Has anybody here watched Bar Rescue on Spike?

They are into the second season this year, and I'm really getting to enjoy this show. The featured guy goes to bars that are bleeding money and about to close down. He usually chews the owner(s) out and some of the staff. He then starts to rebuild. He looks at the demographics of the area of where the bar is. He brings in a bartending expert and usually a chef to revamp the drink and food menus.

The first show this season dealt with a dive in Maryland in a corporate area that was a pirate bar. The owner was 900,000 in debt but was sure that corporate people would want to eat and drink at her pirate bar. The host of the show changed everything in the bar and made it very upscale. He made it a corporate bar. The place was packed, but the owner wasn't happy. After the filming crew left she tore down the sign and many other things and went back to a pirate bar.

The one thing that is somewhat scary on this show is when he first enters the bar and inspects the kitchen and the bar with his experts. Many of the kitchens haven't been cleaned for years. There are rodent droppings, refrigerators that don't work, etc. It makes me weary of ever ordering anything from a dive bar or any place that doesn't look like it is doing very well. As for the bar, many times the dishwasher is broken or they are not letting the glasses dry properly and that breeds bacteria.

The show and repeats of earlier shows are on Sunday nights.

I just drink out of the bottle in dive bars except the Double Down Saloon as the bacon martini will kill any microorganisms.

I have seen a few episodes of this show and recall(?) that more than once after the makeovers the owners revert back to their old ways after a few months.

A lot of bar owners are delusional. An earlier show was on Swanky Bubbles in Philadelphia. I had been to the bar and thought it was poorly laid out and a dated concept. Apparently the owner had a lot of money problems so he brought in another partner who made it worse. Bar Rescue made the bar over and than the owner changed it back and later closed. The same owner paid over $1 million for a liquor license in a Southern New Jersey affluent suburb and lost that too. It's now a successful Irish tavern.

I think one of the main reasons privately owned bars go under is they rarely cater to their local clientele.
Instead they go with some fantasy.

It's like when a great place that has been around forever and the owner decides it's time to renovate, then come the upgrades on the menu along with the prices.
They loose their regulars and the staff becomes bitter.

I knew the one in Cherry Hill closed. I've been there once and 2 or 3 times to the one in Philly. What was poorly laid out was going to the bathroom in Philly. Those were some steep steps.

There is a new Irish Pub near me. Just opened. Other than the name and some pictures, there is not much Irish about it. The clientele wants a dive bar so it's turning into a dive bar.

I think the customers are the ones who turn dive bars into such establishments.

*not that there is anything wrong with dive bars.

So what's a "pirate" bar? I watch the shows Hotel Impossible and Restaurants Impossible. Haven't seen this one about bars though! Have to give it a watch someday!

All the employees are dressed and talk like pirates and they serve lots of Grogs.

Arrrrrrr.