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TV Review: Bar Rescue – “Beach Bummer”
The Episodes: 1.04 – “Beach Bummer”
John Taffer revamps Kilkenny’s bar on the pier in Redondo Beach, CA, but runs up against repeated interference from the general manager, Carlos, who just happens to be the ex of the owner who’s seeking Jon’s help.
Guy’s Take:
This is the episode with the most drama to date. And actually, I’m surprised that the manager of this week’s bar, Kilkenny’s, a gent named Carlos, agreed to sign the release to have himself depicted on the show. Because throughout the entire episode, he comes off like a slacker douchebag who manipulates his ex-girlfriend, the bar’s owner, Allie. As presented on the episode – and Taffer is explicit in his disapproval of the guy – Carlos spends his time drinking and texting (don’t ever drink and text, by the way kids). He has no real knowledge of how to do the books and the bar is filthy. The kitchen’s a mess, including having salad tongs sitting in the garbage. The bartenders all make the same drinks differently; and with margaritas as one of their offerings, the entire bar has one margarita glass. Essentially everything that Carlos is supposed to oversee he doesn’t. But because he knows how to manipulate Allie, she doesn’t fire him.
So when Taffer comes in, it’s not long before he points out Carlos as the anchor dragging the ship to the bottom. Allie is nearly a million in debt and the situation is so bad, that Taffer makes her close the bar at 10:00 PM on a Saturday night. He then gets to work with his two experts, a mixologist and executive chef, to straighten up the bar and kitchen respectively. And the show follows its standard playbook of addressing the deficiencies of the bar: customer flow, server slowness, cleanliness, the menu, bartender inadequacies, competition in the area and market share, etc. And of course, Carlos.
Taffer sits down with him once or twice and the acrimony between the two is palpable. Carlos blows him off, saying he’s full of it, doesn’t know his business, yadda yadda. Taffer doesn’t mince words with Allie and her sister when discussing whether or not to fire Carlos. He calls him the “kiss of death”. But Allie’s still so hung up on her relationship with the guy that she won’t fire him. And it’s not that you want to see her fail, but when Taffer tries to help her and she puts up a fight, you’re thinking she deserves to fail if she doesn’t axe the loser. I’m surprised Taffer didn’t do what he did in the episode, “Fallen Angels”, and take over the bar and outright fire Carlos. But he didn’t. And as a result, when Taffer starts initiating the changes, Carlos is right there trying to undermine him with the staff.
As in every episode, Taffer initiates a physical makeover on the bar, including changing its theme from an Irish bar to a surf bar. Equipment is upgraded, the whole place gets a facelift, and once again, Taffer pulls it off. It’s a great concept and I’m still quite digging the show, especially Taffer’s weekly blitzkrieg on bullshit and the results he delivers. Dalton has cleaned up another dive.
End Credit:
You want to hire Jon Taffer to save your bar? It’s $5,000 up front, $500 a night, cash. You pay all medical expenses.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Sounds like a solid concept. I have been watching episodes of a show called KITCHEN NIGHTMARES which takes a similar approach to improving struggling businesses to that employed by this Taffer chap, as you so aptly called it, “a blitzkrieg on bullshit”. You should check out that show and it’s host (Gordon Ramsay) sometime, David. He is utterly pitiless
And you have to be daft to entangle your business interests with manipulative exs. You need to look out for yourself above all else and those who hold you back should be excised like the cancer they are
At least Carlos had his risible con exposed on television for the world to see, and to measure his character accordingly
As Kate, I have also seen Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, and I am impressed with what he does, knowledge and how he does it. (I have seen lots of episodes with Ramsey from first series in England to later episodes in US.)
The reason for the jam seems to be the owners and the manager’s lacking experience and skills and the manager’s illoyalty and the owner’s loyalty. Also they seem to think Carlos know the trade, which should have been easy for Taffer to show the opposite.
Jon Taffer has another approach he goes on like a steamroller to intimidate the obvious culprit, he seems to know the business, but what is shown is very sketchy. He also has other “assistants” to help him out which should have given him time to focus on the real challenges:
How to earn money – the nuts and bolts
Carlos – facing him – challenging him to do better – perhaps in a nonconfronting manner – trying to get him on the team – then revealing all his mischief.
It is difficult to be the owner with loyalty to staff, even Carlos and in comes a bully – although knowing the trade – seemingly with absolutely no people skills.
Somehow Ramsay always seems to resolve this situations – really head on and obnoxious – but then he is able to build a team and get up and running.
I have seen similar show in Norway with a chef that follows Ramsay’s recipe – going down to nuts an bolts – why they are loosing money – how it is possible to earn money – challenging the culprit(s) and building a team.
In this manner I think it is easy to see for the owners:
-Why they are losing money – Wastage – Wrong pricing – wrong purchasing – result very day, week, month
- An eye-opening event for the team – they will see why, in this case Taffer, does what he does.
– How they can earn money – menu – drinks, etc.
Why haven’t the Manager done any of these things?
- So easier to see the total incompetence
and illoyal behaviour of the Manager
This could have been a great show – seems like it just shall be chaos – steamroller behaviour by Taffer and conflicts.
Perhaps this is due to a show that is compressed due to time slot, or is it Taffer’s lacking people and tutorial skills?