On tonight’s Spike “Bar Rescue,” Jon Taffer and his crew came to St. Louis, Missouri on this episode titled, “Land of the Beer and Home of the Misbehaved.” In 2011, Italian restaurant owner, Andrea Ervin decided to open O’Kelley’s Sports Bar in downtown, just two blocks from Busch Stadium. Not long after, she lost her manager and brought in her nephew Cameron as a bartender with no experience. Her manager, Kim from the restaurant is now managing in the bar, but Cameron has no respect for her. Andrea now loses about $6,500 a month, has an unruly staff and is in debt at $700,000. One business is keeping the other going. So Andrea as agreed to bust open the books and call for help from Jon Taffer and “Bar Rescue.”
Jon is sitting in his SUV with Andrea as they watch what goes on inside O’Kelley’s. As they observed, Kim had a huge trucker’s cup on the bar that she carried around. Kim knows that Andrea hates that cup. Jon showed Andrea videos of her nephew fighting with customers and giving away drinks like they were water. The recon was done by Dan Katz of Barstool Sports and Chris Long, currently an NFL defensive lineman with the Rams. They each ordered a Bud and Bud Lite, and the beer was flat. They ordered food that was not prepared properly, and the Reuben nachos and burger were horrible. She saw Cameron constantly doing shots and making Kim cry with his swearing at her and embarrassing her in front of customers.
When Andrea went in, she told Cameron that he could not drink, give away liquor and speak to Kim like he did. He denied everything, and she told him she was watching him all night. He walked out stating that he could not handle this. When she saw Kim, she told her that she did not want her with that gigantic cup. Jon then walked in and told Andrea he would be back in the morning. She then took Cameron and told him that Kim was his boss.
The next day, Jon brought in expert mixologist Shawn Ford and Mike Ferraro, executive chef and owner of Delicatessen in NYC. Mike went into the kitchen and found several violations that could make anyone very sick. When confronted, Kim just cried again. She admitted she was not a bar manager, but Jon told her she was for two years. Pounds of rotten meat were a tribute to poor management and lack of caring.
At the bar, Shawn found fruit flies and flies in the liquor bottles. Kim stated that she left lists of things to be done, but they never were. Jon was not sure she could manage anything. When a manager sees things not being done, and only perpetuates them, she is not a manager. Jon yelled at her when she said she did nothing about them, but run and grab her big blue cup. Kim then cried again, which probably worked in the past, but Jon accepts no excuses.
Mike Ferraro then put one of the winners of the Budweiser Burger challenge on the menu and taught Anthony how to make it and paired it with Bud Amber Bock. As the stress test was about to begin, Jon gave the bartenders a $50 tip. For each mistake they made, $5 was deducted by Shawn. At the bar, Jon pointed out two vice presidents; Josh Halpern of Anheuser-Busch and Rick Nechto of Anheuser-Busch InBev, both know beer and found the glasses were not “beer-clean.” Both told Andrea, their problem and she corrected it immediately. Kim took half of a table’s orders and never returned for the rest of the orders. Kim quit in tears as Andrea went after her, she told her to give Jon her blue cup.
Everyone told Andrea their problems after the bar was shut down. Jon met with Andrea after the mess was over. They sat in another location overlooking the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium and Jon told her that Kim had not been trained properly. They both agreed that Tina should be the manager, and Jon also stated that he saw Cameron in a new light last night.
As the new bar was ready to be unveiled, Jon had the Budweiser wagon drawn by Clydesdales in front. The new name was Pastimes on 4th, a St. Louis Pub. Inside was the history of St. Louis, especially Budweiser. At the bar were the two VPs, and they had no complaints. With Tina managing, the place was running very well on this episode of “Bar Rescue.”
Ten weeks after the relaunch, Pastimes on 4th has only grossed $15,376 in food and beverage sales. Andrea blames the poor sales on the emergence of new sports bars in the area. Cameron no longer works at the bar and Pastimes on 4th currently only opens for private events.
