(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 8 | View All Season 8 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 2, 2023
The Bar's Original Name Was: Blue Sports Grille
Colorado Champions Sports Cafe Address: 3021 N Garfield Ave, Loveland, CO 80538
Episode Recap
Blue Sports Grille (Blue32), later renamed to Colorado Champions Sports Cafe, was a Loveland, Colorado bar that was featured on the third set of Season 8 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2023, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place around June 2022.
It was Season 8 Episode 29 and the episode name was “Loveless in Loveland”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer heads to Blue Sports Grille in Loveland, Colorado.
The bar used to be named Blue32, until it had to change that name in 2019.
If you’re not familiar with Colorado geography, Loveland is located to the north of Denver, right near Fort Collins.
This is Jon Taffer’s first visit to Loveland, though there will be a second Loveland CO Bar Rescue episode airing later in this season.
This episode also marks Jon Taffer’s 11th visit to Colorado which, at the time that the episode aired, ties Arizona for fifth place when it comes to the most-visited states in Bar Rescue.
Blue Sports Grille is owned by Duane Farnum.
Duane bought the bar in 2018, investing his retirement savings in order to get the money need for Blue Sports Grille (though at that time it was called Blue32).
His wife, Sarah Farnum, also invested in opening the bar.
Prior to opening the bar, he had spent over 20 years working in the corporate restaurant space, with over 45 years of experience in the restaurant space in general.
He and his wife had wanted to move down to the Dominican Republic, but a surprise grandchild convinced them to stay in the states (and open the bar).
Duane eventually wants to be able to pass the bar on to his son, Jered, who also works in the bar.
However, the bar is kind of stuck in an awkward space between being a bar and a restaurant, which has led to the bar stagnating.
One of the bartenders, Evonne, describes the identify of Blue Sports Grille as being a “confused little place”, which doesn’t sound good haha.
The bar also doesn’t have enough money – they’re basically hacking together fixes (or leaving things broken).
One of the worst examples is them literally duct-taping a poster over a broken window.
All of these reasons explain why the Blue Sports Grille Bar Rescue episode exists.
To make matters worse, the bar is also supposedly losing $4,000 per month at the time of Jon Taffer’s visit.
The bar and the finances are also causing difficulties between Duane and Sarah.
Sarah still has to work a job to pay the bills because the bar is losing money.
Plus, Duane and Sarah are holding a massive $300,000 in debt, which is a huge financial hole to dig out of.
According to Duane, the bar has just a few months to stay open if they can’t turn things around.
As part of the renovation, Jon Taffer wanted to give Blue Sports Grille a clear concept.
To make this happen, he rebranded Blue Sports Grille to Colorado Champions Sports Cafe.
Beyond the name, the bar got a huge facelift, with a brand new design and a bunch of new equipment.
For example, the booths are surrounded by batting cages, to really tie in with the sports bar concept.
There are also new TVs all around the bar, which will let people watch sports in style.
The bar also got a facelift on the menu, including some new signature drinks based on Colorado sports (such as The Joker, named after Nikola Jokic on the Nuggets).
So was the Blue Sports Grille Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Loveland, CO bar is still open in 2024.
Colorado Champions Sports Cafe Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Loveland, CO.
First off, I’m happy to report that the bar seems to be sticking with Jon Taffer’s concept so far and they’ve kept the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe name.
That’s always a good sign that the bar found value in the Bar Rescue episode.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any firsthand thoughts from Duane.
However, the bar did post about the Bar Rescue episode on the bar’s Facebook page, which is another good sign that they were grateful for the visit from Jon Taffer.
Colorado Champions also hosted a watch party for the initial episode airing.
The event required tickets and actually sold out all the way back on March 13, which shows people are interested.
It cost $15 and includes a Jon Taffer impersonator!
That’s a first as far as I’m aware – I don’t know of any other Bar Rescue bars that hired a Jon Taffer impersonator.
I’ll even forgive them for misspelling Jon Taffer’s name on the flyer because of that, haha.
Here’s a screenshot of the Colorado Champions Bar Rescue watch party flyer, in case it gets deleted.
Let’s talk about where Colorado Champions Sports Cafe is now and then I’ll share some reviews from after the Colorado Champions Bar Rescue visit.
Is Colorado Champions still open in 2024?
As of 2023, Colorado Champions Sports Cafe is still open and serving customers in Loveland, Colorado.
It’s also still operating using the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe name and concept that Jon Taffer gave the bar.
The post-Bar Rescue reviews for the bar also seem to generally be positive – I’ll share some examples below.
In terms of social media, the bar is active on Facebook, regularly posting about events and specials.
One of the regular events seems to be a trivia night on Wednesdays – here’s a Facebook post about it:
There’s also an official Colorado Champions Loveland website, which lists details about the bar.
Here’s a screenshot of the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe menu to give you an idea of the prices:
Here’s what the Colorado Champions Sports Cafe Loveland CO location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
Unfortunately, the picture hasn’t been updated since July 2021 so it doesn’t show the new branding.
However, I’ve embedded the interactive map so that you can still explore the area where the bar is located.
The bar is on the side of the building to the left of the Cricket Wireless sign.
Next, let’s talk about reviews for the bar after the visit from Jon Taffer.
Colorado Champions Sports Cafe reviews after Bar Rescue
Overall, Colorado Champions Sports Cafe has a 3.5 star rating on Yelp and a 4.1 star rating on Google.
Both of those ratings include reviews from before and after the Colorado Champions Bar Rescue episode.
In general, the reviews from after Jon Taffer’s visit seem to be positive or at least neutral, which is good to see.
There are some negative reviews, though, and I also saw one review from a regular who was bummed about the menu changes after the Bar Rescue visit.
In general, though, most reviewers seem to like the new menu that was put in by Jon Taffer and his experts.
Here’s a sampling of a few Colorado Champions Sports Cafe reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer.
5 star Google review from August 2022:
All the new additions to the menu after Bar Rescue came in were incredible!
Both the fish & chips and baby back ribs are something I wouldn’t normally order here, but I sure am glad I did.
The orange crush was also super refreshing on a hot day.
Go try these out!
4 star Yelp review from January 2023:
Stopped in on a boring Friday night for a couple beers & its a nice small bar.
I think it was on that show “Bar Rescue” & it used to be called “blue 32” then it was changed after that show.
There was an ok amount of people inside & the bartender’s were getting to everyone in a timely manner from what I could see.
Its kinda small inside but I did see a couple pool tables & I think they could use a few more tv’s.
Didn’t order any chow but the menu looked like they had some good food on there, Ill come back here to find out if the food is any tasty but so far so good.
5 star Google review from August 2022:
We were here back in May.
Since then they were treated by Bar Rescue and are now called “Colorado Champions Sports Cafe.
The atmosphere is updated and so too the menu.
We had their Colorado Cheesesteak and Fish and Chips- both excellent and quite an amazing and delicious flavor.
Only complaint- put 2 fish patties instead of 1.
Still, such fresh flavor- jalapeño and fresh dill made the tartar sauce fabulous.
5 star Google review from March 2023:
Stopped in for the first time since the name change and was pleasantly surprised with the service and food.
Burgers and fries were plentiful and well cooked.
Very flavorful!
3 star Yelp review from August 2022:
I’ve had Fish and Chips many times in many places, including where it originated – the UK.
It’s pretty hard to screw up.
But it seems that Bar Rescue has managed to accomplish that here, by adding smooshed green peas on top of both the fish and the chips.
WTH? Bad idea!
Bar Rescue has done for Colorado Champions Sports Cafe (nee Blue Grill) what Restaurant Impossible did for Casa Real – come in and screw up the menu.
(The silliest thing I’ve ever seen, a Brit lecturing Mexicans on how to make good Mexican food.)
Have confidence in yourselves, people!
So-called “experts” often aren’t.
I love sports bars, but – unfortunately – I don’t see coming back to this one.
3 star Google review from August 2022:
So bummed it switched from Blue Sports Grille to CO Champions ONLY because the don’t have the Club Sandwich any longer 🙁
We would go there just for that sandwich!
The food now isn’t bad….
(we’ve only been back one time, just because they don’t have that sandwich) but we did have the fish’ n chips and it was good.
Please bring back the club 🙂
1 star Google review from August 2022:
They recently underwent a renovation courtesy of “Bar Rescue” and my wife and I were very excited, so we came in for Father’s day.
It was a huge disappointment.
The appetizers were good, especially the salsa, but the service was lackadaisical at best and the new menu items were awful.
The crab cake was terrible and tasted spoiled.
The chicken fingers were supposed to come with buttermilk ranch.
They came with a cucumber yogurt tasting sauce.
When we asked for ranch, we were told that was the new buttermilk ranch.
Either the owner is an idiot or they are just liars.
Either way, we’re done.
I also took a screenshot of this Yelp review because it’s pretty long:
Overall, the Colorado Champions Bar Rescue episode seems to be going well so far.
Colorado Champions Sports Cafe is still open and using the name and concept from Jon Taffer.
Reviews seem to generally be positive, though there are a few mixed opinions.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I could see this one staying open for a long time.
If you want to see another Loveland CO Bar Rescue episode, you can check out my update for CJ’s Patrio Grill, which aired one week after the Colorado Champions episode.
And if you want to see some other nearby Colorado Bar Rescue episodes, you might also want to read my updates for Rockabillies / Bar Retro in Arvada, The Kasbah Nightclub in Aurora, and Summit House in Lakewood.
Or, you can read my full list of all 11+ Bar Rescue episodes in Colorado as of 2024.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/colorado-champions-sports-cafe-lovelandhttps://www.facebook.com/bluesportsgrille/
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Last updated: 2023-04-08 06:50
Taffer should have thought twice about “rescuing” this bar. The guy’s marriage is in trouble. He will either sell the bar in the divorce, in which case the foreign wife will definitely get a large payoff, or it will end up closing.
He needs to do whatever he needs to do to prevent her from getting her hands on a portion of the worth of that business after Taffer fixes it. It’s the guy’s fault he got mixed up with her in the first place, but everyone could see she was lying through her teeth about staying in the marriage. It was clearly evident.
She’ll wait until the bar starts making money regularly, and she will proceed with her divorce, as I said, with a lot more American money than she would have had if she divorced him previously. Taffer said something at the end of the show about both of them ending up in her country in 2 years.
That guy needs to think twice about that and stay the hell out of there. I don’t believe that is going to happen, anyway, because his wife has no intention of staying with him and no intention of keeping her hands off of his American money. She wants to get as much as she possibly can before she goes back to her home country. She is nothing but a hindrance, anyway, so no loss if he gets rid of her.
Totally agree. You could tell she doesn’t like him much less love him
I suggest that SeesTheTruth change their moniker to MakesStuffUp, seriously. I feel bad for people who need to deal with SeesTheTruth on a routine basis. Such venom! SeesTheTruth must have either had some ‘bad’ life experiences or has adopted prejudices from their ‘truthful’ environment. That’s MY crystal ball.
The couple who own Champions enjoyed a marriage of many years before the “corporate man” stepped out of his comfort zone and took his wife and son down a rabbit trail with him. After struggling with real, honest, hard-working support of her husband, the wife said enough is enough when pressed by Jon Taffer. In my mind, Jon fomented that. He’s not a licensed marriage counselor, though. That’s risky ground, for the sake of engaging television entertainment.
My last thought is that any ‘entitled’ American ought to look into their own ancestry. One is likely to find ancestors who spoke with accents and who’s hard work made it possible for the entitled to be born in a land robbed from the native Americans. So you know, I’m an old white guy born in Indiana.
How could anyone live or work with a woman that talks baby talk aw da time? Jon Taffuh we need youah hewp.
Shoot me now pwease.
Yeah, pwobabwe not her fawt but it’s my opinion. Don’t care about your opinion of my opinion.
Wow that wasn’t racist at all…
Wow. Only 2 comments on this one and both are ignorant. Lovely.
I missed this one ,so I don’t know about the baby-talk during the episode, but; I’m glad it’s still open.
His American money? She is paying the bills bro. Hard working immigrants propping up the fat lazy American (just like all of american history). If she only got half in a divorce she would probably lose money.
My heart broke for this guy when he got blind sided by his wife saying I want my money back and out of this marriage (and about to be embarrassed On national tv once the episode airs). I’m glad to see that the bar is still open and doing well. Definitely rooting for him. Hopefully he was able to pay her back and figure out a way when (only will be a matter of time before she does) she leaves him she doesn’t get half of the bar