Bar Rescue 5x10

1. Your service sucks, because you're was watered down.

2. It's the worst bar I've been to.

3. Third time I've been here.

4. I think they're full of.

5. This year,

6. 6,500 failing bars nationwide

7. will close their doors for good.

8. If things don't change soon,

9. Brickhouse Bar and Grill in Colorado Springs, Colorado

10. will become just another statistic.

11. Hey, I'm Jon Nichols,

12. owner of the Brickhouse Bar and Grill.

13. After college, I joined the army prior to 9/11.

14. I got married in 2010 in between deployments.

15. My son Rodney was born. He's five years old

16. and I've been deployed half his life already.

17. It's a Viking horn.

18. It's his battle cry.

19. We got divorced, it was pretty rough.

20. Everything I do is for him.

21. We mobilized in 2012,

22. I left and got home in 2013.

23. And then I did a third tour

24. that I just got home from about a year ago.

25. In 2014, after three tours of duty,

26. Jon bought the Brickhouse Bar and Grill

27. with the hope that he could kick back

28. and enjoy his investment.

29. But he soon learned that running a bar

30. was more work than he could ever imagine.

31. It was a biker bar before I got it.

32. It had a pretty rough reputation.

33. I haven't had the money to change it up,

34. do the marketing that it needs to start over.

35. Battling to keep his business afloat,

36. Jon struggled dealing with the stress.

37. I'd like to order a beer.

38. - I don't— - Shot, shot, shot!

39. And his constant flirting with customers

40. causes tension with the bartender

41. he's hooking up with— Rita.

42. Jon is an awesome man. He's got a big heart.

43. You gotta keep your hands off the girls.

44. But he can be the biggest.

45. Mike, is this girl crazy or what?

46. - And he won't remember it. - Nichols: When I'm here,

47. I probably don't do the best job.

48. When they see me cut loose on a Friday night,

49. they like to join in the party, too.

50. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only sober one in the bar.

51. Making matters worse,

52. the staff has been forced to deal with subpar equipment.

53. One of the problems we have here is inconsistency.

54. We only have one POS system. I only have one well.

55. My beer cooler is broken.

56. We keep it at a constant 55 degrees,

57. so I have to give my kegs ice baths.

58. This is just straight foam. Straight foam.

59. He's such a great leader with his military,

60. but when it comes to the bar,

61. he just doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

62. Creeping up on $300,000 in debt.

63. I've got two or three months till we close our doors.

64. I'm getting ready to deploy again.

65. If we don't get some kind of help soon,

66. or get a miracle or a Hail Mary,

67. I'm gonna lose everything I have.

68. So in order to keep his floundering business afloat

69. and salvage what's left of his life savings,

70. Jon has agreed to pull back the doors,

71. bust open the books, and make a call for help

72. to "Bar Rescue."

73. This is not parking a.

74. I hate this place.

75. Jon Taffer: I'm in Colorado Springs, Colorado,

76. which is about 60 miles south of Denver,

77. home of the US Air Force Academy

78. and a whole bunch of other military bases.

79. It's a community that's built on military and military service.

80. So there it is, guys, the Brickhouse.

81. Which is a pretty apt name when you look at it.

82. It's a pretty substantial brick building.

83. - Both: Right. - This place looks dead.

84. It doesn't look like it has any action going on.

85. For the bar, Jon brings in Phil Wills.

86. As one of the top mixologists in the country,

87. Phil has the expertise to create

88. a dynamic cocktail program that can help transform

89. any struggling bar into a booming business.

90. I almost want to see a hearse back in the back of that building

91. and caskets coming out of there.

92. This does not scream "fun" at all.

93. This screams "scary."

94. For the kitchen,

95. Jon brings in Chef Ryan Scott,

96. a culinary wiz, adept at designing affordable dishes

97. that can breath new life into any stale kitchen.

98. So think about where we are, Colorado Springs.

99. - 35, 000 active military here. - Both: Wow.

100. 72 percent of them are single.

101. This is an area that has new housing coming in.

102. It's actually an up-and-coming area.

103. What's interesting is all the rescues that we've done,

104. people always get in touch with us online.

105. In this case, Jon, the owner of this bar,

106. actually sent me this letter.

107. And this letter's the reason why we're here, guys.

108. And he writes me, guys, and this is really touching.

109. "I hope this reaches your hands.

110. I'm the owner of Brickhouse Bar."

111. He talks about how he's owned it for two years.

112. He's losing $8,000 a month.

113. He's done three tours in Afghanistan

114. and performed 53 medevac operations

115. in a 13-day period in 2007.

116. This is a guy who saved the lives of our guys

117. - who are putting their lives on the line. - He's a hero.

118. He's an absolute hero.

119. And he goes on to talk about the fact

120. that he sank his entire life savings into the bar.

121. And he writes, "Now I am almost $300,000 in debt."

122. And here's the kicker.

123. Jon has to go back to Afghanistan,

124. He deploys again in six months.

125. Jeez.

126. So if he leaves for Afghanistan

127. and this bar goes down the tubes,

128. he's gonna have to file bankruptcy,

129. which will affect his status in the military.

130. And this is the one that got me, guys.

131. "I am asking— no, I am begging for you

132. to come help us turn this place around.

133. We have done hundreds of medevac operations overseas

134. and now I am asking for a rescue of our own."

135. - That's powerful. - Wow.

136. "Bar Rescue" can be quite emotional.

137. In this case, Jon's letter impacted me,

138. and now I'm here to rescue him.

139. How are you guys doing? You got menus?

140. - You guys got drinks? You doing okay? - Yes.

141. There's Jon.

142. He doesn't actually look like a guy

143. who's in that kind of trouble.

144. He looks sort of happy at the moment, doesn't he?

145. - He does, yeah. - Yeah.

146. Hi, guys. What can I get you?

147. Is that how we start tonight?

148. That's Rita. Rita is a bartender

149. and is a friend of Jon's.

150. I'm told at times they can be close friends.

151. Huh.

152. Do you guys want a menu? Are you good?

153. Um, yeah, do you have a cocktail menu?

154. That's Nicoll.

155. Nicoll is another bartender.

156. So what is it— what is it that you want to drink right now?

157. Five— five shots.

158. Are you buying or are they buying?

159. I'll buy this round. But they gotta buy the next one.

160. Jon certainly has no problem partying out.

161. Look at him.

162. This doesn't look like a guy who's house is on the line,

163. with 300,000 in the hole.

164. Hey, Ross. How gorgeous is this one?

165. He's got a good degree in flirting though, I'll tell you what.

166. You can't make money doing that, though.

167. Where's the tab?

168. There's Liam, another one of your bartenders.

169. We're out of peach schnapps.

170. There's Ashley, a server.

171. And, Ryan, there's your cook, Ross.

172. Not the cleanest kitchen we've ever seen.

173. Look, Jon. See that?

174. It looks like it's raining,

175. but that's actually grease dripping into the fryer

176. and making it like when it rains in a puddle outside.

177. - Look, watch. See it? - Jon: Oh!

178. - You see it? - I've never seen that before.

179. So the dirty grease from the hood

180. is dripping into the fryer oil.

181. So it's in everything that's cooked in that—

182. This is disgusting.

183. Look how dark that is. That's tire color.

184. That's like wiping a french fry

185. on the hood and throwing it on the plate.

186. All right, I know the bar is your area,

187. but I'm not a dummy to tell you that her finger

188. is in the grenadine container right there.

189. - That is a disgusting grenadine mess. - Phil: Ugh.

190. Look at it dripping off her finger nail.

191. That's disgusting.

192. Are you pouring that through the cherry?

193. Off the cherry, because I don't have the spoon back here.

194. So anything that comes off of her finger

195. is going into that person's drink,

196. and then they're drinking it.

197. And where is Jon?

198. - Hi, ladies.

199. - She asked about it. - Thank you.

200. One thing I'm seeing right here,

201. they don't have any standard operating procedures.

202. These bartenders, you can look—

203. they're overpouring, underpouring.

204. There's no rhyme or reason to what they're doing.

205. So, guys, this is Colorado Springs.

206. This is a military town. So for recon tonight,

207. I got two military tank commanders

208. to come in and do recon.

209. These guys know Colorado Springs.

210. I'm dying to hear how they react to this place,

211. and particularly how they react to Jon.

212. Jon's spies enter the Brickhouse Bar and Grill,

213. a 3,500 square foot space with only one well,

214. one POS system, and a kitchen in the back.

215. Can you open the liquor cabinet for me?

216. How are you? What can I get you guys?

217. No.

218. No. We don't have the tin cups.

219. That's a basic, basic drink in any bar.

220. See one thing that Colorado is known for is their beer,

221. and how great it is.

222. And their beer system right now is horrible.

223. - Look at the foam. - Oh, my gosh.

224. It's just pouring out pitchers of foam.

225. So the fact of the matter is,

226. that profit just went down the drain.

227. Well, yeah. Foam is 25% beer.

228. So every time you pour that foam out,

229. you're pouring money down the drain.

230. - What is that?

231. Jon, he's melting the ice off of that condenser.

232. I've never seen this in my life.

233. This is what we gotta do every couple hours.

234. We're running about...

235. 48 degrees right now.

236. So his beer's at 48. That's why it's foaming up.

237. He has a humidity issue on his condenser.

238. So the humidity is causing the condenser to block,

239. then the temperature goes up.

240. So his solution is to use a hair dryer.

241. But the moisture is still there.

242. What he's doing is he's pushing the moisture into the coils.

243. Now when he walks out, the freeze is gonna be deeper.

244. That's like putting on dry clothes

245. while you're standing in the rain.

246. I've never seen anything like that in my frickin' life.

247. - That's insane. - Shots are always good.

248. I would do one of those.

249. I would definitely take one with you.

250. That's the second round for those girls, too, guys.

251. Who knows how many rounds for him.

252. - I'm sorry. - Liam: He's doing drinks?

253. off.

254. They threw him out of his own bar.

255. The bartender kicked him out of the bar.

256. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

257. Ooh.

258. She's getting pissed.

259. She is And he should know it.

260. But he's so drunk,

261. he's just gonna keep hugging those girls

262. and taking pictures with those girls.

263. I need a drink. Give a drink, Liam,

264. damn it.

265. What's going on over here, though?

266. - Liam: Who was on that one? - Rita: That was on you.

267. Can I get a drink, please?

268. Please, can I have a drink, somebody?

269. Looks like Jon is making Rita jealous.

270. Looks like she's having a couple of drinks.

271. I never get mad about it,

272. but I'm getting mad I'm getting "ignored-ed".

273. You get the away from me right now.

274. - The owner was kind of— - He was really drunk.

275. It was really, really awkward.

276. This is a hero, guys, who's done this to himself.

277. He's into debt 300 frickin' grand. Look at him.

278. All he's interested in are these girls

279. and drinking.

280. I don't care what you do.

281. Go home with those bitches

282. for all I care.

283. Oh, man.

284. ! Get the off me.

285. I've gotta stop this cycle, guys. I'm gonna go in.

286. I gotta have a heart-to-heart with him.

287. My family is gonna see that.

288. Nichols What's going on with Rita?

289. You know what this is. Go. Don't start.

290. Don't poke. Go inside.

291. - Go get some water. - Is she okay?

292. Yeah, she's fine. Go.

293. Leave her alone. Enough for tonight. Go.

294. - Okay.

295. Go, Jon. I'm not joking right now. Go. .

296. So how are you guys doing?

297. Do you guys need anything? Shots? Drinks?

298. Yeah, we're doing one. Do you want one?

299. - Are you really? - Yeah.

300. Whatever you guys want.

301. Have another one. Go ahead, have another one.

302. Why not? Have another one with 'em.

303. What's the difference at this point?

304. - You and I have some talking to do, right? - Yeah.

305. Okay, let's go sit down and talk.

306. Jon is $300,000 in debt

307. and he's losing $8,000 a month.

308. Is he fighting for his bar?

309. No, he's consuming it.

310. This guy has had about 11 shots

311. and I'm concerned the man's gonna throw up

312. while I'm talking to him. I'm here to help you.

313. - How many times have you been deployed? - Three.

314. - How many years have you been serving? - 16.

315. - How many people have you medevac'd out? - Hundreds.

316. Hundreds. They were hurt, right?

317. - Wounded. You saved their lives. - Bleeding.

318. - Yeah. - The fact of the matter is,

319. to me, you're a hero.

320. And look at you, you're sinking here.

321. - How faced are you right now? - Pretty drunk.

322. Can you function in the military, drunk?

323. Absolutely not.

324. - You think you can function in any business drunk? - No.

325. What happens if this place closes?

326. If this place closes—

327. I've invested everything I have.

328. Is your house and stuff on the line?

329. My house, my son.

330. - Everything? - Really.

331. So what is this for you?

332. Is it a place where you come and party and get laid?

333. Or is it a place where you come to make money?

334. It's gotta be a place to make money.

335. - What is it now? - It's been a place to screw around

336. and party and off.

337. - Do you have a personal relationship with Rita? - I do.

338. You have a personal relationship with one of your employees,

339. and in front of that employee,

340. you're flirting and drinking with other girls at the bar.

341. Do you understand what I'm saying?

342. - Can you hear me? - No, I hear you.

343. Why should I help you, Jon? You're not helping yourself.

344. You're sitting here drunk, trying to get laid,

345. with your girlfriend watching you.

346. Jon, I'm not trying to get laid.

347. I'm just trying to get this bar under control.

348. - So you got it under control tonight? - No, I don't.

349. I don't have it under control.

350. So you didn't try to get it under control.

351. You came in here today. Did you make any drinks?

352. I made a lot of drinks for myself.

353. - Did you sell anything? - I sold a couple things.

354. Did you make sure that the money's going in the register?

355. - No. - Did you make sure that the place is clean?

356. - No. - So you didn't try to stay sober.

357. You didn't try to clean your bar.

358. You didn't try to make sure they're collecting money.

359. You didn't try to sell anything.

360. Exactly what did you try to do?

361. Give me one, Jon!

362. What did you do today, Jon?

363. - Nothing. - You drank and you flirted.

364. What else did you do today, Jon?

365. That's about it.

366. Why the aren't you ashamed?

367. I am. I am.

368. Get your together. grow up!

369. When is that gonna happen, Jon?

370. 'Cause it sure didn't happen today.

371. - This can't be who you are. - It's not.

372. Okay, then prove to me it's not the two days, okay?

373. You achieve this mission and I will rescue you.

374. - Deal? Okay. - Deal.

375. Jon has performed 53 medevac operations,

376. saving hundreds of lives.

377. But at the moment, he can't even save his own life.

378. He can't even run a basic bar.

379. The best thing that he can do

380. is sober the hell up,

381. and maybe I can rescue him.

382. This is exactly what he didn't want to happen.

383. Rather than fighting for his future,

384. Jon got drunk last night,

385. flirted with girls, and disrespected Rita.

386. Today, I want to assemble the entire team

387. and I wanna confront these issues.

388. - You sent me a letter

389. that really moved me.

390. - I sure did.

391. The respect that I have for you and what you do

392. is immeasurable.

393. And then I walk in last night

394. to a pretty difficult situation.

395. When you put on your uniform, you're a man with a mission.

396. You risk your life. Why don't you have a mission when you walk in here?

397. I guess when I started this place,

398. I did to have a mission, a goal.

399. I was positive.

400. Just this last four or five months

401. it's just kind of spiraling out of control.

402. Your house is on the line?

403. I haven't paid my mortgage for July yet.

404. - Your little boy is home counting on you. - Yes, sir.

405. You're upset when you hear me say that.

406. - What's your name? - Nicoll.

407. Nicoll is— she's born and raised in bars her whole life.

408. Did you know that Jon's in debt $300,000?

409. - And how much are you losing a month now? - $8,000 a month.

410. And how much money do we have before you run out?

411. Probably not gonna get through summer.

412. In spite in all of that, you're expecting to be deployed

413. - in the next

414. six months or so.

415. - Yes, sir.

416. And if this bar isn't fixed when you're deployed,

417. what happens while you're gone?

418. There will be no Brickhouse Bar.

419. Why do you think that's happening?

420. Uh, we waste a lot of stuff.

421. Inconsistency.

422. So there's no systems, no procedures.

423. No what to order, what to make.

424. How much to order, how much to make.

425. Raise your hand. How often you run out of stuff, a lot?

426. - All the time. - Constant.

427. How many times have customers asked for things

428. - that we don't have? - Every day.

429. How many times have you asked him for something

430. - that he hasn't gotten? - All the time.

431. Does he come in here and help you sell when we're busy?

432. What has Jon done in the past week

433. to make this place better?

434. He tells us thank you a lot.

435. - You're screwing them. - I feel guilty about that every day.

436. They go home and have no money to survive.

437. This is America. You can't do that.

438. This is what you're fighting to prevent.

439. That's why you fight.

440. Rita, there's clearly tension. What happened last night?

441. He insulted me, degraded my character.

442. - Does he break your heart when he does that? - Yeah.

443. Does upsetting her in the middle of the shift

444. when she's working with customers

445. in your environment serve you well?

446. Is that your game?

447. 'Cause I'm guessing there's a lot of men

448. that come in here with girlfriends and wives

449. that might not like that.

450. So your actions are contrary

451. to the respect of your own people.

452. - Yeah. - Oh, yeah.

453. - Nah. No. - Rita: Really?

454. This bar could make money, couldn't it?

455. There's 35,000 military personal in this town.

456. 72 percent of them are single.

457. Wow.

458. This is a gold mine for bars, but not for you.

459. Because you're hiding and sneaking to get the next drink,

460. and after you've had two or three of them,

461. you're gonna degrade her.

462. Bull. Bull.

463. Look at her face. She's hurting, man.

464. These are human lives.

465. Imagine if she was laying in the battlefield.

466. You'd rescue her.

467. Why the hell don't you rescue them now?

468. Naw, that's where I'll stop, Jon.

469. Why do you let them feel this way?

470. That's bull.

471. Why do you let them feel this way?

472. That's bull.

473. Why don't you feel responsible?

474. - I do. - You're full of.

475. What I saw last night was not responsibility.

476. And when he's sober, he's not much more active in this business, is he?

477. So if you want me to fight for you,

478. you better fight for yourself, man.

479. You can't be a drunken fool in this place anymore.

480. You cannot degrade your staff.

481. She should never be crying like that.

482. This should be a place of safety,

483. a place of respect.

484. You gotta be the man that we all know you are.

485. You gotta start acting like it, period.

486. We believe in you. Now you need to start acting like it.

487. So you want to be insignificant,

488. or you want to be a hero?

489. I want to be a hero.

490. You better step up and do this.

491. We got a lot to deal with, guys.

492. We gotta train this staff.

493. And if you don't respect each other, guys,

494. we have no chance of succeeding.

495. - I agree. - Okay, we better get to work, guys.

496. Let me bring in my experts.

497. I want to go to work here.

498. Phil Wills, one of the best mixologists in the country,

499. will help us put together a program that'll work here.

500. Chef Ryan Scott is gonna help you

501. put together a great food program.

502. Chef, what did you see last night?

503. I saw dirty equipment.

504. I saw horrible handling with food.

505. People will get sick. We gotta start from scratch.

506. but I know we can do this.

507. We got a lot of work to do, so, guys,

508. I want you to open your minds.

509. This is an opportunity to learn.

510. Tonight, you're a sober owner.

511. It's only professionalism tonight.

512. - We can do that. - I wanna cross-train you.

513. I'm gonna teach you how to help behind the bar,

514. teach you how to help in the kitchen.

515. 'Cause I believe if you know what to do,

516. you'll start to do it.

517. 'Cause right now you're frozen.

518. I'm gonna be a sponge. I'm gonna pick up everything.

519. This cross-training is crucial to Jon's success.

520. However, he's going to be deployed in three months.

521. So during the stress test tonight,

522. I want to see who in this staff

523. can take over when Jon's gone.

524. Let's go to work, guys.

525. You guys, this is a business.

526. It's supposed to be fun, but the fun is for the guests

527. that are on the other side of the bar.

528. So I'm curious as why wouldn't take

529. that 16 years of military background

530. and apply that to your business?

531. No, I got no excuses for that.

532. I feel that problem that we have is inconsistencies.

533. That is exactly what the main problem.

534. It's inconsistence.

535. So we have a lot of changes to make.

536. You're receptive to the change, right?

537. - Absolutely. - Okay, good.

538. What I'm attempting to do with you guys

539. is to create some cocktails

540. around vodka and whiskey.

541. This is a huge military town,

542. and what we want to do for the stress test

543. is we're gonna create a cocktail menu whiskey forward,

544. but we also threw in a vodka cocktail

545. to cater to people that don't really like whiskey.

546. Because what we want to do is create some great cocktails

547. that men can drink as well as women.

548. We're gonna use a nice bourbon whiskey,

549. and we're gonna do an ounce and a half.

550. An ounce of sour mix.

551. Four dashes of mint bitters.

552. Shake it up.

553. Garnish it with a fresh mint sprig.

554. - Sexy, right? - That is sexy as hell.

555. You get all the flavors of the bourbon. Very refreshing.

556. So this next one is gonna be a mixed berry vodka cocktail.

557. You're gonna do one and a half ounces of the mixed berry,

558. one ounce of your lemon sour,

559. and a half once of cranberry juice.

560. And we're gonna top it off with a berry skewer

561. to represent what's inside the drink.

562. We're gonna have to get ready for the stress test,

563. but I need you guys to practice making these cocktails first.

564. Rock 'n' roll tonight, all right?

565. So what I want to do, things you can execute two or three minutes

566. with a POS and with a ticket.

567. I have a two and half month old.

568. I have to support her somehow.

569. And if I fail here, what else am I gonna do?

570. Ultimately, I want to take care of my family,

571. 'cause that's the most important thing for me.

572. In Afghanistan, what is the meal that you wanted?

573. Anything with some real meat in it.

574. Jon and I came up with Philly cheese egg rolls

575. with a provolone fondue.

576. I'll show you how to make these

577. to where you drop 'em once you get an order,

578. you scoop your sauce out,

579. and you have a simple done dish.

580. - I like it. - Ready?

581. I took grilled steak, medium rare, cheese, peppers, and onions.

582. All this bound together

583. is gonna go right inside a Philly.

584. Take these spring roll wrappers.

585. Now I take my steak filling,

586. tuck the sides, roll it over, just like so.

587. Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll.

588. We're gonna pop 'em in the fryer,

589. two to three minutes.

590. You know when a product is done

591. is when it's floating to the top.

592. We have our egg rolls.

593. You're gonna cut it on the bias.

594. You know what's great about this dish?

595. It's quicker to make, it's faster to make.

596. And you know what that means?

597. - More money. More money. - Bigger profit.

598. Oh, that's good.

599. Are you crying or are you just—

600. I cry over a good Philly.

601. I'm just being honest.

602. - Everything in there? - Oh, my God.

603. - It's good. It really is. - You do that, Ross,

604. that's a winner, winner steak dinner.

605. I beat the hell out of you last night.

606. - You had it coming. - I deserved it.

607. Tonight, show me the other side of you.

608. There's about 200 people out there. Invite them in.

609. - You got it. - Go do it, Jon.

610. All right, we're ready.

611. Hey, welcome, everybody.

612. I want to thank y'all for coming out tonight.

613. Welcome to the Brickhouse. Come on in.

614. Look alive. Here we go. Let's do it!

615. Hey, guys. How are we doing?

616. Berry vodka, that's a good choice.

617. Two berry vodkas, side of four Philly rolls.

618. All right, guys. First order in.

619. Four Philly rolls.

620. The fact is, there's no great

621. management candidate in this bar.

622. But the one who comes closest is Nicoll.

623. She's shown that she's a little proactive,

624. so tomorrow I'm going to talk with Jon

625. and we have a decision to make.

626. - What can I get you? - Berry vodka.

627. Berry vodka. That's a good choice.

628. I'll do the berry vodka and the Philly rolls.

629. - This one's got a lot of water in it. - Taste it.

630. - Nothing, right? - Nothing, yeah. It's water.

631. - All right, cool. - Can we get these guys served?

632. They've been here for a minute.

633. Do you want to make a couple of these?

634. Okay. We're good. Are we good?

635. Thank you, Jon, that's actually very helpful.

636. - An order— - That's an order of Philly,

637. that's an order of Philly.

638. I'm not gonna let you serve that.

639. Where's it going, Ross?

640. Nicoll came back and said she had six Phillies.

641. Order up, Nicoll! Order up!

642. Easy, tiger. Don't get ahead of yourself.

643. Time out, time out. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but this was your shake.

644. - Yeah, right. - That's not a shake. It's up here.

645. - Get that shaking. - How's your drink?

646. You don't have it. Exactly!

647. Guys, you're not getting the middle of the bar here.

648. Get 'em out. Come on!

649. I don't even have drinks for my tables yet.

650. - And where's my hash and my others— - I have no hash order.

651. I have nothing. It's all out.

652. Where's the tickets? Where's everything?

653. She keeps taking my food.

654. I'm a little worried about the whole ticket system.

655. It went down. It's broke, so we are winging this.

656. Get in the front and make sure

657. you know where your food's going.

658. Otherwise, just give me all your money

659. in your pocket and I'll run.

660. That's what they're doing to your ass right now.

661. All right, you got it.

662. Can we turn these on? Thanks.

663. Honey, he has food, so...

664. Jon, look at this.

665. She's over here trying to take orders

666. and dropping them off over there.

667. Writing on paper, ripping them off,

668. bringing them over here.

669. Nobody's ringing them in for her.

670. She has no POS system on this side to turn around and ring in orders.

671. - So is she even taking money? - No.

672. - She's just giving away— - Essentially, yeah.

673. Nicoll, I'm watching Rita make drinks.

674. She's not taking any money.

675. Rita doesn't take money. She just gives drinks away.

676. We have verbal orders going out.

677. I don't think they're taking the money for this food either.

678. What the hell is the point if you don't get paid?

679. - What kind of ticket time? - It's not ticket times, It's communication.

680. They don't know what's going on in the front, going on in the back.

681. - Where are they going? - I know where my food's going.

682. But do you know that this is your food,

683. not food that was ordered before you?

684. - Bingo. - I do not know that.

685. I can make food all night,

686. but if there's no tickets,

687. I might as well drop everything right now,

688. and they can just do a free for all.

689. What's this food for? You can't just bring food back here

690. and set it down and not dump it off.

691. Still haven't gotten your drink?

692. This is so slow, I'm ready to rip my eyes out.

693. Look at all these tickets here.

694. Guys, we are failing! Are those the same drink?

695. Something's wrong here.

696. They're not the same color.

697. See the difference?

698. That's not the same drink. Which one is right?

699. That one's not. All wrong. Dump 'em out.

700. Rita, if you can't do this right,

701. I'm gonna put somebody back here who can.

702. Jon's life is all about coordination.

703. He saves lives doing that. But not here.

704. I can't get any food prepared properly.

705. Rita can't tend bar,

706. Liam is the slowest bartender I've ever seen,

707. and Jon is oblivious to it all.

708. He doesn't even understand

709. what pleasing a customer is all about.

710. Can I have those tickets?

711. He is sinking. Look at all those tickets over there.

712. - Do something to get us bailed out, Nicoll. - I am.

713. If you have to jump in and make drinks, do it,

714. but bail us out.

715. And you know we're going to run out of glasses.

716. Nicoll, she's proactive

717. and might have some capacity to run this bar.

718. - This one

719. I just stir, right?

720. - Um, no.

721. You shake that one, and you stir the bourbon.

722. I need to check on your hash browns,

723. and I was hoping Jon would come back here.

724. I'm missing a hash, babe.

725. How are you missing a hash?

726. This is ridiculous.

727. Rita, look up. Look at this.

728. How long has this been sitting here?

729. Can we pick this up, wipe down the bar, get organized?

730. We can't function like this. Look at this.

731. You guys don't have drinks,

732. none of you.

733. Raise your hands if you don't.

734. She's your girl. Tell her what you want.

735. Let's go. Keep this together.

736. You've been waiting 45 minutes?

737. 45 minutes for food? Did you know that?

738. Where is Jon?

739. Jon is nowhere to be found.

740. Jon is nowhere to be found.

741. - Where is Jon? - What's the issue here?

742. Who doesn't have drinks? Raise your hands.

743. Look at this place.

744. This is your failure, and what are you doing back there?

745. She's sinking. They don't have anything.

746. You don't know it. What the hell do you know?

747. I know we weren't ready for this.

748. Abort! Bail the hell out,

749. and tomorrow I will show you how to fix it!

750. Shut this the down,

751. because this is your failure.

752. You will not succeed!

753. I wanted Jon to think in military terms tonight.

754. He did not manage his mission.

755. I'm not quite sure what the hell he did.

756. Everybody out. We're closed.

757. This bar is FUBAR right now.

758. Yeah, we are ate the up.

759. - It's catastrophe. - That was so bad.

760. There's no way in the world we can open this bar

761. without pissing off every customer

762. - if we don't change this big time. - Right.

763. - 35,000 active service. - Wow.

764. I wanna work on creating some kind of a mountainy feel.

765. We have to build something that is really comfortable to them,

766. a place that when you're off duty, you sort of go to.

767. So what kind of food are you seeing, Chef?

768. I think it's small impactful bites.

769. It's things that pack a lot of flavor

770. that aren't too expensive.

771. With a food program like that,

772. we can drive some drink sales.

773. That not only caters to the military guys,

774. but if the girls come in,

775. they're able to drink it as well.

776. We got some work to do. You ready to do this?

777. All right, guys, I'll buy the coffee. Let's go figure this out.

778. After last night's failure in stress test,

779. this morning, I want everybody to own their failure.

780. Jon has to learn to lead,

781. and they all have to learn to respect systems.

782. How do you guys feel about last night?

783. We definitely didn't flow.

784. You knew we were gonna pack this bar.

785. You knew all this was coming,

786. and we didn't stand a chance, guys.

787. So many little things that we could've done.

788. Did we lose money in the bar?

789. I don't even know

790. if we put a dollar into the register.

791. It was your fault, Rita. Liam, the same.

792. You were trying to do too much and became sloppy.

793. Liam, you were far too slow.

794. But the most important thing to remember

795. is money has to come back in,

796. and we did not see that last night.

797. It's all about the money, guys.

798. Why are you smiling right now?

799. This bar is gonna close, you get that?

800. Jon, I'm beyond angered,

801. and it's time to find that motivation that we need.

802. Last night was the time to do that.

803. We had this talk the first night,

804. or were you too drunk to remember it?

805. I am gonna hold you to accountability

806. of your own performance.

807. Jon, your life is on the line.

808. You're frickin' bleeding to death, man.

809. - I will get you there, fair enough? - Fair enough.

810. Ross, you deserve to succeed.

811. You were working hard, buddy.

812. I mean, look at him. Look at his face.

813. I want you to understand, this isn't about food.

814. This is about people's lives, Jon.

815. You're responsible for the way he feels right now.

816. - You hear me? - Absolutely.

817. The next thing that really is worrying me,

818. is what happens when you're deployed?

819. Who's gonna run this place when you leave?

820. One thing this staff does is care.

821. I have to sit down with Jon

822. and get them ready to succeed.

823. Rita, do you have a hole in your heart?

824. - I do. - Does it hurt?

825. Yeah. You are my best friend.

826. You're more than that. The bottom line is,

827. I need to know where I stand.

828. Rita, I don't know where I'm gonna be in the next year.

829. You're awesome. My son thinks you're awesome.

830. - If you just tell me— - You know we argue and fight.

831. I'm a big girl and I can take you yelling at me.

832. Every one of our staff thinks we're just explosive dynamite.

833. You pull me aside out of everybody's earshot.

834. - Do not— - I'll give you that respect.

835. I'll give you that respect.

836. Don't ever talk down to me,

837. and I won't do it to you either.

838. Okay?

839. Let's see this thing through.

840. Yeah? Take the lead and I'll follow, okay?

841. All right. I love you.

842. I love you, too.

843. I'd like to bring in Nicoll for a second.

844. - Jon's gonna leave in a few months. - I know he is.

845. And when he's gone, you guys gotta help him get out of this.

846. We want you to be the general manager

847. - and fill in for him. - I believe in you, Nicoll.

848. - You're running this, day to day. - Okay.

849. I really appreciate all of your hard work.

850. - Are you ready to this? - Absolutely.

851. Rita and Jon are realigned,

852. Nicoll is ready to take ownership

853. and manage this bar,

854. and the staff is ready to learn.

855. So now it's time to train them.

856. - So what did you feel about last night? - It was a show.

857. - Yeah. - It was disappointing.

858. There were drinks that were made incorrectly.

859. They were too sweet, they were too sour.

860. We can fix all the system, but once we do that,

861. if you guys are creating cocktails

862. that aren't made the way that they're supposed to be made,

863. then you're still gonna encounter those same problems.

864. So you guys ready to look at some new cocktails

865. and see what we're coming up with?

866. Start with one slice of a Fresno chili.

867. Add one ounce of peach syrup.

868. Muddle the Fresno chili with the peach syrup in a mixing glass.

869. Add two ounces of Tennessee whiskey and ice.

870. Shake and strain over fresh ice

871. and garnish with a peach slice.

872. This cocktail is called the Firewatch.

873. You guys think you could sell this?

874. - Ashley: Yes. So good. - Yeah? Awesome.

875. So this next one is a vodka based cocktail.

876. Vodka is the number one spirit in the whole world,

877. so it's always great to have some vodka cocktails on your menu.

878. Start with one thyme sprig.

879. Add a half once of lime sour mix.

880. Add one and half ounces of vodka

881. and two dashes of lavender bitters.

882. Add all ingredients into a mixing glass.

883. Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice

884. in a Collins glass.

885. Garnish with a thyme sprig.

886. And this one—

887. we're gonna call this one the Lavenderita.

888. Think about building your cocktail menu around your area.

889. - You guys excited about your drinks? - Yes.

890. - You guys are gonna sell 'em, right? - Yeah!

891. Stress test was hard last night,

892. and now I wanna add a couple more dishes

893. that elevate food,

894. you can do really fast, really quick.

895. I wanted to do something that was my version of fish and chips.

896. We're gonna be doing cod fritters

897. with a green chile aioli.

898. I have those roasted New Mexican chiles that are right here,

899. mayonnaise, gonna put a little paprika,

900. put a little bit of salt,

901. a little bit of pepper in here,

902. and you guys just mix this guy up.

903. You have green chile aioli to dip your cod fritters in.

904. Let's take our cod mixture here.

905. Let's take it over to the fryer. Let's fry some up.

906. You slide your fritter batter right inside here,

907. set it right inside,

908. and just like that it pops right off.

909. That's that about three minutes or so.

910. Okay, guys. Here I'm gonna take my fritters,

911. set them right inside there.

912. Your aioli goes right there.

913. This dish, just like the other ones,

914. are gonna help this kitchen.

915. - Damn, that's good. - That's really good.

916. - Ross, do you think you can handle all this? - Yeah, definitely.

917. I really do appreciate you showing me some skills,

918. easy ways that you can send out great food.

919. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

920. Now let's make you some money.

921. - Hello. - Hello, there.

922. - Rough journey, huh? - Yeah, pretty tough.

923. Jon, hearing about $300,000 in debt,

924. your young son, when you looked me in the eyes

925. and said, "I'm losing $8,000 a month, Jon,

926. and I have only a few months left,"

927. wow, that hit hard.

928. There's nothing worse than a hero failing.

929. And the worst of all, is when it's a good guy in a bad place.

930. We had to get you out of the hole quick,

931. so when you deploy, you deploy with peace of mind.

932. This town is an incredible meeting of military life and civilian life.

933. But I wanted to create something that emulated that.

934. So you ready, guys?

935. Yeah. Yeah.

936. One, two, three.

937. One, two, three.

938. - All right! Yeah!

939. Yeah! The marquee's gone.

940. Garrison Tavern. It's lit up and everything. You can tell it's open.

941. This is just awesome. I've got new bar, new signs,

942. a new start for all of us, new start for the bar,

943. and I can't wait to have a new mission inside.

944. It's just fantastic.

945. - You like the name? - I love it.

946. "Garrison" means home for us troops,

947. a place to go, a place you don't want to leave for a while.

948. You want to stick around, enjoy yourself.

949. So there's really only one thing left, guys.

950. Let's go inside.

951. You guys ready? Go. Go look.

952. Oh, look it, there's the door.

953. - It's a real door! - A real door!

954. - Oh, wow. - Oh, my gosh.

955. You guys, this rocks. Yes!

956. - Look at this bar. - That's awesome.

957. - Yeah!

958. - Oh, my God. - Yay!

959. We definitely appreciate Jon coming in.

960. The Garrison's gonna be the best bar on this block.

961. People are gonna come in and be happy—

962. warm and inviting.

963. They're gonna be surprised.

964. Look! Look at the TV.

965. That's my grandpa's lake home.

966. This is more than I was expecting.

967. Compared to a couple days ago,

968. where we were and where we are now,

969. it's night and day.

970. We got the tools,

971. we got the environment.

972. We got a fresh start.

973. So what do you think?

974. - Love it. - It's amazing.

975. - Feel different than before? - Oh, yeah.

976. - Oh, yeah. - Come over to the bar.

977. I want to show you everything.

978. Garrison's Tavern—

979. a place where military and civilian congregates,

980. - it has to be warm, doesn't it? - Yes.

981. You know, when we got here, there was 39 seats.

982. Now there's 52.

983. And each one of these seats, Jon,

984. can be up to 10,000 a year in additional revenue.

985. I got Bar Systems to put in a whole new draft beer system.

986. This beer is 38 degrees. It's a glycol system.

987. It chills the entire way.

988. Your cooler is perfect temperature.

989. It works perfectly now.

990. A complete work station here

991. and another complete work station on the other side.

992. And one, two,

993. and on the other side, three, 2Touch POS systems.

994. Everything knows exactly where it goes.

995. We have the systems now to succeed.

996. But you also had to have tools and supplies,

997. to give you all the mixing cups, strainers,

998. tools and supplies that you need to be successful.

999. But I wanted to also protect your profits, Jon,

1000. so I got you a lifetime subscription to Partender.

1001. Partender takes inventory behind your bar in about 15 minutes

1002. using the camera on the tablet.

1003. Jon, how do you feel, buddy?

1004. Motivated, ready to move out.

1005. - Move in. - Move in, yeah.

1006. The best part of you is your personality,

1007. your smile.

1008. Let's let it shine.

1009. Nicoll, this is your last chance to show

1010. that you really can be a general manager on your own.

1011. Okay, guys, we got a bar to get ready.

1012. Kitchen is set up, about 200 people outside—

1013. let's go do it.

1014. Hey!

1015. I want to welcome you all to the Garrison Tavern.

1016. - Come on in.

1017. Hey, what's up?

1018. It's filling up fast, you guys.

1019. There's a little cozy table here.

1020. We're not doing beer right now.

1021. - Are you taking food orders yet? - Absolutely.

1022. It's the real deal right now. Let's go.

1023. - Here's a Philly. - Thank you.

1024. With the cherry.

1025. This place is packed. I mean, everybody's coming in here.

1026. The drinks are going out 100 percent.

1027. Bartenders are making the drinks

1028. the way they're supposed to make.

1029. We're not getting any drinks coming back.

1030. The guests are really loving the drinks right now.

1031. Put in your tab.

1032. - Got it. - Okay, cool, got it.

1033. - Jon: How we doing? - Ryan: You know, Jon,

1034. I don't think this kitchen's ever used to having a system.

1035. We gave them the right foundation.

1036. Ross, good to have systems?

1037. I'm not sweating as much as I was.

1038. Awesome, good job, buddy.

1039. Here you guys go.

1040. You ordered this?

1041. The screen. Perfect.

1042. - Okay. - Okay.

1043. Ross, that ticket's no sour cream on those hash coming, brotha.

1044. - What are you making? - Firewatch whiskey.

1045. - Did that order come out of the printer? - Got one.

1046. One? Okay.

1047. Doing much better than stress test.

1048. During stress test, this bar was chaotic.

1049. You could feel the tension.

1050. Tonight, the systems I put in place

1051. are really helping this bar succeed.

1052. Nicoll is showing some promise as a manager.

1053. Jon is actually engaged now.

1054. He's running food, he's helping on the POS.

1055. He understands what his mission is

1056. and he finds a task to do every minute.

1057. Everything tastes great right now. It's awesome.

1058. Really loving it, enjoy it.6

1059. Definitely be back.

1060. Very warm, very inviting.

1061. We could come here any time.

1062. I'm really proud of you. You've done great.

1063. All right, thanks so— thank you.

1064. - Look at this. - Nichols: It's a full bar.

1065. - Thank you. - I appreciate this.

1066. I feel really good right now.

1067. I feel like we completed a mission

1068. for a guy who so frickin' deserves it.

1069. Thank you. Thank you, Jon.

1070. - Okay, make me proud. - I will.

1071. Come back and see you soon.

1072. We will. Come back and see us.

1073. - I will. - I'll make you proud.

1074. I wanted to build a bar that meant something to Jon

1075. and the 35,000 active military

1076. that are here in Colorado Springs.

1077. Jon is gonna deploy.

1078. While he's gone protecting us,

1079. I hope that the work that I did in his bar

1080. makes his life just a little bit better.