Jon Tafferand his team on the reality television showBar Rescuetravel the country revamping rundown, broke, and in need of desperate help establishments. As viewers can imagine, going into someone’s place and telling them they are running their operation into the ground, their drinks are gross, and that he can’t believe they’ve been open for as long as they have is bound to create some ofthe best reality TV.
Of course, that drama, coupled with wild antics and crazy owners, is exactly why people tune in to watch Taffer as he tries his best to revamp, remodel, and rebrand. That doesn’t mean people don’t test him, though, ashe watches an owner twerk on top of the bar, bartenders pouring shots for themselves, and a raccoon running across a bartop. And that is just the beginning of some of the wildest episodes ofBar Rescue.
Bar Rescue
15"Hole in None"
Season 3, Episode 27 (2014)
Most establishments don’t have anything to worry about when a health inspector walks through its doors. That was not the case for The Fairways Golf and Grill in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After a thorough inspection, the place wound up being one of the most disgusting Taffer and his team had ever visited. And it all started with the chef. They were handling food without washing their hands or wearing gloves, which was just the beginning.
He also wasn’t washing vegetables, left raw meat out on the counter, and didn’t take the time to clean any aspect of the kitchen. Worst of all, there was black mold in the ice maker andsomething beyond unbelievable in the walk-in freezer – a large mushroom growing right on the wall! Honestly, it would have made sense for Taffer’s team to walk out on this wild ride, but they stuck around and helped The Fairways Golf and Grill.
14"J.A. Murphy’s"
Season 2, Episode 3 (2012)
During episode 3 of Season 2 ofthe reality TV show, Taffer and his team visited J.A. Murphy’s bar in Fells Point, Maryland, and what they found was two friends with zero bar experience. Literally, there was almost food poisoning, a dangerous floor, and a whole lot of wild rides that Taffer was not ready for. So when Taffer’s daughter was nearly servednachos cross-contaminated with raw chicken, he was more than ready to yell at someone. But first, he had to check what was happening in the kitchen.
He walked into mayhem. The stove hood was covered in grease, slime, and sludge dripping down onto the cooked food. It is not exactly the most appetizing visual. The reason for the gross area was actually pretty simple, though: the owners made their employees buy all of the cleaning supplies out of their own pockets. Needless to say, the owners were cheap, and it showed in more than the cleaning supplies (or lack thereof). Taffer found a broken floorboard held up by a beam that could break at any moment, bringing the floor down with it. It was a huge lesson in investing in your own business.
13"Silence of the Ants"
Season 5, Episode 26 (2017)
Considering Taffer and his team are no strangers to bars having bug issues, saying one is the worst they’ve ever seen is pretty wild. That’s where The Liquid Lounge in Long Beach, California, comes in. It had more than your typical dive bar bug issue and was one of the worst infestations ever seen onBar Rescue. After calling for the staff to do a very needed deep clean, Taffer noticed something strange while inspecting the work –cracks in the walls filled with tiny bugs.
It was disgusting, and Taffer was appalled, and rightfully so. He called an exterminator to completely fumigate the place and kill all of the insects. What he didn’t expect was for the exterminator to tell him that if Taffer hadn’t called, the entire establishment would have been overrun by the tiny bugs. It was a wild episode that left a very bad taste in Taffer’s mouth. It really isn’t surprising that The Liquid Lounge wound up shutting down for good.
12"Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling"
Season 4, Episode 10 (2015)
Packy’s Pug, an Irish dive bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, might be one of thewildest fruit fly encounters onBar Rescue. While doing a bit of recon, Taffer and his team noticed some of the patrons sticking their fingers into their drinks. Of course, this is not a normal occurrence. They realize little dark specs were being put onto cocktail napkins afterward. The specs were fruit flies. If that wasn’t bad enough, Taffer then witnessed the bartender putting the fly-infested liquor back onto the shelf!
Stepping in, Taffer goes behind the bar and starts looking at all of the liquor bottles.A vast majority had fruit flies floating around the liquid inside. It was straight out of a horror movie, and the fact that the bartenders were serving patrons with that liquor is something worth thinking about. Rightfully so, Taffer began to aggressively throw away each bottle while some of the bartenders looked on in utter disgust.
11"I Smell a Rat"
Season 3, Episode 38 (2014)
There are bound to be a lot of funny smells in a hookah bar. But there was something different about the smell Taffer picked up while inside the Oasis Hookah Bar in Omaha, Nebraska. It wasn’t someone’s body odor or even old food left out in the kitchen somewhere. It was something else altogether. When Taffer moved a booth aside, he found the source – a dead rat. Believe it or not,the deceased rat wasn’t the only disgusting thing within the hookah bar.
Since the staff looked as though they were there to party and not actually work, it wasn’t too surprising that Taffer found the hookah equipment to be incredibly gross. It looked as though nothing had ever been cleaned. Not cleaning this type of equipment is not only disgusting and unsanitary for the patrons, but it will leave behind a very distinct smell that will not go away easily. After its apparent rescue, the Oasis Hookah Bar stayed open for three more years before officially shutting its doors in 2017.
10"Yo-Ho-Ho And A Bottle Of Dumb"
Season 2, Episode 1 (2012)
The opening episode of the second season ofBar Rescueshowcased a wild, pirate-themed bar located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Piratz Tavern was unlike anything Taffer had seen before, withemployees dressing, talking, acting, and giving into the fantasy that they werepirates. The concept was not attracting customers, the bar was losing money, and Taffer rightfully wanted to change the overall wild concept of the place. Shockingly, the staff was unwilling to let go of theirPirates of the Caribbeandreams.
Taffer wanted to get rid of the tacky decor and asked the staff to stop speaking as though they were actually pirates. With more than a little pushback, owners Tracy and Juciano Rebelo allowed the rescue to happen. The thing is, they took down everything three days after filming, even turning full pirate and burning the new Corporate Bar & Grill sign Taffer had made for the re-opening. This season 2 episode is definitely one of the more interesting and wild bars in the entire series, resembling more of a nightmarish Disney ride than somewhere people want to go for a drink and relax.
9"Thugs With Mugs"
Season 4, Episode 2 (2015)
Located in Yonkers, New York, the Undisputed Sports Bar & Grill found itself in one of the wildestBar Rescueepisodes. Owned by two former boxers, the sports bar had all the makings of a local dive. Unfortunately, it also had patrons who weren’t afraid to start throwing hands if something didn’t go their way. And, boy, did something not go their way when Taffer said, “You’re getting ripped off! They’re ripping you off!”
He yelled this across the bar after realizingthe two owners werepouring well liquor into top-shelf bottles and charging top-shelf prices for drinks. Imagine the surprise of theBar Rescuecrew when a brawl broke out in the middle of the bar over the news, and the Yonkers police department was called. Somehow, Taffer doesn’t call it quits on the bar and sticks it out through to the end of the episode, where a newly revamped sports bar, now named SOYO, makes its debut.
8"Muscle Madness"
Season 3, Episode 40 (2014)
It is never easy to start a business venture with a friend, and Justin Whitfield and Shawn Machado found that out the hard way when they became partners and opened The End Zone Bar and Grill in Houston, Texas. When Taffer came into the bar, it was evident the two owners did not see eye to eye, even though they were friends. They both had different visions for the bar and, because of the toxic environment and no decisions actually being made, were $200,000 in debt.
Things got wild whenthe two ownerswent head-to-head in an epic screaming match. It got so heated that not only did the bar staff have to break the two apart, but their wives had to come in and hold each of the men back from the other before things got physical. A solid chunk of the staff quit on the spot and walked out of the bar for good. The two owners parted ways, and Machado wound up opening a bar directly across the street. There is nothing quite likereality TV show pettiness.
7"Empty Pockets"
Season 3, Episode 5 (2013)
Ami Benari, the owner of the ZanZBar in Denver, Colorado, had an attitude that rivaled Taffer’s during theBar Rescueepisode “Empty Pockets.” Not only did Benari run the bar with a firm hand, leaving the staff fairly scared of the man, but he did not take any criticism well, even though it was perfectly warranted due to the state of the bar. It wasn’t like Taffer was at ZanZBar to shoot some billiards; he was there to do a job.
Taffer explained all the mistakes Benari and his staff were making, which ultimately cost the bar money and patrons. In a shocking display of a grown-up temper tantrum,Benari, in a veryreality TV producer plant-like manner,walked into the kitchen, picked up plates, and chucked them at the wall. His destructive leadership style and lack of concern for the outdated kitchen equipment and unsanitary state of the bar made him one of the worst owners Taffer had ever dealt with on the show.
6"Rock N Roaches"
Season 3, Episode 2 (2013)
There is a lot to be said about crazy and delusional bosses, but Steve Ricci at the Headhunters bar in Austin, Texas, might take the cake. During the episode “Rock N Roaches,” Taffer encounters what is arguably one of the dirtiest bars seen onBar Rescue. Not only did it smell,thanks to the resident cat spraying everywhere, but there was a cockroach infestation. This was no normal infestation either.
The insects were everywhere – floating in liquor bottles, crawling across the bartop and floor, and even making a home in the kitchen. To say Taffer was outraged would be an understatement, especially when Ricci refused to take any responsibility for the state of the bar. In fact, he said a clean bar was pretentious because Austin was a college town. Unfortunately, there is no talking to a guy who actively tries to talk his employees out of being paid a regular and fair wage.
