UNLV College of Hospitality - Bar Rescue Update - Open or Closed?

In this Bar Rescue episode, Jon Taffer visits UNLV College of Hospitality in Las Vegas, Nevada.

UNLV College of Hospitality are the number one hospitality college in the world.

They have 2400 students with a big, beautiful campus.

Jon arrives with expert chef Tiffany Derry and expert mixologist Brian Van Flandern.

The UNLV has a major event for all its sponsors in a few days.

They plan on having the students run the event providing world class food and drinks in an old building.

For the Culinary team, there is junior student Kristina, sophomore Geo and senior Steven.

Greg is a senior and part of the Mixology team.

Jon and his team meet Stowe Shoemaker, who is the Dean of the college.

They go see the proposed venue of the event and it is a relic of the 1980’s and looks like a fast food restaurant.

The executive chef Mark Sandova is training the students and has hand-picked a team of 10 students to contribute to the event.

Jon meets the students and introduces the challenge they have working with him to learn some needed skills to make the event a success.

In place of the recon, Jon has the students do a challenge of preparing meals and a drink within 20mins, 3 mins for the beverage making.

Kristina is making a snapper dish, Shivangi is making a dish with spices of India, Steven is making a bone marrow dish and Geo is making a spicy dish.

For beverages, 3 unique drinks are prepared.

Even though they were good Brian was more concerned about their speed.

If the drinks are too flamboyant, they may not be able make a lot quickly.

Jon notes the culinary students are not rushed at all.

Seeing the gaps in their delivery, Jon comes in the next day to meet with the students.

He wants to get to know them better and assign them to their most ideal tasks.

Jon introduces his experts to the students.

Brian trains them on making high volume craft cocktails for speed.

He takes them through rosemary pineapple tequila cocktail.

He then has them make it and times them to see how long they take.

They take 4 mins or longer to make it meanwhile it should be 45 seconds.

Tiffany trains the culinary team on some new dishes taking inspiration from their selection the day before.

The students make a bone marrow dish.

Jon has a stress test planned for the evening and they spend some time preparing.

A nervous student spills some mango salsa on the floor.

Jon calls the students together and tries to quell their nerves.

Over 100 UNLV students and staff have been invited to simulate the stress test for the students.

In the kitchen, Steven is quiet, and they are not working fast enough.

The servers have to come back and get dishes one at a time which is frustrating.

People are getting their cocktails without food.

But the cocktail service is not meeting up and they need to speed up as well.

They don’t have the operation skills but Jon believes they can get better.

After the stress test, in feedback, the students were overwhelmed by the rush.

They are told that is what it is like in a real workplace.

The points of improvement identified were speed and production line set up.

The next day in mixology training, it is pointed out that the dean was made to wait 10 mins for his cocktail.

They are reminded every customer is a VIP and it should be fast for the event.

He has them run through the cocktails again.

Jon has the culinary team under Tiffany’s guidance cook sample dishes for the event.

They invite the executive chef and the dean for a menu tasting.

They do the same for the cocktails.

The dean loves all the selections they have made for food and drinks.

The event centre has been renovated in 4 days by Jon Taffer’s team.

The new bar is revealed to the dean, staff and students that will be managing the event.

The space has been overhauled, modernised with UNLV branding, UNLV photos and videos.

There is an LED projector, from Visualize LED, programmed to show live games from the stadium.

Elite AV installed the sound system and Hart Lowel Signs worked on the prominent UNLV sign.

Manitowoc provided an ice maker perfect for cocktails.

There is a hidden draft beer system behind a removable panel, to be sensitive to minors.

There is an Orange Door Entertainment system behind another panel.

They are all impressed with the changes.

The guests for the event are let in and the food and drinks start lagging; they are reminded to step it up and they do.

The students keep the energy up at the bar making drinks confidently.

The kitchen catches up with the backlog.

Jon is impressed at the improvement with the students balancing pace and elegance.

He calls the team out and has the guests show them appreciation at the success of the event.

What Happened Next at UNLV College of Hospitality?

Some time later, it is revealed later that the renovated space is now used for classes for student lunch events 3 days a week.

There isn't much in terms of reviews as the episode is viewed more as a promotional episode to show off the college and draw in applications.

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Previous episode - Crossroads Grille

Next episode - The Recovery Room Bar

This post was last updated in March 2022.