Probably not the best atmosphere
to have our pizza pans
and our cleaning supplies so close in proximity,
but, uh, you know, that's why there's a curtain right there.
We don't really, you know, show too much
of how the magic is done.
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 are 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?"
But I can't be everywhere at once.
So I've handpicked some of the nation's
top hospitality experts...
You gotta interact with guests.
to help me lead the charge.
You don't have a [bleep]ing clue on how to run a bar, do you?
King: Now Jon is sending legendary mixologist Phil Wills
to Cleveland, Texas, to attempt to rescue the Wagon Wheel.
We are determined to raise the bar
and rise to the occasion.
[instrumental music]
King: In 2019, childhood friends
Jorge Cueller and Michael Buckley
opened up the Wagon Wheel in Cleveland, Texas.
Michael: Jorge has been a good friend of mine since
we're probably 16 years old.
We'd always talked about opening a bar together.
And when the opportunity came up,
I asked Jorge if he wanted to do a 50-50 partnership,
and he was on board.
Jorge, y-you know, he's a people person.
He's more outgoing and happy than I portray, I would say.
And to me, when you're trying to get people to have fun,
you gotta be into it yourself.
Yeah, I'm the fun person.
King: Immediately Jorge found himself
at the bar full-time,
both working and partying.
[ice rattling]
But Jorge couldn't be the life of the party
and run the bar by himself for too long.
Michael: Originally we tried to make it a couple hours a day,
but besides owning this, I own a plumbing company.
And with my work schedule, it just,
it didn't, it didn't work out.
He don't do anything. He's not here.
I'm here 24/7 pretty much.
King: To help him out at the bar,
he brought in his brother, Ruben,
and son, Jeremy.
Don't get started like that, bro.
Jeremy: Working with my dad at the Wagon Wheel.
I don't think he's got the whole formula figured out.
What you want me to do?
So it just turns into just a lot
of riff-raff back and forth.
King: But the family bickering
became just one of the many downfalls
of Jorge's lack of management.
Jorge does not get behind the bar.
Paige: He doesn't really know how to make drinks or anything.
King: Once a dream of these lifelong friends,
now Jorge is resenting Michael's lack of help.
At the end of the day, if this place closes, I'm done.
Jorge: I'm done, and he still have a job.
I feel like it's not fair.
King: Now they find themselves
in over $800,000 worth of debt.
It's been hard, you know? It's, it's tested our friendship.
I don't know how much longer I can go,
uh, to be honest with you.
I wish I can buy him up,
but I don't have the money no more.
King: Before the wheels fall off,
Jorge and Michael have agreed to pull back the doors,
bust open the books and make a call for help
to "Bar Rescue."
Michael: We don't have no option.
We either make it work or we
go down like the Titanic.
[glass shatters]
[upbeat music] Phil: Here we are in Cleveland, Texas, huh?
It's only natural that I'm here with you
because you have restaurants, right?
- Yeah. And bars. - Yeah.
King: Joining Phil Wills for this rescue,
Jon has invited world-famous celebrity actor
and restaurateur Danny Trejo.
You have to prove it's worth it.
Danny is not only a successful restaurateur,
he runs his businesses with his son.
So I thought he would really be helpful
dealing with the family drama that's going on in this bar.
Get your ass over there and chill out!
Phil: So here we are. This is the Wagon Wheel.
So right here we have Jorge.
Danny: Yeah. Phil: He's one of the owners.
- We don't have boneless wings. - We don't have boneless wings.
There's Michael right there. He's the other owner.
- You don't want one more shot? - No, please don't.
Jorge and Michael, they used $450,000 to purchase this bar.
Here we are, five years later, they're about $650,000 in debt.
Which is crazy. It's just crazy.
Phil: And the restaurant side of this bar
is ran by Ruben, which is Jorge's brother.
So go ahead and put the egg roast in
and, uh, you get the jalapeno. Yeah.
They were cold from the inside. They were still frozen.
Over here we have Jeremy.
Now, Jeremy is Jorge's son.
Jeremy: Uh, ah...
Here's one of your bartenders right there.
- Do you have time? - Yes.
That's Paige. And right there we have Kristina.
Yeah, 'cause this one leaks. Yeah, use that one.
Phil: She's the other bartender.
Phil: You know, there's no thing going on here.
Those tailgates look cool on the side of the wall,
but what does it mean when Elvis Presley is across the way
and these tables look like picnic tables
that you would find in your backyard?
Phil: And the thing with bars in Texas, they could be fun,
honky-tonky bars and have this type of vibe,
but nothing connects here, however.
Danny: It's not very appetizing to be eating a steak
with a outhouse there. You know what I mean?
Yeah. We're gonna have our experts go in to do recon.
King: For the bar, Jon brings in Rob Floyd.
From being a cocktail ambassador with
Princess Cruises to a cocktail director with Vai Resorts,
Rob has influenced the culture of mixology
across the country with his dynamic approach to recipes
and customer interaction.
For the kitchen, Jon brings in Chris Oh.
As Michelin-starred chef,
cooking-competition winner and cookbook author,
Chef Oh strives to bring
previously unrelated cuisines together
to create dynamic flavors, dishes and menus.
Alright, here they go.
Did you see that table just flip up on the side?
It's not even connected.
Somebody could fall over and hurt themselves.
Yeah. It's a lawsuit.
- How can I help you? - Do you have a menu or--
- Yeah, I do have a menu. - What about, uh, cocktails?
- Yeah, let me... Ah. - Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo.
[laughing]
So the owner, Jorge, walks over to the table,
great, because he's talking to them,
brings his drink over with him, and, look,
he leaves it right there on the table.
Are you [bleep]ing kidding me?
Phil: Oh, my God, that's disgusting!
Imagine sitting under that fan
and having that dust just fall on--
That's something you clean every night.
So they got seafood, they got steaks,
they got Chinese food, they got pizza.
I feel like I'm, like, in a Vegas buffet right now.
Paige: Are y'all ready to order? - Yeah. A Paloma.
A Paloma? We don't have grapefruit.
Rob: Do you do an espresso martini?
- We cannot, no. - No? Okay.
You order an espresso martini, that's one of the most
popular drinks right now, and they couldn't even make it.
And that's the stuff you gotta stay up on.
I'm gonna do a Cadillac Margarita.
I'll do a Lemon Drop. And we'll do egg rolls.
We'll do Buffalo wings.
- Could we do, uh, pizza? - You got it.
Michael: Guess a order. Something came in.
Jeremy: Yeah, I got you.
- So you got a, I got a pizza? - Yeah. Supreme.
Oh, he's got gloves. So, you know, that's, that's a good--
Phil: Yeah, it's got some, some sanitation going on right now.
- Yes! Thank you. - Your margarita...
Paige: You're welcome. Lemon Drops.
Oh, God, look at Rob's reaction. He can't even stomach that.
Chris: That's just sugar water.
You know, when bartenders aren't properly trained,
that's what they resort to, is just covering up
their mistakes with sugar.
Oh, God. You see that, right?
Chris: Of course I see that. Rob: It's [bleep]ing disgusting.
- What is that? - Cockroach.
Phil: Oh!
That's not a good sign.
Jorge is going around drinking
while there's a cockroach running around on the floor.
Phil: You know what sucks, too, is that his son is back there
sweating his nuts off in the kitchen,
and he's up there on the front just drinking,
hanging out with everybody,
thinking that that's a big party.
Look at the side of that. Look at the side of that.
Oh, God! That's disgusting.
- It's just all grease. - Hey, did you ring the bell?
You ca-cannot leave this tab right here like--
We're waiting, we're waiting on one ticket.
It's because there's three items on one ticket.
I don't wanna just...
Phil: I mean, look at these guys.
Michael and Jorge are supposed to be
running this bar together.
And honestly, I've barely even
seen them speak to each other at all.
You can take those right now because it's, like, appeti...
Hey, man, you don't gotta scream at me. Chill out.
Danny: Uh, Jorge coming yelling in the kitchen.
Get back here and help, Jorge.
- People... You haven't done-- Jorge: What am I supposed to do?
I just telling you one thing to do, bro.
Jeremy: Man, we're not gonna have this discussion.
There's about ten people at the bar.
This isn't even a busy night.
Could you imagine what would happen
on a busy night?
- Y'all's wings. Egg rolls. - Ooh.
I'm gonna grab y'all some extra plates.
Chris: Awesome.
Rob: Is this the way the wings should look?
It's just, honestly, it's hard to eat
next to a roach that's dying.
You can tell, like, the oil is dirty
just by the color of it.
Wow.
Rob: I mean, look at my hands.
Oh, dude, it's so oily.
Rob: And it's just like never seen anything like that.
You know what? This is crazy.
It's cold and the middle raw.
The wings are cold.
Oh, there's no way I'm eating that.
They can't even eat it.
How's everything?
Um...
Rob: I-- it's kind of a mess.
The wings are a little cold inside
and the egg rolls are super oily to the touch.
- Yeah. - I'm sorry.
But I've been arguing with my kid up there in the back
and he's the one that cooks, so he probably a little mad
and he probably is doing that on purpose,
but I will take care of that.
Chris: That's a first.
Still doesn't explain the roach in the corner.
Your wings are not hot. Their thing is cold.
- You're not warming the stuff. Jeremy: Wha, what's the problem?
- Like, you cook this stuff-- - Maybe, maybe you should...
Maybe you should be a leader and be right here
in the back of the kitchen.
You know, m-- my kid and me don't see
eye to eye all the time, but at work,
I'm not your dad, I'm your boss.
Hey, just getting my food. Come on, guys.
- You guys can argue later. - No, no, no.
You gonna finish it, dude. [bleep]ing talk with me.
Don't [bleep] again... Hey, don't talk with me. Just go.
Hey, I'm not touching you. Just go up there.
- And finish it. - Just chill out. We gotta--
I mean, you can see Michael's in the back.
He's trying, he's working.
Phil: So he's doing something.
But this whole dynamic back here is [bleep].
Danny: Everybody's just getting mad at each other.
Absolutely. They're not communicating.
They're consistently bickering with each other.
Phil: The food is coming out cold.
And you can tell that there's no systems in the back
of the house because Jeremy doesn't know what he's doing.
Jorge and Jeremy just wanna keep fighting each other.
There's cockroaches all over the floor.
This place is a absolute disaster!
We need to get in there and figure out
what the [bleep] is going on.
Yeah, buddy.
[Danny sighs]
[intense music]
Woman 1: Oh, my God.
Ooh, ooh.
- Oh, what the... - How you doing?
Paige: Hello. Kristina: Hello, sir.
Alright.
- Be good. - I know.
- How you doing? - Good.
Phil: What's your name? - I'm Jorge.
- Hey, Jorge, I'm Phil. - Phil. Nice meeting you.
- Danny Trejo. - Danny.
Are you Michael? How you doing? Phil.
- Good. Nice to meet you. - Danny Trejo.
You guys are doing this here, right? Okay.
Jon Taffer sent us in here. Can we go in the kitchen?
Yeah.
[intense music]
How long that grease been in there?
It gotta be four days.
- What? - Four days? Four days.
Phil: It's smoking. It's filthy.
Look, look what I just pulled off the side of the fryer.
Who's in charge of cleaning the fryer,
emptying it every night and filling it back in?
Michael: The cooks. Phil: The cooks are. Okay.
Who are the cooks here? Jeremy?
- Yes, sir. - And why isn't it getting done?
[music continues]
Well, our responsibility, to be honest.
Well, he's in the [bleep]ing
main room, just talking.
[clamoring]
But they're asking you why come
you don't clean this every day.
Jorge: That what they're asking you.
Well, what do you do to fix it?
You come back here and you yell at him, you say,
"What are you [bleep]ing doing? You're doing it wrong."
I'm the one that started with the whole thing.
I'm the one that have to go to the bank.
- So what does Michael do, then? - I help out when I'm up here--
Jorge: Doing what, bro? Doing what? Doing what? No, no, no.
Michael: Bullshit! I come back here, I cook.
[indistinct chatter]
I'm the one that's always taking care of--
Listen, if I was losing $30,000 a month,
I'd have an apron on, I'd be back here and making sure
every single piece of food went out correctly!
So no more [bleep]ing excuses!
Like, pick up the slack!
[glass shatters]
If I was losing $30,000 a month, I'd have an apron on,
I'd be back here and making sure every single piece of food
went out correctly! So no more [bleep]ing excuses!
We've seen the kitchen. Let's walk into the bar.
I just wanna take a look, and then we're gonna figure out
what we're gonna do about this.
[suspenseful music]
This is your soda gun right here, right?
You use it every single night for everything, right?
- Yeah. - Yes, sir.
This is what you guys are getting,
all of anything that comes off the soda gun into your drink.
Man 3: There you go. Man 4: Oh...
That's what's happening every single time
you guys drink out of this soda gun. Disgusted in here.
This is the hard part about eating here.
This was my friend, that when we were eating,
that was, like, crawling all over the place.
- Oh... - Oh! Oh, my God.
This is you, Jorge. This is you, Michael.
Look at your bar. Does your home look like this?
- No. Phil: Clean!
That starts with you guys.
And there's no way we're stickin' around
unless you guys are on the same page.
- I'm not here to play games. - But-- but the thing is that...
You're raising the voice at me like-- like I'm a child.
This is your business! I have four days!
- I have four days. - I'm not a child--
You're not a child, but you're running
this place like you are a child.
I want you and Michael to get your shit together,
communicate, get on the same page.
And if we come back tomorrow, we see that there's some sort
of cohesion between ownership,
then we have something to build off of. Okay?
Let's get out of here, Danny.
[patrons applauding]
Alright.
Seein' Danny, he's one of my idols.
It's "Machete" right there. So I was embarrassed.
Jorge: I was embarrassed to see the gun
and people drinkin' out of that.
I'mma do whatever it takes for this place
to run as smoothly as possible. I'm ready to change.
And if they can help me do that, I will appreciate it a 100%.
[upbeat music]
[traffic bustling]
Jorge: So what's goin' on, bro? Hey, what's up?
- You alright, man? - Yeah, I'm alright, man.
I'm... Crazy last night.
Yeah, we went through a lot of stuff.
Jorge: Last night when Phil and Danny came in,
for somebody like him to tell me, "You're not doing right,"
it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit.
Hey, what's up, guys? How you doing?
Jorge: Right now, um, a little stressed.
Yes, I'm a little stressed. I don't wanna be yellin'.
I don't want people to be yellin' at me no more.
[upbeat music]
Phil: Last time we came to the bar, the place is filthy.
It was a mess, and it's like nobody was working with anybody.
Right. Jorge and his son were bickerin'.
Phil: They weren't working like a business should be working
as far as employees and owners go.
Jorge: Hey, how's it going, guys?
Jorge, my guy, let's grab
your crew. Let's come on over and talk.
Phil: Today Danny and I have to meet with the staff.
We have to dig in to find out
what the core problems are so we can fix them.
Yeah, we'll be talkin' to everyone.
I'm Phil Wills, alright?
I've been in the business for over 25 years,
opened up well over 250 bars and restaurants all over the country
and all over the world.
I'm Danny Trejo.
I got five restaurants in Los Angeles.
We're starting one in Detroit and one in London.
Jon sent us in here because he wanted to bring people
that had knowledge of the restaurant business
and knew about family dynamics, which needs a lot of help. Okay?
So I didn't get a chance to meet all of you guys
last night, so I'd love to meet you guys.
- Who are you? Paige. - I'm Paige.
- Yes. I'm a bartender. - What do you do here?
And how long have you been here?
I've been here for, like,
two-and-a-half years.
Cool. What is it like here?
Um, we're always hustling.
A lot of times we don't have the liquors that we need,
and we'll have 'em one time and then we won't have 'em
another time, so...
How does that make you feel?
- Frustrated. Phil: Yeah. Yeah.
- And? - I'm Kristina.
I've been here for three years.
Phil: Three years? - I'm a bartender.
Phil: What about your cleanliness behind the bar?
Definitely could use some improvement, for sure.
Phil: If you guys are walkin' back there and you're working
every single day and the place is filthy or dirty
and you just turn a blind eye to it,
where do you stop and say, "This place needs to be cleaned"?
"We need to come in early, we need to stay late,
we need to have one day to clean this place."
Where's your pride in working behind that bar, Paige?
We have mentioned that multiple times.
Yeah. Danny, wh-- when you go into your restaurants...
- Are they clean? - I demand it.
He demands it.
So if you guys can spot that it's dirty back there,
you demand it to be cleaned.
Phil: Alright? Let me ask you this, Michael.
How do you feel your business is going?
We were thrivin' at one time,
and the last couple years it's-- it's died off.
How much are you guys losing, Michael, every single month?
- Uh, around 30. Phil: Around $30,000.
How much longer you guys have before you guys close the doors?
- Not much. Two months, I guess. Phil: Not much?
Phil: About two months? Jorge: Yes, sir.
Alright. About $650,000 in debt. Alright.
I was surprised to hear about the debt that they're in
and how soon we might be closin' our doors, two months.
So now it's like, you know, my heart has just dropped.
- And who are you, my friend? - My name is Ruben.
I'm Jorge's brother, and I'm the restaurant manager.
We have the father, son, brother.
Best friend. Like, it's like a family affair.
- It is a family affair, right? - Yeah.
Phil: You know, Jorge, I want you to understand,
the reason I came in so heated is because of the neglect
that I saw you guys have on this place.
And you guys weren't doing anything about it.
And I saw you yellin' at your son in the back
and not communicatin', and I saw you
bouncin' around here, just havin' a good time.
I had to let you know how real
and how dire this situation is, okay?
Friendly's good, but hold back on the drinkin'.
I love it when customers buy me a drink.
They'll pay for two margaritas.
- I, I'll drink a lemonade. Phil: Mm-hmm.
I mean, that's just the way it is, you know?
And the hardest thing that me and my son had
was separatin' a boss from dad.
You wouldn't talk to somebody that wasn't your dad
the way you talk to him.
You can take those right now because it's, like, appetizers.
Hey, man, you don't gotta scream at me. Chill out.
- I'm not screaming at you. Jeremy: You haven't done shit.
Jorge: What am I supposed to do?
I'm just telling you one thing to do, bro.
Man, we're not gonna have this discussion.
- It's-- it's a tough dynamic. - We got the same temper.
- So that's one of the problems. Danny: Okay, but-- but--
And I have to work through that.
You've gotta talk to him
the same way you would talk to one of them.
You know what I mean? Uh, it's that simple. 'Cause I had to.
I had to talk to my son the same way
I talk to one of my employees.
Otherwise, [whistles] it goes left.
Let me ask you, uh, Jeremy, when things get heated
between you and your father, have you quit before?
Oh, yeah. It's, uh, I would say, a handful of times.
Handful of times? Have you ever been fired?
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, twice out of the handful of times.
Okay. And you've always come back?
- Yeah, you know... Phil: You do.
And I'll tell you what, if I owned this place
and I had a son working here and they walked out on me...
[suspenseful music]
they wouldn't be walking back into this restaurant.
[glass shattering]
If I owned this place and I had a son
working here, and they walked out on me,
they wouldn't be walking back into this restaurant.
[intense music]
Business has to be business, so all that family dynamic,
just as Danny was talkin' about, it's got to go away.
When you're inside these four walls,
it's all about business now, alright?
So no more walkin' out on your pops.
Jeremy: It's a humblin' experience, being called out.
And I understand, you know,
exactly where everybody's coming from.
It's very crucial to have that line, you know?
Uh, outside of the business, you know, atmosphere,
he can be my father, but, you know,
when it comes to the workplace, he's my boss.
We have a lot to do, okay, have a couple
of experts that you guys met last night.
Danny: Hello, fellas. [laughs] Phil: What's up?
Chris: How you doing? Phil: Good to see you.
Thank you for being here. Rob.
I have my buddy over here, Rob Floyd.
He is one of the best mixologists in the US.
This guy right here, Chris Oh, phenomenal chef.
Phil: We got a lot of work to do tonight,
and we have to get ready for stress test.
- You guys ready? - Yes, sir!
Chris: Ha-ha. - Alright, guys, let's go.
[upbeat music]
- Hey, hey. - Hey, how's it going?
Rob: Very good, very good.
So what I experienced was utter chaos.
They had no structure. They had no system.
Rob: So goin' into the bar training, I really wanna
find out, do they know steps of service?
You know, when you greeted us at the table,
you came over and said hi and you had your drink in your hand.
You didn't have a menu. You didn't mark us.
You didn't do any of those normal stuff.
Anybody know 10-5-2?
So, okay, 10-5-2, it's the basic.
At ten feet, we always acknowledge somebody. We nod.
Five feet, big smile. Two feet, we introduce ourselves.
So 10-5-2 is a step of service that's paramount in a bar.
Then, once you do 10-5-2, you hit them with a menu.
Rob: So Phil, Danny and I worked on some cocktails.
The Paloma has a huge following in Texas. Everybody loves it.
Alright, mixing glass up.
You want something on the menu that they already know,
and then you make it better than they ever could expect,
it's a huge win.
Half ounce of our Twisted Alchemy.
This is our beautiful lime.
We're gonna go one ounce of agave.
One-and-a-half ounces of our silver tequila.
Add ice and shake and strain over two ounces of soda
in a Collins glass with ice.
We're going to now use
our Twisted Alchemy grapefruit juice
and put it over the top because it's the heaviest.
So it's gonna create a balanced cocktail
and really visually appealing
'cause they're gonna constantly move.
We're gonna garnish with our fried grapefruit.
And there we are. We have our house Paloma.
[instrumental music]
- Perfect. Oh, wow. Paige: That is really good.
Alright, so we got a lot of training to do.
We're gonna train only up to stress test.
And then we're gonna train so much that you're gonna think
of Hawthorne strainers in your sleep.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
- How you doing, chef? - How's it going, guys?
I'm excited. How are you doin' tonight?
So me and Rob, we walk into the Wagon Wheel.
Chris: Food was bad. Service, bad. Drinks are bad.
The whole thing was just a big dumpster fire.
I wanna teach you guys some really cool, fun, innovative
and delicious dishes today. So you guys ready?
- Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. - Ready, let's go.
These guys don't have a lot of skill, so I developed a menu
that's gonna be super fast, super easy and super delicious.
We got Danny Trejo in the house.
- Yes. - He's got Trejo's Tacos.
So we gotta pay a little homage to Danny.
And we're gonna do a Tex-Mex taco, yeah?
- Okay. Let's go. - You guys ready?
We got some pre-grilled flour tortillas right here.
Just put some brisket down like this.
Then we got a couple crispy tater tots.
Jeremy: Oh, nice. Chris: Spicy ranch.
- Yeah. - Okay.
Coleslaw.
- Wow, right on top. Chris: Like so.
And then we're gonna garnish it
with a little green onion.
And to give a little heat, we got some serrano peppers.
- Oh, that looks good. - There you go.
- Man. - Wagon Wheel Trejo Tacos.
Jorge: Oh. Awesome. - There you go. Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy: The presentation, to the overall taste...
it blew my mind, so, you know,
I'm definitely excited for tonight
and to give everything a try.
Well, we got a big night, we got stress
test tonight, we got a lot of people coming.
- We wanna rock it. - We're gonna keep training.
I am a little paranoid and afraid that my dad might just
completely do a 180 and go berserk again.
I'm just taking it minute by minute right now
until the stress test arrives.
[upbeat music]
Phil: Heading into stress test, what we need to see
from the staff is they're cranking these drinks out.
I wanna see the kitchen prepare edible food
and really being able to keep up with the orders.
We also need to make sure that those owners are communicating
and they're working like a team.
Jorge: What's up, everybody? - [indistinct]
Well, welcome to the Wagon Wheel, y'all. Come on in.
Jorge: Coming in. Coming in.
Paige: Welcome to the Wagon Wheel.
We got the whole town here. Come right in.
Paige: Sit wherever you want. Kristina: Yeah.
The Spicy Watermelon is on point.
- Give me the Melon Sour. - The Melon Sour?
I prefer Palomas personally.
They're all pretty simple.
Rob: It's short by a lot.
The biggest thing that I wanna express to you
is that in here dad's not your dad. Dad's your boss.
So you've gotta start thinking it in that way.
You've gotta try to really remember that.
I appreciate that, Danny. You take care.
Rob: Come on, bar. We don't have a drink out yet.
[instrumental music]
- Yup, that'll-- - Let's go.
You guys wanna share the tacos? Okay.
You got three different dishes right here,
which is all kind of like bar menu.
Michael: The, the wings. - Yup, and the house Paloma.
Michael: And the house Paloma.
Chris: Has any food been run yet?
Jeremy: No.
Chris: I wanna get some runners.
Hey, we need runners!
Phil: Jorge, what's going on? - I'm about to, uh...
Right now I'm about to enter this
in the thing and I'mma make this drink.
Oh, so you enter it in the computer
and it doesn't print up anywhere?
- No. No, they don't. - They don't know.
They don't, they don't know how it show up.
Okay. Okay. Alright, let's...
We need to get a drink out.
Why are we using one hand?
Use two hands to pour.
You're never gonna get out of that.
That's too short. We're dumping this.
- I cannot get it right. - You... C'mon, team. Let's go!
I want Paige to make one drink before this thing is over.
[dramatic music]
Oh! It was gonna make it.
What's goin' on? How are we doin'?
Chris: We need runners. I guess this bell's not working.
- That does not work. - At all.
We got perfectly-executed food, but just
sitting out there just getting cold.
[music continues]
I forgot to muddle the jalapeno.
Rob: Dump it. - Jeremy has food in the window.
It's just sitting there getting cold, so now it's gonna come
out, and it's gonna be cold out here. Let's get it out.
- Let me go up there. - Let's go. Let's work it.
[music continues]
Jeremy: Thank you, sir. - Thank you.
One less ticket on the board.
Phil: The pace is definitely picking up.
Phil: What's goin' on over here? Michael: Um...
I don't use the system a lot,
and I'm kinda getting bad right now.
So you're not familiar with the system, so--
No, this has got me in a, got me in a spot.
[indistinct chatter]
Yeah. Get somebody that knows. And learn.
Michael: Alright. Yeah. - Learn and then duplicate that.
The owners, they don't even know how to use a computer system,
and that's a major problem when you don't know
how your own system runs within your bar.
Come on, team! Let's do this! What do we got?
- That's a good drink. Yeah! - Yeah.
- Who got a drink? Whoa! - Right here!
We got a drink!
It took 'em 15 minutes just to have one drink
go to one guest at the bar top.
We're never gonna pull out of this stress test
if these bartenders don't pick it up
and knock this out of the park.
Jorge, I got some food over here, if you wanna help me.
Rob: Come on, bar. Come on. Let's catch up!
Paige: Please be right.
[intense music]
Rob: This is too short. Let's dump it.
That's, like, ten drinks.
Rob: We have three drinks out here.
We've been open for 20 minutes.
I'm sorry. I'm trying.
- Come on, team, let's do this! - Paige, you pick it up now.
Rob, I need you to pick it up in here, guys.
Rob: Here we go. Almost. Short. - Jesus!
Kristina: Y'all weren't kidding about this stress test, were ya?
Here you go, this is too short. Come on. Come on. Let's go.
We're slowing down on our drinks out on this bar.
Paige: I'm sorry. - No, we got a big spill.
[dramatic music]
Paige: I'm sorry. Rob: No, we got a big spill.
[indistinct chatter]
What is happening right now?
Have we gotten any of these people drinks?
'Cause I see all these tables without drinks.
I have people sitting at these tables
that have been sitting here for over 30 minutes
that have eaten all of their food and never got a cocktail.
Management doesn't know what's going on.
Their systems are nonexistent.
The one shining light is that Jeremy in the kitchen,
he's actually a little bit of a rock star.
But everything else is failing hardcore.
I tell you what, hey, listen up, guys!
Phil: Everybody listen up!
- Danny. - We gotta shut it down.
Phil: We have a lot of work that we have to do here.
We have to get this bar to be able to operate
like a successful bar. Does that make sense?
- It makes sense. - See you guys in two days.
[cheering]
We'll see you guys.
It was a disaster. But that's not me.
I'mma do whatever it takes and I'mma put to you Saturday
that I'mma do this job done.
[upbeat music]
[car honks]
Rob: Hey, hey. - Hey!
- Hey. Jorge: How you doing?
Stress test last night, it really, it was a nightmare.
Over pouring, under pouring, drinks not going out.
So going into relaunch, I really wanna focus on technique.
So this is an espresso martini, and it's very simple.
Who's ready for a great espresso martini?
- Let's go. - I need to wake up. I need to--
- Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Rob: Come on, let's give me one.
Rob: In a mixing glass, add one ounce of coffee-beer reduction,
one ounce of coffee liqueur, two ounces of vodka.
Add ice, shake and strain into a coupe glass.
Garnish with microplaned coffee beans.
We call this the High Octane Espresso Martini.
Alright, let's give it a test,
and tell me how much you like it.
Oh, yeah, that seems really good.
- I can really taste the coffee. - Alright, listen.
We're gonna train all day today, we're gonna train all day
tomorrow. It's gonna be a lot of work to get there.
But I see a great team here and, uh, I'm ready to keep going.
- How about y'all? - Oh. Let's go.
Let's do it. I love it.
[instrumental music]
Danny and I are here to talk with Michael, Jorge and Jeremy.
We wanna find out how they feel about last night
and see if they're communicating finally.
- What's up, guys? - Hey, hey, hey.
How's everyone? You guys doin' alright?
- Yeah. How we doing? - How you doin'?
Danny: I feel like they finally realized
that it's not just one person's fault.
It's the dynamics of the whole thing,
and that's what we gotta work on.
Phil: Let's talk about last night.
It was a shit show, straight up.
I mean, I can't, I can't say it any better than that.
Michael: To me, I seen when we improved in one spot,
but we failed in others a lot.
Phil: Where do you feel like you improved?
- That you did a good job? - The kitchen.
The kitchen, we improved.
I must almost say a 100% almost.
I mean, it was unbelievable how-- how well that went.
And I told him multiple times how, how proud I was of him.
You know, I wanna thank you so much, Danny.
When you told me, "You're the boss right here
and he works for you," I'm understanding.
Uh, to be honest with you, we haven't been
talking much, and this has helped me a lot.
Ultimately, I wanna make sure both of y'all be proud of the,
you know, the work ethic that I bring to the table.
- I'm proud of you. I love you. - Appreciate it.
- I love you, too. - I love you.
I wanted to say that I was wrong.
My dad, actually, uh, transition's becoming
something I can resemble as a leader.
Whole reason why we do the stress test
is to figure out what we need to work on.
So from that, what did you learn last night?
I'm not never looking, I'm never inspecting,
I'm never watching my bartenders.
Jorge: Definitely wake-up call.
So now I'mma be more aware, I'mma be up there watching.
So I wanna learn every single department in my bar.
Me, me personally, I need, I need to learn this system
to feel this system, and then communicate more with him
because we started out talking where we're gonna take care
of this and that, but once we've seen this ship going down,
it went south on us. He was running doing what he was doing.
I was running doing what I was doing and
there was zero communication.
You know, when that happens, you guys just stop.
Breathe and have detailed tasks that you need to accomplish
in order to get yourselves back on top,
because if you try to just do too much,
you're gonna get spread way too thin
and the problems are gonna continue always, always, always.
Alright, guys, listen, we don't have a lot of time,
so we still have a lot of work to do over at the bar.
Phil: And we'll see you guys tomorrow. Alright?
- Thank you so much. - Oh, man. It was a pleasure.
Michael: It's been a stressful, stressful week, and I learned
that I've been putting a little bit too much on Jorge,
and, you know, I need to come in and help out.
No matter what, I'll make the time to be there.
[upbeat music]
Jon on phone: Hi, everybody. - Hey, Jon.
Jon: We gotta create a bar that'll make some money.
We're next to a gas station, you know, maybe we could make
an old-style, fun, nostalgic gas-station-themed bar.
Something that connects with its more industrial vibe.
It's perfect for this area.
[upbeat music]
Jon: Danny, what did you think?
- Hide the porta potty. Phil: Ha-ha...
The sign says Wagon Wheel,
but it's a restaurant and a bar.
Jon: So we need to create a separate sign for the bar work.
[hammering]
[drilling]
[music continues]
- What's up, guys? - Hey, what's going on?
- How are you guys doing? Jorge: We anxious.
[indistinct chatter]
- Yeah - Yeah. Good, good, good.
Phil: Jorge, when I first got here with you, man,
we, we butted heads, you know,
because you couldn't get out of your own way.
How did you feel about this experience?
It opened my eyes. I was lost.
I know where the money is going now.
Phil: Right. - It's me.
Thank you so much, Danny.
You told me something, family.
Jorge: We're gonna be together, brother.
Yeah. Jeremy, what do you think?
Man, uh, y'all put me to the test.
Ultimately, I learned that confidence
can definitely take you a long way.
And I-I feel like, you know,
this is gonna be the beginning of the rest of our lives.
Mm. Alright, guys, you guys ready to see your bar?
- Yes. - Alright. You ready?
Paige: Yes. - One, two, three!
- Whoa! - Hey!
Jorge: Let's go! Heck, yeah.
[glass shatters]
Both: One, two, three!
- Whoa-oh-oh! Kristina: Hey!
Let's go! Heck, yeah!
Ruben: Hey!
- Yeah... - It's so good!
Jeremy: Look at that. Jorge: Come on here, bro. Man.
Yeah. Pour Station. That means...
They're gonna be pourin'. Right, girls? Yeah. Yeah.
- What do you guys think? - Oh, my God.
Mm, looks amazing. Looks amazing. It looks amazing.
Danny: The Pour Station, right?
The Humble Sign Company put that up for us.
- Should we let 'em in? - Let's do it!
Phil: Go on in, guys. Go on in. - Whoo!
Phil: Heh-heh. Jorge: Let's go.
- Oh-ho... - Oh, ho.
- Yeah. - Yeah!
Oh, look at that truck, I think.
Michael: Whoa! Kristina: Oh, my gosh.
We got a truck inside.
[men cheering]
- Two wells. Paige: Look at the light.
Ruben: Now we have a room. - The horn work. Honk-honk.
- Look at, this thing's perfect. Michael: Look at that, man.
Jorge: That's where I'm gonna sit, right here.
Welcome to Texas.
My dad owned a mechanic shop, and me walking right here...
I'm just in shock,
and I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
This is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.
- We needed this. Kristina: Oh.
Look at the pool tables.
No, this is nice. This is perfect.
Oh! Hey!
[indistinct chatter]
Jorge: I don't know, bro, like...
[indistinct chatter]
- Thank you. Jorge: This is perfect.
- Thank you. - Now you guys got a bar.
Danny and I wanna tell you everything that we did
with this place, so let's, let's gather around this bar top.
You guys come around here and let's talk shop.
- Alright? Jorge: Alrighty.
These two stations that we put in here,
we called our friends at Krowne Equipment
to come in and make sure that we had everything for you guys.
Phil: We used Krowne's cutting-edge bar configurator,
Bar Flex Pro, to design our dream bar in minutes.
Then they took it a step further by integrating
augmented-reality capabilities to allow us
to visualize the bar before it was even installed.
These metal stainless steel right here,
this is done by a company called Texas Metal Equipment.
Okay, we had them come in here to specially cut these
and fit them in for you guys.
We brought in Charlie Plumbing,
new plumbing all behind the bar for you guys.
You guys know and I know
all the trouble you had with the tables.
Well, Rockless Tables came in
and they gave us self-leveling table technology.
Another thing that's gonna relieve the pressure
from you guys is our SkyTab POS system.
Phil: Okay? We put two of 'em back here for you guys. Alright?
We have one on that side, we have one on this side
and we have the glass tab right here, okay?
- Brought to the 21st century. Phil: Yeah.
And you guys can't make great drinks
unless you have the tools to make 'em.
We got Cocktail Kingdom tools
and Dress The Drink cocktail garnishes.
We got Manitowoc ice machine in the back for you.
Phil: That's the best ice machine on the market right now,
especially for an establishment like you guys have.
In the kitchen and here in the bar,
we worked with a company called Osre Inc.,
and they have all your workstation tables,
all of your stainless steel tables for the kitchen,
and we have some in here for the bar for you guys as well.
Danny: We got a brand-new menu.
Nothing but the best-sellers, especially Trejo's Tacos.
Whoo!
You guys ready to get this place open?
- Let's go! We're ready. Michael: Alright.
Call everybody and let's party.
Let's do this, guys. Let's get this place open, okay?
Alright, let's go.
[cheering]
[upbeat music]
Hey, what's up, everybody?
How y'all doing? Let's go. Let's go to The Pour Station.
- Whoo! - Thanks. Go.
[indistinct chatter]
- We are ready. Jorge: My man.
- Hello. - Hi!
Come on in! There they are!
- Here's our new menu. - Do you like tequila?
Were you all ready to order food?
[rock music]
Chris: What do we got? Rob: Call it out.
One Kung Pao Chicken nachos stuffed in.
When you re-fry, drop it for, like, at least a minute or so.
Okay. Okay. Perfect.
Chris: Oh, Danny! - What's up, homie?
- What's up? - How are we doing?
Now Jeremy's doing a great job right now.
I mean, look at him. He looks really organized.
And, like, most of all, he's having a good time. He's happy.
That's good.
Oh, look at that.
How you doing down there, Paige?
Killing it, girl. How are you?
Killing it.
What? Look at this. We're getting these drinks out.
Kristina: Yeah, we are. Jorge: What do you think?
So did you want me to help you do it?
You want me to check on the people?
- I'll go check these orders. - Okay.
Get coming again, bro. Thank you.
I am feeling great, communication for me and Jorge
is great, our, our connection to our friendship,
it has actually gotten stronger. Oh, man, it's, it's like heaven.
- You guys are making me proud. - Oh, well, you know...
- We are a team. You know that. Ruben: Yes.
[instrumental music]
Jorge: Hey, you guys! - How y'all doing, guys?
- How you doing? Great. - How you feeling?
Phil: Yeah? - We're doing fantastic. The...
The communication between us has improved so much.
This is a whole family structure.
And that's what has to be right and right
for anything to go right.
And right now it's running pretty good.
Michael: Yeah. Right. - I'm so proud of you guys.
I'm so excited to come back to Cleveland.
- Appreciate it. - All love. All love, man.
Phil: When we first got here, we had a broken relationship
between two lifelong friends.
We had a relationship with a father
and a son that was gone.
We were able to fix that, and that's what it's all about.
To run a successful business, you have to have people
that are on the same page.
Now this family, these owners, they're on
the same page. And I see a bright future for this bar.
Let's get out of here. Ha-ha...
[upbeat music]
King: Promotional consideration provided by
Houston First Corporation, SkyTabs POS,
Barproducts.com, Twisted Alchemy, Osre Inc.,
Texas Metal Equipment Company, TV Installation Houston,
Krowne, Charlie's Plumbing, Rockless Table, Manitowoc,
Partender, Cocktail Kingdom, Dress The Drink,
Texas Restaurant Improvement, Humble Sign Company,
GOT Signs Houston, Verde Garden,
Onestone and Esri.
[theme music]
[instrumental music]
♪ MTV ♪♪♪