Bar Rescue 5x2

1. I'm so angry, Jesse. 'cause she's a bitch.

2. That's not gonna happen 'cause I'm pissed.

3. You're such a douche.

4. This year,6,500 failing bars nationwide

5. will close their doors for good.

6. If things don't change soon,

7. The Wheelhouse in Hemet, California,

8. will become just another statistic.

9. My name's Jesse Vivanco.

10. I'm the owner-operator of the Wheelhouse.

11. We are a bar attached to a skating rink

12. in Hemet.

13. Jesse's ownership of the skating rink

14. gave him the opportunity to see the community grow up,

15. and years later, when the bar would open,

16. hire them as staff.

17. I was running the streets as a young teenager.

18. And I skated here, he gave me a job.

19. I've been working here since high school.

20. Jesse is kinda like a fatherly figure.

21. What're you gonna do, have a tequila?

22. I used to come here and skate with friends and family.

23. It was a big part of a lot of people that work here's life.

24. He's big in the community.

25. Coming out of high school, I'd got an opportunity

26. to be the general manager of the skating rink.

27. I managed to work my way up behind the counter,

28. then I took over the operation in 1998.

29. And I got to know a large amount

30. of the community that way.

31. With rolling profits from the skating rink,

32. Jesse opened up the Wheelhouse Bar in 2004.

33. When we first opened up the bar, it was booming.

34. We instantly opened up at, you know, making 25,000,

35. it jumped to 40,000 a month.

36. Then it jumped— it peaked out at 60,000 a month.

37. - We had a decade of that. - Stephanie: I mean, I could

38. barely walk around to waitress tables

39. because many people.

40. You can't hang!

41. But Jesse couldn't keep the training wheels

42. on his employees for long.

43. It's almost like living in a home

44. with a lot of brothers and sisters.

45. But we have a spectrum of all personalities, by all means.

46. And now his unruly staff

47. is spinning out of control.

48. I'm the bitch because I'm the only one that says anything.

49. Stephanie, she's a firecracker.

50. I wanted to go in there

51. and that kid.

52. Like, calm down a little bit.

53. So I'm pissed.

54. Policies aren't being adhered to.

55. And each and every one of them are at fault to that.

56. Jesse is more of a friend than a boss.

57. Yay!

58. He doesn't want people drinking behind the bar.

59. He wants the cursing, the swearing to come to a stop.

60. Tell everybody to off.

61. It goes in one ear and out the other.

62. And then Jesse's gonna act like

63. nothing's going on.

64. That's what pisses me off. And guess what?

65. He's hiding in the office like a little bitch.

66. Jesse's a pushover,

67. and we just do whatever the we want.

68. Jesse's already struggling business

69. fell further behind

70. when bigger corporations moved into the area.

71. Some of the more corporate chains moved into the community,

72. um, bigger budgets— nicer, modern, new.

73. People don't come to the bar because it's outdated.

74. It's a hole.

75. Customers became less and less frequent,

76. and I was getting behind in paying credit card tips.

77. I personally had a problem with getting paid.

78. There was a time for the whole year

79. that I wasn't getting my tip check.

80. We have approximately $165,000 in debt

81. that I have accrued, and I had to deplete

82. 90% of my retirement as well.

83. If the bar closes, the skating rink closes.

84. I know that a lot of families are gonna be hurting.

85. Now that Jesse is barely skating by,

86. he's decided to pull back the doors,

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

88. to "Bar Rescue."

89. But more than that it's my attachment to the community

90. and those folks that work for me.

91. Jon Taffer: So here we are, guys.

92. This is Hemet, California.

93. About an hour and a half out of Los Angeles.

94. The median household income here is 27,000 a year.

95. The poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in America

96. is 22,000 a year.

97. They're almost at a poverty level in this town.

98. Look at this— "national chain, national chain."

99. We're surrounded by every chain you can imagine.

100. You see a community like this at this kind of income level,

101. what do you think of as a chef?

102. I'm thinking cheap, but good menu items.

103. Something that gives value. We gotta stay on a budget.

104. But all of the national chains are chains

105. that have a median to lower price point.

106. Shawn Ford is a master mixologist,

107. known for skating circles around tight budgets

108. and producing cutting-edge cocktails.

109. Michael Ferraro is an executive chef,

110. known for greasing the limits of any kitchen

111. into wheeling out five-star food.

112. Now this bar that we're going to

113. is actually part of a roller rink.

114. When was the last time you went out to a cool bar

115. - in a roller skating rink? - Uh, never.

116. Why would you drive by all of these national chains,

117. walk through a roller rink

118. to have drink?

119. In order to do that, you gotta provide a product

120. that they can't get somewhere else.

121. So we haven't even seen this place yet,

122. and we already know we gotta create a destination.

123. - Don't we? - Absolutely.

124. There you go, guys. There it is, the Wheelhouse.

125. It's not on a road,

126. it's recessed behind other buildings.

127. Jon and his experts pull up to the Wheelhouse Bar,

128. which is recessed 400 feet off the main road.

129. The 3,600 square foot space

130. is adjacent to a roller skating rink,

131. whose shared kitchen

132. is 137 feet from the main bar.

133. Look at the Wheelhouse roller skating rink.

134. A nice sign and entrance here— red color, et cetera.

135. That door to the right is the bar. Would you know it?

136. There's nothing to give you any indication

137. that there's anything there.

138. Look at the inside.

139. This was dated and old and uncared for, for ten years ago.

140. - Only thing Ben can do is a super nacho. - That's fine.

141. - There's not a— - We're out of onion and all that.

142. - There's no onion back there. - It's not cut?

143. - There's growing, so...

144. There's Jesse, the owner.

145. Jesse's losing 6,500 a month.

146. - Where you been? - Outside. They put me on the door.

147. There's Dean. He's our security guy.

148. thing is so slow tonight.

149. There's Stephanie. She's a bartender.

150. Any Dirty Shirleys, guys?

151. And here's Danielle, another bartender.

152. I know. I'm sweating like a pig.

153. It's pretty busy out there.

154. My mustache is sweatin' .

155. There's Ashleigh, she's another bartender.

156. Now a lot of these girls have been coming here

157. since they were kids roller skating.

158. I said Hangar 24. You go, "No, Coors Light."

159. No, you didn't.

160. No, you up.

161. This woman's mouth is unbelievable.

162. With the attitude that these bartenders

163. give the bar guests, it's a wonder

164. that they're still even open.

165. Let's take some shots.

166. Let's cheers.

167. Look at this.

168. Bartenders are drinking behind the bar

169. and Jesse's letting them get away with it.

170. No wonder he's losing money.

171. Look at this. We have to figure out

172. what else is wrong with this bar.

173. So I had to call somebody who could do more

174. than just reconforming.

175. I called Kevin Undergaro.

176. Keven Undergaro owns AfterBuzz TV,

177. has over a billion downloads a year,

178. and will help me not only get recon,

179. but get market intelligence out of this bar.

180. I wanna get some more market research

181. so I asked Kevin to talk to Jesse and his staff

182. so we can extract some market intelligence

183. and determine what needs to be done here.

184. I love getting the inside scoop

185. on anything related to TV.

186. And I'm here to help Jon Taffer rescue another bar.

187. Kevin, could you order a pizza?

188. - Excuse me. - Yeah?

189. Is it possible to do pizza?

190. I'll be more than happy to make you a pizza.

191. Did you tell him it's gonna be like an hour.

192. There's no POS systems in place.

193. Okay, she's walking to the kitchen.

194. Where are we?

195. This is the roller rink to the right.

196. This rink is clearly not bringing customers

197. to this bar.

198. There's the kitchen.

199. The general rule of thumb— we never go more than 120 feet.

200. There's no way in the world the food lands

201. at the same temperature it left at.

202. It's physically impossible.

203. So you've got a conveyor oven.

204. - There it is. █ - Shawn: Okay.

205. And, of course,

206. a residential microwave.

207. There's no printer or anything in here.

208. Jesse doesn't have an organized way

209. of getting this back and forth.

210. Who's in charge of this?

211. The bartenders apparently go back there

212. and make this stuff and then bring it back.

213. Pizza goes in

214. the conveyor oven.

215. The conveyor is not moving.

216. A conveyor oven like that should not take

217. more than five minutes.

218. - Now I'm hating life right now. - Really?

219. 'Cause I don't wanna cook all night.

220. I wouldn't want to, either.

221. - It'll bull. - Yep.

222. Go ahead and stay here. I'm gonna wash the floor.

223. That way you can run it as soon as it gets done.

224. So we must, at this point

225. be at least 15 minutes or close.

226. How many drinks could she have made in that 20 minutes?

227. Kev, maybe you can ask one of the bartenders

228. what the business patterns are there.

229. Are you full time behind the bar?

230. Four nights a week. When I first started here,

231. it was so busy you couldn't even walk.

232. What happened?

233. I think that a lot of people don't come to the bar

234. because it's outdated.

235. What's the main problem now, do you think?

236. Just lack of structure.

237. No discipline, no consequences

238. for anybody's behavior.

239. He's actually— he's running a charity.

240. You know, he's paying these employees

241. and they're not working for him.

242. Yeah.

243. Look at that pour.

244. This is classic rookie stuff.

245. Big pitcher cocktail

246. that they throw everything in the world in...

247. Do they call it the "Trash Can"?

248. 'Cause that's where you end up puking from drinking this?

249. If you drink it, it gets you sick,

250. gets you drunk.

251. There's more alcohol in that one drink

252. than you're allowed to consume in the time you're here.

253. Oh.

254. See the look on her face when she tried her drink?

255. Wow.

256. That burned?

257. Not my fault.

258. They're still in the kitchen, these girls.

259. Look at the smoke coming out of this oven. That's filth, guys.

260. So this pizza's gonna taste like that filth.

261. So this is the conveyor from hell.

262. - It's burned. - Michael: So that █ was about 25.

263. Can you tell them to come make their own pizza.

264. It's burned. They can come make it themselves.

265. It's not for the customer, but Jesse.

266. She burnt the pizza.

267. This employee has absolutely no respect for Jesse.

268. Look at the way she displays her attitude

269. and doesn't care about that pizza.

270. Why wouldn't you get a cook who has some consistency?

271. This is so crazy to me.

272. Drinking behind a bar is one thing,

273. but there's no way for a business to succeed

274. if an owner doesn't have the respect from his employees.

275. Ask them again if they'll make you a pizza.

276. Really no luck on the pizza?

277. There's nothing I can do about it.

278. Stay on the pizza thing for me.

279. Is it possible for you to get me a pizza?

280. - The kitchen's closed. - The kitchen's closed?

281. 'Cause she knows she has to go back there and make it.

282. If I had one staff member in my restaurant

283. that talked people out of buying food,

284. they'd only be there for an hour.

285. They'd be gone.

286. I went through four or five different people,

287. got four or five different answers.

288. And at the end of the day, all I wanted was a pizza.

289. So this is smart— serve someone alcohol

290. and put them on roller skates.

291. - Put them on eight wheels and see how well they do. - Yeah.

292. Just ask to go to the skating rink, Kev.

293. I'm gonna go check out this other place.

294. 200 degrees is too high right now.

295. - Can you manually lower it? - No, not while...

296. - Keven: You're Jesse, right? █ - Jesse: Yes.

297. Keven. Are you the owner here?

298. - Yes, sir. - Wow.

299. Try to get us some market intelligence.

300. And for the bar itself, what crowd do you get over there?

301. Some locals and people that like karaoke.

302. I mean, 'cause we host that kind of a thing

303. at certain times, then we have comedy shows.

304. So he's doing everything, and he can't make money.

305. Would you consider closing?

306. At the pace that it's been going,

307. probably eight months max.

308. Outside of financial, it's gonna be emotional because it's been here

309. for so long in the part of the community.

310. Now that the bar's not able to carry this,

311. I have to rob from Peter to pay Paul.

312. And I'm doing that sometimes.

313. We have to build a bar

314. that, in fact, stands alone

315. that drives its own revenue

316. and doesn't rely on a roller skating rink to make money.

317. What— I mean, what age group usually comes in here?

318. There's certain particular nights

319. tonight we're actually trying something different.

320. We had an adult skate, it was this 21 and over thing

321. as a trial, but I haven't had anything to lose

322. because the teenagers weren't coming to skate.

323. Alcohol and roller skating might not go very well together.

324. - Oh!

325. Oh, my God. What the?

326. - Oh!

327. Oh, my God. What the?

328. She fell.

329. - What happened? You okay?

330. - Did you hit your head? █ - I lost my footing █ and then...

331. - You've had a few drinks tonight, right? - Yeah.

332. So they over-serve her

333. and then they put roller skates on her!

334. So this is adult night.

335. So Jesse is Mr. Community.

336. Meanwhile, somebody gets drunk right under his nose,

337. falls on skates, and almost gets hurt.

338. She's lucky she didn't crack her head open.

339. Who else is drunk that they're gonna give roller skates to?

340. Keven came in with Jon.

341. We kinda just discussed a little bit about the operation.

342. You know, I tried the program tonight, and it didn't work,

343. and I apologize for that.

344. It's unbelievable.

345. Is this is the crowd you're getting?

346. This is a pretty— it's a pretty general...

347. - Jesse? - Yes, sir.

348. - Pleasure. Nice to meet you. - You, too.

349. I was watching you guys from the SUV,

350. and I saw a girl fall down on her skates

351. from being served too much alcohol.

352. That's not only dangerous, but it's a huge liability.

353. And you understand

354. that the roller-skating rink business is in decline.

355. - You know that? - They're closing across the nation.

356. For this bar to succeed, it's gotta stand alone.

357. It can't be dependent upon a roller-skating rink to survive,

358. - and you know that. - Yes, sir.

359. And you're losing 6,500 a month.

360. And when do you run out of money?

361. I'm out in six to eight months.

362. I've already closed out all my retirement.

363. So let me ask you a question—

364. you have bartenders working for you

365. who, when they go to the kitchen area, pretty much say,

366. him. Let him make his own pizza."

367. - That's what they said about you. - Yeah, I didn't know that.

368. - That's an eye-opener. - Should they be working here with that attitude?

369. I don't believe they should, but at the same time, Jon,

370. I'll be honest with you, they grew up here,

371. they're part of the family.

372. Are you running a charity or a business?

373. - Running a business. - 'Cause that's charity.

374. Do you know he tried to buy food, and they talked him out of it?

375. How bad do you need that money?

376. I gotta fill that wallet, Jon.

377. - Why aren't you angry? - Yeah, I was pretty...

378. Well, why wouldn't you say something?

379. You've gotta have the courage to defend, to manage.

380. Do what you have to do, take control of your business,

381. and I will help you, Jess.

382. But if you don't act, I can't.

383. - So let's go. Let's see what happens. - See you tomorrow.

384. Shut this bar down.

385. Jesse has a charitable heart, but it's time

386. Jesse stick up for himself.

387. If the employees don't get an attitude change, Jesse's gonna fail.

388. Come on over. Let's talk about what just happened.

389. I didn't hear what happened tonight,

390. but I gotta find out who said what.

391. It's not acceptable.

392. If I don't make some changes,

393. Jon will not come back and help me.

394. A lot went down tonight, huh?

395. - Yep. - I'm embarrassed.

396. I don't know if you guys heard what Jon said,

397. but he told me that I have a problem.

398. I wanna ask who said,

399. "Let him make his own pizza"?

400. I said it. I said it back there. No one was around.

401. It's not like I said it in front of the customer.

402. I don't think you would ever said that to my face.

403. I told you there I'm done cooking.

404. I'm not supposed to have attitude about it?

405. We've known each other for a long time,

406. and I would never say that to you.

407. I love you to death, and I've watched you guys

408. - grow up around here... - Okay.

409. but you have to respect me.

410. If you can't respect me, we can't work together.

411. So what are you saying?

412. I'm saying I'm gonna let you go tonight.

413. - And I know this is hard. █ - That's.

414. You guys are right now.

415. - And if I'm wrong, Ashleigh.. █ - No. Done.

416. That was probably one of the hardest things

417. I've ever done in my life

418. 'cause I've known her for so long,

419. but this isn't personal.

420. Whether it was tonight or two months from now.

421. That's not acceptable.

422. That's bull!

423. You guys take this serious now?

424. Do we realize how serious this is?

425. You're gonna fire her because of one thing?

426. You have to understand that is inexcusable behavior.

427. you.

428. I can either run a charity, or I can run a business.

429. They have to know that this business is not gonna stay open

430. if things continue the way they've been.

431. Jesse took a big step forward last night

432. by holding Ashleigh accountable and terminating her.

433. Now I want to find out how this outrageous behavior

434. by all his staff started in the first place.

435. Hello.

436. - Jesse: Morning. █ - Jon: Hi, Jess.

437. Let's all talk, okay?

438. Come on over, guys.

439. You know, before I come here, I do a lot of homework.

440. And I've heard so much about you, Jess.

441. You know, how this town feels about you

442. and how you've mentored people.

443. And as a result of that heart,

444. this poor guy is losing $6,500 a month.

445. House on the line, and he's gonna lose it all.

446. So I come here and watch bunch of employees disrespect.

447. I sent a friend in here, Keven Undergaro,

448. who tried to order food three times.

449. He was talked out of it.

450. Employees say, him, let him make his own pizza."

451. When was the last time you ever let anybody go

452. in this business before last night?

453. - It's been eight years. - Jon: Eight years.

454. Last night was one of the hardest things I had to do.

455. - What do you wanna say?

456. I— I think Ashleigh made a mistake,

457. but I don't think she should get judged for that.

458. I'll have to separate the emotion from the reality.

459. No.

460. She's my best friend.

461. She's done nothing to get fired.

462. Would you wanna work in a place where you say,

463. it, it, it" all day?

464. - No. - She was a prisoner

465. to her own frickin' attitude.

466. You freed her.

467. Now maybe she'll get a job where

468. she doesn't say, it" all day.

469. Danielle, you drink behind the bar?

470. Yeah.

471. - Do you give a way drinks? - No.

472. That hesitation tells me otherwise.

473. And when you give 'em away, it pumps your tips, right?

474. Yeah.

475. So you leave with his money.

476. So they rob from you, and then at the end of the week,

477. you borrow more money to pay them.

478. Tell them that they need to hear from you.

479. You know, guys, I enjoy what I do,

480. and I'm trying to provide a job for all each and every one of you guys.

481. Because I love you guys so much, I've let you guys fail me.

482. You gotta understand you are hurting him.

483. Yeah.

484. You know, if you run this as a business,

485. you can do charity all over town with the money you make.

486. But if you make this a charity,

487. then we're not gonna get anywhere.

488. You hear what I'm sayin'?

489. Last night what was said, not acceptable,

490. and everybody needs to understand that.

491. - You need to understand that. - Stephanie: you.

492. No. That was the hardest thing to watch.

493. It's bull!

494. Find another job if that's your attitude!

495. Steph, why are you so upset?

496. It's just hard hearing you

497. because I feel like I'm failing Jesse,

498. and I don't wanna disappoint him ever.

499. So we've got a serious issue here.

500. You got people who love you and who feel terrible

501. because nobody's winning here.

502. I can't turn around the roller-skating rink industry,

503. but I can turn around this bar.

504. So let's fight it out, and get out the other side of this thing together.

505. - Ready to go to work, Jess? - Let's do it.

506. It has become a little bit more obvious

507. I've been putting Band-Aids on things or overlooking things.

508. And I believe Stephanie and Danielle recognize the faults

509. that they have that Jon pointed out,

510. and they're ready to move forward with me.

511. Shawn Ford is one of my favorite mixologists in America.

512. Mike Ferraro is a master of working in difficult environments.

513. Mike, we gotta figure that darn kitchen out.

514. I saw so many employees last night, and no cook.

515. And having all your employees talk people out of selling food.

516. If that happened in one of my restaurants, my head would explode.

517. - Do you have someone that we can train to cook? - Jesse: I do.

518. Great. Let's get him on the phone. Let's get him down here.

519. Let's go to work.

520. The demographic that we're appealing to

521. has a very limited disposable income.

522. So all of these cocktails are built with ingredients

523. that are inexpensive.

524. And we're gonna have a price point

525. the people in Hemet, California, can all get behind.

526. Let's talk about this cocktail that you make called "the Trash Can."

527. We understand the demographic

528. has very little disposable income.

529. I understand that cocktails probably about perceived value

530. so that we need to talk about the difference

531. between perception and reality.

532. Tell me which one of those glasses has more volume in it?

533. Well, perception says the taller glass.

534. Let's find out.

535. - What's the verdict? - They're the same.

536. - They're the same. - They are the same.

537. The point of this is the perceived value

538. from the optics point of it.

539. The perceived value is that the volume in this

540. - is going to be more than this. - Both: Yeah.

541. The first cocktail we're gonna build

542. is a great example of what we're trying to do here.

543. For this cocktail, we're gonna use

544. one and a half ounce silver tequila,

545. one ounce of fresh lemon juice,

546. half ounce of simple syrup.

547. Then we're gonna combine all the ingredients

548. in a cocktail shaker filled with ice,

549. shake, then strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice.

550. Top with orange soda with an orange sugar rim.

551. - Give it a try, guys. Tell me what you think. - It's very good.

552. You can taste the alcohol, but it's not overpowering.

553. If that's what we're trying to hit with this trash can cocktail,

554. I think we're getting close to the mark with this instead.

555. - Who's first? - Danielle: Me!

556. Come on down.

557. I'm the newest bartender.

558. I've been bartending a little over a year.

559. - Little more. - Little more?

560. I definitely don't have as much experience

561. as the other girls.

562. - Close. Your tequila pour was short. - Okay.

563. And the whole point of this is a perceived value,

564. and we can't give a perceived value

565. - if we're shorting on the liquor. - Yeah.

566. I've been bartending for four years or so.

567. I learned within, So I've never went to school for it or anything.

568. For somebody that has such a limp wrist last night,

569. you've got the stiffest wrist I've ever seen today.

570. Does that mean I need to put more tequila in?

571. One thing we preach is attitude.

572. That's getting better, but these people need to understand

573. that it's about balance, it's about drinkability,

574. it's about presentation.

575. Heads up. Great attitude, smile.

576. You smile, they'll smile back.

577. - Mark, it is? - Yes, it is.

578. Nice to meet you. Michael. I understand that you

579. - used to be the cook here. - Yes, sir.

580. We're gonna go over some training today.

581. And we are gonna set you guys up to be efficient.

582. The bar is almost 100 steps away from the kitchen.

583. Now, that's a long way when you're trying to serve food hot.

584. So we're thinking, instead of trays coming out and then getting cold,

585. to base a menu off a handheld item in insulated foil.

586. We're gonna do a riff on a Philly cheese steak.

587. We're appealing to a very specific market.

588. So everything is gonna be under five dollars,

589. which will attract those customers going to neighborhood chains.

590. We're gonna use flatbread dough

591. because our flatbread is a bought product,

592. we don't have to worry about defrosting on the fly.

593. Little bit of olive oil, Provolone cheese,

594. sliced braised beef,

595. caramelized onion, peppers.

596. So we're gonna go ahead and put this onto our tray.

597. Into the oven.

598. All right, Mark, let's go ahead and grab it.

599. Okay. We took five minutes total cooking time.

600. Last night we were talking 30-35 minutes.

601. So it's about being efficient.

602. We're gonna wrap it in the insulated foil.

603. Now it's gonna stay hot. Let's give this a taste.

604. Mm. Very good.

605. So let's get ready for a stress test, guys.

606. - Yes. - All right.

607. I have never seen a community

608. love an owner more than they love Jesse

609. and support a business less than they do Jesse's business.

610. So I have to make this bar stand alone.

611. So tonight, the roller skating rink is closed.

612. Now that we have a cook, I want Jesse to help run food

613. so the bartenders can focus on producing drinks

614. instead of walking back and forth from the kitchen.

615. - A lot of people grew up in Hemet... - Yeah.

616. um, went to the Wheelhouse as kids.

617. It'd be nice to have a place to come and enjoy a drink

618. and some food.

619. These are your buckets.

620. When you make a cocktail improperly, it's gonna go in here.

621. Oh.

622. Welcome, everybody.

623. The Wheelhouse bar is now open.

624. - Come on in.

625. - Here we go, Danielle. - Goin'.

626. - Scoot over, bitch. - All right.

627. Hi, guys.

628. Can I get you guys something?

629. No?

630. Not enough tequila in that one. One up, one down.

631. Two Philly.

632. Three of the Phillies.

633. Like, I can't even understand what this says here.

634. - What is this? - The lines of drink.

635. - Can we just put food? - Drink and food only, yeah.

636. All right.

637. Almost instantly

638. there's ten different languages

639. being written for the orders here.

640. There's no way to identify where it's going.

641. It's a mess.

642. I'm trying, I'm trying.

643. That was too much tequila in it.

644. Oh!

645. These two are now dead because they've sat here for 90 seconds

646. waiting for you to top them.

647. Oh!

648. Oh, my gosh.

649. Tonight one of my best friends, Keven Undergaro is here,

650. and I want him to do some market intelligence work for me.

651. I wanna find out why people are going

652. to all the national chains instead of this bar

653. when they're all within a block of each other.

654. We haven't been here in over a year— year and a half.

655. Do you— do you know the owner?

656. Oh, yeah, we love 'em.

657. We just don't come here

658. because there are much nicer chains to go to in the area.

659. If he made it into a positive experience,

660. he would make a lot of money.

661. The consensus we're hearing is that Jesse

662. is so well-loved by the community they would come back.

663. Make it one drink at a time.

664. These guys are gonna go thirsty, Jesse's gonna go broke,

665. you guys are gonna go to the unemployment line.

666. I'm gonna save you the hassle.

667. Oh, mother.

668. One, one thousand, two, one thousand. Done.

669. Not to four, to two.

670. The first ten, 12, 15 drinks got dumped.

671. They gotta work on their counts

672. 'cause everything is way too sweet.

673. Let's go. Come on, move, guys.

674. - Here we go. - Patrons: Whoo!

675. Hold it! Hold it!

676. - The moment of truth. - Wait, wait, wait.

677. Shawn?

678. - Taste like a sugar bomb. - Patrons: Oh!

679. They're not coming out that great right now.

680. You got four ready here.

681. I don't know if this is all for the same table.

682. These are all different names.

683. Are they sitting together, are they random people?

684. None of these have a table number on it.

685. This is a bad system.

686. Mark, he's doing his best to keep up here.

687. But we're trying to basically remember the orders here

688. because we can't understand what the tickets say.

689. - Classic Philly. Delicious. - Yeah.

690. Really good.

691. Should be two— they should have a yellow ticket,

692. but there should be two Phillies and— oh, well.

693. This is a chaos, and it's obvious that some of the organization

694. that I have in place is not making it any easier.

695. I do not waitress. I do not serve food, I do not cook the food.

696. I'm security.

697. I gotta do it, help Jesse out.

698. He asks me to do something, I do it.

699. Any more Phillies coming out?

700. - Right now. - Thank you.

701. We're gonna need a four count.

702. I think the boys are getting a little irritated.

703. Who's actually gotten a drink? Raise your hand.

704. One...

705. One!

706. Oh, my God.

707. One! How many have we dumped out?

708. I stopped counting at 20.

709. Get it right, guys.

710. Let's go. Come on. Get some drinks outta here!

711. We're buried.

712. The bartenders aren't effective.

713. If the employees don't get their systems together,

714. Jesse's gonna fail.

715. It doesn't take a bar expert to tell you

716. that something's wrong with these drinks.

717. Oh!

718. Both of my buckets are full

719. and spilling over onto the bar.

720. These guys can't get their counts right.

721. Ready to cry?

722. No!

723. Here we go!

724. No!

725. At about 80 cents an ounce.

726. You made five dollars on one drink

727. and dumped hundreds down the drain.

728. That is frickin' failure!

729. No!

730. There's about $200 down the drain!

731. We can't succeed without the systems.

732. We don't know what orders are coming into the kitchen.

733. The checks aren't written properly.

734. We're not communicating. We can't get the food out.

735. We can't get the drinks out.

736. The bartenders have a decent attitude now,

737. but they're falling behind

738. 'cause they can't get their pour counts right.

739. We got a lot of training to do, guys.

740. - So let's close it down. - Okay.

741. All right, guys, listen up!

742. I wanna thank you all for coming.

743. We're gonna close the bar down for the rest of the night,

744. and we're gonna get to work.

745. Hey, guys, why don't you come around. Let's talk a little bit.

746. - Looks like we got some training to do still. - Definitely.

747. I know where I failed, I know where we were stumbling.

748. I've made the mistakes of not correcting things

749. that are gonna get corrected, and I apologize

750. to each and every one of you guys.

751. We're all gonna be on the same page.

752. After tomorrow, we'll have a new identity,

753. but we'll still be the same team.

754. And we'll move forward and create another decade

755. of providing this community— our community, this is ours.

756. All right, and give them what they deserve

757. and have a nice place that we enjoy going to work for.

758. I'm feeding off my staff right now.

759. They got life, too. And I'm excited about that.

760. Keven's market intelligence has been powerful.

761. I've learned how much this market wants to support Jesse,

762. and I've learned how much they don't like this bar.

763. The inside of these four walls must speak loudly

764. to the marketplace outside.

765. - Hi. - Stephanie: Hello.

766. Let's get together.

767. We dumped— are you ready?

768. 48 drinks last night.

769. That's not only hundreds of wasted dollars,

770. but 48 customers left dissatisfied, too.

771. And that's as bad as it gets.

772. And to think that I would have a kitchen for years

773. all the way down there,

774. and not have an organized way

775. of getting us back and forth.

776. This bar is not failing 'cause it's old.

777. It's failing 'cause it is completely mismanaged.

778. And if you don't change the way you run this business,

779. it's all for nothing, Jesse.

780. They love you, but they gotta love this bar.

781. Absolutely.

782. This is a rough one, guys.

783. This is a marketplace whose median household income

784. is $5,000 above poverty level.

785. I need to create a bar concept that has value,

786. that has a little rock 'n' roll,

787. a little edge, a little style.

788. And I've come up with a concept

789. that pulls all of those elements together.

790. - Are you committed to this? - Definitely 110.

791. Let's go to work, guys. Let's do this. Okay.

792. Last night we saw that the market

793. responded really well to flatbreads.

794. So today I'm gonna have Chef Ferraro

795. work with Mark in the kitchen

796. to really perfect those flatbreads,

797. as Shawn Ford works with the bartending staff on new recipes.

798. - How're we doing after last night? - Danielle: That was rough.

799. I knew the biggest hurdle

800. was going to be the efficiency of it.

801. Your pours, your counts were off,

802. but we've gotta nail them

803. because if we're off on our counts,

804. then we're gonna kill the costs,

805. and then we're defeating the purpose

806. of trying to save you from the position you're in.

807. The first drink that we're going to do is a drop shots.

808. Two ounces of our fresh blueberry juice,

809. top with cream soda,

810. one ounce of our vodka.

811. Take the vodka, drop it into the glass,

812. and this is called the "Black & Blue."

813. █ That's cute.

814. That effervescence creates a bit of a show.

815. This is the use of molecular gastronomy.

816. Molecular gastronomy is when you use science

817. to enhance the flavor for aesthetics of a cocktail.

818. It adds a perceived value,

819. and it drives them through those doors

820. and puts money in your pocket.

821. - How do you guys feel about it? - Awesome.

822. - Great. - Jesse: It's gonna be unique,

823. it's gonna be a signature, not just for our bar,

824. but for our community now.

825. - I'll see you at relaunch. - Thank you.

826. Jesse has finally gained the respect of his staff.

827. But today I really want to sit down with him

828. and really cover all the building blocks

829. that he needs to achieve to be successful.

830. Normally when I do rescues,

831. honestly, too often, the owner's a jerk.

832. You have an incredible reputation and a goodness about you,

833. and you are an example to so many people.

834. I don't want your goodness to become irrelevant years from now.

835. I want you to keep doing good till the end.

836. I want to give you a bar that stands alone,

837. is it's own brand.

838. And if you wanna come here

839. and use the roller rink, and use the bar, it works.

840. But I want this to make money even if that doesn't.

841. I'm gonna leave you a nice bar.

842. But what are you gonna do differently?

843. I'm gonna hold the standards up higher,

844. put them at a good level, and I wanna keep them there.

845. I wanna exercise more tough love that—

846. because I do love them all.

847. So when they make bad choices, you bust them.

848. That's how you make them better.

849. - Okay? - Absolutely.

850. - Let's go to work. - Okay.

851. Hello!

852. Wow!

853. I knew they loved you, Jess,

854. but I didn't realize they loved you this much.

855. We love you!

856. When I got here, you were losing 6,500 a month.

857. In debt 165,000.

858. And you're a guy who wants to do well

859. for your community every day.

860. And now you were stuck in a place when you couldn't.

861. Frustrating.

862. This was more than about money.

863. And when I saw how this community supports you...

864. Honestly, how many of you know of Jesse?

865. How many of you know all the good he's done for your community?

866. It's time he gets something back, you agree?

867. - Okay, you ready? - Yes.

868. Okay, here we go. On the count of three.

869. One...

870. two...

871. three!

872. On the count of three.

873. One... two...

874. three!

875. "Derby's Bar & Grill."

876. Whoo!

877. Derby's. What are we talking about?

878. Roller derby.

879. Although there's a lot of nostalgia

880. for the roller rink in this community,

881. I needed to create a bar that could stand on its own

882. as a separate business.

883. This derby concept will get new customers in the door

884. and at the same time honor the rink's importance to the community.

885. The sign is placed there

886. so we do have visibility from the street.

887. - What do you

888. think, Jess? - It's amazing.

889. The community deserves this, my staff deserves this.

890. I'm proud to be the owner of Derby's Bar & Grill.

891. There's really only one thing left to do.

892. - You guys

893. wanna see it?

894. - All: Yes!

895. Oh, my God!

896. Oh, my God, look at the bar!

897. Penalty box! Yeah!

898. Look at the roller skates.

899. - Do you like your bar? - Oh, yeah!

900. There's actually a lot of little things going on.

901. Come over to the bar. Let me show you.

902. The first thing that I did is

903. I got all historic photographs from Roller Derby

904. to give it some authenticity.

905. I turned that into a penalty box up there,

906. which is, in essence, a place that you can sell

907. for bachelor parties, bachelorette parties,

908. and just use that as a little private area.

909. Each work station has its own

910. 2-Touch POS system, which is fast.

911. There's a printer in the kitchen

912. so all the items print up with the stool number,

913. the table numbers so we know where it goes.

914. I got Thunder Group to give you all new bar tools,

915. Everything you need to be successful behind the bar.

916. I got you an Orange Door Music entertainment system.

917. When the music is right, the customer mix will be right.

918. One of the biggest problems that we had, Jess, was training, right?

919. - Yep. - So what I did

920. is I got you a lifetime subscription

921. to Taffer Virtual Teaching.

922. All new employees log in and I train them for you.

923. - Oh, wow. █ - Perfect.

924. I also wanted to make sure that we sold.

925. Nothing is over five dollars in this bar.

926. Median household income level if 27,000 a year,

927. poverty is 22.

928. So I wanted to provide value at low prices

929. Guys, we got a bar to open,

930. we got about 200 people standing out there.

931. - Are we ready to do this? - Stephanie: Yes.

932. - All right. Tonight we make money! - Yeah!

933. I brought in Terra Saunders,

934. founder of Waitressville Uniforms

935. to help me create a derby-themed uniform

936. that'll pull this theme together

937. and make it unique in the marketplace.

938. You look amazing. How do you feel?

939. - Amazing. - I feel sexy.

940. You are walking, talking billboards.

941. You know, you look good, you feel good,

942. - And you... - Both: Make money!

943. Exactly.

944. Welcome, everybody. I want to introduce you to my new bar.

945. It's Derby's. Come on it.

946. Hi.

947. You wanna drink?

948. A Black & Blue?

949. Oh, I know. I love 'em.

950. - Four. - Perfect.

951. There you go,

952. and the food will be right up.

953. Here we go.

954. I go drop shot. Yeah. Whoo-hoo!

955. Go, girl!

956. One spicy chicken.

957. You got six totals. Let's make six Jumpstarts.

958. I appreciate you coming.

959. Go, let's go! Watch this!

960. - Here we go. - Get 'em up, the double shake.

961. - Come on, girl!

962. Go!

963. Perfect. See, you got this.

964. Stephanie's got a smile. She's shaking with both hands.

965. Danielle's been putting the drinks out.

966. The drinks she's got out have been great.

967. And they've learned that their attitude

968. has been able to bail out their aptitude.

969. We're getting to where we need to be, that's for sure.

970. Was anybody here the other night?

971. - How much better is she now? - Way better.

972. It feels good to be actually serving customers

973. and making money.

974. What do you think?

975. - It's beautiful. - Yeah?

976. We like it. It's very nice.

977. - I like how bright it is... - It's very well-lit.

978. - Yeah. - Yeah.

979. And the prices are great.

980. Okay.

981. It's a night and day difference.

982. People are excited for Jesse now.

983. We have a winner. Everyone's gonna be back here.

984. I'm ecstatic for Jesse. This is something this town needs.

985. Have you had a chance to place an order?

986. I'm sure they're gonna be out here pretty quick.

987. Another spicy chicken and a Philly.

988. - So just make those two chicken. - Got it.

989. The orders came in fast tonight.

990. And we can actually read them

991. because they're coming out of a POS system.

992. Mark is pumping the food out.

993. We are averaging about five-minute ticket times tonight.

994. And we have a lot of orders.

995. So I'm happy with that.

996. Cheers, buddy.

997. Oh, man.

998. This spicy chicken is probably

999. the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. No lie.

1000. I'm a fan of the Black & Blue.

1001. It was delicious.

1002. Look out for a second. This is cool.

1003. - Full bar. - Yeah. This is awesome.

1004. - Good-looking crowd. - Yeah.

1005. - You happy? - Yeah.

1006. - I'm very proud of you. - Thank you.

1007. Thank you.

1008. And this is gonna be Table 110.

1009. Yeah, so...

1010. Tonight Jesse is leading, managing, he's dressed the part.

1011. He's walking faster, talking faster.

1012. He's engaged, he's touching product

1013. and making money.

1014. - You made money tonight, didn't you? - I think so.

1015. I see some smiling faces and some drinks in others.

1016. I'm getting great compliments on the food.

1017. - Excellent. Are you happy? - Absolutely.

1018. - Thank you, Jon. - Oh, it was my pleasure.

1019. I'm so happy.

1020. Jesse's reputation in this community

1021. was bigger than life, but he has an empty wallet.

1022. His days of charity was over.

1023. And now with a new bar

1024. and the community standing behind it,

1025. the rink has a greater chance of success, too.

1026. Thank you, folks.