(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 17, 2013
The Bar's Original Name Was: Fairways Golf & Grill
Brew U Address: 127 SE Broad St Murfreesboro, TN 37130
Episode Recap
Fairways Golf and Grill, later renamed to Brew U, was a Murfreesboro, Tennessee bar that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Brew U Bar Rescue episode aired in November 2013, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 27 and the episode name was “Hole in None”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer heads to Fairways Golf and Grill.
The bar is located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which is located to the Southeast of Nashville.
The town of Murfreesboro is probably best known for its Civil War history.
However, after Jon Taffer’s visit, it would become better known for housing “the most disgusting bar Jon Taffer has ever seen” haha.
Bad beer, black mold in the kitchen…it’s a disaster.
Jon Taffer is there to admittedly “clean house” and he proceeds to do just that.
The bar is owned by Richard Jordan, who previously spent a decade working in finance.
Richard has tried a number of different marketing strategies to grow the bar, even going as far as buying a $40,000 golf simulator to go in the bar.
However, nothing seems to be working in terms of getting Fairways on track.
Because of that, Richard had to go back to his career as an accountant to try to get a handle on the $150,000+ of debt he was in.
To recon the bar, Jon shows Steve Blovat, a health inspector, footage of the kitchen.
It’s disgusting – there’s grease everywhere and even leaky pipes, which explains the mold issues.
In the Fairways Bar Rescue episode, Jon uses his experts as his spies.
They were Brian Duffy, a chef, and Phil Wills, a mixologist.
The two head into the bar and order everything on the menu.
Phil orders pretty much every drink available, while Brian orders three Fairway burgers and one of everything else on the menu.
It’s quite a long ticker that prints out in the kitchen haha.
To their unfortunate surprise, they then discover that Chef Kevin is touching dishes directly after touching raw meat.
While this is going on and Jon and Steve are watching from the car, they put up a “Health Code Violation” counter on the screen, which I thought was pretty funny.
While the raw meat thing is bad, the grossest thing is the disgusting black bowl that the chef puts over the chicken (pictured above).
There aren’t just problems in the kitchen, either.
Something is off with the beer, as it has an odd metallic taste.
Everything is so bad that Phil has to sprint to the bathroom to throw up.
After seeing enough, Jon Taffer says that “this guy should be shut the hell down” and does his signature storming in to the bar.
They confront Richard about all of the disgusting things.
To take things one step further, they shut the bar down to test for toxic black mold.
They also eventually fix all of the other gross issues going on.
Beyond cleanliness, there are other issues with the staff.
The bartenders are bad at their jobs and make drinks too slowly, which causes massive problems during the stress test.
Eventually, Richard gives Michelle the full authority to be a manager and she immediately fires Fairways’ chef, Kevin.
Michelle seemed to be the one bright spot on the staff over the entire episode.
As part of cleaning house and remodeling the bar, Jon rebrands Fairways Golf & Grill to Brew U.
It has a new theme that moves away from the old golf theme.
Jon Taffer also completely renovates the bar with new plumbing, laptop sockets so people can work, a brand new tap system, and lots more.
Was it enough to push the new Brew U into the black?
And was the Fairways Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if this Murfreesboro, TN bar is still open in 2025.
Brew U Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Brew U Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Murfreesboro, TN.
Things seemed to start off well for the bar.
At the normal six-week check-in with the bar Rescue producers, we learn that the bar is now supposedly making a monthly profit, which seems like a good sign.
Unfortunately, even earning a small profit would not be enough to overcome the bar’s huge debt load.
Is Brew U still open after Bar Rescue?
Brew U closed in December 2014, which means it stayed open for a little over a year after the Brew U Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.
Jon Taffer’s best efforts were, unfortunately, not enough to save Brew U.
According to a cryptic December, 2014 Facebook post, Brew U was closing its doors.
In the comments of that post, the Brew U owner blamed the location, so I’m guessing that’s one reason why Brew U closed:
Kimberly, yes wes have now closed.
Lease expired in December and we realized we could no longer keep the doors open in that horrible location.
2 1/2 years of great food, fun and friendships though
Additionally, Brew U’s Yelp page indicates that they’re closed.
Brew U Reviews After Bar Rescue
Brew U’s Yelp reviews were mixed since the rebrand, garnering them a mediocre 3.5-star rating.
Here’s a sampling of a few reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
5 star review from July 2014:
Food was great.
The signature drinks (established by Bar Rescue) were great.
First heard about the place from Bar Rescue and decided to check it out.
A Groupon for 2 meals and an appetizer for only $12 was amazing!
We also went on a Monday night, in a college town during the summer time.
We didn’t expect it to be crowded.
It was actually pretty empty.
However, server was super nice.
Food was awesome. Totally recommend.
1 star review from September 2014;
We came during a slow time.
The waitress wasn’t up to par even for a Hooters style grill.
Our appetizer came out with our entrees and luke warm.
Food was just deep fried or microwaved (hard to tell!).
It was cheap because we got an Amazon Local deal – that’s why it gets 2 stars instead of 1.
They do have a lot of TVs which is nice and the staff seem nice.
Maybe they just need more training.
With mixed reviews, debt, and a lease issue, it’s no surprise that Brew U closed.
As of 2024, the old Brew U Murfreesboro, TN location is occupied by a new restaurant/bar named Party Fowl.
Reviews seem good as it has a 4 star rating on its Yelp page.
Here’s a Google Maps street view of the new tenant:
Final thoughts on the Brew U bar
Overall, Brew U was not a long-term success as it only stayed open for a little more than a year after Taffer’s visit.
Honestly, I’m not surprised to see that given the state of the bar on the episode.
Jon Taffer can only do so much, and you can’t fix something that’s fundamentally broken.
That wraps up my full Fairways / Brew U update.
If you want to see another Murfreesboro, Tennessee Bar Rescue episode, you can check out my MT Bottle / Bottles and Cans update.
To see some other Tennessee Bar Rescue episodes, you can check these out as well:
- Gaddy Shack / Crossroads Grille update
- Robusto / Havana Mix Cigar update
- The Dickson / Wanted Saloon update
- The Legacy / Game Time Sports Bar update
- Pit and Barrel / BoondoxXx BBQ update
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Brew U episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/brew-u-murfreesborohttps://www.facebook.com/brewutn
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Last updated: 2024-03-03 08:54
Anybody that loses that much money after a Bar Rescue, should close. The owner obviously didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
Jon did everything he could to set them up, but that owner at the end of the episode still didn’t seem like he had a clue.
A lot of the places he deals with are already way too far in debt to ever climb out.
Hell, I bet Kevin was laughing his head off at the news.
Yeah, but he’d already been exposed as a total fraud who couldn’t cook a decent burger even with instructions from a REAL chef, so what’s he got to laugh about really?
Right
Owner could even run saved bar.
Shame on you, fool.
I have a standing question for all these bar owners. Have u ever worked in a bar? In a restaurant. Cooked, served, bartended. No? Then why would you go 100,200,300 in debt and KEEP throwing money on the bonfire of cluelessness and laziness. You’re gonna hire buddy? You’re sister in law? Oh they have zero experience too?
This show confounds me. How counter intuitive, how devoid of common sense. Well intentioned “nice” people don’t make bars successful. Experienced, always learning, always reading, immense pride of craft managers are mandatory and worth every extra penny. Even relocation expenses. Thousands a day. Your drunk SIL(not this epi) w no experience only ends one way. Rant transmission complete, thank u drive thru
I agree 100%. Having some experience in restaurant management myself I get really frustrated with people who’ve never even worked in a bar but suddenly bought one because they “always wanted to own one” or “it’s been my dream since I was in kindergarten” etc, all without bothering to research the subject before diving in with all their money and usually their family’s money. They just assume that it’ll be easy and anyone can do it, like it’s a damn lemonade stand, which is pretty disrespectful to those who DO intelligently run bars and restaurants.
Plus, on Bar Rescue, as you mentioned, a lot of these failing bars are being killed or at least handicapped by the effects of nepotism, like in this episode, Richard the owner, a golf-obsessed dreamer who spent $40K on a golf simulator for a BAR, hired his friend Kevin as executive chef, obviously without checking his references (since they’re friends and all), because there was NO WAY Kevin EVER ever went to any sort of cooking school or ever worked in ANY restaurant. Richard trusted the wrong person.
That’s why, despite the makeover, it didn’t seem to me that Richard had the mentality or personality to succeed in that business anyway. He’s still the guy who, instead of learning about the basic rules and procedures involved in running a bar or restaurant safely and profitably, he “tried a number of different marketing strategies to grow the bar”. Best he stick with accounting.
When that “one of everything on menu” order came in chef Kevin was sweating like a coked up hooker in church.
😂🤣💀
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Chef Kevin rides a scooter, that tells you everything you need to know. Scooters are like the “less than reputable” girl/guy at school, they’re fun to ride, but nobody can ever know about it.
My husband and I laughed so hard when he took off on his scooter. “Meep meep” his weenie horn on his way out! 🤣
LOOK AT THIS -> “large mushroom”
It’s amazing they were even open before rescue, I think Brian might’ve went online for a $10 food safety certificate, thought was actually a culinary institute? In the first year your thought about knife(especially ), basic equipment, costs ect . I have a love for making quality burgers, craft burgers, I feel bad for watching him try to cook a burger! Hope he doesn’t work at a local McDonald’s or worse a restaurant! Friends like that lol. James impressed me tho. This place had no shot with the debt. Made money but wasn’t enough. Ty to Brian, your friend.
Party Fowl has/had several locations in greater Nashville. This one is now listed as permanently closed.
Not a bad location near a bunch of shopping. Something else will likely move in.