(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 2 | View All Season 2 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: August 12, 2012
The Bar's Original Name Was: Mystique Lounge
Aura Nightclub Address: 114 S Narcissus Ave West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Episode Recap
Mystique Lounge, later renamed Aura Nightclub, was a West Palm Beach, Florida bar that was featured on Season 2 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Aura Nightclub Bar Rescue episode aired in August 2012, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 2 Episode 4 and the episode name was “Mystique or Murder?” .
In this episode, Jon Taffer visits The Mystique Lounge in West Palm Beach, Florida.
There are two owners, Darren and Torres.
A shooting occurred there, and sales started to decline after that.
That makes sense – people don’t want to hang out at places where there are bullets flying.
The new owners never changed the name after the shooting, so it still has the association with that issue.
They have hired a promoter, John, to help bring in a younger crowd.
It kind of worked, but people of questionable character began visiting the club, which kept away other potential patrons.
At the time of the Mystique Lounge Bar Rescue visit, the bar is over $75,000 dollars in debt and adds to that debt with thousands in losses every week.
They desperately need help from Jon Taffer and his team.
Expert mixologist Joe Meyer and Jessie Barnes help Jon with the recon.
To test things out, Jon has Jessie and her friends go in as spies.
No one pays attention to her at the bar, and eventually, she orders a Long Island Iced Tea.
When her friends arrive, they want to purchase bottle service.
It takes a long time before someone escorts them to the VIP area.
There is hair on the container, and when it is replaced, the new one is dirty.
The girls refuse their drinks.
Jon has seen enough so he comes in from outside.
Jon points all the wrong things out in the VIP area.
The staff scooped with a glass instead of an ice scooper.
This is super dangerous because the glass could chip and leave glass in with the ice, which is impossible to notice.
Servers also have to climb over and crawl under the bar.
The bar floor is covered in mold, and the cutting board is dirty.
There is no cleaning schedule, and the dishwasher isn’t connected to a sanitizer.
The owners and the staff are made to stay and clean the bar.
Jon returns the next day as they finish up cleaning.
He calls the entire team together for a meeting.
John, the promoter (not Jon Taffer), demands free drinks for the people he gets into the bar.
What’s the point of getting people in the door if you’re just going to give them free drinks?
I mean, I could be an amazing promotor with that deal – “come drink for free”. Get outta here!
John tries to defend himself, but Jon isn’t having it.
The promoter makes all the money, and the bar loses the money.
They agree to renegotiate a new deal with their promoter.
Jessie trains the girls on bottle service and appropriately serving a table with attention to detail.
Joe teaches the bar staff new drinks and how to work more safely and hygienically.
John has disappeared, and only ten people have appeared for the stress test.
The owners hope more will come. John finally responds and says he will be there for the stress test.
Brittany, a bottle service girl, would rather drink than perform in the stress test.
As a result of her behavior, Torres, the owner, fires her.
The bar is taking too long to send out drinks.
Jon and the owners are worried because the crowd is getting rowdy.
The police were called because a fight broke out and people were afraid of a gun, so they left.
This just calls back to the problems that Mystique Lounge had with the shooting before.
The owners tell Jon they are done with John, the promoter, and the clientele he brings in.
They start looking for new promoters. Jessie teaches the ladies presentation, and Joe teaches the bar staff to pour a drink properly.
They will be rebranding to a high-quality Vegas-type experience.
The club is now called Aura Nightclub instead of Mystique Lounge, which can help break the association with the shooting.
As part of the rebranding, the interior has been renovated, and everything is bright and new. There is also a new 2touch POS system.
The bar is slammed during the relaunch, and security screen people before letting them in.
The night succeeds.
So – was the Aura Nightclub Bar Rescue episode a success? Keep reading to learn what happened next and if it’s still open in 2024.
Aura Nightclub Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Mystique Lounge Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left West Palm Beach, FL.
Things seemed to start off well for Aura Nightclub…
Three months after the visit from Jon Taffer, the Aura Nightclub owners reported that their sales and revenue was up 25%.
More importantly, they had solved the safety issues and their current patrons were a lot less rowdy. However, it would not last.
Is Aura Nightclub from Bar Rescue still open?
Aura Nightclub closed for good in 2013, just a year after the Aura Nightclub episode aired on Bar Rescue.
They didn’t provide a reason – the bar just closed one day.
At the time of its closure, the bar had a 3.5 star rating on Yelp, though only on four reviews.
Here’s a sampling of a few of those reviews, all of which were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
4 star review from May 2012:
I visit mostly on Saturdays.
It was nice before, but recent decor renovations have taken this club up a notch!
The DJ is AWESOME!!!!
Management is friendly, visible, and looking to meet any needs.
The music was a good mixup of rap and Hip Hop with a little ol’ skool.
Most of the wait staff is nice, a few of those ladies could use a class on being approachable.
If I could improve on one thing, it would be to monitor the VIP section – people pay good money and should NOT have their seating crashed by women who wore the wrong shoes and can hardly stand up for the majority of the night!
Safe environment is a plus!
Highly recommend!
5 star review from February 2013:
This club totally screams out Las Vegas.
The moment you go inside there’s a classy atmosphere to a hip hop vibe.
It looks clean and the service is speedy.
I went to this club a few years back when it had a different name, and this place has absolutely blown up.
If you like hip hop music with some pretty orderly bottle service, this place is what’s up.
Side note – this totally seems like a fake review from someone who works there, but I’m keeping an open mind.
4 star review from September 2012:
This is the only Hip Hop spot I know of in Palm Beach, and one of the best I have been to.
The DJ certainly knows how to mix it up to get the ladies and grown folks in that vibe.
I just drink beers, and $5 is not too bad!
Yes there is a dress code, no hats and no T-shirts, so look decent.
There’s also a cover charge of $10 to get in afer 11:00pm.
If im looking to chill Downtown on a weekend thats the first spot I’d go too.
As of 2023, the old Aura Nightclub West Palm Beach location is occupied by a new bar called Camelot.
However, the reviews for the new bar aren’t great as it has just a three star rating on its Yelp page.
I’m not sure what will happened next, but I will update if anything changes.
If you want to see the old Aura West Palm Beach location for yourself, I’ve embedded a Google Maps street view for the location so that you can explore:
If you want to see some other nearby South Florida Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out my updates for Bamboo Beach Tiki Bar in Fort Lauderdale, Ele Lounge / Heat Restaurant in Hollywood, and Bonny and Read’s / Toucan’s in Hollywood.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/aura-nightclub-west-palm-beachhttps://www.facebook.com/aurawpb/
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Last updated: 2023-02-12 06:09
It was beautifully redone sad that it didn’t last
You can’t class up a joint like that even though the goddess Jessie Barnes tried her best. They were out-of-shape and out of their minds. Those ladies preferred to serve attitude than drinks…
she works at the Park at 14th
There is no bar that is going to ultimately do well in that location. The main thrust of traffic in downtown West Palm is Clematis Street and subsequently, Rosemary Square (formerly City Place). Narcissus, while only being a couple of blocks over, is still too far from the main, and will never grab the tourists like Clematis will.
I like these owners. It is rare to see owners that don’t fight Jon.
They followed all of his advice without question. Fire her. . .done, clean the place . . . done.
Too bad that it didn’t stay open. The location is a little off the main night club area in WPB. Hopefully, the owners opened something better and are using what Jon taught them.
I just watched this episode and am sorry to hear they closed. It was so refreshing to see the owners accept the criticism and not get belligerent. They seem like such nice guys. I wish them and their employees all the best in their future endeavors!
It’s sad they closed down after Jon put all the new equipment in there. Someone should reopen it.
Found this by googling address. The Camelot. At that address with very recent reviews
https://www.sub-culture.org/locations/camelot/