Bar Rescue - Lake House Bar & Grill (Sidelines) Update

On tonight's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Mount Dora, Florida to rescue Sidelines Bar & Grill.  Sidelines Bar & Grill is a family run bar that is owned by Richard Marinacci.  Richard and his aggressiveness is causing issues at the bar.  During the Bar Rescue recon, the kitchen is dealing with cross-contamination issues, and when Rich finds out about it, he goes back to the kitchen and smacks his son in the head.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer changed the name of Sidelines Bar & Grill to Lake House Bar & Grill and the bar has kept the name. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Lake House Bar & Grill since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):


Positive Reviews:

• "Food and service was excellent! Thank you Mary for the awesome service!"
• "Great food, love Dani"
• "Excellent wings!...Definitely will be coming back here for lunch next time we're in Mt Dora."
• "It is now called The Lake house. Very clean, great staff, excellent food."
• "Food was good, service was good. Kitchen was slow. Nice atmosphere very clean. Like the new name Lake House."
• "We were skeptical to eat here due to a low rating....However, we were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness and well-maintained wood interior. The service was absolutely exceptional. I believe our server's name was Katie or Ashley. The wings and pizza were above average. I would definitely recommend going if you are in the Mount Dora area."
• "We were warmly welcomed as soon as we came in. We were there on Monday and they told us the special was 65 cent boneless wings...They arrived promptly, hot and delicious. Drinks were reasonably priced, too. The bartender, Kimmy, and the chef were very friendly and made our visit a total pleasure."
• "We come here often for a guaranteed great meal that's always served with a smile. They make really good drinks at a very fair price. It's just nice to have a solid, fun food and drink place we can count on."

Negative Reviews:

• "This place was decent before, especially for trivia night. Since the "revamp," food is worse and overpriced, drinks are stingy and overpriced, service is even slower, and all the personality is gone. Combine that with NO A/C and a new trivia person who is unprofessional and rude and I doubt we will ever return after coming at least twice a month for the last year or so."
• "This is now the Lakehouse. It was revamped but all they did really was a paint job there is nothing exciting about the interior of this place. The food is a little bit better than it used to be but not a whole lot. It really is just average place to go grab Some food but nothing outstanding."
• "My husband and I used to frequent Sidelines in the past and loved it! Everytime we went there was always the same manager (owner?) working no matter what day or time we visited. Service was good, food excellent, but the last 3 times we went he wasn't there, it took forever to get our food and it was cold.We were wondering what happened to him? Does anyone know? We will try the new set up and hope we won't be disappointed."
• "The bar rescue and a name change didn't do much to help this local joint. "
• "The staff if not polite and the menu still is the same typical bar food. The restrooms are utterly disgusting to say the least. Don't waste your time eating here. Just travel another,hive mile onto downtown Mount Dora where there's far better food and better atmosphere and cleaner establishments."
• "2nd time here . 1st time since bar rescue, and really didn't change much . The service was ok but the food took way to long , the wings I ordered under cooked and the shrimp had no taste . Very disappointed and will never go back."
• "Very poor. The name has changed....The TVs were not working, not good for a Sports Bar. Supposedly they had just reopened after being filmed by Bar Rscue. They obviously did not renovate, they did however condense the menu..long story short...after being there 20 minutes I never got served and left...I don't think I will be returning.
• "I don't usually give poor reviews. Food wasn't that yummy...burger overcooked, chicken salad dry, bathrooms nasty. Our server Dani was sweet and super attentive. We wanted to give the new look a try...but found a coat of paint didn't improve the food."
• "Just finished our meal. Been here for 1 1/2 hours to only get our appetizers. Missing items from the menu. Missing items from the bar to make "their" specialty drinks. Our food shows up cold and over cooked.... We will never... I mean NEVER be back. Have owed a restaurant here for over 20 years.... have never seen such horrible food cone out. DON'T COME HERE!!!! There is a reason why they had to re-do this place."

*Reviews from Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor


Other News and Links:

• The Bar Rescue makeover happened in May 2017
• Here is a preview video of the episode from the Spike TV website - Video 1
• Here is the Facebook Page for Lake House Bar & Grill and they make no mention of their appearance on Bar Rescue.
• Here are the Facebook pages of Rich  (Owner, page listed as Sidelines) Katie (bartender), Dani (bartender), Nika (bartender), Ashlee (bartender) Johnathan (bartender/manager) Richie (cook)
• Here are some photos taken during the makeover.
• Despite the name Lake House Bar & Grill, the bar is not on a lake.  There are some lakes nearby though.
• Lake House Bar & Grill had to close for a few days after Bar Rescue left due to the POS system getting set up and training. (Link 1, Link 2)
• A few days after that, Johnathan was looking for servers/bartenders and said business had tripled since Bar Rescue. (Link)
• Here are the Yelp reviews of Sidelines before the makeover which averaged 3.5 stars with 40 reviews.  Tripadvisor reviews also average a 3.5 out of 5.
• Here are some restaurant inspection findings over the years at Sidelines. (Link)
• In a 2010 article from when the bar opened, it says that Rich and his dad owned a restaurant in that location and decided to sell the business and leased the building.  That business eventually closed, so Rich decided to open Sidelines in his building.  The article also states that Rich also owns and operates two Charley's Grilled Subs - one in Lake Square Mall in Leesburg and one in Florida Mall in Orlando.  He is still listed as the owner for Leesburg, but I couldn't find ownership information about the Florida Mall one.
• In late 2016, an intoxicated man came into Sidelines and was kicked out by Richard.  When being escorted out, he pushed Richard, so he called for help from his sons.  They tried to prevent the man from driving away and he hit younger Rich with his car causing him to roll over the hood.  He suffered minor injuries and the driver was arrested. (Link)

Conclusion:

Lake House Bar & Grill has kept the name given to them by Bar Rescue and the reviews since the makeover are more negative than positive.  With it only being three months since the Bar Rescue makeover, there were quite a lot of reviews, which I guess means people are coming in.  The positive reviews seem to complement the bartenders while the negative reviews complain about service, the quality of the makeover by Bar Rescue, the bathrooms, and the food.  With Richard owning the building the bar is in and other businesses, perhaps he isn't struggling financially.

UPDATE 1/2019 - A recent article, says Lake House Bar & Grill is still going strong and has kept the name and menu changes from Bar Rescue.  They also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.


*To see how all of the bars from Bar Rescue are doing, go to the Bar Rescue Updates page, and also Like us on Facebook or Follow Us on Twitter to stay up to date with all things involving Bar Rescue.