Bar Rescue 5x19

1. Okay, so there it is, The Casual Tap.

2. This year 6500 failing bars nationwide

3. will close their doors for good,

4. and The Casual Tap in Chicago, Illinois,

5. has become one of them.

6. But it's about to get something

7. the others never got— a second chance.

8. My name is Steve.

9. I'm the owner of The Casual Tap.

10. And also a Chicago firefighter for nearly 20 years.

11. In 2006, Steve bought The Casual Tap,

12. a neighborhood bar located in the northwest side of Chicago.

13. The Casual Tap's located in Portage Park neighborhood.

14. Built in 1953,

15. and this bar has been a tavern

16. for the entire time it's been built.

17. It's a real blue collar neighborhood,

18. a hard working neighborhood, good customers.

19. When I first bought The Casual Tap, the vibe

20. in the neighborhood was out there

21. that a firefighter bought it,

22. so of course people were curious at first.

23. Being a full time Chicago firefighter

24. and managing his own bar

25. began to take its toll on Steve.

26. All right, I forgot what I was doing.

27. The strict firehouse schedule

28. forced Steve to close early some days,

29. and the erratic hours have led to a drop in customers.

30. Doing both, with the bar business being normally

31. a late night business, and then early mornings

32. for the firehouse, it gets tough.

33. When Steve stepped away from the bar,

34. he left it to his staff to run it.

35. The bar resulted in no control and no order.

36. As the stress mounted, Steve became more overbearing.

37. - Louie, this. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it.

38. Nope, we're not opening it now.

39. Once we do it, you open it, then it gets poured into here.

40. Working for Steve is difficult.

41. Louie, they're too close together, man.

42. He's a micromanager.

43. Start here and go a foot in between.

44. It's his way or no way, and that's with everything.

45. Better bartend tonight, you.

46. He's always like trying to tell you what to do

47. and like, dude, kick back. Let us work.

48. A search for a manager became more vital

49. when Steve began to burn out

50. working at the firehouse by day and the bar by night.

51. I 100% need help— have a manager, someone to help run this.

52. Louie is a kid that I hired years ago.

53. He's a good friend of mine.

54. My end goal for him was to be the manager.

55. We gave it a fair effort, but it just didn't work out.

56. He doesn't like to listen to me.

57. Did you put olives in here?

58. Oh, I never got to it.

59. He doesn't respect the fact that I'm a boss.

60. As The Casual Tap lost its customers,

61. Steve began to lose hope for the future of his business.

62. The Casual Tap is losing, every month, at least over $4,000.

63. We don't accept credit cards, debit cards.

64. Customers walk in

65. and they'll take off 'cause they don't have cash.

66. If I was to go under right now,

67. I would be in the hole almost $700,000.

68. Held hostage by his increasing debt,

69. Steve is also facing a tragic family issue.

70. I have a daughter. Her name is Brittany.

71. I also have three grandchildren.

72. Tragically my ex, Brittany's mother,

73. she's in the end stages of Huntington's.

74. Tragically and unthinkably, my daughter has a 50% chance

75. to have this disease.

76. With his family needing him the most,

77. Steve is forced to make a difficult decision.

78. The only possible way for me to open up again

79. is if I get that manager,

80. someone that can be here when I can't,

81. while I can still have some time with my family.

82. After being temporarily closed for three months,

83. Steve has called Bar Rescue for help.

84. He's agreed to pull back the doors,

85. bust open the books, and reopen The Casual Tap

86. for one last shot at success.

87. I really wanted to see if the bar was closed, which it is,

88. but I think we should drive by the firehouse

89. to hear the whole story.

90. For the bar, Jon brings in mixologist Rob Floyd.

91. His skill for working in high pressure situations

92. makes him the perfect fit.

93. So in the area of Chicago where this bar is on Montrose,

94. the median household income is $58,000 a year,

95. which is 5,000 higher than the national average,

96. good working income.

97. And the median age is 38.

98. It's really a great blue collar working man's

99. middle America neighborhood.

100. Is Steve here?

101. - Steve? - Yes?

102. - Jon Taffer. How are you? - Good, how are you today?

103. Good to meet you. You save people every day.

104. I'm here to save you for a change.

105. - So you work here full time in the firehouse? - I do.

106. You had the bar, which was a full time business?

107. So what happened?

108. I just recently closed it, actually.

109. How come?

110. The number one reason was my family.

111. My kid's mom is currently on the end stages

112. of an awful disease called Huntington's disease.

113. She has a 50% chance. It's hereditary.

114. It's passed down— and all the children,

115. they have 50% chance of having this disease,

116. so your bottom line is really, I just,

117. I'm not gonna let my daughter go through this alone.

118. Sorry to hear that. So this family crisis

119. made you give up the bar, in essence.

120. Absolutely. I've been promising my kid for literally 10 years

121. I'm gonna work hard this year,

122. I'm gonna get this bar running a little more self sufficient,

123. a little more systems in place, and 10 years later

124. I'm probably even buried deeper than I was when I first started, so.

125. This bar has helped take away the resources that you need

126. to help the very family that you're fighting to protect.

127. I know. It's like a circle. I can't— I'm working.

128. I don't know what the future holds,

129. but I wanna be prepared financially for it.

130. So, this would be the first time

131. I've ever rescued a bar that's actually closed.

132. Oh, you're kidding.

133. But I would work with you to reopen this bar

134. because of who and what you are.

135. Let's open The Casual Tap again. Tomorrow.

136. - Let's set it up so you're making money. - For real?

137. - You're not kidding me? - I'm not kidding you.

138. Let's set it up so you have the resources

139. to help your family through this.

140. Maybe help another family. How would that be?

141. That would be amazing.

142. You're fighting for this. Let me fight with you.

143. So you gotta get bartenders.

144. - I got your back.

145. That's what we do around here.

146. - Okay.

147. - It's a team here, and it's

148. a team at the bar, too, so.

149. - Okay.

150. Jon just walked into my firehouse

151. and told me he's gonna help me re-open this joint.

152. I'm overwhelmed, a little bit scared,

153. but we're gonna put together a staff real fast.

154. - What's up, guys? - How are you?

155. Good. Are you guys down for this?

156. I need some help here.

157. I'm up for it.

158. Of course I have my hesitations.

159. Giving up control is not easy,

160. but I am totally ready to open these doors

161. and get started again.

162. So, Steve, man, what are the plans here? Talk to me.

163. I'm Louie, I'm 27, and I'm a bartender at The Casual Tap.

164. Since the bar has closed, I've been working at two different locations.

165. I miss The Casual. I actually miss The Casual.

166. That's why I stick around.

167. I would say, let's make sure we smile.

168. - Louie: Smile. - Zee: Smile.

169. That's most important. What are you talking about?

170. The smile is everything in the hospitality industry.

171. I really think we have no plans,

172. so I think we're in for a show.

173. What are we gonna do? Come on, man.

174. Steve, we really don't have a lot to open with.

175. I'm Zoranna. People call me Z.

176. I'm a bartender here at The Casual Tap.

177. I've been here for about six months.

178. I've been bartending another bar,

179. but it's not in my neighborhood.

180. It's not the same. It doesn't feel the same.

181. - I understand that. - What are we gonna sell?

182. When customers walk up, what are we gonna tell them?

183. - Uh, we have... - Louie, we're gonna get

184. everything we need to open.

185. Stop already.

186. We got no plans.

187. We got no— Same thing like always. We ain't got nothin'.

188. What are we gonna do different now this time opening up,

189. so we don't have the same problems?

190. - When the manager is— - Whatever you're gonna do—

191. What do you think? Tell me what you think we should do. How's that?

192. There was a time where I was kinda like a manager in training.

193. He would try to teach me things that would be here and there.

194. You guys get that this is new to me, too, right?

195. I wasn't prepared to open.

196. I don't believe my staff trusts me.

197. Everyone's bitching, man. I don't like bitching.

198. It gets overwhelming sometimes.

199. We can't open with the basics.

200. We're gonna open, I'd rather open being ready

201. and have everything the customers want.

202. I'm very nervous.

203. I don't feel comfortable being behind the bar.

204. Dude, now I need a shot.

205. Now you need a shot? The shot is your answer?

206. Shot's always the answer.

207. I don't think we're ready. I don't think we're ready,

208. but— that's just my opinion.

209. Boo, negative attitude.

210. Listen, none of this is my fault,

211. so stop making like it is.

212. You're not behind the bar though, Steve.

213. You don't think I've been behind the bar in my bar? I have been.

214. Well, then you can tell them we don't have what they want.

215. You don't wanna be behind the bar,

216. then we won't put you behind the bar.

217. Well, I think Steve is going to be stressed to the max,

218. and he's going to do what he just did

219. and tell me if I don't wanna be here

220. then I can leave,

221. which, I might.

222. The Casual Tap is back in business, folks.

223. All righty, come on over. Let's do this.

224. Because I didn't get to do recon last night,

225. today I wanna spend some time with the staff.

226. Find out why this bar was failing months ago,

227. and then I'm gonna open it up and see what happens,

228. and create a recon opportunity for me to evaluate the bar,

229. evaluate the staff, evaluate Steve,

230. and see where we're at.

231. - Louie? - Yes.

232. - How you doing, Louie? - Great.

233. - You've worked here before, right? - Correct, yes.

234. And how long did you work here?

235. Three or four years.

236. - Hi, Zee. - Hi.

237. How long have you worked here?

238. I've worked here for about six months,

239. but I live in the neighborhood, so I'm very familiar.

240. Gotcha.

241. So, you're here.

242. - Yes, I am Christine. - Hi, Christine.

243. - How are you? █ - Good. Nice to see you.

244. - Have you worked here before? █ - No, I haven't.

245. Okay, so you're completely new. Great.

246. - Are you from the neighborhood? - Yes, I am.

247. So part of the community, which is perfect,

248. - 'cause this is a community— - Yes.

249. neighborhood bar, so we want people

250. - from the community here, right, Steve? - 100.

251. You notice there's a bunch of people

252. standing in front of your bar?

253. We've seen that, yes.

254. Well, you know, I didn't get to do normal recon here

255. 'cause you guys weren't open.

256. So here's the deal.

257. I'm gonna open us in a few minutes,

258. throw you guys behind the bar.

259. I wanna see what you've got,

260. and I wanna see what all of us have

261. and how we do.

262. We haven't done any training.

263. Whatever anybody orders they can have.

264. All right? They can have beer. They can have cocktails.

265. There's no draft beer back here.

266. The name of this bar is—?

267. The Casual Tap.

268. I inherited it that way when I bought the place.

269. It's been on my to-do list, but—

270. And it happens often. People will come in and say

271. "What do you have on tap beer?"

272. We don't have tap beer.

273. When I see a sign like that, I expect to come in

274. and get a nice cold beer.

275. - I gotta fix that. - Wow, thank you.

276. Whatever anybody orders is fine.

277. You know, bottled beer, cocktails, whatever anybody orders is fine.

278. I wanted to have somebody here with me

279. to help me, as an expert.

280. So, Rob, come on in.

281. Rob and I have done a bunch of rescues together.

282. And, you know, Rob is great at these neighborhood bar kind of environments

283. and connecting with the community.

284. So I've asked Rob to come help me,

285. and this is a different situation for us

286. because normally we get to sit and watch recon together.

287. That's right.

288. But we had no recon to watch.

289. So for that reason, I got about 50 customers out there.

290. I'm gonna open the door, let 'em in.

291. Rob is gonna be behind the bar watching you, evaluating you,

292. I'm also gonna have him play customer a little bit.

293. Right? So that we can assess this

294. - from both sides of the bar. - Absolutely.

295. I'm looking for some basic steps of service.

296. Ringing in a drink, smiling, shaking,

297. working several drinks at a time.

298. Your basic bartender steps of service.

299. Okay, and at the end, we'll see what's good.

300. We'll see what's bad.

301. We'll identify all the issues,

302. and at the end of this, we'll sit down together,

303. we'll talk, we'll see where we're at.

304. Okay, so I'm gonna open this bar right now. Let's go to it.

305. You wanna do a shot real quick?

306. Now I feel nervous.

307. Oh,

308. Bar, we gotta move a lot quicker.

309. We got a lot of people to serve here.

310. Who took my cherries?

311. I don't think we're doing tabs.

312. We're doing cash only.

313. You don't have any cash?

314. Okay, they don't have cash or credit.

315. I have to talk to the owner.

316. Go ahead and jump back there and just start helping.

317. Let's go! Let's go! Quick!

318. Imagine if you guys were standing back here with me,

319. how long it would take me to get a drink.

320. That's the whole point, guys.

321. If we don't get drinks out here quicker,

322. these people will never see anything back here.

323. Let's go!

324. We don't take credit cards.

325. The ATM's over there, yeah.

326. You guys don't have any cash?

327. Okay, well, we don't take—

328. - No credit cards? - No credit cards.

329. - No credit cards at all? - No.

330. It's cash only. So, I tried doing the 25 cents

331. and it wouldn't let me do it. Sorry.

332. Do you guys have a menu you can drop? Any cocktail menu?

333. We don't, we don't. We don't have no type of menu.

334. - Have you ordered, Rob? - No, I haven't ordered.

335. Have you been helped yet?

336. What can I get you?

337. No, we have no tap beer.

338. Let's go, guys, move! Move!

339. We don't have no tap. We got beer—

340. I know, dude. We have, uh—

341. I know, man, it sucks big time.

342. What do you— you good?

343. - What do you need? - Old Fashioned on the rocks.

344. Old Fashioned? I'm gonna get Louie on that one.

345. Who wants a drink? Ask him for it. Let's go!

346. Two Old Fashions?

347. All right, let's do this.

348. Three Old Fashions? Holy crap.

349. She ordered three of them.

350. Let's see how he does.

351. I haven't —

352. I haven't done it. I'll prepare it all wrong.

353. Stop.

354. This has to come out. Your hands can't go into that.

355. - Okay, for sure. - It's gotta be pulled out now.

356. Yeah, yeah, that's totally unsanitary.

357. We have an ATM.

358. The ATM isn't working, Steve.

359. So, who on this side doesn't have a drink?

360. Just you guys in the middle.

361. You're doing okay, Christine? That side's done.

362. - Let's work the middle. - Three Z-Bombs.

363. Zee is a pretty good bartender,

364. and Christine stepped right in, too.

365. The weak link is clearly Louie.

366. Three Z-Bombs?

367. So we're still making the same Old Fashions here.

368. I don't have a well over here.

369. Come on, Louie!

370. We have whiskey, we have simple syrup.

371. We have a stir.

372. How about a little smile there, Louie?

373. - There you go.

374. Two fine Z-Bombs for this lady right here.

375. I got the beer, you do the Z-Bombs.

376. This is more of an Aged Fashioned than an Old Fashioned.

377. Oh, hold on, wait, sir, hold on.

378. - Jon: Hold on. █ - Louie: Where's the hummus?

379. I don't have a well. You see if I had the well right here,

380. I'll just add the ice, you know?

381. Complained there wasn't a well here,

382. but then brought everything to make it here,

383. now is having to run back and forth.

384. Excuse me, coming through.

385. All right, guys, sorry about that.

386. - Louie: Bad? █ - No balance in it.

387. Yeah, it's just straight whiskey.

388. Give it a taste. Tell me what you think, guys.

389. Five being the best. One being the worst.

390. What do you give it?

391. So if I didn't get him to smile, he would have gotten a one.

392. - Man! I made it with love. - You made it with love,

393. but you still it up, you understand?

394. I'd like you to go down to the well

395. and make three Old Fashions properly.

396. Down there, so now there's no frickin' excuses. It's all on you.

397. I don't know what he's smiling about, to be honest with you.

398. Because if that was me, I'd be pretty frickin embarrassed.

399. One, two, three, four.

400. Hold it, hold it! Stop!

401. Frickin' bugs in this bottle.

402. Oh!

403. - Oh, just so you know. - Oh, my God.

404. Rob, come back here.

405. We've been closed for three months, guys.

406. Would everybody look in your glasses.

407. Does anybody see bugs in their drinks?

408. - Oh, my God. - That's my worst nightmare.

409. What else happened back here?

410. bugs.

411. Anybody drinking this? Stop if you are!

412. Look at all this! Check the other back bar.

413. You guys are pouring from those.

414. Ugh, this is a nightmare.

415. And a few of you got a few bugs with it.

416. There's no systems here.

417. There's an old cash register. No POS system.

418. There's one speed well. There isn't two.

419. I've seen what I need to see. I'm actually impressed.

420. They served almost everybody in the room in a half hour

421. till the bugs came out.

422. It's been a rough one, right?

423. We have bugs in the bottles, we have no consistency.

424. I think it's best we just shut it down now

425. and get to work.

426. If I could have your attention.

427. I wanna thank everybody for coming out.

428. We do have some problems to fix, though.

429. I wanna welcome everybody back. We'll get this right.

430. We'll be on point. Even better than today.

431. Bugs in the bottles, man, I was humil—

432. Oh, that was horrifying. That was absolutely horrifying.

433. I'm embarrassed.

434. Hold the flies.

435. Now I wanna talk to the staff. I wanna expose all the problems

436. we had tonight, and I wanna talk to Steve

437. about the future of this bar.

438. What do you think?

439. The biggest problem with today was the bugs, man.

440. I'm ashamed about that.

441. You had plenty of time to check the bottles before opening.

442. You had customers who were drinking fruit flies all day.

443. What is the one thing I've been on you the whole time?

444. What do we do every week in this building?

445. - Check the bottles. - Check the bottles.

446. So we've been closed, and it's not an excuse, and I should know better.

447. Operationally, other than that, what do you think?

448. Well, you know, Louie, he knows how to make an Old Fashioned.

449. - He choked. - It's not the first time Louie's choked, is it?

450. No, it's not.

451. When the going gets tough, Louie's not the guy you bank on.

452. No, no, he's let me down many times.

453. So you were the weak link tonight, you know that?

454. You never had somebody you trusted that you could run it and leave it alone?

455. That, you know, that's what I tried with Louie.

456. He didn't have any experience. He literally just graduated

457. bartending school when I met him—

458. - 'Cause I've tried hard— █ - He didn't deliver.

459. - No. - How you feel when he says that?

460. It kinda hurts, but at the same time,

461. I didn't put in as much as I should have.

462. I was working two jobs. I don't have a vehicle...

463. You put your cards in a guy who can't get his together.

464. Same age as my daughter. He's like my son, basically.

465. If Louie's not the guy to do this, Steve, who is?

466. If I had that answer, I wouldn't have had to shut the doors.

467. The fact that your ex wife is so important to you

468. speaks to me a lot about your character.

469. That's why I'm here.

470. - Get that? - Thank you.

471. There's a way to put this together, but here's the problem.

472. If he doesn't feel confident when he's home with his family

473. that this place is operating profitably,

474. he doesn't want to do this,

475. so to do it, we need a management structure that you truly trust.

476. You know, we gotta set you up physically for success.

477. But if we don't get the fundamentals right, we're not gonna succeed,

478. so we've got some training to do, and I wanna sit and talk

479. - to you for a couple of minutes, okay? - Sure.

480. I think Steve could be an effective owner.

481. He's clearly involved in his business.

482. He's worked himself to the bone trying to manage this bar,

483. but now his family needs him.

484. So I need to sit down with him and talk

485. about who's gonna manage this bar going forward.

486. - Interesting couple of days. - For sure, yeah.

487. What are you thinking right now?

488. I'm scared a little bit, man, I'm like—

489. You know, when I look at a guy like you,

490. you make sacrifices that I don't make every day.

491. You know, you put things bigger than you in front of you,

492. and that's a really powerful attribute, buddy,

493. that I have huge respect for.

494. You've gotta leave here feeling this is gonna work.

495. How do we get management coverage in here?

496. 'Cause I don't see you trusting Louie.

497. So how do you feel about Zee in this—

498. Um—

499. I see your head spinning behind your eyes.

500. The manager does what? What exactly?

501. Trains your bartenders, makes certain recipes are right,

502. the garnishes are right,

503. and the customer experience is right.

504. Now, now Louie might be able to do that job.

505. - Do you think so? - People love him.

506. He's good with customers. He gets excited over a cocktail.

507. - We go out drinking— I said we're friends. - Right, right.

508. Not only employees. We go to all the cocktail bars,

509. and so he loves all that, and he's into all that.

510. It's actually nice to hear me say this.

511. I believe he might be able to do that.

512. Steve has complete confidence in Louie to be the manager,

513. but I think Zee is the better fit,

514. so I gotta convince him why Zee's the better fit.

515. I wanna make sure you're comfortable,

516. so I'm gonna run Louie and Zee

517. through a bit of a management training program.

518. At the end of that program, either you'll be more comfortable

519. in your decision, or less comfortable in your decision.

520. So let's see if it's Louie. Let's see if it's Zee.

521. We gotta find that person for you one way or another.

522. - Do you agree? - Yeah.

523. Good boy. I'll see you tomorrow.

524. All right, thanks.

525. Last night's stress test revealed that the staff isn't that bad,

526. other than Louie, who's really the weak link.

527. Issue is this bar hasn't been opened in three months,

528. so we got a lot of training to do today

529. to get this staff up to speed, so we can open tomorrow.

530. - Ask me why we're here. - Why are we here, Jon?

531. Because putting in a draft beer system,

532. POS systems, and remodeling a bar,

533. even as small as yours takes some extra time.

534. So as we're here training, I'm already working on your bar.

535. - Nice. - You know, I'm not changing the name of this bar.

536. I respect what it is. It's a great neighborhood bar,

537. and I think it will serve this community better

538. when they say Casual Tap is open again.

539. I wanna embrace that history because it's neat, Steve,

540. I wanna embrace your history in the community,

541. so I have to get all that physical work done

542. as we're working on our skills.

543. Now, we know that a vast majority of our customers

544. are coming in to have a beer.

545. The name of bar is Casual Tap. Of course they're going to.

546. I wanna share with you a science on beer.

547. Draft beer has a cost of about 22%.

548. Bottled beer has a cost of about 27%.

549. You know what cost a vodka tonic has

550. for just a basic cocktail?

551. - About a 14% cost. - Wow.

552. So every time you sell a cocktail instead of a beer,

553. - Steve makes almost twice the money. - Wow.

554. We oughta sell cocktails,

555. 'cause the beer they can get anywhere,

556. but our cocktails they can only get where?

557. - The Casual Tap. - Bingo.

558. So that's really important.

559. That's why Rob is working so hard

560. on this cocktail program for you.

561. We wanna create personality.

562. A point of difference.

563. Something that you can't get some place else.

564. Everyone seems excited, so that's half the battle most of the time.

565. So we wanna take this training up a notch.

566. I wanna work on some management training today with the team

567. on something that I call management sensitivity training.

568. Sometimes managers look, but they don't see.

569. There's a difference between looking around a room

570. and seeing what's going on in the room.

571. And I'm going to create some situations,

572. and we're going to see who notices them and who doesn't.

573. - Sounds good. - All right, guys, let's get to it.

574. Sounds good. Thank you.

575. Today I'm going to do a management sensitivity exercise.

576. I've set up a few tables with some problems,

577. and I wanna see if Louie and Zee

578. can handle them professionally as they should be handled.

579. This is what I call a management sensitivity exercise.

580. - There are actually six things wrong in this room right now. - Okay.

581. So I'm gonna let you look around and do your thing.

582. Find what's wrong in this room for me.

583. - Handle it as you would. - Okay.

584. I see these are empty. Can I get you guys anything else?

585. - Yeah, can we do another round, please? - Another round?

586. - Vodka lemonade. - Vodka lemonade, okay. Two more?

587. - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, awesome. I'll be right with you.

588. Problem one. Go to the next one.

589. - Were you guys checked out? - No.

590. No? Were you being taken care of,

591. or is this from the previous guest?

592. - We haven't been. - Previous guest. Okay.

593. Let me clean this up, and I'll get some napkins

594. and I'll be right with you, okay?

595. - Sorry about the mess. - Jon: Keep going.

596. - Hi, how are you today? - There's a bug in my drink.

597. There's a bug— Oh, there is a bug in your drink.

598. I am absolutely sorry about that.

599. Let me take that back and get you a fresh one.

600. - What were you having? - Vodka and lemonade.

601. Vodka and lemonade? Here you go,

602. and I'm very sorry about that.

603. That one's on the house. Sorry about that.

604. - So, you identified every situation. - Oh, good.

605. You managed every issue that was going on in the room.

606. - Good job, Zee. █ - Thank you very much.

607. Good job. Thank you.

608. Manager training, actually, I was nervous

609. 'cause I didn't know what to expect,

610. but I thought it went really well.

611. I mean, it's just kind of what I do day to day

612. in my every day life anyway at work.

613. Okay, let's bring in Louie.

614. All right, cool.

615. What are you guys having?

616. - We'd like two vodkas. - Two vodkas, cool.

617. I'll take that. Here we go.

618. - Anything else for now? - We should be good.

619. Sweet.

620. Garbage. Can I bring you anything?

621. - Having anything? - Oh, yeah, I'll have a vodka.

622. - Vodka? - I'll have the same thing.

623. Awesome.

624. There's a bug in my drink.

625. Hold on. Oh, yeah, I see it.

626. Hold on, hold on.

627. Oh, and you got all types of filth in here.

628. - Okay, so, Louie. - Yes, sir.

629. - I saw the issues there. - Yeah.

630. But you come up to a guy who says he has a bug in his drink,

631. you knew he had a bug in his drink,

632. because Louie actually went like this.

633. Oh, yeah, there's a bug in here.

634. You got all types of filth in here.

635. So now you knew it. You knew it.

636. You knew it. You gotta look and see.

637. Nope, sorry! No bug.

638. You don't advertise it to the world and say,

639. "We screwed up, everybody!"

640. We screwed up, everybody!"

641. - You with me? - Yes, sir.

642. So you need to display more confidence for fixing these problems.

643. - You gotta connect better. - Yeah, for sure.

644. So you're lacking at sensitivity.

645. You found the problems, but you didn't fix them right.

646. I think Jon's still upset at me because I didn't do good in the test run.

647. But I know I could do the job.

648. So what I just did was a really simple exercise.

649. The fact of the matter is, you did fine,

650. you stumbled a little.

651. You looked into the guest's eyes and said, "What can I do?"

652. - 'cause to you it was about the guest. - Right.

653. You never looked at the guest.

654. That lack of a connection worries me,

655. and you and I were talking about that.

656. When Jon asked me about this I said,

657. "Well, that sounds like a job that Louie has the ability for,"

658. but maybe you need to grow into this position.

659. I'm not sure that you're ready for it yet.

660. You've tried and you're still gonna work here

661. - and I want you to learn. - And if it doesn't work out what happens?

662. - He's your friend. █ - We'll be friends forever.

663. This experience we're going through now,

664. - it's an amazing learning opportunity. - Definitely.

665. - Your end game is in your hands. - Sure.

666. - This has to happen today, not tomorrow, not next week. - Right.

667. Zee, you did great. You really stepped up.

668. And I think she can be terrific opening night,

669. but you gotta come through opening night.

670. You gotta connect with the guests, Louie.

671. You gotta work on your eyes. It's about them. Okay?

672. - So opening night's a big deal for you. - Right.

673. All righty, guys. Let's go back to work.

674. And I got something I wanna show you

675. in a couple of minutes, okay?

676. - Nice. - All righty. Guy's, I'll see you in a minute.

677. - Thank you. - Awesome.

678. On relaunch night, either Louie or Zee

679. need to step up and prove themselves as a manager.

680. All right, guys, ready to have some fun today?

681. - Yes. - Good, good, good.

682. We're gonna go over some really fun cocktails.

683. Yesterday the bartenders were not horrible.

684. So today we're gonna train and start learning great cocktails

685. that are based on classics with one twist.

686. The first drink we're gonna do

687. is one of my absolute favorites.

688. This is the CFD bourbon.

689. Chicago Fire Department bourbon, baby.

690. Yeah. So the cool part is we get this awesome glass

691. from our friends at Bar Products.

692. And the cool thing about it is most cocktails

693. have about 40 to 50% water in them.

694. Well, that's the dilution for a normal cocktail.

695. So here you have an ice ball that's frozen in it.

696. So you put these glasses in the freezer,

697. and they actually freeze with the ice-ball there,

698. and so your cocktail's gonna remain perfect

699. the whole way through.

700. With this we're gonna build with a half ounce

701. of rosemary syrup,

702. one and a half ounces of bourbon,

703. a dash of bitters,

704. stir, pour,

705. we're gonna do the orange,

706. responsibly handle a little fire,

707. catch it, and just let it sit there.

708. The CFD bourbon.

709. Sweet.

710. - Tasty? - Oh, heck, yeah.

711. - Could you order more? - I'm ready too, yep.

712. Excellent.

713. That bourbon one is the bomb. It's gonna be a big hit

714. in my neighborhood because it's gonna fit right in.

715. All right, so the next drink we're gonna do

716. is a take on a White Russian.

717. One ounce of coffee liquor.

718. One ounce of vodka.

719. Pumpkin spice.

720. Half and half across the top.

721. A zest of nutmeg.

722. The Backdraft.

723. Cheers, guys.

724. - Like it? █ - I like White Russians, so—

725. There we go, absolutely.

726. Louie, get on up here.

727. And I want you to make me the Backdraft,

728. the spin on the White Russian.

729. Um, and then we have one, two, three.

730. We add pumpkin spice.

731. Top it off with what?

732. - I mean half and half. Excuse me. - Okay.

733. More ice to this one. Oh, and the nutmeg.

734. How do you do that?

735. All right, Zee, get on up here.

736. All right, we're gonna do the exact same drink.

737. - Okay, can I do two hands? - You sure can.

738. Pumpkin spice.

739. Half and half on top.

740. And some nutmeg.

741. - Two straws. - Beautiful.

742. So if we look at these cocktails real quick,

743. we see they're completely different.

744. Tell me the difference in these drinks, Steve.

745. I feel this one's better. It looks better.

746. Yeah.

747. When we did the comparing side by side,

748. we saw that Zee did really well.

749. I was really proud of her.

750. And then you have Louie's drink next to it

751. which has a lot less alcohol,

752. but it's filled all the way with ice.

753. He could be good, but he's got a lot of work to go.

754. So this is just the very, very beginning. The tip of the iceberg.

755. So get ready, we're gonna work more.

756. But great job today and thank you, okay?

757. - Sweet. - Thank you.

758. Our management sensitivity program

759. upped our management game.

760. Our cocktail training upped our cocktail game.

761. Now it's time for Steve to see what his bar's gonna be

762. when it reopens.

763. Here's your bar.

764. I gotta start with creating a new look in the front.

765. So I'm introducing a whole new color treatment

766. to the awning that you have.

767. I'm branding the front of that awning.

768. I got a whole new sign package coming in above the awning

769. and on the side of the building.

770. You wanted signage, you got frickin' signage, buddy.

771. This building is gonna pop, and I wanted to take

772. some of your personal identity and put it into the logo.

773. So when you look at the logo it'll mean something to you.

774. Now when you walk into the bar,

775. you're gonna see a whole new back bar design treatment

776. that's killer, using all different textures and woods

777. to create a whole textured design.

778. So I gotta build you two complete workstations behind the bar.

779. Speed well, soda guns, everything.

780. Gonna love that.

781. Two POS systems behind the bar.

782. Every bartender stays put.

783. Steve, no more running back and forth to make drinks.

784. They're gonna love that.

785. I gotta four tap draft beer system coming in right here.

786. Four of them.

787. So we have four taps of 38-degree perfect draft beer.

788. You can now do beer promotions,

789. which are really tough to do in bottles.

790. All the technology you need to succeed,

791. and I even got you a high tech electronic DJ system

792. that'll deliver the right music.

793. This bar's gotta be warm, cozy, intimate,

794. the kinda place we hang for three, four hours.

795. - Exactly. - That's what we're building for you.

796. It will be casual.

797. And it will have a tap.

798. Thank you so much, Mr. Taffer.

799. So, I'm gonna work my ass off all night on this thing.

800. I want you to do something for me. I want you to get some rest.

801. Go be with your family. I'll see you in 36 hours, okay?

802. You got it.

803. I want that blueprint. I wanna hang that on my wall.

804. I can't even believe that for the first time in 10 years,

805. I'm gonna have a sign out front.

806. I can't wait to get over there.

807. I can't wait for tomorrow. Let's get this going.

808. - Help us out, Jon. - How are you?

809. Excitement is not even the right word

810. to describe me as this is just beyond crazy to me.

811. You get the thrill of rescuing people a lot.

812. It has happened, absolutely.

813. I want you to know, this is as sweet to me

814. to rescue you as it is when you rescue someone else.

815. 'Cause really, helping a life is an amazing thing.

816. You get to enjoy this all the time,

817. but, you know, this is a moment

818. where you can get something back

819. from what you've given all of these years.

820. Being here with you is an honor for me, Steve.

821. When I got here, you had closed this bar three months ago.

822. You were in a hole almost 700 grand.

823. When there's no hope, that's everything.

824. When it's coming at you from all directions,

825. you're almost like a fireman without a suit.

826. - That doesn't work. - No, it doesn't work.

827. So I had to give you your protective gear back.

828. Absolutely.

829. There's really only one thing left to do,

830. - isn't there, Steve? - Please.

831. - Okay, you ready, buddy? █ - Absolutely.

832. I worked hard on this one for you.

833. It's important.

834. Count of three. One, two, three.

835. Yes! Nice!

836. Yes! Come on! Yeah!

837. Oh, my God! Look at this! Look at that sign!

838. There hasn't been a sign there since I bought the place.

839. - Do you like? - Oh, my God, I love it, man.

840. For 10 years I've had zero curb appeal.

841. Now it looks like a bar. I'm super proud at this moment.

842. - Are you ready to see it? - I'm so ready.

843. - All right, let's go ahead. - Go ahead, Steve.

844. - Oh, my God. - Holy cow.

845. - Zee: Oh, my God! █ - Look at the tap system!

846. Nice.

847. Oh, my God, look at these even.

848. Oh, look at the colors!

849. Even the colors match the awning on the outside.

850. - Oh, my God! - Look at this!

851. - Zee: This is so— █ - Steve: Get over here!

852. Like what?

853. Yes!

854. - Steve: Oh, my God! █ - Wow.

855. Beautiful. Like alcohol content—

856. Oh, look at here. This is our menu.

857. Hold on, guys.

858. Dude, listen to this.

859. Our CFD bourbon drink...

860. Ah...

861. I can't even read it now.

862. A portion of the proceeds from this drink

863. go to Huntington's Disease Society of America.

864. All right.

865. Man, I feel so blessed.

866. What do you think, Steve?

867. This is amazing, and I can't thank you enough for this.

868. Well, I wanted to prime the pump.

869. So I'm going to make my own donation

870. to the Huntington's Disease Society

871. in the name of this bar to get us going.

872. And now every time we sell one of those cocktails,

873. - we can add to that. - I can't thank you enough.

874. There's a lot to show you guys,

875. so why don't you grab a seat at the bar.

876. - I took this seriously. - Oh, you sure did.

877. That phrase back there, "The fire within you,"

878. is more powerful than any fire you've ever fought.

879. I mean, this is frickin' amazing.

880. So, casual.

881. So, got you a great four tap kegerator.

882. The brick is beautiful.

883. So I didn't want to get rid of the brick,

884. so we put the caging effect in front of it.

885. - Almost makes the room feel bigger, doesn't it? - Yeah.

886. █ This bar is 60 years old,

887. so the wood back here I had to get

888. - that was 60 years old. █ - Steve: I love it.

889. I put in two workstations now.

890. I put in two future POS systems

891. so you can do the proper credit card transactions.

892. I got you Partender to increase your trust.

893. - Two things I wanted. - You do inventory literally in 15 minutes

894. using a camera on your smart phone.

895. The other thing that I got is Taffer Virtual Teaching.

896. So from now on every new employee logs on,

897. and I train them for you.

898. - Oh, awesome. - Oh, thank you so much.

899. - Let's do this tonight, okay? - Yeah, oh, yeah, right now.

900. Let's go to work.

901. Dude, I cut my finger real bad.

902. Louie cut his finger while he was cutting garnishes.

903. I hope I can dress this wound

904. and get it to where he can at least function

905. and be able to step up.

906. Oh, Jesus. You this up.

907. Just hold it like that and pinch it.

908. It can't go low, the blood will run out.

909. Keep it above your head and pinch.

910. Welcome, everybody!

911. Three months ago I closed this bar,

912. and here we are open again.

913. Man, you guys are gonna love this place.

914. Welcome to the Casual Tap.

915. Come on in and have a great time.

916. Welcome. How are you? Thank you for coming back.

917. - Welcome. - You know?

918. - What's up, brother? - What up?

919. Can you believe that we have tap beer in this place?

920. No, not really.

921. Go! Go! Go!

922. I've been a regular here for about three years.

923. I think it's awesome that they're reopening it.

924. I'm really happy that it's happening.

925. █ You kidding? He's a firefighter.

926. Yeah, I can actually recommend

927. a wonderful cocktail for you.

928. Can I take your credit card?

929. Okay, we need three gin cocktails here right away.

930. Bam, go!

931. Where's Louie?

932. Louie cut his finger, and I don't know.

933. I'm worried about him. Is he here?

934. How we doing down here? Everybody's got drinks, we're rocking.

935. Yeah, good.

936. Where's he at? Where's Louie?

937. Where's Steve?

938. What's going on? Just tell me what's up.

939. Trying everything I can to stop it.

940. This is an oozer. 'Cause you knicked

941. all seven layers of your skin, my brother.

942. I can't say as to when it would stop, that's the thing.

943. Do you feel the cut is bad enough

944. that he should go? How did the cut look to you?

945. If they can't stop the bleeding,

946. they can't stop the bleeding.

947. Okay. He's just gonna go to the hospital with you guys.

948. I'll let the producers know.

949. Okay.

950. Right now it's bleeding. He can't work at the bar.

951. Not even with a glove or nothing like that.

952. We're not gonna take that chance. All right?

953. I'm more concerned we fix him up.

954. How are they doing without him in there? Are they handling it?

955. - While you're out here, the bar is cranking. - Nice.

956. - Every transaction is being done. - Awesome.

957. The recipes are right on the money.

958. And while you were outside with Louie,

959. Zee stepped up and proved that she can be your manager.

960. You can trust that things are going right in there yourself.

961. - Go take a look. - Have you guys been here before?

962. - No. █ - No? First time?

963. It's nice, isn't it?

964. I panicked at first. I'm like how are we gonna do this without Louie?

965. But you know what? We jumped in and we adjusted

966. and it's working out.

967. I feel like a new leader of this crew.

968. Hi, guys. How's everybody doing?

969. Everybody got drinks?

970. How's the staff doing?

971. - Nice.

972. I wanna thank you for your patience.

973. We had an injury, so we're one bartender short,

974. and I understand my staff is doing wonderful.

975. So, good, give them a round of applause.

976. Holy cow.

977. What's up?

978. Oh, my goodness.

979. Can you believe it? Look at this place.

980. Look at this. Hey. I gotta show you this.

981. - For ma. - You're gonna make me cry.

982. I know. I totally cried when I read it,

983. and I totally cried.

984. Incredible.

985. I am so proud of him. To see all of this

986. and to see him so happy.

987. I'm hoping that this will bring the life

988. into it that he needs and he can spend more time

989. with his family after this.

990. - Look at this, buddy. - This is crazy. I love it,

991. and everybody's happy, man.

992. I'm gonna make this neighborhood proud.

993. Yeah, and by doing so you'll make me proud, too.

994. So, you trust that this will work?

995. I absolutely trust.

996. - Enjoy it, buddy. - Thanks. One more?

997. One more.

998. Yeah!