TV Review: Bar Rescue – “Fallen Angels,” “Downey’s and Out,” and “Shabby Abbey”

The Episodes:

1.01 – “Fallen Angels”

1.02 – “Downey’s and Out”

1.04 – “Shabby Abbey”

John Taffer turns around Angels Bar in Corona, CA, Downey’s Irish Pub in Philadelphia and The Abbey in Chicago.  A few feelings are hurt along the way.

Guy’s Take:

I spent the weekend getting acquainted with a very different kind of makeover show: Bar Rescue.  Makeover shows can of course range from entertaining to loathsome, depending on the subject matter, the tone and the host.  For instance, I dig shows like Garage Mahal and Sell This House! because the hosts are interesting and/or hot (more Tanya Memme than Bill Goldberg).  But shows like Extreme Makeover or Biggest Loser just generally make me want to seek out the nearest high balcony, due to the host (i.e. Ty Pennington) and the overly maudlin and sappy emotion they shove up the audience’s collective asses.  At its core, Bar Rescue is a makeover show.  However, what makes it interesting is that it’s something different: saving failing bars.  And host and bar expert, Jon Taffer is the boisterous, take-no-bullshit type who knows his business, ins’t afraid to speak his mind, assert his influence and cut through the crap to get a bar back on its feet.

Jon Taffer

And knowing that is when it hit me as to what Bar Rescue really is: it’s Road House.  No, there’s no fighting, no goon with a knife boot, Ben Gazzara’s not lurking about, there’s no monster truck (not yet anyway) and Jeff Healey’s not jamming behind some chicken wire fence in the corner, but Bar Rescue is most definitely Road House.  And that’s why it’s awesome.  Jon Taffer is Dalton, coming into some local craphole, or once prestigious but on-its-last-legs dive where the roaches get better service than the customers and the rats never go home hungry.  First though, he either does undercover recon or sends in a friend or his wife to get the lowdown on the condition of the place.  Once he gets a report, he goes in, confronts the bar owner, and starts to lay waste to business as usual and fix up the joint, usually with a bartending expert and expert chef to help train the staff.

Jon and Nicole Taffer

Taffer’s abrasively honest style in cleaning up the bars doesn’t make for any lack of drama.  He’s quick to call a shithole a shithole, he doesn’t spare feelings, and he has fired slackers or had the owners fire them.  In “Downey’s and Out” for instance, the owner of an Irish pub in Philadelphia is an Italian chef who had essentially given up on his business, not caring about the run-down look of his once proud establishment, and not setting any sort of example for his staff.  He comes off as Emeril if Emeril was a complete screw up.  Taffer tells him straight up he’s quit on his business and makes him confront that fact.  “Shabby Abbey” deals with The Abbey in Chicago, a music and bar joint that’s family owned.  The older son, Pat, ran it for 15 years and it was successful.  The younger son, Tom, an electrician by trade, took over and ran it into the ground.  The drama of whether or not the family should fire him dominated the episode.  “Fallen Angels” probably saw the most drama, though, where the general manager was incompetent and a waste of space.  Taffer had to fire him outright.  There was also a waitress that got axed in that episode and a waiter in “Shabby Abbey” who got canned at Taffer’s behest.

There’s also the requisite facelift of the joints, sometimes on a massive scale, but the show really just shows the before and after.  The meat of each episode is Taffer turning around the bars by pointing out everything that’s wrong, laying the hammer down and bringing in the experts to help him out.  I like Taffer’s style, and I like the show.

End Credit:

Really, the only thing missing from the show is Terry Funk.  He’s probably too busy with barber college though.

Rating: “Downey’s and Out”: 8.0 out of 10, “Fallen Angels”: 8.5 out of 10, “Shabby Abbey”: 8.0 out of 10