On tonight's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Valley Village, California to try to rescue Pat's Cocktails, which is a sports bar. The bar manager is too busy "canoodling" in his bar to notice the things that are going on around him. Jon Taffer gets one of the bartenders to help out with the recon, and gets her to give out tons of free drinks to customers in the bar to see if the manager notices, which he does not. Jon will need to change how the manager operates to turn this bar around.During the Bar Rescue makeover, Pat's Cocktails was slightly renamed to Pat's Cocktails - A Mixology Bar. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Pat's Cocktails since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar:
Positive Reviews:
- "First visit back since bar rescue and the smell is gone...It does seem nicer than before. The mixology in the name is sadly a joke, the mustachioed hipster mixologists in town has that market cornered ,if there are no fresh plant looking things and fat square ice cubes , mixology doesn't apply, they slanging drinks. Have a beer at the dive bar and call it a day."
- "Cons: Only one pool table now. Pros: the smell of puke is finally gone! Nice spot, cheap drinks."
- "I've been an on again off again patron of Pats for nearly a decade... It got a bit rough around the edges about four years ago and I stopped coming in as much. Now that "bar rescue" came in, renovated, restructured and retrained I gave it another shot tonight and had a fantastic time.... they really got a good thing going now...the crowd was good as well as the vibe...I didn't over spend and overall had a really good time. Stop by...you will have a good time too."
- "Nice spot to relax with friends and have some drinks. Just hate that they got rid of the pool tables. Still a good spot , seems like now they gave a younger crowd since Bar Rescue but who cares."
Negative Reviews:
- "The only appeal to Pat's was the fact that it was a dive bar. It's even worse now that it's been "rescued". The one star is for the puke smell being gone...I agree with other reviewers, embrace your diveyness and leave the mixology to Silver Lake."
- "John Taffer tried, but this bar still sucks. Our bar keep was the only good part of this experience. She was pleasant, prompt and helpful....Don't go here unless you want to over pay for drinks or observe a pig with some lipstick on it."
- "I should have known from the "A Mixology Bar" on the sign..... Laughably bad cocktails. Mine was an abomination of gin and Campari. The other was the worst gimlet in the history of cocktails...Call it a sportsbar and stick to blaring TVs and bad beer."
Other News and Links:
- Here are 2 preview videos of the episode on the Spike TV website.
- Here is the Pat's Cocktails website, old Facebook page, new Facebook page, and Twitter page
- Some reviews before Bar Rescue came stated how bad the place smelled, with many saying it smelled like puke and stale beer. Most reviews also refer to the bar as a dive bar.
- Pat's had 3 pool tables before the makeover, and Bar Rescue removed them all. Pat's has since put a pool table back in the bar.
- Here are the Facebook pages of the manager Jimmy, his wife Monique, and bartenders Vivian, Chad, and Danielle.
- Monique has pictures that say she was in the show Sons of Anarchy and the movie Shrink. Jimmy is on IMDB as being in the movie Ambushed, so I guess they are both actors/actresses of some sort.
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- In December after the makeover, Danielle posted a status on her Facebook stating, "Damn, scrolling thru FB its kind of hurtful to see how quickly people flip! Understand a few things about the "New Pat's"- IT'S FOR A TV SHOW- Entertainment Purposes! Of course the regulars will complain, by nature people don't like change. Some things will be going back to normal very quickly. For years folks complained about the smell, the air conditioning, bar sticky or with tile, the beer was warm, the food sucked! Well I hate to be the one to tell ya, but without Bar Rescue NOTHING was EVER going to get fixed! Nothing got fixed in the 10yrs I've worked there, and it was getting worse by the day. So we took one for the team, we were humiliated on TV put in 12 hour days, didn't have days off for weeks to make Pat's a better place for everyone! Be realistic y'all this is how we earn a living, without a makeover Pat's wasn't going to make it. With every bar in town getting remodeled, we were under pressure to stay relevant to our competition. We know the business side of things- not just the fun stuff our loyal customers love about the old Pat's. Bartenders were making 40% less in tips, so obviously the bars numbers were down considerably as well. Don't be so quick to judge and jump in the hater wagon. Pat's upgraded because we love you guys- believe that!!! #yourfuckinwelcome" Vivian and Chad also commented on the status backing up Danielle.
- Pat's Cocktails reached out to their Facebook fans to leave good Yelp reviews in January. (Link)
Conclusion:
The reviews since Bar Rescue came are mixed, and people still consider it a dive bar/sports bar rather than a mixology bar. I guess the mixology concept Jon Taffer envisioned is not catching on, and the bar even brought back a pool table due to customer complaints. It sounds like they were willing to do whatever to get Bar Rescue to makeover the bar including being "humiliated on TV." One thing that everybody agrees on is that they are happy that the foul smells of the bar are gone.
*To see how all of the bars from Bar Rescue are doing, go to the Bar Rescue Update page, and also Like us on Facebook or Follow Us on Twitter to stay up to date with all things involving Bar Rescue.