Bartender From Bar Rescue's Champagne's Dies After Assault at Bar

On Saturday April 24, 2021 a bartender at Champagne's in Las Vegas, Nevada died after an assault at the bar.  According to Fox5, bartender Mark Heilman refused to serve an intoxicated customer, who then jumped behind the bar and assaulted him.  Mark ended up having a heart attack and later died at the hospital.  

A customer helped stop the assault, but Mark had a heart condition and his heart couldn't take the struggle.  

Champagne's appeared on Bar Rescue during season 5 in 2016 (update here) and will also be featured in the upcoming season that is filmed entirely in Las Vegas.  Mark was not on the first episode in season 5, but it remains to be seen if he will be involved in the upcoming episode.  

Owner Greg Sims has set up a GoFundMe to help cover Mark's funeral expenses and other financial needs. 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has not made any arrests yet and everything is pending a coroner's investigation into the cause of death.

The Brixton (Rocket Room 6) From Bar Rescue Has Closed

The Brixton in Austin, Texas which appeared on season three of Bar Rescue has closed. During their Bar Rescue episode, Jon Taffer decided to rename The Brixton to Rocket Room 6.  The bar changed their name back to The Brixton and kept that name until they closed. 

The Brixton closed in March 2020, and Eater reports that The Brixton co-founders Tim and Sarah Lupa sold their shares to other co-founders Tyler and Emily Brooke Van Aken.  Tyler and Emily paired with other investors to open a new bar at the same location called The Low Down Lounge.

Tim and Sara Lupa were the owners featured on Bar Rescue and they also own a few other bars/cocktail lounges in Austin.  The Brixton had positive reviews and stayed open for a long time after Bar Rescue visited (2013), so this seems like a case of owners moving on to other things.

The Brixton (Rocket Room 6) has now been marked as 'Closed' on the Bar Rescue Updates page. 

Gaslamp Social From Bar Rescue Has Closed

Gaslamp Social in San Diego, California which appeared on season 7 of Bar Rescue has closed.  The bar had to shut down during the pandemic and in August of 2020, their landlord served them with a 3-day eviction notice.  The owner Phil Paccione reached out to the mayor and the San Diego city attorney hoping the city's eviction moratorium would help save his business, but that didn't work out.  A judge ruled in favor of the landlord, who plans to redevelop the building and build a luxury hotel,

In a local news article, the company who owned the building wrote a letter which said, 

"The Sheriff conducted the lockout today, April 20, 2021 at 8:30 this morning. A copy of Jolt’n Joe’s eviction notice is attached. Unfortunately, this tenant has had a long history of non-payment of rent, lease defaults and non-performance of lease obligations. All of these defaults existed long before, and unrelated to, the pandemic. In a 2020 agreement the tenant was required to perform certain obligations before it went into effect, which he did not perform, therefore, the agreement became null and void and the eviction process began.

The judge in this case ruled that the tenant did not perform as required under the lease, granted Judgment in favor of the landlord and ordered possession of the property returned to the landlord. The court ruled that this was a lawful eviction action because the case was already pending when the San Diego ordinance went into effect on February 1, 2021 so the ordinance’s eviction moratorium does not apply to this case.

We are sorry that this tenant’s business failed. We have all been deeply impacted financially by the pandemic. But this tenant’s failure was not attributable to the pandemic.

There have been two distinct moratoriums in place in the City of San Diego. The first ordinance expired on September 30, 2020. The second one, enacted on January 26, 2021, went into effect on February 1, 2021. The court found that the tenant was not protected by either ordinance, therefore the landlord prevailed at trial.”

So, it appears Gaslamp had issues with payments before the pandemic hit and there was no way to apply the moratorium to help extend the lease.

Gaslamp Social was originally called Jolt'n Joe's before the Bar Rescue makeover, which happened in January of 2020.  The bar was closed for some time during the pandemic and is now officially closed for good after the court's decision in April 2021.  Gaslamp Social is marked as 'Closed' on the Bar Rescue Updates Page. 

The Roc Bar & Nightclub From Bar Rescue Has Closed

The Roc Bar & Nightclub in San Francisco, California which appeared on season 5 of Bar Rescue has closed. This one has been closed for some time and it appears the bar closed in the middle of 2019.  I thought I posted an update on this bar, but apparently not.

The Roc Bar & Nightclub was originally named Fort One before the Bar Rescue makeover and the show was filmed in July 2016.  The reviews for The Roc Bar & Nightclub were pretty negative with a lot of 1-star reviews on Yelp before they closed.

One thing of note for The Roc Bar & Nightclub episode is that Ashley Clark was a bartender for the bar and she later became a Bar Rescue expert on future episodes.

The Roc Bar & Nightclub has now been marked as 'Closed' on the Bar Rescue Updates Page.

New Season of Bar Rescue Starts May 2nd

The wait for new episodes of Bar Rescue is finally over with the show announcing that new episodes will start on Sunday, May 2nd.   Due to the pandemic, this is the first new episode of Bar Rescue to air since September 2020.  

The new season will makeover bars that are all located in Las Vegas, Nevada and there will be ten new episodes.  The new episodes will still air on Paramount Network despite reports that Bar Rescue would move networks with the Paramount channel rebrand.  COVID related issues pushed back a lot of filming of planned miniseries and television movies for Paramount, which has delayed the rebrand.

Below is the announcement made for the upcoming season:

It should be interesting to see how this season is filmed as packing a bar for a stress test will probably not be an option.  With bars and restaurants all over the country struggling due to the pandemic, we will also see if Jon Taffer is any less dramatic.  

As always, I will have bar updates for each of the new Bar Rescue episodes that air.  I also have updates for some bars from the show that have closed and I will get those out before the season starts.