In this Bar Rescue episode, Jon Taffer visits Harbor Point Club and Grill in Richardson, Texas.
Harbor Point Club and Grill is owned by John Willis and Bert Novey.
John invested $10,000 and the later cashed in his 401k.
Jon is worried the owners have not been truthful about the bar and wants to know the real story.
He comes in with expert mixologist Phil Wills and expert chef Ryan Scott and tells them about the owners.
They note the front of the club is not bad looking at all but the inside of the bar looks outdated.
Nancy is the manager, Fefe and Steven are bartenders and Danny is the cook.
Fefe uses soda out of a can rather than a wholesale keg for a cocktail which is increases costs.
Jon wants to suss the truth of the situation so has his team pretend to pack up their cameras.
He tells the owners that he won’t be coming in to rescue the bar.
Brett starts sniffling immediately as the owners go to a back room to talk about this.
They express their fears for their children and homes.
This changes Jon’s mind and he comes into the bar to speak with them.
The owners tell him that they have more than $400,000 invested in the business and have no money left.
They sit down to drink at the bar because they are stressed by the situation.
Jon can’t understand why they are that close to ruin but drink because they are stressed.
He tells them to clean up the bar and they must work harder than he would.
The next day, they have a staff meeting with Jon and the experts.
The staff say that the owners used to be more involved when the bar made money.
Nowadays John drinks at the bar for the whole 12 hours he is at the bar.
Jon shows John’s bar tabs, in January he drunk $4605 of alcohol, that is $170 a day.
In February he drunk $4060 and $150 a day and in March it was $3975 and $151 a day.
It is estimated that John drank about $51,000 worth of alcohol from the bar in a year.
Jon points out his partner has 6 figures in the business and a $10,000 tax bill but they are drinking away $50,000.
The staff complain the drinking makes the owners lazy and unsupportive.
Jon decides to test the owners and staff on serving drinks and food with only 15 minutes wait time.
Jon orders some meals and cocktails.
The margarita comes in on time but its watery and the strawberry daiquiri is sugary.
The food is taking too long as the grill is actually on fire in the kitchen.
The fire is due to old grease on the equipment that have not being cleaned.
Jon and Ryan speak with John who denies the grill being like that all the time or serving a burnt burger the night before.
Jon asks them to clean the kitchen and walks out.
Phil trains the bar staff on properly mixing a balanced cocktail, a peach tea.
Ryan trains the kitchen staff on how to make fast and easy street-style tacos on a clean stove.
For the stress test, Phil will be putting stickers on the back of a bartender that makes a mistake, five stickers and they step away from the bar.
Fefe and Steven get stickers at the beginning because they need to make multiple drinks at once.
For food, the orders come in slowly and when they do come in Danny is only doing one order at a time.
An order of food has no table number as it was not in the system.
Brett is late is pick up orders and the bartenders have 4 stickers each.
Steven is first to get to 5 stickers before Fefe joins him.
Brett and John are called to the bar to apologise to the customers as it is shut down.
Jon sees the bar needs help and suggests a new selling point.
He thinks they could be the bar with the largest Taco menu in town.
Ryan trains the kitchen on different Taco recipes called the Taffer Taco, Texan Taco and Sweet Bliss Taco.
For the bar, the focus will be simple and spicy cocktails to compliment the food.
John and Brett speak with staff about processes that need to be in place like table numbers and assures them they can do better.
Jon speaks with the owners and Brett says he realises he needs to be more involved in the business.
He gives Jon advice on how to approach John about his drinking.
John realises his drinking is affecting him and he is clear headed for the first time in a while.
Brett is commissioned to stop John from drinking at the bar and reminding him of what they are losing.
It is relaunch night and the new Harbour Point is revealed.
The name of the bar has been changed to JB Taco with a new sign by Image Flow Sign and Graphic Solutions.
They now have the largest Taco menu in the state of Texas with 50 different tacos on offer.
The inside the bar has been changed. It has been updated and modernised.
There are 4 new Harbour Touch POS systems.
East Coast Chair and Barstool did the furnishings and Cold Tech Refrigeration put in a new draft beer system.
There are digital table tents with phone chargers from OneStone, who also did all the graphics on the monitors in the bar.
They also have a subscription to Sculpture Hospitality for inventory and TVT for training.
Brett and John are emotional, nervous and hopeful about the business.
The owners are each in charge of the front of the house and the kitchen.
On relaunch, the customers are let in and orders start coming in.
The staff are doing great at upselling Tacos and Danny is doing a good job meeting up with orders.
There are racks of tacos everywhere.
Customers are not just loving eating it but are taking pictures for social media.
The bar is doing three times better than they did on stress test.
Steven is complimented on his performance and John is jumping in to make drinks when needed.
What Happened Next at Harbor Point Club & Grill / JB Taco?
Six weeks later, John and Brett had discontinued the new concept of the bar.
Instead they renamed the bar to Rocket's Sports Bar & Grill and the bar had a sports theme.
Reviews say that they changed the concept fairly quickly.
Diners went expecting tacos and they had no ingredients to make them.
The reviews after they rebranded were mostly positive with praise for drinks, service and food.
Rocket's Sports Bar & Grill / Harbor Point Club & Grill / JB Taco closed in early 2020.
The club was sold to new owners and reopened as Good Vibes Bar and Grill
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Next episode - Drunken Donkey Bar & Grill
This post was last updated in March 2022.
So many of these owners bail right after the fix.
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