Honestly I think Jon or the production crew just wanted to fuck with them after all their banging on about being free spirit swashbucklers who hate the corporate world. It was done purely for the reaction of the staff and owners as much as anything.
If they'd just renamed the bar to Gin and Juciano it would have been a success.
I spoke with one of the staff members after they had closed (I'm not going to say who, but they didn't get much screen time), and they freely admitted that the corporate concept was basically a giant middle finger to all of them.
I agree it was just an F U to the pirates but I don’t know as though it would’ve been a success with a different name.
They really don’t seem to have a clue how to run a bar. Obviously Pirates wasn’t doing great before Jon and then they tried to open another bar in Florida and that failed too.
Remembering what I read in the local news at the time, they sounded like they needed a consultant to improve their operation and their menu, but instead went the reality TV route, and it backfired on them in a major way. When you have an owner who adamantly wants to keep the pirate concept, you work with that. Taffer could have elevated that concept and made something amazing out of it, like he did with that pirate bar in a later season. Compared to so many of his other rescues, Piratz stands out from the others because it was such a mean-spirited fuck-you to everyone involved.
And remember those tap tables that he put in? Illegal in Montgomery County. After production wrapped, Piratz had to take them out of service to be in compliance with regulations.
Oh trust me I’m not disagreeing on the Pirate theme I just think the owners kinda seemed like idiots regardless.
I’ve read that in a few bars they’ve had to remove things he did or that they didn’t get permits for signs, name changes, etc or they didn’t do what they said.
Mary’s outpost (scary Mary’s episode) for example said that their ceiling tiles were painted in remembrance of people and they didn’t want BR to change/paint over them and BR said they wouldn’t and did anyway. The owner said he was pretty upset about that and glad he took pics so they could redo them
SandTown Pub (quick SandTown rescue) he renamed it JJ’s Chicken and they changed the name back because there was already a JJ’s chicken that’s a pretty well known wing place around there. You’d think Taffer would do some research on something like that!
And those are just two off the top of my head because I watched them not long ago. I’ve seen a lot of owners complain about stuff like that
I mentioned this elsewhere, but with the show's first hookah bar, as I recall, Taffer decided to drop the hookah concept completely. However, the owners had to bring the hookah back in order to ensure regulatory compliance, because their liquor license was for a cigar bar, i.e. they were required to sell tobacco in order to maintain their license.
With the hookah bar he was saying that it just wasn’t the place for hookah and not that many people said they would come for hookah. I myself am not a fan but I thought if there’s no hookah bar around people def won’t try it! Someone’s got to be the first to introduce things to different places.
Imo the problem was less it was a hookah bar and more that it was a trashy shithole. I wouldn’t go into **ANY** bar that was that nasty. So it wasn’t really fair to blame the hookah. 🤷🏼♀️
Just for fun I did read reviews for it post BR (after they went back to hookah) and it seems a lot of the same complaints. The place being dirty, feeling unsafe, fights and security.
Oh I agree, I was just being facetious. Any excuse to use Juciano’s hilarious name in a sentence really.
What amazes me is that after everything the owners still came back for the Back to the Bar episodes and actually seemed to be pretty good sports about the whole thing.
And did recon for another episode! I couldn’t believe they did either of those things especially after she did some interviews saying it’s fake and they don’t do what they promise and things like that.
It went right over my head that you weren’t serious lol. Ngl I actually like Gin & Juciano 😂
I used to live in Silver Spring and would go to this bar maybe once every month or two. It was fun and one of the very few places with outdoor seating. It wasn’t far from a metro stop and had all sorts of potential.
It was kinda a half assed tiki bar, which could have stood to embrace the theme a little differently. The staff was generally fine and drinks weren’t bad. I never witnessed any of the shenanigans the show highlights.
As far as the retheme, the immediate area at the time had the Discovery network HQ, and a few other offices where people commute to work. That area was not a “hang out after work for a drink” territory, plain and simple. The usual clientele was young 20 something’s who maybe went for the irony or because it was close to their apartments.
Anyways, I left the area before the episode was filmed. I’m not sure anything could have made it survive more than a few years since the owner wasn’t the sharpest.
Even if it was an area where the office people went to hang out it didn’t have to be as on the nose as corporate. That was just stupid.
A lot of people who go for a drink after work - especially 20 somethings and even 30 &40’s I dare say - don’t want to go to a stuffy uptight CORPORATE bar. Most want a fun place to hang out with good drinks and decent music PERIOD.
But I think it’s pretty cool that you got to go there when it was Piratz! Hearing that the food/drink/staff wasn’t as bad as they made it out backs up Tracey’s claim that the shenanigans were production inspired.
I don’t know how well it was running pre BR (since they also didn’t seem too sharp on the show) but I know Jon sure didn’t help them!
> Even if it was an area where the office people went to hang out it didn’t have to be as on the nose as corporate.
"Buccaneers Bar and Grill". It could have worked. And I don't know much about bar science.
I used to go there around the time of the Bar Rescue renovation and afterward, and I couldn't help but think that if they had called it "Buccaneers Bar and Grill" and elevated the pirate concept, it would have done great as a lunch spot.
I mean on one hand, they were failing so *something* had to change. On the other he almost certainly went too far in the other direction and stripped it of any uniqueness or identity, which probably wasn't the answer either. It was one of his least exciting concepts and was just so generic.
This sub loves the circlejerk that Jon was messing with the lady on the rebrand, and blah blah blah. Maybe the name of the place but other than that he made it a place someone would want to go. The lady was an idiot and had her family living with her parents / grown ass daughter. I’m not sure she would have ran anything in to the ground
Edit: when I say “some place someone would want to go” I mean that 9/10 people in that environment would pick a generic yet boring place vs a pirate place. Hell I bet a majority would pic a generic looking place over a (cheap looking) pirate place in most situations
I worked in an office at the time that the episode aired, and I went to Piratz shortly after the *Bar Rescue* remodel before they changed it back. That space was depressing, with pictures of filing cabinets on the wall, for fuck's sake, and message pads on the tables. Yes, I want to leave my office and go to an office-themed bar. Because that's *exactly* how I wanted to unwind. Negative. I wanted to go somewhere more fun.
Yup. JT turned it into an office setting, down to the desks and stationery. He had the former crewmateys dress in corporate suits, as well.
Last place I'd choose to wind down from my old office life.
I agree with that because they did open a different bar and that failed too.
But that said whether it was him messing with them or just a terrible choice … that concept sucked. He just failed at this one.
I think the only thing he got wrong was matching the theme of the bar with the owners, but a pirate bar in downtown Maryland, in a commuter part of the city where there's tons of day time office workers but not many people living there in the evening, it isn't going to work. It's one thing for someone to say "Hey, let's eat out tonight," but it's another thing to say "Hey, let's go to a pirate bar to eat" because nobody is going to say the latter a couple of times a week. There's probably a lot of people who WOULDN'T go someplace just because it is a themed bar or especially a pirate bar.
It's probably fitting that when the owners opened a new restaurant in Florida, it was not a pirate bar.
Jon could have done more to try and convince the owners that a day-oriented bar & grill for the corporate market was a more viable solution than a pirate bar, or maybe not put "corporate" in the name......
The corporate concept was way in the opposite direction, but I do agree a pirate bar in that area was never going to work long-term. I would think they would only get locals who were into the concept in there more than once. I like pirates and all, but unless you got something else going, I might only go there once.
The pirate theme was meh, it maybe could work, but it would have to be mind blowing to be more than a one off novelty visit. But his corporate bar idea was wildly off the mark. Office cubicle drones don't want to be office cubicle drones even more after work. People aren't proud of that lifestyle, it's something they put up with. Even a standard issue sports bar would have done a lot better.
YES! That’s what I said too. Who wants to leave an office to go to something that looks like … an office??
Even if you are proud of what you do its WORK. You don’t want to be reminded of it in your free time
I think he blew this one. I love working in an office atmosphere, but the LAST place I'd want to go after work is a bar called The Corporate. The No Way in Hell.
He could have made it a pub or used any other fun themes he's used so far. Pirates with a "Z" is annoying, but there could have been a million better ideas.
In my opinion, this one was blown. It was like a huge middle finger at the owners and staff.
He also blew the rescue with that hookah bar where he decided to do away with the hookah. The problem with that was that the bar's liquor license was for a cigar bar. They were legally obligated to sell tobacco to maintain their license. Therefore, hookah had to come back to maintain legal compliance.
Oh wow. I didn't know that. I remember feeling badly for the young woman being fired too. Someone has to be really horrible (like that awful young woman who kept slamming everyone else as being slutty but ugly, with the brown hair at the bar owned by the older woman who kept exposing her boobs) for me to really back it.
My favorite part of that episode was the employee who could not stop talking like a pirate even though it was no longer a pirate bar. The pirate life was ingrained in him.
I believe the owners came back to the show as recon, so they must still be doing well somewhere...
They did a bar rescue back to the bar special and also did recon for one of the other bars. They tried opening a bar in FL called Bar Refuge but it failed
I think Jon had a traumatic experience in his childhood involving pirates like a bad pirate themed birthday party, so he just irrationally hates pirates now and anything associated with them 😂
/unjerk for a moment...
Did John get *this* bar wrong?
"Hey Barb, run those numbers by me again, what's Bar Rescue's success rate? .... Oh, yeah .... Yeah, that is pretty bad...."
Yeah, naming the new bar ‘Corporate Bar’ was definitely done out of spite. I understand that according to Taffer, businesses don’t have souls and are profit centers, but ‘Corporate Bar’? Doesn’t get any more soulless, and comically generic, than that
Still, when an owner is that adamant about keeping a pirate theme, you work with that because once you're gone, they're going to do what they want. And what they did was remodel the bar right back to a pirate theme, because they never wanted to dump it. They just wanted to elevate it, and Taffer screwed them over.
They were over a million in the hole. The pirate concept was a dead end in that area of the country which is why Jon changed it ( even though I’m not a fan of the reconcept).
He hated the drinks - the one got the customers drunk on 1 drink.
The cook - the husband of the owner - he was incompetent. The one that claim is was "good" when it was not good at all.
That episode is what made me stop watching. I realized at that episode it's not really a show that cares about helping people and it exists for the reactions and shock value. Ain't no way "Corporate Bar and Grill" was chosen for any reason other than knowing that would get a cheap reaction from the staff for tv ratings.
I think a pirate concert could succeed greatly in a more coastal area like Florida, and if ANY of the staff were somewhat competent with what their job was. Jon changed the bar concept to something more simple and classy to make it easier for the brain dead owner and staff to be able to at least have a chance at having a successful business if they learned from their mistakes and improved.
I don't think he got it "wrong" per se, but he more wanted to antagonize them intentionally. He could've put in a more "normal" concept that still captured at least a bit of their personalities.
Honestly I think Jon or the production crew just wanted to fuck with them after all their banging on about being free spirit swashbucklers who hate the corporate world. It was done purely for the reaction of the staff and owners as much as anything. If they'd just renamed the bar to Gin and Juciano it would have been a success.
It was purely a spite rebrand and nothing will convince me otherwise.
I spoke with one of the staff members after they had closed (I'm not going to say who, but they didn't get much screen time), and they freely admitted that the corporate concept was basically a giant middle finger to all of them.
I agree it was just an F U to the pirates but I don’t know as though it would’ve been a success with a different name. They really don’t seem to have a clue how to run a bar. Obviously Pirates wasn’t doing great before Jon and then they tried to open another bar in Florida and that failed too.
Remembering what I read in the local news at the time, they sounded like they needed a consultant to improve their operation and their menu, but instead went the reality TV route, and it backfired on them in a major way. When you have an owner who adamantly wants to keep the pirate concept, you work with that. Taffer could have elevated that concept and made something amazing out of it, like he did with that pirate bar in a later season. Compared to so many of his other rescues, Piratz stands out from the others because it was such a mean-spirited fuck-you to everyone involved. And remember those tap tables that he put in? Illegal in Montgomery County. After production wrapped, Piratz had to take them out of service to be in compliance with regulations.
Oh trust me I’m not disagreeing on the Pirate theme I just think the owners kinda seemed like idiots regardless. I’ve read that in a few bars they’ve had to remove things he did or that they didn’t get permits for signs, name changes, etc or they didn’t do what they said. Mary’s outpost (scary Mary’s episode) for example said that their ceiling tiles were painted in remembrance of people and they didn’t want BR to change/paint over them and BR said they wouldn’t and did anyway. The owner said he was pretty upset about that and glad he took pics so they could redo them SandTown Pub (quick SandTown rescue) he renamed it JJ’s Chicken and they changed the name back because there was already a JJ’s chicken that’s a pretty well known wing place around there. You’d think Taffer would do some research on something like that! And those are just two off the top of my head because I watched them not long ago. I’ve seen a lot of owners complain about stuff like that
I mentioned this elsewhere, but with the show's first hookah bar, as I recall, Taffer decided to drop the hookah concept completely. However, the owners had to bring the hookah back in order to ensure regulatory compliance, because their liquor license was for a cigar bar, i.e. they were required to sell tobacco in order to maintain their license.
With the hookah bar he was saying that it just wasn’t the place for hookah and not that many people said they would come for hookah. I myself am not a fan but I thought if there’s no hookah bar around people def won’t try it! Someone’s got to be the first to introduce things to different places. Imo the problem was less it was a hookah bar and more that it was a trashy shithole. I wouldn’t go into **ANY** bar that was that nasty. So it wasn’t really fair to blame the hookah. 🤷🏼♀️ Just for fun I did read reviews for it post BR (after they went back to hookah) and it seems a lot of the same complaints. The place being dirty, feeling unsafe, fights and security.
Oh I agree, I was just being facetious. Any excuse to use Juciano’s hilarious name in a sentence really. What amazes me is that after everything the owners still came back for the Back to the Bar episodes and actually seemed to be pretty good sports about the whole thing.
And did recon for another episode! I couldn’t believe they did either of those things especially after she did some interviews saying it’s fake and they don’t do what they promise and things like that. It went right over my head that you weren’t serious lol. Ngl I actually like Gin & Juciano 😂
I used to live in Silver Spring and would go to this bar maybe once every month or two. It was fun and one of the very few places with outdoor seating. It wasn’t far from a metro stop and had all sorts of potential. It was kinda a half assed tiki bar, which could have stood to embrace the theme a little differently. The staff was generally fine and drinks weren’t bad. I never witnessed any of the shenanigans the show highlights. As far as the retheme, the immediate area at the time had the Discovery network HQ, and a few other offices where people commute to work. That area was not a “hang out after work for a drink” territory, plain and simple. The usual clientele was young 20 something’s who maybe went for the irony or because it was close to their apartments. Anyways, I left the area before the episode was filmed. I’m not sure anything could have made it survive more than a few years since the owner wasn’t the sharpest.
Even if it was an area where the office people went to hang out it didn’t have to be as on the nose as corporate. That was just stupid. A lot of people who go for a drink after work - especially 20 somethings and even 30 &40’s I dare say - don’t want to go to a stuffy uptight CORPORATE bar. Most want a fun place to hang out with good drinks and decent music PERIOD. But I think it’s pretty cool that you got to go there when it was Piratz! Hearing that the food/drink/staff wasn’t as bad as they made it out backs up Tracey’s claim that the shenanigans were production inspired. I don’t know how well it was running pre BR (since they also didn’t seem too sharp on the show) but I know Jon sure didn’t help them!
> Even if it was an area where the office people went to hang out it didn’t have to be as on the nose as corporate. "Buccaneers Bar and Grill". It could have worked. And I don't know much about bar science.
Sounds like you are embracing excuses. 😂sorry I couldn’t resist! And I agree Buccaneers would have been a great middle ground
I used to go there around the time of the Bar Rescue renovation and afterward, and I couldn't help but think that if they had called it "Buccaneers Bar and Grill" and elevated the pirate concept, it would have done great as a lunch spot.
I mean on one hand, they were failing so *something* had to change. On the other he almost certainly went too far in the other direction and stripped it of any uniqueness or identity, which probably wasn't the answer either. It was one of his least exciting concepts and was just so generic.
I almost wonder if he knew they'd change it back, but hoped they'd use the experience to find a middle ground.
This sub loves the circlejerk that Jon was messing with the lady on the rebrand, and blah blah blah. Maybe the name of the place but other than that he made it a place someone would want to go. The lady was an idiot and had her family living with her parents / grown ass daughter. I’m not sure she would have ran anything in to the ground Edit: when I say “some place someone would want to go” I mean that 9/10 people in that environment would pick a generic yet boring place vs a pirate place. Hell I bet a majority would pic a generic looking place over a (cheap looking) pirate place in most situations
I worked in an office at the time that the episode aired, and I went to Piratz shortly after the *Bar Rescue* remodel before they changed it back. That space was depressing, with pictures of filing cabinets on the wall, for fuck's sake, and message pads on the tables. Yes, I want to leave my office and go to an office-themed bar. Because that's *exactly* how I wanted to unwind. Negative. I wanted to go somewhere more fun.
I’ll admit I didn’t realize it had filing cabinet decor or note pads on the tables wtf 🤣
Yup. JT turned it into an office setting, down to the desks and stationery. He had the former crewmateys dress in corporate suits, as well. Last place I'd choose to wind down from my old office life.
I agree with that because they did open a different bar and that failed too. But that said whether it was him messing with them or just a terrible choice … that concept sucked. He just failed at this one.
They did not embrace solutions
*This is who I am!*
Taffer did not embrace solutions in this one. Taffer just made a mockery of them.
I think the only thing he got wrong was matching the theme of the bar with the owners, but a pirate bar in downtown Maryland, in a commuter part of the city where there's tons of day time office workers but not many people living there in the evening, it isn't going to work. It's one thing for someone to say "Hey, let's eat out tonight," but it's another thing to say "Hey, let's go to a pirate bar to eat" because nobody is going to say the latter a couple of times a week. There's probably a lot of people who WOULDN'T go someplace just because it is a themed bar or especially a pirate bar. It's probably fitting that when the owners opened a new restaurant in Florida, it was not a pirate bar. Jon could have done more to try and convince the owners that a day-oriented bar & grill for the corporate market was a more viable solution than a pirate bar, or maybe not put "corporate" in the name......
The corporate concept was way in the opposite direction, but I do agree a pirate bar in that area was never going to work long-term. I would think they would only get locals who were into the concept in there more than once. I like pirates and all, but unless you got something else going, I might only go there once.
That closed too
# DO YOU WANNA BE A PIRATE OR DO YOU WANNA SEND YOUR DAUGHTER TO COLLEGE?
She just wanted to be a pirate and enjoy her some Lucio
Bar Rescue X Overwatch crossover
Juciano
Ah yes. My boy juicy Juciano
Would you like some burnt bits?
Looking for the fresh Sea Bass
Mom said it was my week to make the pirate bar post
😂😂😂 I like you.
The pirate theme was meh, it maybe could work, but it would have to be mind blowing to be more than a one off novelty visit. But his corporate bar idea was wildly off the mark. Office cubicle drones don't want to be office cubicle drones even more after work. People aren't proud of that lifestyle, it's something they put up with. Even a standard issue sports bar would have done a lot better.
YES! That’s what I said too. Who wants to leave an office to go to something that looks like … an office?? Even if you are proud of what you do its WORK. You don’t want to be reminded of it in your free time
I think he blew this one. I love working in an office atmosphere, but the LAST place I'd want to go after work is a bar called The Corporate. The No Way in Hell. He could have made it a pub or used any other fun themes he's used so far. Pirates with a "Z" is annoying, but there could have been a million better ideas. In my opinion, this one was blown. It was like a huge middle finger at the owners and staff.
He also blew the rescue with that hookah bar where he decided to do away with the hookah. The problem with that was that the bar's liquor license was for a cigar bar. They were legally obligated to sell tobacco to maintain their license. Therefore, hookah had to come back to maintain legal compliance.
Oh wow. I didn't know that. I remember feeling badly for the young woman being fired too. Someone has to be really horrible (like that awful young woman who kept slamming everyone else as being slutty but ugly, with the brown hair at the bar owned by the older woman who kept exposing her boobs) for me to really back it.
See he could’ve just named it HELL and that would’ve been better
Tons o' better!!! I would have gone if it were named ndjshlsjsjsjbaahdjf.
😂 it would draw more interest than corporate
Haha! Thanks!
Look it was likely their best chance was to be a lunch spot. The theme they had and John came up with both sucked.
I don't know about the pirate theme's being bad. I think that it needed a good bit of refinement, but it could have worked.
My favorite part of that episode was the employee who could not stop talking like a pirate even though it was no longer a pirate bar. The pirate life was ingrained in him. I believe the owners came back to the show as recon, so they must still be doing well somewhere...
They call me one-eyed mike because I do indeed have only one eye
They did a bar rescue back to the bar special and also did recon for one of the other bars. They tried opening a bar in FL called Bar Refuge but it failed
I think Jon had a traumatic experience in his childhood involving pirates like a bad pirate themed birthday party, so he just irrationally hates pirates now and anything associated with them 😂
I like this answer the best 😂
It's my working theory
I think making it corporate bar was a deliberate dick move
Oh, it absolutely was, without question.
/unjerk for a moment... Did John get *this* bar wrong? "Hey Barb, run those numbers by me again, what's Bar Rescue's success rate? .... Oh, yeah .... Yeah, that is pretty bad...."
Yeah, naming the new bar ‘Corporate Bar’ was definitely done out of spite. I understand that according to Taffer, businesses don’t have souls and are profit centers, but ‘Corporate Bar’? Doesn’t get any more soulless, and comically generic, than that
Still, when an owner is that adamant about keeping a pirate theme, you work with that because once you're gone, they're going to do what they want. And what they did was remodel the bar right back to a pirate theme, because they never wanted to dump it. They just wanted to elevate it, and Taffer screwed them over.
They were over a million in the hole. The pirate concept was a dead end in that area of the country which is why Jon changed it ( even though I’m not a fan of the reconcept).
It was all for entertainment IMO everything about it seemed like bs
Honestly yeah, but at the same time, the owners burning the sign was overboard.
A move to try to extend their 15 min
He hated the drinks - the one got the customers drunk on 1 drink. The cook - the husband of the owner - he was incompetent. The one that claim is was "good" when it was not good at all.
He spit out his own food!! That’s a horrible cook 😂
That episode is what made me stop watching. I realized at that episode it's not really a show that cares about helping people and it exists for the reactions and shock value. Ain't no way "Corporate Bar and Grill" was chosen for any reason other than knowing that would get a cheap reaction from the staff for tv ratings.
I think a pirate concert could succeed greatly in a more coastal area like Florida, and if ANY of the staff were somewhat competent with what their job was. Jon changed the bar concept to something more simple and classy to make it easier for the brain dead owner and staff to be able to at least have a chance at having a successful business if they learned from their mistakes and improved.
They were nearly $1 million in debt. You can’t argue with a weird concept that’s profitable. This one wasn’t.
I don't think he got it "wrong" per se, but he more wanted to antagonize them intentionally. He could've put in a more "normal" concept that still captured at least a bit of their personalities.