JJ's Sports Cafe (JJ's Sports Bar & Grill) - Bar Rescue Update

In this week's episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew are in Highland, California to rescue JJ's Sports Bar & Grill.  The bar is owned by Joe and Jackie Swidan who bought the bar in 2017 using their life savings. JJ's Sports Bar & Grill started out as a success, but the pandemic caused them to shut down.  When the bar reopened, they struggled to regain what they once had.  Joe is drinking too much at the bar which is impacting both the customers and employees. The bar is supposedly losing up to $30,000 a month and the owners are about $175,000 in debt.  JJ's Sports Bar & Grill is supposedly two months away from closing unless things turn around.

During the Bar Rescue makeover, Jon Taffer decided to change the name of JJ's Sports Bar & Grill to JJ's Sports Cafe, but it seems like they still use the old name. Let's take a look at some information, reviews, and updates for JJ's Sports Cafe since Bar Rescue came and made all of the changes to the bar (All reviews are post-Bar Rescue):





Positive Reviews:

• "Randomly stopped in to get dinner after Yaamavah had a power outage. Layla our server was amazing, made great suggestions, especially the wings! I got traditional, all flats, extra crispy with teriyaki sauce. Sooo good, I'll definitely be back! I ordered a salad and requested extra croutons. They were out so Gio the Chef made me fresh croutons! Talk about amazing service and exceeded my expectations! Thank you for making Valentine's dinner so special!"
• "Came for a football game, sat ourselves and were helped immediately by a friendly server. Ordered the double cheeseburger and it came out piping hot! It was delicious and cooked perfectly! My husband and I will definitely be back!"
• "The place is perfect for getting together with friends and family. The staff is always so nice. Really a nice place for a few drinks and good food."
• "This place is one of my favorites! There sampler platter is so good and addicting enough to share for 4, kids welcome before 9, drinks are great as well! They also have live bands as well which we really enjoyed on a Saturday night."

Negative Reviews:

• "Came to watch football. Took a while to get menu. Ordered burgers and it took a long time for food. French fries were cold. Hamburger buns were cold and fell apart. Was disappointed. Thought it would be better after bar rescue. Only good thing was the atmosphere. Lots of Steelers fans!"
• "2 stars but really 1.5 and mostly because they weren't rude. If your thinking about coming to check it out; it wasn't worth it. We came in with high expectations, thought after bar rescue came through it would be great. The service was far below expectations. They didn't great anyone who walks in, not even looks up or acknowledges them. So we sat ourself, took them 10-15 mins to bring us a menu; took them 15 more minutes to come back to take our drink order and we were ready to order at that point; didn't even write it down turned to leave and turned back around and was like wait so you wanted this and what did you want again?....hey weren't rude here and the prices weren't bad just extremely inattentive just not good service. Just won't be back here and won't recommend this place at all."
• "Decent bar for the shopping center (Valero gas station, donut shop). Came in for drinks & apps. Food was good, server was great however, a double Captain & Coke $18! Ordered 4 drinks, 6 wings and asada fries... $105! Ridiculous! Never going back. Plenty more appropriately priced options."

*Reviews from Yelp, Google

Other News and Links:

• The Bar Rescue for JJ's Sports Bar & Grill happened in the middle of 2022.
• Here is a preview video of the episode from the Bar Rescue YouTube page
• Here is the JJ's Sports Bar & Grill Facebook page and their website domain is expired.
• They also have another Facebook page for JJ's San Bernardino.  This was another JJ's location which has been closed for some time, but they seem to use the page to promote their remaining location.
• All of their advertisements still refer to the bar as JJ's Sports Bar, so it seems they did not keep JJ's Sports Cafe as the bar name.
• Here is the JJ's Sports Bar Instagram page.
• WWE wrestlers Mercedes Mone and Trinity Fatu are doing recon on this episode.
• Here are the reviews for JJ's Sports Cafe from Yelp and Google.

Conclusion:

Jon Taffer decided to slightly change the name of JJ's Sports Bar & Grill to JJ's Sports Cafe and the bar seems to have gone back to their old name.  The reviews for the bar since the makeover have been mixed with people liking the staff and atmosphere while there are complaints about service and prices.

*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.