Murphy's Arcade Bar & Pizza (Throwbacks) - Bar Rescue Update

 In this week's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Sanford, Florida to rescue Throwbacks.  The bar is owned by Robbie Kennerney who bought the bar in 2019 with a spontaneous purchase. Due to lack of experience, Throwbacks has untrained bartenders and no clear manager in the bar.  Also, the food is not drawing customers, while the arcade games in the bar are not kept in the proper condition.  Robbie is supposedly $75,000 in debt and the bar in danger of closing.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to change the name of Throwbacks to Murphy's Arcade Bar & Pizza, but the bar went back to the name Throwbacks. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for Throwbacks since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):





Positive Reviews:

• "Great atmosphere. Decent food and games are fun."
• "Top of the line, great food, fun atmosphere, only problem is time goes twice as fast being there. Just something to prepare for. 10/10 recommend."
• "Great service. Food was good as well"
• "Free of school arcade games, pizza, and beer. What more can you ask for?"
• "A good neighborhood bar, typically good bar food, and good drinks fair pricing, attentive staff. Can get loud sometimes from everybody having a great time ... it's your typical active neighborhood place ."

Negative Reviews:

• "ordered the chicken tenders. paid 8 dollars for three small tenders to go. they were pink on the inside and slimy. not cooked all the way through. very dangerous. tried to call a couple times immediately upon arriving home to try to warn them that something was clearly wrong with however they are cooking them. but got no answer"
• "They need to throwback the volume, can’t talk to friends or order a drink the music is so loud. Went there on a slow night with only a few people there and the bartender wasn’t attentive at all."

*Reviews from Google

Other News and Links:

• The Bar Rescue for Throwbacks/Murphy's Arcade Bar & Pizza happened in March 2022.
• Here is a preview video of the episode from the Bar Rescue YouTube page.
• Here is the Throwbacks Facebook page and it appears they do not have a website.
• A recent photo in May 2022 that shows the exterior of the bar that has Throwbacks decals back up on the windows. Looking through the pictures in that album, the "Murphy" sign behind the bar is no longer there, but the picture of Murphy remains. They also painted one of the black and white walls green. 
• Here is an album that has pictures right after the makeover where you can see the differences if you compare them to the album above. (Link)
• The bar kept their Facebook page as Throwbacks and advertises upcoming events on their Facebook page with Throwbacks.  This along with the photos above show they went back to their name of Throwbacks.
• Here are the Facebook pages of Robbie (owner), Destiny (bartender), Timmy (Assistant Manager), Amanda (bartender), and Carly (bartender)
• When a fan of the bar commented to bring back the dive bar, owner Robbie responded, "If we don’t make improvements there shit dive bar thing doesn’t survive forever. Let me know what you miss though, we want to keep the ambiance, just make it a bit nicer in its infrastructure is all."
• Jon Taffer decided to name the bar after Robbie's dog Murphy and here is a link to the GoFundMe that was mentioned on the episode. It raised almost $12,000 for the surgery the dog needed. 
• The owners responded to a negative review on Google, saying, "The reality is that we're a few days removed from a rescue and we're still learning the oven, let alone the menu. The prices weren't set by us and we have to put the old menu out for drinks because the new one only has 5 drinks on it. If you don't like the decor you can take it up with them because we're doing our best to work with what we've got. The bar and the far wall should be fixed in the coming days or week, they tried something that didn't work and are aware now. You seem to care but you're showing no patience whatsoever for a staff that are coming off an incredibly trying week and you're not showing a lot of understanding or compassion so I guess that is what it is. We'll continue to work hard to improve as best we can but we can't do it all at once, we'll need some time to adjust after an experience like this. Hope to see you again then."
• Here are the reviews for Throwbacks from Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google.
• The Yelp reviews before the makeover are not very positive.

Conclusion:

Jon Taffer decided to change the name of Throwbacks to Murphy's Arcade Bar & Pizza, but the bar decided to change their name back to Throwbacks.  Recent photos show the bar having Throwbacks decals on the exterior of the bar and the reviews for the bar have been mixed.  People seem to like the food, atmosphere, and games.  It seems that owner Robbie decided to do the show to get a makeover for the bar to make it look better. Despite the makeover, it seems like Throwbacks has made changes to the interior and exterior after Bar Rescue left. 

*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.