(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 9, 2025
The Bar's Original Name Was: Top Shelf Sports Bar
Blue Line Tavern Address: 88 S Main St, Fond du Lac, WI 54935
Episode Recap
Top Shelf Sports Bar & Grille, later renamed to Blue Line Tavern, was a Fond du Lac, Wisconsin bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Blue Line Tavern Bar Rescue episode aired in March 2025, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place before that in September 2024.
It was Season 9 Episode 25 and the episode name was “Rock Bottom at Top Shelf”.
In this episode, Bar Rescue finds itself in Wisconsin for the third time in a row.
This marks the show’s fifth visit to the state overall, with more than half of those coming in the 2025 set of Season 9 episodes.
This time, Jon Taffer and the show are in Fond du lac, WI.
I wasn’t familiar with that location, so I had to look it up on Google Maps.
If you also have never heard of Fond du Lac, it’s in between Milwaukee and Green Bay, located near Lake Winnebago (yes, the RV company).
The show is in town to rescue a bar named Top Shelf Sports Bar.
Jon also has a very special guest to help him – Donnie Wahlberg!
Yes, while it might not be Mark, we do indeed have a Wahlberg on the show.
I believe they also have Vic Vegas and Mia Mastroianni helping as the in-person experts, based on some photos I saw from the bar owners.
The bar is owned by Kari and Craig Koenigs, a husband and wife duo who opened it back in 2019.
That’s obviously a tough time to open a bar because it’s right before Covid hit.
Things got a lot tougher, though…
Unfortunately, the couple’s son passed away in 2023 as a result of a car accident, which has led to them struggling to move on (and understandably so – that’s such a horrible thing to happen).
When they’re watching recon footage from Top Shelf, Jon and Donnie see them serving an Old Fashioned in a pint glass, which is a bit of an odd choice.
The spies also take issue with the taste of the Old Fashioned.
What is it with bars and butchering Old Fashioneds?
I think all three Wisconsin bars from this season have all had issues making Old Fashioneds.
I guess maybe Wisconsin’ites are more about the beer?
The spies also order food, including a hamburger.
Given that Donnie is part of Wahlbergers, I hope he knows a thing or two about making burgers.
However, Top Shelf doesn’t seem to be at the top of its game because the chef is literally warming up the burger in the microwave.
After microwaving the pre-cooked burger, the chef then throws it on the grill to finish it.
As part of the rescue, Jon Taffer and Donnie Walhberg decided to rename the bar.
They changed it from Top Shelf Sports Bar to Blue Line Tavern.
I think the bar is named after the local ice rink, which is the Fond du Lac Blue Line.
That’s it for my update for now as I’m writing this a day before the episode airs, but I’ll try to come back and add more detail when I have some time.
So – was the Top Shelf Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if Blue Line Tavern is still open in 2025.
Blue Line Tavern Update - What Happened Next?
Now, let’s talk about how Blue Line Tavern is doing after the visit.
First, I’ll look at the owner reaction to the show.
Then, I’ll talk about whether it’s still open and look at some real reviews from after Bar Rescue.
Blue Line Tavern owners embrace the name change
When the actual rescue happened, the owners posted about choosing to embrace the name change, which I think is a good place to start.
Here’s what they said about the rebranding:
All of us at Top Shelf would like to formerly thank everyone for their ongoing support!
It has been a crazy week, but we are looking forward to a fresh start and are truly hoping to give our customers the best experience when they visit us.
Our new name will be “Blueline Tavern” it will be an adjustment, but we feel with a new start we needed to embrace the change.
We are pretty excited to launch our NEW MENU soon, but have added some feature items that are absolutely incredible!
We will be working on getting our logo and name changed soon.
Thank you again!!
A lot of customers responded to that post and most seem to be happy about the changes, or at least wishing the owners success.
They also posted about what the episode meant to them closer to when it aired and they seem to be very thankful to Bar Rescue, which is great to see.
This Sunday at 9pm at Blue Line Tavern, we will be airing our story on the TV show “Bar Rescue.
Our business opened in 2019 and it was a prominent place in our community offering great food & service.
In 2023, our son was killed in a motor vehicle accident and our lives were shattered.
It has been extremely difficult to run a business and unfortunately, our business suffered.
We are truly grateful to Jon Taffer, Donnie Wahlberg & the Bar Rescue team for all of their help in trying to put our business back on track after losing our son.
It is amazing to be in such a great community that continues to support our business and to some that have given us another opportunity after some pretty bad times.
Thank you!!!
Is Blue Line Tavern still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check, Blue Line Tavern is still open and serving customers in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
What’s more, they’ve kept the new name and concept from the show and are continue to operate as Blue Line Tavern.
They also created an official website for Blue Line Tavern, so it seems like they’re all in.
Here’s a screenshot of part of the bar’s menu to give you an idea of prices:
The bar is also active on its Facebook page, regularly posting about all of the events and specials that you’d expect from a bar.
To start, they seem to have karaoke every Friday, which is a holdover from back when it was Top Shelf Sports Bar.
They seem to have live music sometimes, though it doesn’t seem like a weekly thing.
They also have special promotions for sport teams that visit the bar, which I think makes sense given they’ve leaned into the “blue line” angle.
Teams can get a free pitcher of beer, soda, and a pizza.
They also heavily promote the special Bar Rescue cocktails, which is something I haven’t seen a lot of other bars do.
Here’s what the Blue Line Tavern location looks like in Fond du Lac in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
The latest update is from June 2024 so it still shows the Top Shelf Sports Bar signage – I’m mainly including it so that you can explore the area around the bar.
Blue Line Tavern reviews after Bar Rescue
Now, let’s look at some reviews for the bar from after the episode.
Overall, the bar has a 4.1 star rating on 320+ Google reviews and just a 2.9 star rating on 14+ Yelp reviews.
However, both of those numbers include reviews from when it was operating as Top Shelf Sports Bar.
If you only look at reviews for the Blue Line Tavern concept (which is what I always do), they’re still a bit mixed, but I would say they maybe lean more positive than negative.
Here’s a sampling of some of the positive and negative reviews that I found – all of which were written after the Bar Rescue episode.
5 star review from 2025 that mentions the Bar Rescue drinks:
4 star review from 2025 that mentions the bar being “slow”:
Two positive reviews from Jan 2025:
2 star negative review that mentions the bar being “slow”:
3 star review that calls the TV makeover a “disappointment”:
1 star review that complains about the service and mentions Bar Rescue:
Two negative reviews that complain about the service and bar being “slow”:
3 star review that complains about the service:
5 star review that mentions the bar being a bit “slow”:
3 star review that mentions before/after Bar Rescue:
Final thoughts on the episode
Overall, the Blue Line Tavern Bar Rescue visit seems like it’s been a success so far.
The owners have embraced the name change and seem to be very thankful for the Bar Rescue experience.
The reviews are a bit mixed but they do seem to get a lot of engagement from their customers, which is good to see.
Some reviewers do mention that the bar seems empty, though, so I hope that’s not a bad sign.
Given the tragedy of what happened with their son, I’m really pulling for them and I hope they can turn it into a long-term success.
That wraps up my update.
If you want to see some other Wisconsin bars from the show, you can read my updates for Interlude II in Kenosha, Nick’s House / Y-Not III in Milwaukee, Harbor Lights in Sheboygan, and Packy’s Pub / Campbell’s Irish Pub in Milwaukee
And if you want to share your thoughts on the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/top-shelf-sports-bar-and-grille-fond-du-lachttps://www.facebook.com/Topshelfsportsbarandgrille/
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Last updated: 2025-03-10 08:22
said a lot of the staff left after bar rescue. what was that all about?
Yeah, I’m curious about that, too. It may be because they couldn’t hack it once Taffer’s changes took effect?
This episode tore me up worse than any I’ve ever seen 💔😢
There’s been plenty of BR owners who work 80 hours because they won’t pay people, they’re just partying themselves or they’re ignorant tyrants, but this dear couple working like that as a way to cope, or at least try to cope, with the loss of their son.. I don’t think any episode has ever touched me more. I’m so happy that they are still in business and seem to be doing well.
If I ever find myself near there, I’m definitely going to stop in.
God bless them 🙏 ❤️
Yeah I always like when it’s an owner we can actually root for, rather than just some dude who bought a bar so he could drink for free.
All bar rescues need one thing which is nearly impossible to do . To be successful you need to get rid of 90% of the old staff and replace them with a professional staff , the owners need to be owners only & be replaced by professionals to run there business , if this could be accomplished there business would be profitable. I owned a night club on the strip in Vegas in the 70’s & 80’s to survive with out gaming you have to be the best