'Bar Rescue' Host Gives CPR to Your Failing Bar (Part Two)

He's been called the Gordon Ramsay of the world's bar scene.

Jon Taffer is the often argumentative and confrontational host of Bar Rescue, an upcoming show premiering July 17 on Spike that sees him put his nearly 30 years as a world-renowned bar and nightlife consultant to the test. What he says normally takes him three to six months is boiled down to five days on the show, as he attempts to save failing bars and nightclubs across the U.S.

As the president and founder of Taffer Dynamics Inc.,Taffer has been the code red phone call for many huge corporations when it comes to resuscitating their hotels, bars restaurants and nightclubs across the globe. His resume includes consulting for Paramount Pictures, Hyatt International, Ritz-Carlton, Hooters, Holiday Inn, Sheraton, the NFL and The Rainforest Cafe. He's even shook-up Canadian nightlife for Molson-Coors, increased the revenue of Silverbirch Hotels by $6 billion and gave the keynote speech for the Canadian Culinary Federation two years in a row.

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When we last left our hero in part one of our interview, he was about to tell us his step-by-step process for bar room rehabilitation. We now join our regularly scheduled interview already in progress...
When you get in there and they call "the bar doctor" in desperation, what is your strategy? Take me through it from the moment you arrive to the relaunch.

It's a six-step process that I go through and it's pretty specific to the area I go to because remember, I could be in a dance club, I could be in a country bar, I could be in a sports bar, I could be in a high energy place, I could be in a low energy place, so the concepts will change very, very much, right? It will change the flavour of each episode very much, but that aside, the six steps are identical in each one:

The first step is 'Recon' that's when I go in and I sometimes bring my wife or another spy because people can find out what I look like. I go in and recon that operation with a spy. Then, I recon the neighbourhood and the other operations nearby. I'll do simple things like pull up net reviews. We'll go into the market and we'll talk to people and people will start to tell us what to look for. If somebody says, "The place smells, the place has fights or the place has lousy food," you always know when there are some reputation issues that are slipping out. It's typically not a secret. If you want to know why a place is failing, just ask someone and they'll tell you.

Step two is 'The Takeover' that's when I walk into the bar, walk up to the owner, tell him who I am, ask him if he's desperate -- and he is, or I wouldn't be there -- I look the guy in the eye and I say, "You want my help?" He says, "Yes." Then I say, and excuse my directness, "Well, give me the f--king keys! Now, I own this place for the next five days; I will teach you how to make money." He gives me control of the business for five days, which completes the takeover. The next part of the takeover is when I meet with the employees and congratulate them because now they work for me and it's a whole new world when you're working for me.

Step three is 'The Training Phase' that's when I bring certain experts into each episode and I have an unbelievable stable of the world's best experts. For example, in one of our episodes, I bring in Peter O'Connor who's one of the world's master of whiskey because it was an Irish bar. I have people like, Chef Brian Duffy who was the top Irish chef in America three years in a row. We have three or four Top Chefs and Iron Chefs on our show. I bring in various experts for different episodes, some are mixologists, some are speed bartenders, some are flare bartenders, some are chefs, some are security experts, some are server trainer experts. I even brought a health inspector and I was close to bringing a behavioral therapist because the family was so messed up. They work with and train all of the staff.

After the training we enter step four, 'The Stress Test' this is when it gets real. The Stress Test is when we pack the place and see how the employees do with their new recipes and their new procedures. I am very reaction based. I don't believe we're in the bar business, I believe we're in the business of creating reactions. They're not only making recipes. They have to be personally dynamic, practically dynamic and mechanically dynamic. They gotta be on their game. During a stress test we see how everybody does. I've fired a manager and an employee and in another episode, an employee ran out the back door crying during a stress test. Some times employees shine like stars, but we never know what's going to happen when we but the throttle at full speed.

After The Stress Test, everybody is pretty beat up, so I tell them to get out of there and nobody is allowed back for 36 hours. Then I have one of the best design teams in the world go in and do step five, which is 'Transformation'. This is not Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, we don't move bars to the other side of the room. Jon Taffer is not a design manager,he's a bar manager, so we invest our money into really cool things and we invest our money into really cool things. It's all based on my sciences. For example, I know that when you walk into a bar, your eye is going to go to the brightest spot in the room. Designers will make that a picture on the wall, not me. I'm going to make that my most expensive liquors. I know that you're only going to flow through something if it has two entrances and two exits. I know that if you put people in low seating at high elevation and high seating at low elevation, I can keep everyone's eye-height within ten-inches of each other, increasing social interaction. I know that when my female demographic is over 34, I put a back on a bar stool and when it's under 34 I don't because women are sensitive about their rear ends when they get over 34-years-old. There are 100 sciences that we employ when we do these bars. It's moving the eye, it's moving flow patterns and it's causing people to spend more. We build money machines that's what we do!

The final step is 'The Reveal' that's when I open the door and reveal the bar's new look to the owner, the staff and the general public. After the celebration and the high-fives, it's all up to them to take the gift I've given them and run with it. At this point, I've helped them turn it around, but I can't hold their hands forever, so it's up to them to step up and not not go back to the dark days before I got there.


Taffer's Quick Tips for Increasing Profit in a Snap:

Amazing, but what about those bar owners who don't have access to you, your experts or aren't fortunate enough to land on your show, what should they do?

There are two things every bar owner should do. There's a convention every year in Las Vegas, The Nightclub and Bar Convention. I happen to be president of it, but I don't own it. It is the world's largest nightclub and bar convention with 90 seminars and 600 trade groups. Any bar owner who doesn't go to that, in my view, is crazy. Every year you come back with hundreds of promotions, ideas, marketing techniques and products. Bars survive from their next idea. I would send every bar operator to nightclub.com and have him sign up for the magazines and newsletters that are all free. There's one called Promo Power, which is filled with bar promotions. There's another one that comes out every two weeks called Mix, which is filled with recipes and trendy products. There's another one called Bar IQ, which is all about running a local bar and then there's Nightclub Confidential, which is all about running a nightclub. There's a lot of stuff out there man and these owners think they're alone, but they're not. I'm a face in my industry and it hurts me to see these people struggling and I tell them about this Las Vegas convention and they never heard of it. The biggest and best operators in Canada are there every year, you can count on it. I don't believe in hiring consultants. I've seen them come and go every year. Just because someone says they're a consultant doesn't mean they're good. Bar owners need to arm themselves with information and ideas.

What are the most popular trends you're noticing in the industry?

Premium spirits and premium beers is a big one. You guys in Canada are way ahead of us in America when it comes to market acceptance of expensive draft beer. In America draft beer is perceived as Animal House and fraternities. Craft beer and these specialty seasonal beers is also a great opportunity for bar owners to make money today. Also, never has their been more new spirits introduced, even in these tough economic times, with regard to everything from boysenberry berry rums to citrus infused tequilas. There's really cool stuff out there today. All you need is a couple of really cool drinks and a bar can be successful. The pendulum swings back and forth between a live music trend and a DJ trend, but these days the pendulum is swinging really hard towards smaller, more intimate bars over the big mega clubs because Starbucks is socializing the college campuses of today for the cocktail lounge. Another thing that's really driving sales are infused ideas where food and drinks are infused together, like a Cuban bar with Cuban foods and 100 rums. You can go out and get a gastropub kind of meal, but it doesn't need to be expensive and can be totally chef based, reflecting more of a lifestyle than just a meal.

Learn more of Jon Taffer's tricks of the trade by watching Bar Rescue this Sunday, July 17, at 10 p.m. on Spike TV