Bar Rescue - Pastimes on 4th (O'Kelley's at the Ballpark) Update

On tonight's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in St. Louis, Missouri to try to rescue O'Kelly's at the Ballpark.  O'Kelley's at the Ballpark is an Irish pub right near Busch Stadium which is where the St. Louis Cardinals play.  The bartenders are wild and the owner's livelihood is at risk due to her nephew and an unqualified manager.  The bar is supposedly losing $6,500 a month and $700,000 is debt.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, O'Kelly's at the Ballpark was renamed to Pastimes on 4th, and they have kept the new bar name. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Pastimes on 4th since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):

Reviews:

• Cool place! Great food and nice atmosphere. I really like the remodel. Just blocks from the ballpark and the large outdoor beer garden make it an awesome pre-game hangout.
• Great place to chill with family and friend...Good food too
• Ball park village is an immense place with multiple places to eat. If you like typical American cuisine this is the lace for you. I wasn't there for any games so it was very peaceful when I ate with a friend.
• Let me start by saying that if there was an option to give zero stars that is what I would do. I'm not even sure if words can truly express the horrible experience that we had here tonight, but I shall try to convey to the best of my ability....The only positive thing I can say is that the space is beautiful and I love all the brick walls....About 35 minutes later he came out with the nachos (mind you we were the ONLY customers in the establishment) and said that he was incorrect and that they didn't have the chicken (because he wasn't sure how old it was and didn't want to serve it). The nachos were huge, but completely devoid of flavor - probably the worst nachos I've ever had...the hamburger had no seasoning, chips were stale, lettuce wilted...I complete waste of $13. We picked at them for another 30 minutes while still waiting for our now 1 sandwich to come out and decided to cut our losses before the Only go here if you want to be disrespected! Rude to the customers.experience got any worse (still the only customer).

*Reviews from Facebook, Tripadvisor

Other News and Links:

• The Bar Rescue makeover happened in November 2015.
• Here are two preview videos of the episode from the Spike TV website - Video 1, Video 2
• Here is the Pastimes on 4th website and the old O'Kelley's website which is still up.
• Here is the Pastimes on 4th Facebook Page and another Facebook Page which still has posts but they are duplicate from their other page. 
• Owners Lance and Andrea Ervin also own Mama's on The Hill (Mama Campisi's) which is a restaurant in St. Louis known for toasted ravioli.  That restaurant was featured on Food Network's Restaurant Impossible in October 2013.  An update for that episode of Restaurant Impossible talked about how the restaurant probably wasn't struggling and didn't need a makeover.  The comments on that update pretty much confirm they were probably not a struggling restaurant
• A comment on a local article about the makeover says, " I stopped by O'Kelley's/Pastimes after the taping and I was informed by the (now) manager that he was called in before the show by Taffer to "act as the drunk that makes a turn around by the end of the show". This man is far from a drunk and is hardly an incompetent."  Kim from the episode also comments on the article.
• The bar was listed for sale in April 2015 and is apparently still for sale according to Loopnet for $575,000.  A Coldwell Banker listing says it is fully rehabbed (most likely due to Bar Rescue) and lists what is included in the sale. 

Conclusion:

The bar has kept the name of Pastimes on 4th given to them by Bar Rescue and there are not too many reviews, so it is hard to determine what people think.  There hasn't been a St. Louis Cardinals game since the makeover, so business may pick up when baseball season starts due to the proximity of Busch Stadium.  

The owners Lance and Andrea were able to get their restaurant to appear on Food Network's Restaurant Impossible, and now they got their bar to appear on Bar Rescue.  It doesn't seem like they are in need of the makeovers, but perhaps they know how to convince producers that their story makes compelling TV.   The bar has been listed for sale for some time, so maybe they are trying to get out of the bar business and focus on their restaurant.


UPDATE - Pastimes on 4th closed in 2017 - More information on the closure.

*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.