During the Bar Rescue makeover, Lickety Split was renamed to 2nd State Lounge and Alleged Bar & Pizza. It is a split concept, and the bottom floor is the Alleged Bar & Pizza, while the upstairs is the 2nd State Lounge (Pennsylvania was the 2nd state to join the union). It appears that the bar has recently dropped the Alleged Bar & Pizza name on the first floor and goes only by 2nd State Lounge. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for 2nd State Lounge/Alleged Bar & Pizza since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar:
Reviews:
- "We each ordered a "famous" peach Bellini which were lacking much alcohol but still delicious. We perused the menu, eyed up the pizza comparing it to slices past, and reminisced about what Lickety Split once was...Upon leaving we made our way down a dark alley to avoid the danger that is South Street on a late Saturday night....Taffer, I think you failed on this one. I give it a year."
- "My husband and I randomly found this gem today! And we are so glad we did! Cheesesteak and pizza was fabulous and our bartender/waitress (Coco?) was so kind and even helped us tourists find some good stores and must-sees in Philly! Will definitely be back!!!"
Other News and Links:
- Here are two preview videos of the episode on the Spike TV website.
- Here is an Alleged Bar website that has a menu and a 2nd State Lounge menu.
- Here is a Lickety Split Facebook page, and a 2nd State Lounge Facebook page, which is kept up to date.
- Here are the Facebook pages of Tom (owner), Laura (Tom's Daughter), Coco (bartender), and Ally (bartender)
- Laura had her baby boy in October.
- Tom shared a link of the preview videos and said, "Everyone needs to check this out, maybe a little over the top!" And followed up with, "How to make someone look like he is a buffoon!"
- In this post on Oct 29th, Tom said, "People really think reality TV is real it's just a show nothing is real! Please forget about what ya read! It was never about licketysplit it was about making a TV show nothing else!" He followed that up with, "They put a new top on over the old bar! They tell you what to say over and over again and if they don't like your answer they have you say it again! When the camera is off that's it! It over no talkie talkie! The big lie it's all about commercials!" He also said, "Oh I can be sued for a million dollars, for saying this!!!"
- In a September post on the 2nd State Lounge Facebook page, the bar claims they were lied to about the amount of money that would be put into the bar for Bar Rescue.
- An October post on the 2nd State Lounge Facebook page had a picture (pictured below) which said, "Thank
you bar rescue for the not free storage and how neat upside down on its
side and broken! You guys are the best! Go a head and sue me!" So apparently the show put the old stools in storage not so nicely, and the bar had to pay for the storage unit.
- Here is a Reddit thread of people talking about the bar, in which someone was at the grand opening.
- A recent story on Philly.com said, "Management stripped away the Alleged window decorations and restored the TV that blares ESPN. On the second floor, renamed 2nd State Lounge, drink specials are gone and comedy nights and music acts have been reinstituted."
Conclusion:
Since the makeover, the bar has gotten rid of the Alleged Bar & Pizza name downstairs, and only goes by 2nd State Lounge. Tom doesn't seem too pleased with the makeover and has said not to believe that it is reality TV because he was coached with what to say and how to act. He also isn't happy with how the show dealt with his old furniture and dared the show to sue him for talking multiple times.
UPDATE - The bar closed sometime in middle to late 2015. They stopped posting on their Facebook page in July, and a Philly.com article from December 2015 says a new cafe/bar is opening in this location.
*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.
And the owner has the balls to call his bartender white trash. I noticed his pregnant daughter didn't have a wedding ring or a husband. I wonder what he called her when she got knocked up?
ReplyDeleteMaybe being 8 months pregnant her wedding ring no longer fit on her finger. Maybe her partner or significant other didnt want to be in the show. Way to be just as childish.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe Pittviper is right on the money. No sign of a husband...great...another bastard for the School District of Philly to educate. Maybe also we drop the "partner" and "significant other" politically correct BS as well.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected, looks like she is in a relationship. Congrats on the birth of your child!
ReplyDeleteHow'd you find out she's in a relationship?
ReplyDeleteSo were clear, this d-bag that was rude & cruel to his employees, didn't give a chit that people were eating pizza dough that was on the floor, drunk & running his business into the ground, obviously just an ass waiting to die. This jack has the nerve to complain that he's got to be coached to be on a TV show, is disappointed they didn't gift/dump a bizillion dollars into his dive bar, has to go onto social media & blow-hard making him look even more pathetic, bitches he's gotta pay a fee for a storage unit for some tables & chairs that probably should be thrown away. Try installing that 4 station draft/keg beer system for under $15k, try installing a POS order system for under $5k, try getting all the refinishing, paint & labor to do all that installing & work for the cost of coaching your drunk azz how to speak on TV without embarrassing yourself & a couple weeks of your time & the cost of a storage fee, not to mention all the free publicity your dump hole of a bar got. The show wrap was spot on, six weeks after the rescue your still working thru your issues, because any sane person would be thankful to have gotten all that beautiful bar saving equipment & training for the cost of a storage fee. Ignorance is bliss, and you can't fix stupid.
ReplyDeleteYou bet!
ReplyDeleteWhen I look at the daughter's Facebook page, which is very easy to find even if you fail to notice that it is linked in the above blog post, the most prominent photograph is of her in a wedding dress holding hands with man dressed in a Tuxedo. And if I scroll down, not very far, I see the announcement, "One year ago today! love you [Husband's Name] happy anniversary tho!", followed by friends wishing them a happy anniversary.
ReplyDeleteDo you care to take a wild stab in the dark about what that photograph and post suggest about her marital status?
The magic of Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the issue of storage relates to items that were replaced during the 'rescue', and were placed in a storage unit at the owner's request instead of being discarded. I have never heard anybody suggest that the show charges for items stored during the actual remodel, but I see no reason why the show would pay for even a day of storage for items that have permanently removed from a bar.
ReplyDeleteI'm sympathetic to the idea that the staff had to coach Tom about how to act and what to say on camera, as the episode makes a very strong effort to have him come across as a good guy, nice when he's sober, a policeman who drinks due to PTSD, and there's a good chance that without coaching he would have come across as anything but admirable or likable. He did seem like a decent guy when sober, but his behavior when drunk was pretty awful. If he's complaining that he was prompted when drunk, that would presumably be because it is difficult to get usable footage of somebody who is drunk unless your primary goal is to make him look like an ass. if he's complaining that he was prompted about what to say when sober, it seems like he should be grateful that the show helped him come across as more sympathetic than he otherwise might have appeared to be.
The claim that "...they told me they would put $200,000 into bar, if I didn't drink!" is interesting. It's possible that the show put that kind of money into the Bungalow Bar & Restaurant, but if you watch the show that's not a realistic expectation for a typical bar. Further, although the show likes to imply that it makes its remodeling decisions on the fly, it's pretty clear that they already have the bulk of the remodeling plan in place before they start filming the episode -- there is no realistic way to do all of the necessary advance work, get supplies and hire contractors within the time frame of the shooting.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem with the claim, or should I say concern, is that it would be necessary for a producer to offer anything to convince a bar owner, on the verge of receiving a public relations goldmine, that he needed to stay sober during the shooting of the episode in which his bar was being rescued. Anybody who watches the show more than occasionally knows that Taffer will normally tear into anybody who drinks while working, often with lectures about dangers and liability issues, and sometimes with threats to walk out if the drinking continues. For a bar owner to be complaining that he had to be sober for a couple of days of shooting, and that he feels cheated because he didn't get a $200,000 remodel in exchange, suggests both a serious problem with alcohol and a profound detachment from the reality of how to run a successful business.
Perhaps Tom intended to convey a different message with his post than what I have inferred. If not, for his own sake, I hope he follows up with that counselor and considers joining AA.
Some of Taffer's renames are home runs. Most seem pretty good. At least in terms of the "Alleged" portion of the bar, I think this one missed the mark. If it were my business, I would have considered changing anything that said "alleged" to "awesome" -- the word should fit in the same space without having to do any other significant changes.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it would take time to see how it might play out in terms of business, having the downstairs call out to the street, "Get some beer and pizza", with the potential for more of a bar experience upstairs, didn't seem like a bad idea -- if you could draw people upstairs.
Reminiscing about "what Lickety Split once was".... Well, it's not Taffer's fault that a customer feels like the streets around the bar are dangerous at night. If the customer is longing for the pizza that was shown at the start of the episode, or pizza made with the dried-out pizza dough that was all over the floor in the basement, I don't think that many others would share his nostalgia. The pizza that was introduced on the show was smaller, but of visibly better quality than the pizza that was previously served. I hope that the bar has been able to maintain better food safety and quality standards since the episode was filmed.
Why do you think profanity is required?
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the bartenders at 2nd state lounge and yes tom can be a complete asshole but him calling me white trash is not serious ,its a joke. & a big thanks to you john for making us lose more money than we were. I use to watch this show all the time and now i dont. I feel bad for every bar that dealt with these people.
ReplyDeleteHis crew members do EVERYTHING . So please before you wanna talk shit.on my boss and the bar i work get your fucking facts straight.
ReplyDeleteIf you were him you would be pissed too. NOTHING THEY DID WAS FREE. We got bills the same fucking day they left.
ReplyDeleteOh brother, another brain child offended by people from afar, using "grrrr, profanity" to yell at a posting. A reality show only displays a small portion of facts, you show up here on an update page to use a small portion of your brain, clearly, by dropping f-bombs, classy. Don't bother visiting a page if you can't handle some constructive criticism from a picture the show painted. Owner looked & acted like a complete drunken fool, nothing more/less. Anyone watching this show knows JT has his people do all the work, your an idiot to think anyone thinks otherwise. He's a consultant, not a day labor construction worker. But hey, thanks for dropping by & stating the obvious, not so much for dropping the f-bomb. Good luck w/your career working in that dump, sorry, "allegedly" it's a dump.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened that you are now losing MORE money?
ReplyDeleteYoure the one sitting here talking shit on a bar and a owner you know nothing about. Tom is not a drunk he has maybe 3 or 4 beers a night and yes he likes to make jokes sometimes there funny sometimes they arent. And bartending is not my career its way to pay for my college dumb ass.
ReplyDeleteAlso by the way they were the ones that put the dough on the floor we had to give them keys to put up yhe hidden cameras that werent so hidden and put tap over our own cameras i am there every single day the dough was never on the floor. The other owner that no one knows about is the one that deals with the cooks and the food would never allow it trust me.
ReplyDeleteThats not an employee!
ReplyDeleteALEXANDRA IS A FAKE YOU RETARDS SHE'S NOT AN ACTUAL EMPLOYEE SPEAKING THAT IS SOMEONE PRETENDING WITH NO LIFE TO ENTERTAIN FOOLERY!
ReplyDeleteI just wanna make it clear that the person claiming to be "Alexandra" is not The employee of Lickety split who never goes by Alexandra, she goes by Ally. Do not listen to anything that person is saying. We are not speaking about how the show went down. That's exactly what it is, a show! Believe whatever you want but the phony down there pretending to be someone she clearly is not just shows how creepy this world can be. Thanks
ReplyDeleteWho is "we"? Tom has posted about the show on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteWe as in me and the girls.
ReplyDeleteWho are we to believe -- you, or our lying eyes?
ReplyDeleteWho are you?
ReplyDeleteI just know that person is a phony and I agree with codelacreme.
ReplyDeleteGreat... but why did you suggest that you are an insider at the bar if you are not?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm the only one who noticed this, but I find it kind of amusing that the guy was a narcotics detective to crack down on drug dealers and now he is one....
ReplyDeleteBullshit, Taffer is supposed to pay storage for their shit? If he wants to keep the new stuff then he has to pay to store the old stuff or throw it out. The exposure alone is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are message boards full of people that would've patronized the place had the owner not talked shit. These people support the show and show their support by patronizing the businesses that are featured. All he had to do was wait a couple of weeks for the bump in business and he would've shut his mouth, but that disciplineless drunken douchebag had to talk shit before the show even aired. He bit off his nose to spite his face.
ReplyDeleteTaffer was right about him and the place. I went there when it was pomodoro's, and when it became lickety split. The owner is a drunkard, the place was dirty, there was no concept for the second floor, the name SUCKS, and overall the place was a joke.
By the way, I watch the show as part of a business networking get together on a weekly basis. Our group was going to start patronizing your place to show support for the show and a local business. Our business alone would've made the bar thousands of dollars a month, but we decided on another location because of the owner's actions.
ReplyDeleteYou just identified yourself as someone who isn't too bright.
ReplyDeleteWow that is priceless. He's not a drunk, he only has 3 or 4 beers a NIGHT - AT WORK. Lmao. Yeah I used to rationalize like that when I bartended.
ReplyDeleteEvery bar seems to be excelling, as shown on the Updates page. Yours is failing cause of `staff members` like you. Enjoy finding a new job.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe it's all bullshit for your entertainment purposes.
ReplyDeleteI find the comments from those who actually believe that BR is "real" far more entertaining than the show itself. Where else can you find people about to hemorrhage through their ears over a reality show, that is anything but real?
ReplyDeleteprobably the "white trash" and other comments were "coached" by Bar Rescue to manufacture drama. I doubt that the Bar owner, a retired detective would do that in real life. He probably gambled that by going on Bar Rescue and making an Ass out of himself, he would get a good makeover thereby increasing the value of the property and also generating a lot of new business. Apparently, the gamble failed.
ReplyDeleteI've patronized the place. The owner is a cocky jerk off and says a lot of douchey things. He deserves everything he gets. He's a prick.
ReplyDeleteYou are, to put it lightly, an idiot. As Aaron said, all it takes is one click on the daughter's Facebook page to see how stupid you actually are.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's someone pretending to be the Sam girl (or its actually her, but unlikely) that walked out and quit during filming? It's no secret that the show has a track record of coaching at least one employee every episode to act like a fool and walk out. And then that employee is magically back working after the filming is over.
ReplyDeletePussy! Lol
ReplyDeletePeople thought the same thing about me when i was pregnant. I couldn't wear my wedding ring towards the end because it didn't fit. Some religious girl assumed I wasn't married and made bad comments about me. Stop judging before you know.
ReplyDeleteRight. You just had to throw in your disgusting anti-Christian bigotry, didn't you? Go make fun of your precious muslims to their faces, and watch what your "religion of peace" does to a woman who smart mouths them.
ReplyDeleteSo, the buffoon owner Tom ditched a lot of the improvements. Why am I not surprised?
ReplyDeleteSomeone who sees nothing wrong with constantly talking rudely to staff and humiliating them in front of customers is a know it all. Who saw that coming?
I hate when failing business owners insist they know better than someone with dozens of successful ventures. I'd love for them to immediately go down in flames if their staff and family didn't suffer because of their hard headedness.
@Aaron
ReplyDelete"Further, although the show likes to imply that it makes its remodeling decisions on the fly, it's pretty clear that they already have the bulk of the remodeling plan in place before they start filming the episode -- there is no realistic way to do all of the necessary advance work, get supplies and hire contractors within the time frame of the shooting."
Where did you get this impression? Tafer often has neighborhood marketing analysis and design plans to share with the owner before remodel work starts. No way the work could be done within a few days without someone taking measurements and getting the workers and supplies ready in advance.
Also, he brings experts who are familiar with the theme (ex. New Orleans, Irish, sports) and has the skills the bar needs help with. All of this definitely needs weeks if not months of pre-work before Tafer shows up and yells at people.
I think you may be confusing Bar Rescue with another show.
My wedding ring stopped fitting me while I was pregnant and do you know what? I purchased a cheap brass ring to wear during my pregnancy. I would have been ashamed for someone to think I was an unwed mother. I'm not religious, in fact I am an ardent atheist. However, I have ethical and cultural morals. For your children's sake, for societies sake and for maintaining dignity, marriage before motherhood it preferable.
ReplyDeleteSouth Street is an interesting place. Very few people who go out on South Street are as concerned with quality of drinks and food as the show seemed to think. It's all about quick, easy food and passable alcoholic drinks. The one thing that could have brought a unique value proposition to this place would have been quick, friendly service and one or two gimmicky drinks/shots. I think Bar Rescue tried to do too much, even though the place was kind of a hole to start off.
ReplyDeleteSouth Street is where young people go to bar hop. It's not the type of place where people (at least not the target demographic) camp out in one place all night and spend money. There are night clubs all over the place along South Street for people who want a place to dance and hang out. There are dives with terrible to mediocre service all over the place down there that serve as stops in bar hopping. There are music venues. There is almost nowhere (that I've found) that offers passable products coupled with great service. That's the one thing they could have done, but it doesn't seem that the show thought that would be enough, or that the owner and staff think they want any part of being professional, courteous, and friendly.
I think you put far too much faith in what being a retired detective (especially from Philly) is worth in terms of character, personality, or intelligence.
ReplyDeleteYou somehow misread what I wrote.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that this guy is an idiot. He proves it by participating in this scripted garbage (but very entertaining) that he knew by reading the script would paint him as a moron. However, your low opinion of police officers and detectives is misplaced. There are bad apples in every group, but by in large they are brave and doing a job I am too afraid of doing. And they get paid very little considering that they are putting their lives on the line every day.
ReplyDeleteshe said "some religious girl", not "some Christian girl".
ReplyDeleteAtheism all day.
That's a lot honey.... you're in denial and so is the owner.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand why the bar owners almost always ignore the improvements and go back to their failing ways??? If what they were doing before was so great they wouldn't have been failing, but they were... Oh well...
ReplyDeleteHow does being single or married relate to education in Philly? There are plenty of white trash married couples in Philly sending their kids to school. I'm a single parent (from day one) own my own home and sent my child to Philly schools up until 1st grade then moved out of there for better schools in NJ. So again, what does education have to do with being a single parent?
ReplyDeleteThe owner is a complete dick and this place is a dive--he should be happy with the free publicity. With his attitude, I give him less than a year.
ReplyDeleteNah, she's TRASH. Only lowlifes get knocked up out of wedlock.
ReplyDeleteI meant "your"
ReplyDeleteCollege? You write like a 3rd grade dropout! Some college, I'll bet.
ReplyDeleteWow, you're a Grade A Idiot.
ReplyDeleteThen they don't have to take the job. Besides, the Philly cops have had a horrific reputation since Rizzo. They're pigs.
ReplyDeleteHaHaha; how pathetic that this is the only job you're white trash ass could get! Stay classy.
ReplyDelete