Why would you do this?
I'm sorry.
Willie don't wanna spend no money.
Come on.
[laughter]
NARRATOR: For over 30 years,
Jon Taffer has traveled the country
saving hundreds of bars from failure and ruin.
The past two years are unlike anything
I've seen in our industry,
but we're bouncing back.
People are going out again
and restaurants need to get ready.
NARRATOR: Now, Jon is faced with a new set of problems.
There are supply chain issues.
Why are we out of this shit?
Staffing shortages.
Every week we get a new staff.
We have to crash course and--
And consistent health concerns.
This can't fail. It just can't.
NARRATOR: So now, Jon is back out on the road
and heading to Dunwoody, Georgia
to rescue Gilly's Sports Bar.
This is a new era for our country,
so we need to raise the bar and rise to these challenges.
NARRATOR: In 2015,
former hotel manager Willie Chandler
purchased this local sports bar, Gilly's,
in Dunwoody, Georgia.
I always wanted to own a bar.
I just couldn't afford it.
Well, I worked for a large hotel company,
leading various teams throughout the company
and one night, my mom
had an unexpected heart attack.
My mom and I was extremely close.
Gilly's was my watering hole.
It's where I went to have a beer
or play poker and it was my hangout spot.
And one day I was sitting at the bar
and the owner came up to me, and was like,
I'm thinking about selling the bar
because I'm getting older, my kids don't want it
and it was like, ding, ding, ding, ding.
NARRATOR: Looking to change the trajectory of his life,
Willie took over Gilly's.
First couple of years of business owning Gilly's,
business began to grow.
Folks were very excited
about having a new owner
and the business was very good.
My most successful months, I would say
we were making anywhere between
10 to 15,000 a month.
NARRATOR: Despite his experience in hotel management,
the day-to-day of running his own business
revealed Willie's ineptitude.
And the bar soon fell into disarray.
After around the fourth or fifth year,
the excitement of being a new owner had ran out.
Things began to take a turn.
[intense music playing]
I think that Willie likes
the fact that he's a bar owner,
but I don't think that he is
in tune with what actually comes with being a bar owner
-[indistinct] -To the boss.
My staff absolutely,
uh, had challenges with my leadership style.
-That is leading by example. -No, it's not.
I gave you the example
-you need to follow. -No. No.
Do what I say. Don't do what I do.
Willie absolutely let us do whatever we want.
He has no control over us whatsoever.
-We like to get lit! -Woo-hoo!
Obviously he wants [indistinct]
if and when we go over the limit,
it's not so cool anymore.
We've been waiting for like 20 minutes.
Oh, I'm-- I'm so sorry.
I--I didn't even know [indistinct]
No, we just ordered two [indistinct] of margaritas.
Don't forget about that [indistinct]
NARRATOR: And the service at Gilly's
wasn't the only thing
that needed an intervention.
We will not eat the food here at Gilly's.
[intense music playing]
I-- I-I wonder why Bryan cooks sometimes.
Why is he a cook?
I'm gonna do them extra crispy.
Oh, I've been cooking like 25 years.
It came natural to me.
I just-- I cook out of love.
My food has flavor.
Everybody likes my cooking.
Every time I've eaten food
here at Gilly's, I've gotten sick.
NARRATOR: Exhausting all outlets
to keep Gilly's afloat,
Willie has run out of money.
We are losing anywhere between 2,500 to 5,000 a month.
Everything I've had, I've tied up in here.
I lose this, I'm starting from scratch.
I'm 53 years old. I can't start over.
NARRATOR: With his retirement drained,
$275,000 in debt,
and less than 60 days from closing the doors for good.
I've been up hell a lot more than that. True.
NARRATOR: Willie has made the decision
to pull back the doors,
bust open the books,
and make a call for help
to Bar Rescue.
Guys, welcome to Atlanta. Thanks for being here.
-Yeah. -Thanks for having me.
NARRATOR: For the bar,
Jon brings in Phil Wills.
A former bartending champion
turn modern day mixologist.
Phil now consults on multiple projects
across the globe with a mission
to make bartenders and the bar industry
better as a whole.
So this is Gilly's.
And Gilly's is owned by Willie.
There's Willie.
Willie, believe it or not,
is a graduate of Johnson & Wales.
Great culinary university. One of the best.
-Oh, yeah. Definitely. -Yup.
Was a GM for a major national
hotel franchise for 18 years.
-Oh. -So this would be
a really well-rounded,
really capable culinarian. Would you agree?
-I definitely do. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: For the kitchen, Jon brings in Vic Vegas,
an executive chef with over 25 years' experience.
Vic has worked with major food distributors,
while also owning and operating his own successful restaurant.
So he bought this bar
about five years ago,
paid about $150,000 for it.
And the interesting story is,
he's sitting at the bar the day his mother dies
and says to the owner,
"I want to own a bar."
The owner says,
-"I wanna sell this one." -Hmm.
Willie winds up owning this bar,
leaves his structured hotel world,
comes here, and look this.
[intense music playing]
NARRATOR: You know, Atlanta is a great sports town
and there's a game going on almost every night.
A sports bar like this should be packed.
It's central to everything.
In the bar, we have Dayzia.
-Jameson? -Yeah.
I got you. I got you, baby.
And over there, Alonna.
What you're looking at for food, love?
Um...
The cook is Bryan.
What you're back here for? How many you need? Three?
That's fine. Just two.
Look at this kitchen.
[intense music playing]
Look at the wall under the hood.
Oh. Looks like it was never cleaned.
I've never seen anything like it.
I thought that's supposed to be stainless steel.
What is all that crap all over it?
I'm not sure you can even clean that anymore, Vic.
You're gonna have to throw it away.
Didn't I?
What are you having, sir?
So Phil, the bartenders are having shots.
They just started their shift. What are they doing?
Willie is drinking a beer.
-Huh. -So what happens
three hours from now?
Willie, it's another bottle gone.
That explains why a lot of things are not done, right?
Because they're probably,
say, exhausted by the end of the shift.
Probably, if they can even see straight
-at the end of the shift. -Yup.
-Another one? -All right.
Come on. Round it up. Round it up.
Round it up. Round it up.
Oh, they're taking another shot?
-You all want one? -No. Oh, God.
Very cold. That sounds [indistinct] right?
Yeah, that's the [indistinct]
Free-- is it free, miss?
I'm about to hook you up.
-That's gonna have some bite. -That's gonna have some bite.
And you know what? Instead of making a drink correctly,
she's just adding to it.
Oh, look on the look on his face.
So, Willie wakes up every day and does he do anything?
Would you say he does anything? Vic?
There's nothing and it's almost like he cut class
at the university he went to.
So Willie has done nothing. You know what's amazing to me?
I have arranged for a couple of radio people
to come do recon here.
But you know what, guys?
I'm gonna do recon myself.
I want you guys to sit here watch me.
I'm gonna go in and do
-recon myself. -Oh.
I wanna see if Willie
will do anything.
Yeah! Let's go.
[tense music playing]
Alonna, why have we not took our shot?
I'm just so confused.
All right. Let's see how long it takes for Willie
to come greet Jon Taffer in your bar.
[suspenseful music playing]
-Willie's frozen.
-Get your ass up off the bar, Willie.
What are you doing?
-What is happening right now? -He's frozen right now.
It's gonna take him a few minutes to dial.
I guess they must be very busy.
-[tense music playing]
-What do we got? Five minutes now?
Jon's been sitting in there?
Five minutes Jon's been sitting in there
and no, we haven't even seen him.
Look at Jon.
Oh, he's getting pissed.
This is just gonna fester, man.
-This is not... -This is it.
Do I have to come over there
to get something or do you guys come to me?
I want to order.
When Jon walked in,
I absolutely didn't notice him
but then as soon as it was made to my knowledge,
and I'm like, "Oh, snap."
-Did you not see me? -I--
-No. -Oh, because she saw me walking
and I've been sitting here for quite a while.
The cook is really [bleep] slow.
Freakin' slow. I'm sorry.
-What's your name? -Alonna.
Hi, Alonna.
So I want you to do something for me.
-Okay. -I want you to get a pad
-and a pen and come back. -Okay.
Because I'm gonna order a bunch of stuff.
-All right. -Okay.
-You did not-- -You're right.
-No, you did not.
-So, I wanna try nachos. -Uh-hmm.
Chicken potato skins.
All right.
What's Willie doing?
Willie, anybody home?
There's no fire in him at all. Look at him.
Don't tell the cook this is from me.
-Just put the order in, okay? -Sure. Got you.
Thank you.
You can read his mind like,
you know what he's saying right now.
Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Now he's like, "Okay.
-What else is going on in here? -Uh-huh.
Where's Willie?
Where did Willie go?
Oh, he's going in the kitchen.
Uh-oh.
You seen Willie?
Probably have a good plan for me.
Willie right here.
-How are you, sir? -Good.
-Is your name Bryan? -It is.
-Is this your kitchen? -It is.
Gentlemen, this might be one
of the dirtiest kitchens
I've ever seen in my life.
Look at that wall.
Look at the color of that oil.
I want Chef Vic in here. Get me Chef Vic.
All right. Well, I guess I have to go in.
Get them. Get them, get them, get them.
So when Jon calls me in,
I don't know if I'm gonna choke
on the smell in the place.
But this by far
is the worst kitchen
that I've seen doing this.
My work is cut out for me.
This is filled with bacteria.
Vic, look at this place.
-Excuse me. Sorry. -This is Vic Vegas.
One of the best chefs in America
and a restaurant owner.
Look at this freaking place.
Drop that basket in for me.
-That looks like-- -It's motor oil.
-Black bean soup. -Excuse me.
I wanna see what's in here.
Hey, what's shaking with that?
What the hell is--
Oh, my God.
Have you ever seen
anything like that in your life?
What the hell is it?
That's my jerk wings.
These look scary, man.
Like they don't look safe.
If they're good, they're good.
If it's your recipe, it's your recipe,
but you don't store it like this. It looks like--
-Could you eat that? -They're not good.
Like somebody could get sick
if they ate them.
Okay. So this is garbage.
Let me take the garbage
and let's start filling this cart with it.
What else do we got down there, Vic?
All right. Well, here we go.
What are these?
-Those are our wings. -What are these, Bryan?
-Come on, talk to me. -Those are my wings.
-Those are your wings.
-When were these cooked? -Two days ago.
-Oh, my God. -You're not sure, are you?
-Two days ago. -These were cooked
by him days ago.
-Should these be covered? -They should be.
How long have you been in the kitchen for?
That's all I wanna know.
-Twenty-five years-- -So 25 years?
So why don't you cover stuff, man?
It's--what if you were off the next day,
somebody comes in, the wings are a little old.
They mix new ones together.
That's how people get sick, bro.
Look at this [bleep] place!
-Who are you yelling, man? -I'm yelling at you!
You don't yell at me. You don't know me like that.
-Don't yell at me. -Oh, I will talk to you
any freakin'-- look at this [bleep]
-No, the [bleep] you won't. -I don't have to speak.
That does. Doesn't it, Willie?
-It does. -And this is why your life
-get [bleep] angry. -Yeah. Yeah.
What do you think of that--that?
-Say it. -It's disgusting.
They weren't that yesterday.
Really? There's no logic here.
You guys figure it out, Willie.
He and you need to clean this kitchen tonight.
I won't touch this place like this.
Figure it out together or you're gone.
Oh, oh, gee.
Fix it or get the [bleep] outta here!
Let's go, Vic.
Unbelievable.
Willie is incredibly frustrating.
He managed people and held them accountable
when he worked for somebody else and it was their money.
But now that it's his money,
he's lost $275,000
and he has enough money to make it two more months.
He isn't holding anybody accountable.
And his cook, Bryan,
for him to look at me and say
that kitchen was clean this morning
makes him a lousy cook and a liar.
-Come back here and [bleep] with me.
He don't know me like that.
-I know. I know.
And I'm like, "Oh, hell no."
You can holler at me
but I don't have the patience.
I need a cigarette.
-I'm not feeling good at all.
-Bruh.
-I think I've lost my passion
and not care about it as much as I used to.
-I don't like this. It's very stressful.
You know, I love you Willie, but I cannot do this.
-What happened with you? -I'm pissed.
I didn't like him back here yelling that shit,
-pissed me the [bleep] off. -Yelling about what?
-In the kitchen? -I'm not--no
-[bleep] asshole. -Wait, wait, wait. Come here.
-Willie. -No. Alonna, wait a minute.
-No [bleep] that.
-Alonna. -Willie [bleep] that.
-Listen--hold on.
Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
I don't wanna talk to nobody.
I wanna go home.
[upbeat music playing]
-I did not think it was gonna be that bad.
-No. -Like I was prepared
for an ass-kicking, but not like that.
-Yeah. We're doing a shot right now?
-No. -Okay. Okay.
-Jon took three quarters of my ass last night.
And to have someone speak to me like that
and point out some things where I'm falling short,
it was a huge eye-opener for me
of how I've let the, uh, place fall.
I was in there until 1:00 in the morning. I cleaned.
Y'all need to clean like that more often.
-Huh? -Y'all need to clean like that
-more often. -Maybe you need to come back
-then help me clean it. -Oh.
I'm tired of y'all, seriously.
-What the hell happened last night?
-Um, what do you mean,
-I didn't reset the bar. -Why you guys so upset?
Did y'all take shots last night?
-Tell the truth.
-Did y'all take shots last night?
-Tell the truth -Come on.
-That's every night.
-Alonna, can I talk to you for a second?
-Yes.
Last night, I felt, I don't know,
maybe, like, defeated a little bit or--
I don't know. I just--
I don't take Will to, like, yelling
and confrontation, and it just--
it didn't feel well, so I kind of went a little left.
-Yesterday was pretty rough and,
uh, I just wanted to check your temperature.
-It's fine.
-It wasn't--I'm a--
-Did you-- -I'm angry crier.
When I get mad, I cry.
-Understood.
-You know I don't want to come off--
-A negative way. -Yeah.
And you're-- you're not--you are--
you're a pretty positive person.
You might have a tad bit of anxiety.
-Definitely anxiety. -[Willie chuckles]
-And I don't like being put in negative situations.
-Hello. Let's all get together.
We got some talking to do.
First of all, you guys worked your butt off all night, Bryan.
You know, I beat you up pretty good,
but you stood there. And you came back
-and you toughed it up. -Yes, sir.
-So that's already respect. And I appreciate that, man.
-So hats off to you. -Thank you.
-What did you think of what happened last night,
-Willie? -I was disappointed
in myself mostly, um, because this buck stops with me.
-Here's what unique about this rescue to me,
most bar rescues that I do,
the owner is ignorant.
He doesn't know what his beverage costs should even be,
-but you do, don't you? -Absolutely.
You know what your food costs should be?
-Yes. -Do you know what
cleanliness standards should be?
-Oh, absolutely. -Training standards?
-Absolutely. -Consistency standards?
-Yes. -He knows it all.
Guy has a degree in Hotel Restaurant Management.
So I don't get it, Willie.
When I left this bar last night,
the first thing you did was have a [bleep] shot.
I embarrassed him on national television
and what does he do?
Has a shot.
How much cash is in this now?
-About 275,000.
-And how much time do we have before you're out of money?
-About 60 days. -About 60 days.
Did you know your job is 60 days?
-No. -No.
Keep drinking it'll be 45 days.
Well, it's eye-opener.
I wish he would have told us sooner.
I mean, I am a single mom and it's really abrupt.
Um, and rent and stuff in Atlanta is not cheap.
To me, I'm gonna be straight up, guys,
I'm here for four days.
So I don't have time to mess around.
His ass is on the line. Are you with me, guys?
-Yes. -His future is on the line.
So I gotta move quickly.
That's why I get aggressive, right?
I don't have time, three days
to clean the kitchen. You with me, Bryan?
I gotta make shit happen quickly.
That's why I'm so intense because there's a clock ticking
in my head every minute. You with me, guys?
-Absolutely. -Alonna.
-Hi. -You served me last night
and then all hell broke loose, didn't it?
Yeah.
I'm not here to embarrass you.
I wanna grow you, you get that?
But is it fair for me to call you out on what you do wrong
if I want you to be better?
Uh-uh.
You embarrassed yourself last night.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
Look at Jon. Oh, he's getting pissed.
You were drunk last night.
You think you have a future like that?
Nope.
Do you think any bar other than him
would hire you and let you do that?
-Answer me. -No.
So what do you wanna be?
Do you want to be somebody with a future,
-we can get it together? -I want to be done with this.
I'm not doing this. I'm not playing on TV
and embarrassing myself for a [bleep] show.
-I'm--I'm really not-- -Well, first of all,
-we're not playing it's real. -I know. Yeah.
What you did is real and what he--
is this play to you or is this real?
-This is not play. -Yeah--no.
It's very real for me. Take this off I'm done.
So you're gonna let your team down?
You're gonna let Will down and you're gonna walk out here?
She can't handle the truth, can she?
No, I can't handle the goddamn truth.
That's why I didn't wanna [bleep] do this, dumbass shit.
-And leave your future behind. -No.
-This ain't gonna be a future. -Okay.
Hell no!
We're gonna go to work and make this a winner.
I don't give a shit.
-Goodbye. -Bye!
All I did was call her out on what happened,
-right, Willie? -Absolutely.
So if I can't discipline her,
-could you have? -Probably not.
You know, there's an old Mafia expression in New York,
"A fish stinks from the head."
-You're the head. -One hundred percent.
You're with me, guys?
-Uh-hmm. -Yes.
I'm upset because of the way Alonna left.
I kind of feel like she left the team,
like she's letting us down.
And I really can't believe she just did that.
All righty. Let me get my experts in here.
Vic Vegas, one of my dear friends,
one of the best chefs in America.
And Phil Wills and I have been doing rescues now
-for about 12 years. -Yeah.
Okay. We got a lot of work to do.
-Yeah. -Let's get to work.
-Hello. -Hey, guys. How are you doing?
-Very good. Good. -Well. Well.
The staff was a mess last night.
They were back there drinking behind the bar,
I know that they don't have any good bartending techniques.
And it's gonna be a tough rescue to get this bar staff
to be where they need to be
because we have to break all of their bad habits.
You won't find your success at the end of the bar drinking,
I'm gonna tell you that right now.
It's all right to come in there have a good time.
But once you pop your seat down right there,
that shows everybody else that you really don't care
about what's going on.
So we're gonna stop that right now.
So for training today, Jon and I decided
to have a cool little surprise
to teach them the benefits of not drinking on the job.
What I have for you right here
is what we like to call our drunk goggles.
We're using the drunk goggles because it's gonna show
the bartenders what they're actually doing
versus what they perceive that they're doing.
Uh-hmm. Well [indistinct]
Ugh! Don't put your hand all over the glass like that.
-Couple of drops. -You said two, right?
Not the whole vial.
These guys are all over the place
when they have the drunk goggles on
and that's how it is when you're drinking behind the bar.
You think you're doing a good job,
but you're really not.
-Put it down. -Let me see.
Let's go ahead and give it a taste, guys.
[Dayzia groans]
-Not the same. -That's a--
Let's have you do it non-drunk.
-Okay. -All right?
And let's see what the difference is in the cocktail.
-Okay. -Okay? I definitely think
that this is a wakeup call for Willie
and his whole bar staff.
Good.
It's a business, not a playground.
-Much better. -That's way better.
Yeah.
When we put on the drunk goggles
and it made me realize a lot,
being a better bartender and how my work
is gonna bring us a lot more money in.
I'm very excited.
Bryan and Willie together in the kitchen,
only under different circumstances than last time
I saw you two gentlemen.
And I appreciate how clean it looks in here.
Going into training today,
I want the opposite of what I've seen so far.
It's been a disaster.
I'd like to see clean practices
and food done right.
Willie, what's your biggest seller?
-Wings. -It is the wings.
-Yes. -So you gotta make
the other things
-just as good as the wings. -Absolutely.
Are you familiar with the word namesake?
-Yes. -Uh-hmm.
Real comforting, real homey-like.
We're gonna make the namesake burger.
Grab your burger with a glove,
little bit of foil,
put your season and salt on,
put your butter on.
Now, instead of going on the char grill,
I'm going on the flattop.
The blend of a burger
is one of the most important parts of a burger.
NARRATOR: There are traditionally nine
basic cuts of beef that butchers use.
And each one provides different meat
with various properties and flavors.
Burgers can be made using any combination of these.
However, the goal of most professional chefs
is to achieve an 80 to 20 meat to fat ratio.
Many chefs experiment with different cuts
that can be both unique in taste
and financially advantageous.
We're big on sauces.
Dirty sauce,
a couple pickles,
lettuce, tomato.
Now, we have all this wonderful fat
coming out of the bottom of that burger
that's why we're putting it on top
because then all that fat from the meat,
it kinda give some flavor to those vegetables.
And now what you have is a well-rounded, simple,
meat and potato style Atlanta burger
that anybody from around here would come after.
Yeah, get in there.
-The juice, oh, my God. -They're juicy.
That's a ham burger.
It was dripped all over the plate,
and I'm dripping, and is nasty,
something fallen off to the side,
you picking it up, putting it up there
that's a good sign of a good meal.
It's more juicer, more tastier.
-Good burger. -Thank you, Bryan.
I have a lot to prove from last night.
So I'm gonna do my best tonight
to prove that in my 25 years,
I really do know how to cook.
One step closer to new identity.
Thank you.
Now we have what's known as the stress test.
And now it's time to get to work.
Guys, come on over for a minute.
I wanted to make this fun.
So, we're a sports bar.
-Right. -You know what this is?
[Reena chuckles] Yellow flag.
A penalty flag, right?
So when we make mistakes, I'm gonna do a penalty flag.
Because if she makes a mistake,
I want you to know what it is,
so you learn from it,
-you see what I'm saying? -Yeah.
So I'm trying to expose
all of our shortcomings the next hour.
Vic, you'll have your penalty flags in the kitchen
and you'll throw them in the kitchen
when there's mistakes.
There's a mistake at the bar, Phil,
you'll have some penalty flags you'll throw yours
-here at the bar. -Got you.
-Never done this before. -Okay.
I feel very nervous about the stress test right now.
The reality of me in experience says that we're gonna fail.
But my expectation is for us to pass.
I wanna be the first bar to actually pass it.
Willie, invite them in, please.
Let's get open. Here we go.
Welcome to Gilly's.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
-Hello. -Hi.
-Welcome to Gilly's. -Right.
-Come and take a seat. -Hi.
-Hey. -How are you, ladies?
Scan that, you'll have our drink menus
and you'll have our food.
Here we go.
Now, it's really happening.
It's happening.
Two punches
and do you ladies know what you'd like to eat?
How do you want that prepared?
Medium please.
Let's get your bourbon smash.
-Okay. -Come on.
Let's get moving. Let's get moving.
You got this. You got this.
I got two Gilly burger
and another 10 pieces.
How are we doing?
We got some tickets coming in, gentlemen, okay?
All right, Bryan, show me your stuff, buddy, okay?
I got you. I got you.
Shake. Turn it around. Turn it around.
Turn that--oh, stop, stop.
-This always goes to the back. -[bleep]
[shouting]
It's rough going right now.
We're starting off, we're messing up drinks.
We're not remembering recipes
and that's what's gonna hold them back is,
if they don't know the recipes, they're not gonna be able
to make the drink. Where's your cherry?
-Oh. Cherry.
All right. How are we doing, guys?
-It's getting slow now. -Wow.
-There's a lot of tickets here. -Yeah.
All right, Bryan, quick as you can, buddy.
Just keep the quality up, all right?
Okay. Yes, sir. Ticket.
Shake it hard. Shake it hard.
There you go. There you go.
How are we doing?
You think we're entering
-any kind of a groove here? -Not yet. Not yet.
It's real difficult with this one workstation.
Everybody's trying to dig out of this one space right here.
And she doesn't even have a work station.
No. No.
You're standing in front of a shelf
-for Christ's sake. -Right.
-So she has no soda gun, she has no speed--
-well, there's nothing here. -No.
-Three Gilly's burger. -Come on, guys.
How are ticket [indistinct] doing?
-Talk to me. -We're hanging in there.
Start to get a little shaky
but we're good.
They're not picking up food.
But he's pacing everything.
-A lot of hungry people out here.
-What's going on, guys? -So the ravioli is, um--
-The--when you ring in the namesake burger,
it doesn't ask you how it wants to cook like medium, well--
-Just do modified.
-Okay. -Okay.
-This is an example of no POS system
or a bad POS system.
So, she's taking your orders on her pad
rather than a handheld unit.
She now has to get them organized on her pad
then she has to put them into the POS system.
If she had a good POS system,
all of that food and beverage would be
in the system and already being made.
This is one of the big bottlenecks.
-My ladies, you guys-- you guys are paying attention
to people on your back side, right?
-Yeah? Yeah. -Uh, yeah,
we are making our way around.
-Well, you guys may never get a drink if that's the case.
How long would you say you've been waiting for your drinks?
-Um, 15.
-Fifteen.
Willie, penalty over here,
this table has been waiting 15 minutes.
That table 15 minutes,
no food, no drinks.
They even said they should get a penalty.
So we have one more penalty over here.
You support the penalty?
Okay, penalty two supported by that table.
How long have you guys been waiting?
-Fifteen minutes. -Fifteen.
Is that worthy of a penalty or not?
-Absolutely. -Okay. Another penalty,
that's penalty three, so. Come on, guys.
-Stress test is crazy right now,
things are bananas.
-Dayzia? -Yeah?
-Who's logged in? -Huh?
-Who's logged in? -Me.
We're very stressed.
We're a little tense.
And a flag was like,
"Oops, we done messed up again.
Please don't do another one."
-Willie? -Yes.
-We got food dying in the window.
We got a restaurant here, two flags.
[suspenseful music playing]
-Willie? -Yes.
-We got food dying in the window.
We got a restaurant here, two flags.
-I got it. -Thank you.
-What are you-- what are you doing right now?
I'm about to get their drink order.
-I got them. -Communicate.
-You got them? Okay. -Yeah.
I am feeling stressed out.
I have more grays
than I did when I started.
-Oh, I didn't know you needed two. Sorry.
-No, Dayzia was supposed to be making one.
-Okay. I got it.
We are losing our minds right now.
We're trying to remember recipes,
we're trying to get orders out.
This is a mess.
-Breathe. -Whiskeys.
-Breathe. You got it.
-Hey, guys, can we do
a remake on the lemon pepper? Somebody--
-Right here. Lemon pepper, hot. -Do another one.
Somebody bit into the wrong wing.
-Okay. This burger was supposed to be medium well
and you can plainly see that it's pink,
like, pink-pink. -Okay.
-So it's not cooked to the right temperature.
-Drop it to the window. Go ahead and take it back.
-What is this? Penalty! -Wait! Wait!
No!
-Penalty right there.
-What do we got? -I'm expediting
so I know what goes with what
and we're saying stuff's coming back undercooked, overcooked.
-Because the orders are coming out right,
they're bringing it to the wrong damn table.
-Every order is coming out right, Jon.
-Complete lack of management in systems.
We're unraveling.
They can't get the right food to the right tables,
not one table has the right things.
I've got penalty flags flying all over the place.
Willie doesn't have a clue.
He's not watching his customers, his tables.
It's a complete disappointment.
-Willie, we're done. -Okay.
-Do you agree? -Yes.
-We're done. He's a good guy.
He's got a lot invested in this business,
we gotta do better, right? -Uh-hmm.
It was a failure.
People at the bar, waiting for drinks,
waiting for food, just a whole bunch
of un-organization.
We know where we fail, we know where we are.
So it's up to us.
-Let's shut this down. I gotta go to work remodeling.
Let's get this done. Thank you.
[suspenseful music playing]
-What's up, guys? -Hey.
-How are we doing? -Pretty good.
-We stumbled through stress test last night.
We have a lot of work to do today
to get these bartenders up to speed to execute this menu.
Let's talk about last night. How do you feel, uh, it went?
-We never got frustrated, never yelled at one another,
there was more concerned about what can I do for you.
-Good. Yeah.
You were doing your best and you were trying,
and that's what we're looking for.
Some passion coming out of you, which is great.
The first drink I wanna start off with today
is something that I think fits into a sports bar environment.
Saturday college game day, Sunday football is real big,
and you know that people love to drink
Bloody Marys on those days.
So let's get a good Bloody Mary
that everybody's gonna be able to execute
consistently all the time.
We're gonna start off with a nice mason jar,
put a nice little fry seasoning rim on top of this,
you put ice in the glass.
We're gonna add two ounces of vodka.
And then we have your special house-made Bloody Mary liquor,
which is totally different. It's got tomato juice,
put some nice black pepper, horseradish, garlic,
so it's very unique Bloody Mary mix for you guys.
It's super simple to make.
You're gonna fill that up to about three ounces,
lime wedge on the rim of the glass,
put a nice bacon strip in there.
A nice mini slider to up the game up a little bit.
Getting that little appetizer,
getting that Bloody Mary, and boom.
[upbeat music playing]
-Ooh, that smoked paprika comes out.
Hmm!
I love it. It's a--it's a head turner.
[upbeat music playing]
-Last night was a failed stress test.
We didn't have systems to get food to tables,
drinks to tables, nothing worked in that restaurant
except the staff.
Willie did not come through from them.
So today, I got to sit with Willie
and find out why somebody with a culinary degree
and 18 years of success in the hotel business
can't accomplish anything in his own bar.
What do you think? -Beautiful. Beautiful.
-Smells clean, doesn't it? -It does.
-Looks clean, doesn't it? -It does.
-You know what's interesting is,
this restaurant is run by somebody else.
We just had our one-year anniversary.
And I hadn't been here in months and months
because of systems, procedures,
things that I can bank on that protect my future.
With that said, what did you think of last night?
-[sighs] Stressful.
-Yeah.
-Can I be really, really honest with you?
-Yeah. -You really hurt me to my soul
the first night, when you talked about my education
and my experience. I have a lot of experience
in the hospitality business. I--I've ran
some pretty amazing departments in the hotels.
But, uh, you spoke to that
and as I looked around that evening
after everyone was gone,
I just looked around at all the things
that I would've never allowed to go on
in somebody else's place of business
and how I've dropped the ball in my own place of business.
-What do you want out of your life?
What do you wanna get out of this, Willie?
-I think I have to find-- either find the passion again
or make a decision if that-- is that something
I wanna continue to do,
go back into the, you know, corporate America,
and maybe sell it and-- and--and count my losses,
uh, I'm not sure.
But I would love to be able to continue
to have the passion for or find the passion for it.
I know right now I don't have it.
-Yeah. Because I know you're better than this.
There are things you know you should do
that you're not inspired enough to do.
-Correct. But there's a part of me
that has been frustrated not being able
to have the resources to do the things
that need to be done like the renovation.
Seeing the broken chairs out front, you know,
things like that, that kind of depresses you a little bit in,
knowing you don't have the resources to change it.
-Yeah. I'm setting you up for that.
Right. You're gonna have all the tools, an energized staff,
tighter than you guys have ever been.
-Yes. A lot of people spend a lot of money and go out
to build a team.
This has been a team-building experience.
That definitely has brought us closer together.
And I thank you for that. -Oh, my pleasure.
So we're in a good place, aren't we?
We are. We really are.
Wow. I got to tell you, buddy.
I'm very proud of you. I'm glad to know you.
-I appreciate that, Jon.
-You got this? Okay. -I do. I do.
And I thank you. -Okay. I thank you too, buddy.
-Uh-hmm. -His future is in that bar.
I'm giving him the bases to turn the nightmare back into a dream.
Now he needs to figure out what that dream is.
[upbeat music playing]
[cheers and applause]
-Hello. -Hello!
-Was anybody here the first night?
-Yeah. -Pretty rough, huh, guys?
-A little bit. -You know,
this has been an incredible week.
-What do you think, Willie? -I'm excited.
I can't wait to see it.
-Are you nervous right now?
-Extremely. -You trust--
-You trust me? -I do.
Wholeheartedly.
-Bryan, man, we started ugly, huh?
-Yes, we did. -Boy, you've been incredible.
-Thank you. -You know, it shows character
when somebody stands toe-to-toe
with you, uh, and works
to make themselves better. -Uh-hmm.
-And I'm proud of you, buddy. I'm proud to call you a friend.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
He's a good guy.
So this is a great group of people
in a great town.
I'm excited about what we've created.
So, are you guys ready to see it?
ALL: Yes. -Are you guys ready?
-Yes! -All righty. Here we go!
One, two, three!
-Woo! -[cheers and applause]
-Are you ready to see it?
-Yes! -Here we go.
One, two, three!
[cheers and applause]
-Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
[cheers and applause]
-Yeah. This is lit.
It's lit. -Willie.
-Yes. -Very much so.
-Thank you very much. -So guys,
look at what we've got. A new brand,
connecting to the roundness
of the building, but really build this
into a concept.
And with your new inspired energy,
we got this, buddy. -Yes, we do.
I think the Stadium Club's got a serious future.
-Are you guys ready to see it? -ALL: Yes.
-All right. Go ahead. -All right. Let's go.
[cheers and applause]
-Now we got some [indistinct]
[suspenseful music playing]
-Oh. Oh. -Look at this.
-Yeah. -This is good, guys.
-Oh. -Wow.
-High five, brother. -No, like,
it's really good.
-This is amazing. This is beautiful.
The, uh, partitions caught my eye first.
Love the position of the TVs,
love the brick underneath the bar,
I love the patterning on the wall.
Just love it all.
-All right. Come over to the bar, guys.
Let me show you everything we did.
-Look at our little barstools.
-Oh. Nice seats.
-Look at we did. So by adding
the wallpaper and those wooden beams,
we created some texture, didn't we?
It makes it cozier in here, Willie, right?
-Yes. Absolutely. -But still connects
the back of the space. -Yes.
-Remember when you were standing
over there with those tickets?
-Yes. -So I got you guys
all Harbortouch POS Systems,
one at each station, and a SkyTab,
so she can take that to the farthest pool table,
put the order right in here,
food prints up in the kitchen,
prints up here in the bar for the service bar.
-Yes, sir. -When you come back,
the drinks will be ready. He's so fast,
the food will be ready by the time you get there.
So cost is so important,
I got you a subscription for Partender.
Partender, you can do bar inventory
literally, Willie, in 10 minutes.
So by tracking these costs, tell them how we're doing.
And this is for you, Bryan. Look at this.
-Wow. -Wow.
-Now the foods' worth two dollars more, isn't it?
-Yes, sir. -Okay. [laughs]
You're a good man, buddy. Grab it now.
-Thank you. -Hold that front
and let me see how that looks.
-The chef jacket just takes me to the top
with my name on it and everything, I mean,
I'm a great--I'm gonna make some great food now.
-So in addition to that,
I put PathSpot UV hand washing system.
We've all learned in COVID how important
the hand washing is. -Uh-hmm.
-This stuff is really important.
I got Intuitive AV
to do a new audio and video system for you.
Then I got Georgia Central Electric
to do the pendant lighting,
all the lighting over the seating,
I had people work in here
all-night long to make all this happen.
And if I didn't come here and get
two great guys out of a rut,
provide a better work environment
for you guys and leave us all in a better place,
that's what this is about. -Yes, we are.
-So are you guys ready?
Raise some hands here. -I'm ready. Let's go.
All right. Let's do this. Here we go.
-Yeah! -Yeah.
-Woo! -[claps]
[door creaks]
-Hey, hey, hey, hey!
-[cheers and applause] -[upbeat music playing]
-Ladies and gentlemen. -[man whistling]
-Welcome to the Stadium Club.
Let's [bleep] do it, dawg!
Let's do it! Let's go!
[cheers and applause]
-Welcome!
-Hello, hello. -Get her.
We got a brand new menu for you all.
Let's start swinging them.
-How many tickets have we got, guys?
-They're working on about eight and it just started.
Just--they all just hit right now?
-Yeah. -All righty.
Look at this.
This is what a slam kitchen looks like.
So we're buried right now, but Bryan, we got this?
-We got it. -We got it.
They're cool, they're calm,
they're just gonna work it through
and they are gonna get out the other side.
Now let's get that food out quick, Bryan.
-Yes, sir. It's hectic back here right now.
As long as I get everybody up to par, uh,
I think food is gonna come out perfectly.
Turning up the gear. Turn up the gear.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
-[ice rattling] -Do me a favor.
-I got your hot burger.
-[upbeat music playing] -All right.
-I'll do the namesake.
-You're not making one at a time, are you, Dayzia?
-No, I got two coming up right now.
-Okay.
The customers are sipping through their drinks.
They love the food, they love our new menu. It's amazing.
-Four Bloody Marys. Okay.
-Two at a time, right?
-I got you. -Okay.
I'm basically making four at a time--
-Four at a time. Here we go.
-Once we got into the groove
and remembering the recipes,
behind the bar was a breeze.
Everybody's having a blast.
-Namesake? -That's me.
-Wings?
All right. I'll be back.
-Thank you, sir. -You're welcome.
-One of my greatest pleasures is watching Willie.
He's expediting the kitchen, he's serving tables,
he's running food, he's keeping them organized.
Two nights ago, he wasn't keeping anything organized.
He's on this.
That's why the bar is caught up,
the kitchen is catching up,
and the room is coming together.
-Here's that namesake burger with seasoned fries.
-Willie! -Looks good. Looks good.
Looks good. -Willie!
Willie! Willie!
[cheers and applause]
-My work is tough.
Jon, thank you very much.
-Thank you. -[chatter]
-Thank you, Jon. I appreciate it.
-You're welcome. -Uh-huh.
-Good night, everybody. -[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music playing]