Bar Rescue - Sorties Tavern (O'Banion's) Update

Tonight on the season premiere of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Bellevue, Nebraska to try to rescue O'Banion's Bar.  This is the first of three bars this season that were filmed near Omaha, Nebraska.  O'Banion's has three owners, and one of the owners is a heavy drinker who is acting obnoxious in the bar.  The other co-owners do a hostile takeover of the bar and make the heavy drinking owner go home.  During the Bar Rescue makeover, O'Banion's was renamed Sorties Tavern, and is an Air Force themed bar.

Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates of Sorties since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar.




Positive Reviews:

• "Clean and friendly bar near Offutt AFB.  Has one pool table and a dartboard. They have about a dozen beers on tap with a full bar. ATM located on site and they take debit/credit cards.  They have several craft beers available along with Guinness."
• "The new bar looks good."
• "Not O'Banion's anymore, now called Sorties. Same great service"

Negative Reviews:

• "Went to the bar rescue unveil waited four hours to get in then waited one hour for the bartenders to ignore me. What a crappy place to eat and drink. I really hope the place goes under"
• "I think bar rescue was here... They should come back for a do over."
• "Asked bartender what whiskey cocktails they have since it says "whiskey cocktails" on front window. Bartender says "I don't know" and looks at all the clear liquor in the wells."
• "I would not ever recommend that anyone go there.  I was so dissapointed.  I met 2 of the owners, one was very nice and one was so rude I will NEVER go back there. I asked him if he would fill my water while he was behind the bar and he said NO apparently he feels he is to good to serve the new customers that are coming there.  As a person works daily in customer service I was insulted by his arrogance. I had to wait over 20 minutes to get any service.  There were only 6 people in the bar at the time. Its not like they were busy and they had 2 bartenders and 2 owners there at the time. John Taffer, you might want to come back and give them another dose of reality. No wonder they called Bar Rescue, however, because of the main owner, they will not succeed!!!"
• "Been to this place.. supported this place for 10 years, staff is great, experience tonight with the owner has solidified that I will never entertain going to this venue. Jerry, the owner, is completely out of control, still a drunk at his own place and has zero concept of professionalism. "

Reviews from Urbanspoon, Foursquare, Yelp, Sorties Facebook


Other and News and Links:

• There are 5 preview videos for this episode on the Spike TV website, and it looks like they are playing up the owner Jerry being a loud and drunk owner.
• Here is the Sorties Tavern Facebook Page, and Jerry is in some pictures on the page.  You will see the Air Force theme of the bar that Jon decided to do due to the close proximity of an Air Force Base.

  

  Photo - Facebook

• Speaking of Jerry, here is his Facebook page, where he has been counting down to the episode.  He is also building a new "estate," so the bar must not have been struggling too much. Here are co-owner Dave and Steve's Facebook pages.  When Steve shared the video preview, someone commented "Funny as hell! Jerry is a great actor! Reality TV is such a hoot!!!!"
• Jerry is speaking at the Nightclub & Bar Convention & Trade show in Las Vegas (Jon Taffer is President) at a "Bar Rescue - Where are they now?" event.  His bio says, "Jerry Dalrymple is the owner of Sorties Tavern in Bellevue, Nebraska.  Besides the Tavern Jerry manages his family’s real estate rental firm as well as he is an auto racing instructor. When he is not teaching auto racing he races cars throughout the country to advertise for his sponsors. Jerry grew up as a Military brat traveling all over the United States with his family watching his dad serve in the United States Air Force.  They finally settle down in Bellevue, Nebraska at Offutt Air Force Base.  Jerry graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Management and Marketing. He entered the service industry as a Security Guard at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. When he returned back to Nebraska he wanted to have a place that would give the military service men & women a place to relax and have fun.  He bought a dilapidated bar by Offutt Air Force Base’s military housing in 2005. Over the years he has struggled to fix it up and turn it around. After bar rescue stepped in after many years of struggling he has been providing a place for the active military and Veterans to come and relax ever since called Sorties Tavern."
• A website Hit That Dive was at some of the makeover of Sorties (and the upcoming ones in Omaha), and witnessed the reveal.  They said Bar Rescue filmed the reveal multiple times with the staff running up to the door.  Someone from the website also said,"I was also in line behind some friends of the owner who said the owner wasn't hurting for money at all, and all he wanted was the makeover to get new stuff in his bar and the publicity. I also happened to talk to the owner's daughter at the nearby pizzeria while waiting in line for the bathroom, and she said it was a "stressful" week for her dad. She then explained that owning the bar is just a hobby of his, and he has a real job outside of it. She even told me he was out of town for a day or two this week, so he wasn't even around the whole time for filming."

Conclusion:

The episode tonight will definitely play up the fact that Jerry is a drunk owner that is ruining the bar.  While he may be obnoxious, as with much of reality TV, it will be taken up a notch for the benefit of the show and cameras.  Judging by some of the negative reviews, Jerry seems to still be causing some issues at the bar, especially with new customers.

It doesn't seem like the bar owners were struggling that badly judging by the quote that the bar is pretty much a hobby for them.  Also, while Jerry will be heavily criticized tonight, Jon Taffer thought enough of him to invite him to speak at his convention in Las Vegas for a "Bar Rescue - Where are they now?" event.


UPDATE 3/13/2014 - The owner Jerry did an interview with Omaha.com, where he said Bar Rescue changed the order of a few things on the show.  He also said Bar Rescue "got all of these original bar stools from a local furniture place and they're meant for in-home use. So, to tell you the truth, they all ended up in the Dumpster, they all fell apart. We had to get new stools from a real bar place. You've got to do a lot of the things after they finished. They didn't do anything behind the bar or in the back or in the bathrooms."

UPDATE - Jerry describes the experience on the show with doing multiple takes for some scenes and getting encouragement from directors to yell with a little more urgency.  He also was drinking water when the show claimed he was drinking tequila. They are still happy with the makeover and definitely think it was worth it. (Link) 

They also are not currently serving food at the bar, and Jerry said "We had Nick Liberato, the chef, (teach) us how to make all that stuff. Well, they didn't really leave us any direction on where to get all the supplies. And then we have to learn how to make the stuff. He gave us some direction, but he didn't leave us recipes, so we had to relearn how to make it as well as our food license as well as find a food supplier ... we don't even have a cook"

Bar Rescue had that 100% increase in food sales in their update at the end of the show.....

UPDATE 4/2015 - Sorties Tavern is Listed For Sale.  The bar sold in early 2016 to new owners.


*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.