(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 30, 2024
The Bar's Original Name Was: Dr. Philgoods
Dr. Philgoods Address: 4251 Dixie Hwy, Pompano Beach, FL 33064
Episode Recap
Dr. Philgoods was a Pompano Beach, Florida bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Dr. Philgoods Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2024, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place before that (in either February 2024 or November 2023, I’m not sure yet).
It was Season 9 Episode 18 and the episode name was “Feels Bad at Philgoods”.
In the 250th episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer is back in the driver’s seat rescuing the bar.
Jon Taffer and his experts are headed down to Pompano Beach, Florida to rescue Dr. Philgoods Sports Bar.
If you’re not familiar with Florida geography, Pompano Beach is right to the North of Fort Lauderdale (which is itself right to the North of Miami).
Basically, it’s in South Florida.
The bar is owned by Carl Johnson and it’s been there for a good amount of time.
I’m not sure about the exact date that it opened, but I think it’s been around for at least eight years.
However, it’s obviously having some issues, which is why Jon Taffer is in town to turn things around.
To help Jon Taffer with his rescue, he has the help of one of the best chefs in the world, Jason Santos.
For bar recon, Jon Taffer also has help from the owners of MoonRunners Saloon, who were rescued all the way back in 2013.
MoonRunners Saloon is still open more than a decade later, so Guy and Helen know a thing or two about running a bar.
When Jon sends the MoonRunners Saloon owners into the bar, they discover that the bar somehow doesn’t have a drink menu, which I find a little odd.
The bartender also tries to sell the spies on bottled beer, which is bad business because it’s a low margin product.
Instead, the spies order two mixed drinks – a Manhattan and an Old Fashioned.
We then learn why she promoted the bottled beer, because both of the cocktails are poorly made.
Beyond just generally being made incorrectly, the drinks are way, way too sweet.
The Old Fashioned looks like a Tequila Sunrise and the Manhattan looks like a “lousy Cosmopolitan”, in Jon’s words.
That’s all I have for the episode recap for now because I’m writing this a day before the episode airs on TV.
However, I might come back and update this with more detail after it airs.
While he did renovate the bar, Jon decided to largely keep the same name, as it was Dr. Philgoods both before and after.
However, I believe that he did tweak it a little bit, changing it from Dr. Philgoods Sports Bar to Dr. Philgoods Laboratory Bar and Grill.
I’m not 100% sure about that – I will need to confirm after the episode airs.
But in general, it seems like Jon didn’t really touch the core Dr. Philgoods name.
So – was the Bar Rescue Dr. Philgoods rescue a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Pompano Beach, Florida bar is still open in 2024.
Dr. Philgoods Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped Jon’s visit to Dr Philgoods, let’s talk about how the bar is doing after Taffer and his crew left Pompano Beach, Florida.
First, I’ll look at the bar’s reaction to the Bar Rescue, such as whether they seem to be happy with the episode or not.
Then, I’ll talk about whether it’s still open and what type of events the bar has.
I’ll also share real customer reviews from after Taffer’s rescue to give you an idea how things have changed, as well as any other interesting tidbits I’m able to uncover.
Let’s go through it…
Reaction to Taffer’s visit
While I don’t have any behind-the-scenes information, Carl and the bar generally seem to be positive about the Bar Rescue experience.
To celebrate the episode, the bar hosted a watch party, including “free shots and free pizza”.
In addition to posting about the watch party on the bar’s Facebook page, Carl also posted about it a number of times on his personal page.
Is Dr. Philgoods still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check in 2024, Dr. Philgoods is still open and serving customers in Pompano Beach, Florida.
As you’d expect, they are still using the Dr. Philgoods name.
The bar is very active on social media, regularly promoting events and specials.
They seem to have karaoke, much like other bars.
They also have regular live music.
In addition to that, they also have lots of games, including the following:
- Poker
- Darts league
- Pool league
In terms of food, they seem to heavily promote their Philly Cheesesteaks, which cost around $12.
Here’s what the Dr. Philgoods Pompano Beach location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view.
The picture is from February 2023, so it doesn’t include any Bar Rescue changes.
I’m mainly just including it because some people like to explore the area around the bar.
Dr. Philgoods reviews after Bar Rescue
Next, let’s take a look at some real customer reviews for the bar.
As always, I try to focus on reviews that were written after Jon’s visit, as you’re probably mostly interested in whether Jon’s changes are having a positive effect on the bar.
Unfortunately, the bar doesn’t have a ton of online reviews, so it’s hard to get a lot of information here.
On Yelp, its overall rating is 4.3 stars, but only on 7 reviews (most of which were written before Taffer’s visit).
There have only been two Yelp reviews written after Taffer’s visit – one is a positive five star and the other is a one star review.
Here they are:
On Google, Dr. Philgoods also has a 4.3 star rating, but on a larger sample of 175+ reviews.
Those numbers include reviews from both before and after Taffer’s visit, though.
When I exclusively look at reviews that came after, I would say that they’re mostly positive.
Almost all of them are five star reviews.
There is one two-star review, but it’s just a rating and doesn’t include any detailed information about why the person didn’t have a good experience.
Based on the rating, it seems like their issue might have been with the service quality.
Here are some examples of the positive Google reviews:
And then here are some more examples:
Overall, it’s difficult to draw hard conclusions because there aren’t many reviews.
But of the reviews that do exist, I would say that they’re mostly positive.
Final thoughts on the episode
Overall, Dr. Philgoods seems to be doing pretty well after Taffer’s visit.
There aren’t a ton of reviews to go on, but the reviews that do exist seem to mostly be positive.
The bar is also very active on social media and seems to have lots of events going on, including karaoke, live music, poker, pool, and darts.
Given all that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it stay open for a long time.
That wraps up my Dr Philgoods Bar Rescue update.
If you want to see some other episodes from South Florida, you also might be interested in my updates for Jerzy’s Pub / Gerri’s in Margate, Boca Luna Luxe Lounge / One11 Boca in Boca Raton, and Bamboo Beach Tiki Bar in Fort Lauderdale.
I also have a page that lists all of the Florida episodes, there have been over 30 at this point.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the bar or the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks so much for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dr-philgoods-laboratory-bar-and-grill-pompano-beachhttps://www.facebook.com/drphilgoods/
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Last updated: 2024-07-01 08:12
I think the Port St. Lucie (2)-Margate-Pompano Beach set was filmed in February.
Jon stated that he filmed #250 “just last week” February 23:
https://y1065.com/2024/02/23/jon-taffer-on-serving-up-the-intense-new-season-of-bar-rescue/
BR Updates reports that the Margate episode was filmed in March, but we will have to see when the production numbers come out because this is the fourth bar in this set to air.
By my count, it is called #250 with the Lost Episode included in those 250 as well as the accidentally aired Nashville episode. Second Base and Champagne’s count for 2.
Wikipedia counts it as #267, but there were 18 Back to the Bar review episodes. 267-18=249, but I suppose we are to tack on the Lost Episode.
I got a bit confused by the filming date. I had assumed it would be in February/March like the other Florida episodes, but then I found a post from the bar in November 2023 that said Bar Rescue was going to be there that day.
On November 7 2023, they posted “Tonight at 6:00 p.m. Bar Rescue Will be at Dr Philgoods”
They also had an event for it.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1295265784504186/?post_id=1295265887837509&view=permalink
Will try to double check it.
It does seem odd that they would go back to Florida after leaving; Jacksonville area is up the coast a few hours from where the other set was filmed. Will see what the production code is. They imply what order the episodes were filmed in.
Weren’t there t-shirts or something on the show when they filmed #200? (Was it La Casorna?)
Guy is buff now, lol. His last name is Wavra, but Jon implies that it is Alexander and has also called him that on his podcast. I think maybe he is a stepson who has a different name (?) I’m mostly curious because his sister’s name is Alex (Alexandra?), and her name would be Alex Alexander. I wish they spent more time on the recon. The spies are barely in the show anymore.
Alissa obviously had issues, painful to see her break down like that. Nearly 3/4 into episode before stress test; I was worried that it would be a walk-out.
Weird episode with switching managers, etc.
Agree with the sentiment that these south Florida bars all have a very basic interior appearance.
wow, only got 20 seconds into the episode before deciding to skip….again!!
is this kind of episode popular in USA because elsewhere it sure isn’t!
Why didn’t you like it? I’ve only been seeing people skip the ones without Jon Taffer.