Really, really good.
- Thank you.
- So the issue here
isn't your ability to cook.
It's your ability to manage this place, and keep it clean,
and engineering a menu that makes sense to the concept.
- Yeah.
(ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: So Phil and I
talked about the direction of the menu.
We really want to embrace this coastal cuisine.
The goal with Phil and I was to introduce
more fresh and vibrant flavors to the menu,
just to make a cohesive menu and have
it all make sense together.
The first dish I'm going to show you is a blue crab cake.
We've taken some lump crab meat.
We mixed it with sweated out bell peppers
and some chives, shallow fried in a little bit
of blended olive oil.
You want that nice, golden brown, delicious exterior.
Finish it in the oven so it warms all the way through,
because it is quite thick.
While we're waiting for that to warm through,
I will be mixing together the salad.
It's a blend of shaved cucumbers,
shaved radishes, grapefruit and navel
oranges, and some jalapenos.
So now, our crab cake is out of the oven.
Gently place on top of the avocado lime puree.
Then this high acid salad to cut through all those nice flavors.
OK, so there you have it. Blue crab cake.
Come and try it out. (OFF) COREY: Beautiful, Chef.
- Tonight is stress test,
so we will be doing two new dishes plus your cheesesteak.
It's not just about the food that we're
going to be looking at tonight. We're looking at cleanliness.
We're looking at sanitation.
We're looking at everything.
[music playing]
- All right.
So there's a lot of hurdles we have to get over, right?
You guys barely have any tools behind the bar.
No cocktail menus behind the bar.
You guys have two bartenders here and just one well.
But my biggest issue is the lack of knowledge that you guys had.
So we're going to be playing a game called This or That.
What are these? (OFF) ALYSSA: Strainers.
- Strainers.
If I was making a gin fizz, which one would I use?
What's the name of it? (ON) ALYSSA: The right one.
- OK, you're right.
ALYSSA: Yeah.
- What is this called?
- A strainer.
- What type of strainer?
This is called a Hawthorne.
You guys are bartenders.
You're supposed to know these basic things.
You guys need to have this knowledge,
because it's basic knowledge for you to actually make it happen.
OK, so we're going to introduce some new cocktails
for you guys.
If you're at a beach, you want to have something that's nice,
that's delicious, that's simple for you guys to make
and for you to make money off of it.
And everyone will be happy.
So we're going to start with 1.5 ounce watermelon juice,
fresh, 1/2 ounce of Twisted Alchemy
lime sweet and sour mix.
Done.
Two dashes of hot sauce, and then 1.5 ounce of
tequila, Blanco.
You ice up, you seal--
[ice shaking]
That's it.
Get a nice, single old fashioned rocks glass,
put it in a little lime juice.
And then this is a nice, sweet and sour, spicy salt.
I'm going to rim that right in.
Ice it up.
Garnish up with a nice lime wheel.
And, ladies and gentlemen, The Baja Candy.
- Even though I'm not a fan of tequila,
that watermelon was amazing.
Cocktails like these will definitely
fit in with the coastal vibe that we're trying to achieve.
And I think a lot of our guests will enjoy them.
- We're going to hunker down
on these cocktails, get good with these pours,
and make it happen.
[music playing]
- All right, guys.
So tonight, the way we're going to measure
the guest satisfaction, we have a thumbs up, green,
means it's good.
- Yep.
- Thumbs down, bad.
We want to see all greens popping up tonight.
- OK.
- Are you guys ready?
- [bleep], yeah, we're ready.
- Yeah, (OFF) PHIL WILLS: All right?
- Yep.
MICHELLE: Let's do it.
PETE ZACARIAS: What's up?
Come on in.
Welcome to Inland Tavern.
[music playing]
All right, let's roll it out.
- Hi, welcome to Inland.
- Evening, guys. Welcome, welcome.
- Hey. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Hi.
Good to see you. (ON) WOMAN: How are you?
Good to see you.
- I'll let you know in about an hour.
ALYSSA: All right, mamas, what are we thinking?
- I'll do the blue crab cake.
- Perfect.
- You have a full bar.
I need some speed on you.
- I'm not even set up with everything.
- OK.
Two crab cakes, cheesesteak dip.
[music playing]
- What's an F4?
- That's-- that's the-- that's the area.
Come on, dude. (ON) PAUL: Three Bajas?
OK.
- Oh, son of a [bleep].
(OFF) JENNIFER MURPHY: Your board
is really full there, Corey.
We got to get moving, bro.
Let's go.
COREY: Chef, how far are we out on first table?
First table, uh--
(ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Can we take
a quick timeout real quick? (ON) COREY: Yes.
- Please?
This is something that we addressed last night.
Where's your gloves?
Ready to eat foods?
Bare hands?
I haven't seen you wash your hands since we started.
Rookie mistake.
- You're going to cut yourself.
Paul, where are you on service? Your tickets are backing up.
PAUL: I got a blank spot in my head right now.
PHIL WILLS: I'm just seeing red all over the place.
DERRICK TURNER: There's nothing but red.
There's no system in place for service.
It's just-- it's haywire.
- Talk to me, Jen.
What's going on here?
- We've made a lot of crucial mistakes
that are really sending us behind.
Our screen is lit up like a Christmas tree over here.
COREY: Oh, my god.
JENNIFER MURPHY: Do you have fries down for that?
- No, I don't.
[bleep], man. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Come on, guys.
Let's get some food out here.
Your experience right now--
you guys got a green thumb or a red thumb?
- We got a red thumb.
- Yeah.
Order? (OFF) MAN: Not yet.
- You haven't put your order in yet?
- Nah.
- What's your experience so far?
- Thumbs down.
PHIL WILLS: Thumbs down right now?
- Thumbs down right here.
Can't do it. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Pete.
- Yes, sir.
- I want to show you something.
- Yes, sir. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Hey, everybody.
Listen up.
If you guys have been waiting for a long time
for your drinks or food, red thumb up in the air.
So you see all these red thumbs? (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: I do.
- Talk to these people.
Find out what you can do to help them.
- OK. (ON) PHIL WILLS: Got it.
Thank you.
- Keep those thumbs up.
Let me see what's going on here.
- These systems are failing.
The bar is failing. They're working out of one well.
They can't get the drinks out. [crash]
Obviously, the kitchen is failing,
because it's taking forever to get
this food out to the tables.
JENNIFER MURPHY: How far are we behind, Pete?
- We are 30 minutes behind, Chef.
- 30 minutes? OK.
- What are you going to do about it,
stand there and stare at your chef?
PETE ZACARIAS: Chef, where you at?
What ticket are you at?
- I don't have the--
uh.
All right.
I'm not going to worry about--
god damn it.
JENNIFER MURPHY: You got to worry about it.
It's your job to worry about it. (ON) COREY: I know.
I know. Ugh.
(OFF) JENNIFER MURPHY: Hey, Pete.
He's clearly lost right now.
Why don't you tell him what he needs?
PETE ZACARIAS: OK, this is where we're dragging, Chef.
- OK.
PETE ZACARIAS: I got an F2, F1, and M11.
- I don't know what's going on.
- That's not helpful, Pete.
- I don't know what that means.
- Tell him dish by dish.
- I need two tri-tip, two crab
cakes, and two elotes, please.
- Bare hand contact.
- [bleep].
- Uh-oh, refire.
- God damn it.
[bleep]
- I need two tri-tip, two crab
cakes, and two elotes, please.
- Bare hand contact.
- [bleep].
- Uh-oh, refilre.
- God damn it.
[music playing]
I still have no idea where I'm at.
Jesus.
DERRICK TURNER: You got to move faster.
Paul, hustle.
Bad service station.
This is all you, Cara right here.
Empty, empty, empty, empty.
- All right, everybody, listen up!
We've had a lot of issues here tonight.
I want you guys to use those paddles, high in the sky.
Not so great experience, because you
guys are waiting for your food, you're waiting for your drinks.
So we're going to shut it down.
Come back and check us out on our relaunch,
and we're going to fix this bar.
We're going to fix these problems, OK?
[cheers, applause]
- It's a little disheartening
to work so hard today to not really pull it off the way
we really hoped.
We just need to work a lot harder.
- Stress test was tough.
I need to give Jon a call, catch him up
on everything so we can figure out what
we need to do to move forward.
(OFF) JON TEFFER (ON CALL): Hey, Phil.
How's it going?
- Man, we got our [bleep] kicked tonight, Jon.
The stress test was tough.
You know, they don't have the proper systems in place.
There were so many things that they failed on.
The owner, Pete, is trying as hard as he can.
I can see that he has a lot of passion,
but he just doesn't have any type of direction.
Based off the numbers, Jon, what do you think
is the best direction to take this remodel?
- Let's reignite Pete's passion
and give him the foundation to succeed the second time around.
Maybe his last time around.
- 100%, Jon.
- Well, the median age is 42.
The median income is 77,000.
So this is an affluent, suburban area, and it's growing rapidly.
This market doesn't want a dive bar.
They want an elevated experience.
- Yeah, I think we need
to elevate this place 100%.
- Knowing that, let's give Pete
the coastal beach theme he wanted,
but let's do it right this time--
craft cocktails and menu that's actually
aligned with the theme, something that's fun.
- Clearly, we have a lot of work to do.
Thanks for all your support.
We got this.
[intense music]
- What's up?
- What's up, Derrick?
DERRICK TURNER: Stressful day yesterday, yeah?
- Definitely. (ON) PAUL: Most definitely, yes.
- We gave you all the tools that you needed.
But you didn't know how to use it, which actually hindered
you in the long run, right?
So that's what we have to focus on,
just driving down how to use these tools to your benefit.
Phil and I want to add some more cocktails to the new ones
that we already introduced.
We want something that's simple in execution, fast to make,
but dramatic in presentation to bring new clientele in.
So we're going to do a beautiful tiki
drink called Kiss the Fish.
In a mixing glass, add 2 ounces of Twisted Alchemy
cold pressed pineapple juice, 2 ounce of lime juice,
1.5 ounces of twisted alchemy demerara syrup
infused with nutmeg, 2 ounces of spiced rum.
Shake, strain, and pour over fresh ice in a tiki mug.
Pour it right in.
- Fish is thirsty.
- Very thirsty.
- [laughs]
- A little hibiscus
tea, and garnish with an edible flower and a pineapple frond.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Kiss the Fish.
Tell me what you think.
[music playing]
[tongue tapping]
- I like it.
- I really like the hibiscus.
It's nice.
- I'm obsessed with the glass.
- That's the point.
If you guys love it, then you can sell it.
You can talk about it.
And it's on the cocktail menu, which you guys didn't have.
- Good evening, Chef. (ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Hi, guys.
- Hey, Chef.
(ON) JENNIFER MURPHY: Welcome back.
Corey and Pete had a little bit of trouble
during last night's stress test.
So going into relaunch, communication
is really going to be key between Corey and Pete.
Corey, I'm really pushing for you.
So you're going to help me put this next dish
together so we can work on communicating with one another.
Surf and Turf.
Let's get that filet seasoned up.
We're going to pan sear this steak.
COREY: OK.
JENNIFER MURPHY: While the steak is grilling,
broil the lobster tail and then we're going to base
this with some chipotle butter.
A nice, beautiful, round base of that sweet corn puree.
COREY: OK.
- I can see you've done this before.
- [laughs]
- OK, let's put that lobster
tail on top of the steak.
Artfully arrange your roasted toreados,
and finish with chives.
This is the Surf and Turf.
[music playing]
I think that looks pretty good. What do you think?
- This dish is going to be very popular.
- This is going to move all day.
Nice work, Corey.
This is fantastic.
- Thank you. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- Thank you, Chef.
[music playing]
- We failed at stress test last night,
so I want to see where Pete's head is at right now.
I'm going to sit down with him and talk him through last night
and where we're going.
Your vision to be this inland, coastal, beachy vibe--
- Mhm.
- Where do you see it being taken now?
- I'm from Southern California.
I love it, you know?
I am the flip-flop, t-shirt, you know, boardshort guy.
- Right.
- And there's just a levity to it,
where you're just comfortable when you come in
and the vibe is there.
That's kind of what I want to emulate here.
- You know, what I
hear from you is a lot of passion
around what you do love.
PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- And I feel like you might have
lost your way a little bit.
You've lost a little bit of that passion.
- Yeah.
I mean, you kind of get in this rut.
And every day is kind of this, like, grind, and
despair sometimes.
- Sometimes you dig
yourself so far deep in a hole. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- And there's no more light around you.
- Mm-hmm.
- We're here because you're
currently $800,000 in debt. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Mm-hmm.
PHIL WILLS: You have a four-year-old daughter.
- Yep.
- I have a four-year-old daughter.
PETE ZACARIAS: Mm-hmm.
- That really touches my heart,
because I know that everything that I do in this world
now is for her.
PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah. Yeah, man.
She means everything.
- Yeah.
PETE ZACARIAS: And that's--
Inland was supposed to be something
I could leave to my family, and just have security, you know?
PHIL WILLS: Yeah.
Right now, my team is out there putting a brand
new bar together for you-- (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- --a brand new concept together for you.
- OK.
- We're going to tie it all together,
and we're going to give you something
that you can be proud of. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- And you don't let me down, man.
PETE ZACARIAS: No, no, no.
- Don't let me down.
It's good, man. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yeah.
- Come here.
- Thanks, Phil.
- You got it.
- I do feel a little defeated at times,
and I can get into a rut.
And then you kind of lose focus on what you're really there
to do.
This is for my family, you know, for my fiance, for my daughter.
It's my team too.
I want to keep them working, keep them happy.
It's just time to grow the business,
and I'm very optimistic.
[intense music]
[cheers, applause]
PHIL WILLS: Yeah.
You guys are looking good.
You know, when I got here, we saw a bar that was just really
disconnected from what you envisioned
and what you really wanted. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: Yep.
- But, you know, we had to look at things
and figure out how we could connect
your bar to your vision, and to the city of San Marcos.
All right, guys. Do you guys want to see the bar?
PETE ZACARIAS: Let's do it.
[cheers, applause]
- All right.
One, two, three.
[cheering]
- Oh, I love it
- One, two, three.
[cheering]
ALYSSA: Oh, I love it!
[laughter]
I like that a lot.
That's really good.
PETE ZACARIAS: Oh, my god.
- That is gorgeous.
PHIL WILLS: What do you think?
CARA: I love it.
PHIL WILLS: It's yours.
Everything that you see is going to attract
people's eyes to the bar.
All right?
We had a company called Signfastic
put up this sign for you guys.
It illuminates a lot brighter.
And if you look, it has calls to action.
The bar, the kitchen.
People know what's in there.
Do you guys want to see the inside of the bar now?
- Let's do it. (OFF) PAUL: Yeah.
- All right, guys.
Come on in.
PETE ZACARIAS: All right.
- [gasps] Oh, my god.
- Wow.
ALYSSA: Are you kidding me?
CARA: Holy [bleep]. (OFF) MICHELLE: This is awesome.
CARA: This is hot.
Oh, my god.
ALYSSA: Wait, we work here?
This is our bar?
I might cry.
MICHELLE: This is so pretty.
PAUL: Wow.
MICHELLE: Don't cry.
COREY: No [bleep] way.
Dude, check this.
- That is so [bleep] cool.
You know, sometimes you have an idea in your mind
of what you envision.
And I think Jon and Phil just went in my head,
pulled it out, and realized it.
It looks fantastic.
I'm stoked and overwhelmed.
- Hey, what do you think, buddy?
PETE ZACARIAS: It looks great, man.
PHIL WILLS: Yeah?
- It looks good.
- Yeah?
- It looks great, yeah.
PHIL WILLS: All right, let's gather
around the bar top, guys.
I'm going to show you everything.
[chatter]
All right, so there's a lot of things going on in here,
but not too much.
It's not overwhelming.
When you walk through that door, the first thing you see
is this beautiful bar that you guys have here.
We took this room and put the low seating in there.
High seating back here, important,
where the benches were.
We also got you a lifetime subscription
to Partender, which is a bar inventory software.
All of your glassware, they came in from barproducts.com.
I don't know if you guys had a chance to look
at your beautiful menus. Wow, right?
- They're so pretty.
- Right here, land and sea, cool waters,
just the name of the food and the name of the drink
is going to tie into your concept.
We also have SkyTab Shift4 POS system for you guys, OK?
Also, I want to show you guys the plating.
This is from Casa Noi.
Beautiful, porcelain, very durable.
And that paint and that gold is not going to crack off.
It's not cheaply made.
All right, Pete.
We've come a long way this whole week, right?
- We have. (ON) PHIL WILLS: All right.
I want you guys to get ready.
I want you to get your team together.
- Yep.
- I want you to step up to the plate to be
a great manager tonight, OK? (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: You got it.
- All right. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: All right.
- Let's get ready.
We're going to open up soon, guys.
[cheers, applause]
- All right, San Marcos,
welcome to Shores Bar and Kitchen.
Come on in.
[cheering]
[music playing]
What's up?
How are you?
(ON) CARA: Hello.
Welcome. Hi.
- Hey guys, how are you?
Hi.
MICHELLE: How are we doing?
- I'll take a Baja Candy.
- Let's do it.
- Chef, how are we doing?
COREY: Two more minutes on that mid-rare,
and it'll be ready. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: OK.
- Great communication.
Corey, I really like how you're working smarter.
You're using utensils versus your hands
so that you don't have to worry about changing
out your gloves so often. (OFF) COREY: Thank you, Chef.
- Good communication back here, guys.
I love to hear that.
- We have an executive chef
who knows what he's doing.
Ticket times are great.
Things couldn't be smoother.
- How are you feeling, Corey?
COREY: I feel great, Phil. (ON) PHIL WILLS: You feel great?
- Feel-- feel like a rock star.
PHIL WILLS: [laughs] You're doing it, man.
- So at the beginning of this week, obviously,
I started very complacent.
And with Chef Jen's help, with Phil pushing me,
I think I've found my way back to the chef
that I should be today.
PHIL WILLS: How are we doing in here, Derrick?
- Night and day, man, from stress test.
- Yeah.
- This is what we want to see.
Progress.
- Everybody has a drink at the bar?
- So far.
Yeah, we almost-- there's two more people,
but he's working on those cocktails right now.
- Good job, Derrick.
- Thank you, brother.
- Think we nailed it.
- Yes.
- Guys.
- We have a crab cake, an elote,
I got a Surf and Turf on the way.
- Thank you. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: All right.
PHIL WILLS: I am so proud of Pete.
He's really stepped it up, and he's
managing this place instead of just walking
around and doing nothing.
- Can I get a little more hibiscus in here?
- Yeah.
- A new flower.
- You got a double shaker right there.
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
Yeah.
[cheering]
With the double shake.
[cheers, whistles]
She's got this.
We don't need to be here anymore.
[chatter]
Mr. Pete. (ON) PETE ZACARIAS: My man Phil.
PHIL WILLS: How are we feeling?
- I'm good, man.
- I'll tell you, I
think that the community of San Marcos
is really loving this place.
- People are like, what
time are you open tomorrow?
- This is something
for you to grow off of now. (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: Absolutely.
- And you can feel that flame
burning inside, that passion? (OFF) PETE ZACARIAS: I can. Yeah.
PHIL WILLS: I'm proud of you, man.
- Thanks, man.
- It's been a long week. I'm super proud of you.
PETE ZACARIAS: Thanks, Phil.
Good job, brother. -I appreciate it, man.
- When I first got here,
I really had to lay into Pete.
I had to get him to understand the severity of his actions
or his lack thereof.
Pete had lost his passion, and now he has it again.
And I know he will be successful here.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: Promotional consideration
provided by SkyTap POS, Partender, Signfastic,
barproducts.com, Twisted Alchemy,
Casa Noi, Bellamy's Restaurant, Veteran
Screen Printing, and ESRI.
(SINGING) MTV.