Bar Rescue - The Hammer (Hammer & Ales) Update

Photo - Facebook

Tonight on Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are headed to Las Vegas to makeover The Hammer Bar.  The bar is dealing with a strained friendship between two trained chefs, Chris and Mitch, who own and operate the bar.  Bar Rescue came to update the bar back in March, and they decided to change the name from The Hammer Bar to Hammer & Ales.

Lets take a look at some reviews and updates of the bar since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (all reviews are post Bar Rescue makeover):



Positive Reviews

• "Awesome bar! Watch Bar Rescue in September to see more! Open 24 hours & owners are there all the time to make it a great experience. I highly recommend the APPLE BOTTOM drink that part owner Mitch suggests for the ladies."
• "Great beer selection - food was better than I remembered"
• "Excellent dive bar with shockingly good food. Came here for dinner because the food has good reviews. Was surprised to find a nice, clean dive-style bar with a great atmosphere. Lots of beers on tap. The food was standard pub fare in terms of options, but the quality was exceptionally impressive. The service was excellent. I will definitely come again!"
• "This place rocks! Came in here about a week ago with a http://restaurant.com certificate. The staff were super friendly and welcoming. Brock is awesome! We were surprised at the awesome beer selection!  I expected a dump and was pleasantly surprised with how Home Depot fresh much of the stuff was inside.. Drinks were a great deal ($2 beers, $1.50 sodas) and food is moderately priced but surprisingly good for bar food.  The one bartender was very sweet and she worked FAST!"

Negative Reviews

• "Dive bar...you betcha.  Cafe lights string on the ceiling and their 24 beers... well it seemed like they were out of half of them.  Not good for a holiday weekend.  No food was being served but we were offered BBQ that was sitting out for an event they just had.  Really was expecting more  we'll see how much better they are after they go on the air Sept 8th."

*Reviews from Yelp and Restaurant.com

Other Updates:

• According to a story on VegasNews, tonight there will be a viewing party of the episode Hammer & Ales as well as a celebration of the start of the football season.  That article also stated that business is 'now thriving' at Hammer & Ales.  Both owners wrote to Bar Rescue to be on the show as well as a few regulars that go to the bar.  Owner Chris Sarret is quoted as saying "Seeing how the bar and the staff transformed into something better made the overall experience well worth everything we went through."
• Hammer & Ales went from 8 beers on tap to 24 beers on tap, and is open 24 hours a day.
• Here is a video interview the owners did recently on a Las Vegas news station.

Conclusion:
It seems like everything is going good so far for Hammer & Ales, and that the owners are happy with the Bar Rescue makeover.


The official Bar Rescue update at the end of the show will be added after the show airs.  Also, stay tuned for the rest of the updates of bars that have appeared on Bar Rescue on this site.

Update from the end of the show:  Six weeks after Bar Rescue visited, drink sales were up 30%, and food sales had increased 15%.  Also, for the first time in two years, Mitch invited Chris to his house for dinner.

UPDATE - Hammer & Ales closed at the end of March 2016 - More information on the closing.