The Fifth - Bar Rescue Update - Open or Closed?

In this Bar Rescue episode, Jon Taffer visits The Fifth Amendment aka The Fifth in Bountiful, Utah.

The Fifth was a pizza shop and was purchased by Jex Hepworth in 1957.

He converted the pizza shop into The Fifth, a successful social spot.

In 1999, Jex sold the establishment to his son Brad and retired.

For some years it was successful and popular and they were making up to $10,000 a month.

He hired his two daughters Kortney and Paige to help out at the bar.

Soon Brad got lax and started joining in the party atmosphere.

He started drinking his profits letting the bar fall in disrepair.

In 2018, Jex passed away and that really changed Brad.

He is now in debt and his daughters want to take over the bar.

He doesn’t want to hand over the bar to them in the state it is in.

Jon recons the bar with expert mixologist Tommy Palmer and expert chef Anthony Lamas.

Jon gives them the low down on the history of the bar.

He tells them that Brad is in debt of over $300,000 and losing $4,000 a month.

They see Brad is drinking heavily at the bar.

His daughter Kortney used to be GM of the bar.

She quit after her father refused to allow her make changes.

They meet Alyssa, Teresa and Tony who are all bartenders.

Devon is the manager and John is the cook.

They see John do some questionable things in the kitchen.

Jon has arranged for some girls to come in at intervals to test the service in the bar.

The first two come in and order a watermelon cocktail and a gimlet.

Alyssa serves the cocktail in the wrong glass.

She doesn’t know what a gimlet is made of even though it’s a traditional drink.

Alyssa is then asked for a whiskey sour and she makes it incorrectly.

The ladies make fun of the drink.

Alyssa takes her bag and leaves for the night without telling anyone.

Two more girls and 15 more people walk into the bar.

Jon has one more bartender pulled from the bar and Brad doesn’t notice.

Soon all the bartenders are pulled out and Brad is still sitting at his table drinking.

Kortney notices and jumps in to help but the daughters are pulled too.

Jon can’t take it anymore and goes in to sit with Brad.

Brad never noticed all his employees had left the building.

There are customers not being served.

Brad says he can’t serve customers because he had been drinking.

Jon finds out even if he was sober, he couldn’t make drinks.

He can't use the POS system or open the cash register.

Jon points out that his father would have noticed and gotten in on the action.

He said that he was wasting his father’s legacy.

Jon gives him a challenge to list the things his father did daily at the bar and then tend to the bar.

Jon meets the staff the next day and explains how he orchestrated the previous night’s situation.

He found it useful as it exposed Brad’s non involvement in the business.

Jon then speaks with Kortney on her role there and why she quit.

Jon points out Brad is destroying the legacy by losing the bar before he could hand it over to his daughters.

Brad read out the list of things his father did, and he couldn’t do half of them.

He promises to try and do better in memory of his father.

Jon brings out his experts and the training of staff commences.

Tommy talks to the staff on how they need to know traditional drinks like the gimlet.

Alyssa is called behind the bar to make a drink but she refuses.

Tommy calls on someone else and just before training on the correct way commences.

Alyssa grabs her bag and walks out once again.

Brad walks out to try and talk to her.

She insists on leaving and he says she doesn’t like the criticism.

Tommy is surprised he didn’t fire her.

In the kitchen, Anthony notices the cart of food was left out all night.

He explains it’s a health code violation.

He takes them through making a chicken dish with fresh ingredients.

Soon it is time for the stress test and the staff minus Alyssa are present and ready.

Brad is standing around once it starts while everyone else is busy.

The daughters are sitting it out as they are not staff and observing.

Brad can barely take orders and can’t help at the bar when a whole section hasn’t been served.

He is the problem in the kitchen, the bar and front of the house.

A customer’s chair loses a wheel and fails over.

Jon doesn’t want to embarrass Brad further by telling him to shut the bar down.

He has his daughters deliver the message.

After the customers are sent home, Brad is called into a meeting with his daughters and Jon.

They lay out their observations and they want a change.

If he fails the stress test, he should hand the bar over to them to run.

He hesitates at first and he needs convincing from both of them and Jon before he agrees.

Jon and his experts brainstorm ideas on making the bar stand out.

Tommy trains the staff on traditional cocktails with a modern twist.

While Anthony takes the staff on a burger that could start conversations because of its spiciness.

Jon’s team work all day and soon it is time to reveal the new bar.

The exterior has been made more colourful and they haven’t change the bars name.

The interior has been modernised and a trolley station theme has been created.

There is a trolley in the center of the bar along with some benches.

The trolley car doubles as a karaoke stage and the lounge is now an engineer’s lounge.

To keep Jex in mind, his pictures are up on the walls.

The original wallpaper he put up has been untouched.

East Coast Chair and Barstool provided new tables and chairs.

There are two Future POS terminals with Berg systems.

There is a new Manitowac Ice Machine and One Stone Hub table tents for PR with charging cables.

They now have a lifetime subscription to TVT for training.

The staff love the changes and Kortney and Paige are running the bar that night.

They let customers in and are loving the new look to the bar.

The bartenders are doing grea and the sisters are running food.

Brad is taking orders supporting his daughters.

The customers love the changes, food, and ambience.

What Happened Next at The Fifth?

Six weeks later, it is revealed the bar is seeing increased business.

Kortney and Paige quit again as their father refused to give them control of the bar.

The Fifth Amendment is closed.

They closed in March 2021.

Reviews were mixed after the episode was filmed.

Most of the reviews compliment the drinks and atmosphere.

There are some complaints about service and about Brad the owner specifically.

It is hard to tell if these are genuine due to the show.

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This post was last updated in February 2024.