Brix Wine Bar / Pacific Coast Wine Bar / Brix Sunset Beach - Bar Rescue Update - Open or Closed?

In this Bar Rescue wpisode, Jon Taffer visits Brix Wine Bar in Sunset Beach, California.

Brix Sunset Beach is owned by Rick Reich.

Rick and his family moved to California in 2005 to fulfill his dream of opening a wine bar.

When he first saw the for-sale sign on the building, he was studying as a sommelier.

That’s when he got the idea to open a wine bar and Brix opened up a month later.

Brix thrived in its first few years of being open.

They did $1.2-million worth of business during that time.

However, Rick was inexperienced.

He focused more on entertaining his customers than being a good manager.

Rick is a very outspoken man who is made for the entertainment business.

He seems to need help with consistency and organization, which isn’t his priority.

With the extreme lack of organization, customers were not happy at the bar.

They run low on beer and sometimes have bad service.

Rick is $180,000 in debt and is struggling to keep the business running.

Rick says that all his money, including his pension money is gone.

He also says that if things to get better soon then he will have to shut the place down.

Rick’s wife says they were putting all their money into the business.

They weren’t able to keep up with their mortgage payments.

She also says that this bar is everything they have.

Jon meets with his experts in the parking lot of Brix Wine Bar.

Jon brings in Matthew Kaner, who is an expert in wine bars.

Jon has placed surveillance cameras around the bar to capture the action.

Rick doesn’t have a liquor license, which is why he is only able to sell beer and wine.

Rick told Jon that he has enough money to make the bar last another month or two.

Jon calls in recon veterans Maria Menounos and Kevin Undergaro.

He gives Maria an earwig before sending her and Kevin inside the wine bar.

The larger room of the bar focuses on wine while the smaller room is for beer.

Maria asks Tina, the bartender on the wine side of the bar, which wine she recommends.

Tina asks them if they want red or white wine and Kevin answers red.

Tina gives them a red wine that is Zin blend.

Maria asks what the price point is and Tina says that she doesn’t know.

Tina then gestures to Rick and says that he’s the wine expert.

Maria asks what classifies as a wine expert and Rick says a “wino”.

Jon says that in a wine bar, all of the bar tenders should be experts.

They begin discussing which foods go best with certain wines.

Rick says that most wines don’t go well with most foods today.

Jon tells Maria to say that she wants to try the pastrami sandwich.

They put a lot of pastrami on the sandwich and Jon says that pastrami isn’t cheap.

Rick has coasters that say “gone to pee” so customers won’t lose their drinks when they go to the bathroom.

Jon tells Maria to reject the wine, which concerns Rick.

In response, Rick grabs a different wine bottle and tells Maria to try it.

He says, “This is a wine that never met a person it didn’t like.”

Rick continues to open bottle after bottle.

Jon tells Maria to suggest that she wants to try a wine that is Rick’s favorite.

Rick has opened seven bottles of wine and hasn’t sold a single glass.

Then Maria gets Rick to open up an eighth bottle of wine.

Matthew says that Rick has easily given away $250 worth of wine in less than ten minutes.

Jon goes inside to tell Rick why he is losing money.

Jon scolds Rick for wasting the wine like that when they are out of money because of his bad habits.

The next morning, Jon meets with the staff of Brix Wine Bar.

Rick says that his whole retirement, along with everything else, is in this bar.

In two days, Rick has poured $7,500 worth of wine and rung up $3,000.

Rick says that he doesn’t have the time to spend on updating the price chart.

He thinks his workers would know how much each wine costs.

Rick says he does not want to work this hard for a system to keep track of inventory and prices.

Jon tells Rick he needs to act like an owner and not an entertainer and Rick walks away.

Rick’s wife tries to convince Rick to come back and he returns.

Matthew explains how wine will go bad soon after opening the bottle.

Matthew also shows the staff a new drink to try to sell.

Pink shows the food crew some new recipes to try.

Jon gives Rick a goal of selling ten bottles of wine that night.

It seems to be going well, however nobody has ordered any food yet.

The bartenders keep leaving the very busy bar.

It’s taking forever for the customers to get their food because tickets are not being sent to the kitchen.

It’s been an hour and the customers still don’t have their food.

Rick did not meet the goal of selling ten bottles of wine.

The next morning will be on site training.

Matthew shows them more cocktails including the Berry Currant.

Chef Pink shows them more even more recipes.

Jon reveals the new bar to the staff and there are new signs outside the bar.

Rick’s bar has been renamed to Pacific Coast Wine Bar.

The staff loves the new signs and new name of the restaurant.

Jon also had the inside of the bar renovated and it looks much better.

The staff is very shocked by how good the inside of the bar looks now.

Jon says the environment will make spending $100 on a bottle of wine worth it.

He also got them a new ice machine and two touch screen POS systems.

On relaunch, Rick invites the customers into the bar.

Business is booming and is going very smoothly with food and drinks being served in a timely manner.

The owners say that they are very happy with the way the bar turned out and Jon says his work is done.

What Happened Next at Brix Wine Bar?

Four weeks later, they have made $63,514.80 in revenue.

Rick has continued to focus on being an owner rather than an entertainer.

They didn't keep the new name.

They are now called Brix Sunset Beach.

The owner said the focus on wine alienated many of their customers who drank beer.

Brix Wine Bar / Brix Sunset Beach is closed.

They closed in 2021.

The bar has changed ownership twice since it closed.

The current owner is Suzanne Blevins.

She also owns Bottoms Up Bar, which was also featured on Bar Rescue.

Reviews are mostly positive with praise for the food, staff and atmosphere.

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This post was last updated in March 2024.