supposedly these guys are coming to a local topeka sports bar too

The Brixton makeover was complete bullshit.

Not sure i've seen the Brixton episode, was that the hipster bar in Austin owned by the husband and wife team, and the husband was driving everyone off with the snarky attitude?

The place kinda looked like a normal house, not a bar?

Yes. And he "set them up" with a food truck and renamed the bar "Rocket 66" or something stupid like that. They basically did it to get a free remodel and changed the name back to the Brixton almost immediately.

I could cry on queue right now for a $200,000 home makeover. I could even act like a dick and make up a story about my marriage being on the fritz. Of course, my financials are all the way nice so I probably wouldn't make it past a screening.

Yeah, the name kinda rang a bell, i bet atleast a few of these places really just want the killer remodel and then go back to what they were... but i'm pretty sure they have to be atleast 200k in debt for him to take them on.

I don't even really care if they dramatize small parts of it, the things he does for these places are awesome, he really helps them understand their market... the median income in the area, how many similar competitors they have for their old business model, how many people drive down their street each day without noticing them because of poor signage or ugly building, why you need to cater to women etc.

To me, the genuine emotion most owners and employees show by the end of it all really sell this show to me, i don't usually feel i'm being duped.

Pretty sure this show is somewhat hammed up tonprovide confrontation for the audience. And I.dont know.how u could like this Taffer dude. Hes a grade A dbag. IRL cussing at ppl calling them names does not.produce results

I like the show as well, and I think he's totally badass on the analytics and number crunching side of things as well as the general ability to get a well oiled machine up and running. Where I think he often misses (and it's no fault of his because he's coming into markets he doesn't always know and looking at it from an outsider's, non-invested perspective) is the soul/passion part of things (such as renaming the Brixton to Rocket Room 6). Of course, that ability to look at things from a dispassionate business perspective is also what makes him extremely successful at what he does.

I also think that they sometimes make the kitchen much nastier than it actually is, but I also have no doubt that many kitchens look like that.

which one? Toad?

On this one and a few others i definitely agree about not changing the name, and once in a while he wont change the name at all, or maybe just tweak it a bit... some places just have to much historical cache wrapped up in the name.

I guess my final take is that i'd work for this guy eight days a week, because i know he's going to make me money.

He only cusses at them to humble and rattle them a bit, make them understand how stupid they're being, it usually works too.

Its the old drill sergeant routine, he tears them down in front of everyone, then they have a one on one sitdown where he softens up and sells them on his idea.

Yep

I went to a bar in Las Vegas (the Sand Dollar - now Bar 702) with a friend (musician) that lives there to see a blues jam with some great LV musicians just before it was redone on the show. While it was somewhat of a dive (as a musician I've spent a lot of time in dive bars ;) ) it was nothing like they portrayed it in the show. It was just an older bar off the strip, but pretty much like typical bars you find in any city. I had no idea at the time it was going to be on the show (never even heard of the show at the time), and really nothing about the place stood out as unusual.

Obviously it was a lot nicer after the redo, but they basically just took an old slightly run down bar and renovated it. The drama was all for show.

That said, I don't have any problem with the show. I watch it all the time. No one wants to watch actual boring reality.

My friend still plays there weekly.


Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for the old Sand Dollar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Dollar_Blues_Room

The venue has been described as "genuine and authentic in a world of neon and plastic"[citation needed] and is a popular site for both locals and tourists[citation needed] that has hosted blues legends such as BB King, George Thorogood, and Jeff Healey. Celebrities often stop in to hear the live blues jams. Rock legend Ted Nugent recently performed an impromptu guitar duet with blues great Joe Bonamassa in front of a VH1 film crew. Billionaire founder of Electronic Arts Trip Hawkins hosted a bachelor party there. Pop star Taylor Dayne is among its recent guests, where she asked to perform a song for the crowd.

Doesn't really sound that bad.

i like that show. i thought they were doing some bar in Grain Valley though.

They just opened a few years ago didn't they? I'm assuming they sucked (never been) but didn't think it would be that bad so soon.