King's Duck Inn - Bar Rescue Update - Open or Closed?

In this Bar Rescue episode, Jon Taffer visits King’s Duck Inn in Merit Island, Florida.

King’s Duck Inn is owned by Serena Biscontini.

In 1997, Serena took over the Inn with her father.

It has been in her family since 1962 and is just down the street from the Kennedy Space Centre.

The area is a popular haunt for NASA staff and real astronauts.

She ran it with her father for a while but she went into nursing when her sister Jean stepped in.

In 2011, the space centre had some layoffs, which affected business in the area.

About $600,000 went missing over a period of ten years with no explanation.

Jean abandoned the business and disappeared and then her father died in 2014.

Serena had to step in, running the Inn fulltime even though the bar was already in debt and she was inexperienced.

She hired her daughter, Amanda, as a Manager and they both clash which has affected the business and staff.

The bar is falling apart with poor sanitation practices and disrepair.

Jon recons the bar with expert mixologist Mia Mastroianni, and expert chef Tiffany Derry.

They note how dated the front of the bar looks with the colours and don’t understand the choice of name.

Jon tells them about the area and that the Kennedy Space Centre is close by.

He tells them of her financial situation and how she is months from closing.

They meet Amanda, her daughter and manager and bartenders Amy and Teri.

Kenny aka Bobo is a barback, Bryon is a kitchen manger and Q is the cook.

The interior is dated and dingy and they see carpets on the walls.

They see bad practices in the kitchen and the complicated POS system.

He shows the team footage of mother and daughter at each other’s throats and being disruptive at work.

They see the tension in the bar and Jon decides to go in and address both.

Jon sits with the mother and daughter and they first talk over each other showing they one up each other on insults.

Jon is astounded at the level of disrespect.

He finds out they both want the best for the business, despite their dislike for each other.

He asks them to get all the resentment out so they can focus on saving the bar then he leaves them.

The next day Jon comes in early and gathers the team for a staff meeting.

He quizzes the staff on the bar’s history and the financials of the bar and they find out they are about a month away from closing.

Serena says its all because of her sister and she is made to admit that it is all on her.

They tackle the lost opportunity of the space centre being close by.

They are sitting on history and legacy but not using it to their advantage.

Jon suggests Serena play the role of Owner/Manager and Amanda be Operations Manager.

Next, he introduces the experts to start training.

Mia takes the bar staff through making some basic but fast cocktails and making a tequila sunrise.

Jon meets his team and they decide to keep the name of the bar.

He plans to highlight its space history as many people have been in the bar who have been to space.

Tiffany takes the kitchen staff through making some pork sliders as sharing food to drive up sales.

For the stress test, both Serena and Amanda are nervous.

Customers are let in and they get slammed with orders.

The bartenders make some initial mistakes and food is sent out quickly and arrives before their drinks.

Serena helps with serving but can’t make drinks or food so can’t help where it is needed.

Soon both the bar and kitchen are backed up and the customers are left without food, drinks or from even having their orders taken.

They run out of glasses and Serena and Amanda have to go look for glasses as they haven’t been washing glasses as they were retrieved.

Food tickets back up to twenty-eight minutes so the bar was shut down because of all the backlog.

The next day, the team is taken to an offsite location for training while their bar is being renovated.

They give feedback on the night before and Jon commends Amanda for having Serena’s back.

Mia trains the bar staff on communication and spatial awareness and introduces new cocktails.

In the kitchen, Tiffany takes the staff through communication in serving food and trains them on making fish tacos.

Jon meets with Amanda to get to the root of the chip on her shoulder.

She tells him that she was overwhelmed by the praise she received earlier as she does not hear it a lot.

Serena joins in and she is told how her insults hurt and being more positive would get the best out of Amanda.

The staff gathered on a rainy evening for the relaunch and they count down to reveal the bar.

It now has a bolder exterior that is eye catching and the sign her father designed is hanging by the road.

Inside the colour scheme has been continued.

The space centre missions are on the walls with their history and there is an astronaut’s chair set up for pictures.

TNW Paintings painted the walls and the logos of the shuttles were done by Logos Promote Vinyl Lab.

At the bar there is a new sink, more stations and a new Manitowoc Ice Machine

There are new four Harbour Touch POS systems, Partender for inventory and TVT for training.

After preparations the waiting customers are let in.

On relaunch, the bar staff are confidently making drinks and doing much better than stress test.

In the kitchen, orders start coming in and Serena has to allocate runners to get the food out quickly.

Halfway, the bar staff get nervous and need to speed up to meet up with the orders.

The customers are having a good time, enjoying the drinks and the food.

The staff are doing five times better than they did on stress test.

What Happened Next at King's Duck Inn?

Six weeks later, it is revealed their sales increased by $5,000 a week.

Serena and Amanda have been able to keep the peace.

King's Duck Inn closed in March 2022.

They closed after selling the business.

Serena put the bar up for sale via auction in February 2021 as she wanted to spend more time with her family.

It was unsold at auction and the business was listed for sale on Loopnet for $1.6million in July 2021.

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This post was last updated in March 2022.