(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 28, 2024
The Bar's Original Name Was: The Epic Lounge
Epic Live Address: 8239 2nd St, Downey, CA 90241
Episode Recap
The Epic Lounge, later renamed to Epic Live, was a Downey California bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Epic Lounge Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2024, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place around October 2023.
It was Season 9 Episode 10 and the episode name was “Friends Without Benefits”.
In this episode, the Bar Rescue team heads to The Epic Lounge.
I say “Bar Rescue team” and not “Jon Taffer” because this is, unfortunately, another episode where Jon Taffer has decided to embrace excuses and go missing from the actual rescue.
Instead, the “head rescuer” duties in this episode will fall to Phil Wills.
This is Phil’s second time leading the rescue, as he also rescued the Thirsty Ox earlier in this season.
Like that bar, The Epic Lounge is also located in California – Downey, CA, to be specific.
This marks Bar Rescue’s 53rd visit to California at the time that the episode aired, which is by far the most populous state.
If you’re not familiar with California geography, Downey is located in Southeast Los Angeles County, right in between Los Angeles proper and Anaheim.
Originally opening back in 2002, The Epic Lounge has a long history in Downey.
Currently, the bar is owned by David Devis, who seems to be nice and popular with the bar’s customers based on the reviews that I’ve read.
In addition to the bar, David also owns a ghost kitchen named Epic Buns, which people can also order at the bar.
If you want to learn more about the history at the bar, I found this nice article from The Downey Patriot that goes through everything that happened, including the bar’s temporary closure in 2008 due to issues with the city.
However, the bar has recently fallen on hard times, as evidenced by the bar making an appearance on Bar Rescue.
To help save the bar, Phil has help from his experts, including expert chef Vic Vegas (who knows his way around elevating a hot dog).
To get a feel for the bar, they send in two spies to recon at first.
Someone has taken the menu from the spies’ table, so they have to look at a picture of the bar on the waiter’s phone…super weird.
When the experts see the kitchen on camera, Vic instantly sees problems, including gross grease all over the kitchen.
To get an even deeper look, Phil sends in his experts for further recon.
When the experts order their food and drinks, Phil sees even more issues with the staff and operations at The Epic Lounge, which will need to be fixed if the bar is going to be successful.
As always, I’m writing this post a day before the episode airs on TV, so I might come back and write a more detailed recap once I’m able to watch the full episode.
As part of the rescue, Phil Wills and the Bar Rescue team slightly rebranded the bar from The Pic Lounge to Epic Live.
The bar also got plenty of renovations, as is always the case for any bar that appears on the show.
So – was the Epic Live Bar Rescue renovation a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Downey, CA bar is still open in 2024.
Epic Live Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Epic Lounge rescue from Phil Wills and his team, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after the Bar Rescue crew left Downey, CA.
I’ll start by talking about whether it’s still open and using the Epic Live concept from the show.
Then, I’ll take a look at how the customer reviews are doing after Phil’s rescue, along with any other interesting information that I can dig up.
Let’s get started…
Is Epic Live still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check in 2024, Epic Lounge is still open and serving customers in Downey CA.
In terms of whether or not the bar kept the name and concept from the episode, the bar seems to be using both the Epic Live and Epic Lounge names in different places.
However, I believe that the bar has still kept the Epic Live name, for the most part.
For example, if you look at the official website, you can see that it’s still using the Epic Live name:
The official Instagram page also uses the Epic Live name, including on recent posts in April 2024.
For example, this Instagram post from April 18, 2024 clearly says “Epic Live Presents”.
If you look at the bar’s Facebook page (which is also still actively posting), though, it still uses “The Epic Lounge” as the page name.
However, if you look at the actual posts on the Facebook page, it does seem to still be using the Epic Live name as well.
For example, this post advertising a karaoke night in January still refers to the bar as Epic Live even though the page is named The Epic Lounge.
In terms of events, the bar seems to have regular karaoke nights on Wednesdays and Thursdays, as you can see in the example above.
They also have live music sometimes, though it doesn’t seem to be super often.
The Epic Live website has more events, and also says that it will be adding the menu soon.
And then here’s what the Epic Live location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view.
It hasn’t been updated since 2022 – I’m mainly just including it so that you can explore the area.
Epic Live reviews after the Bar Rescue episode
Next, let’s look at how the bar is doing in terms of customer reviews from after the rescue by Phil Wills and his experts.
Overall, the bar has a 4 star rating on Yelp and a 4.3 star rating on Google reviews, which is actually pretty good.
Both of those numbers include reviews from both before and after the Bar Rescue episode, though.
If I zero in on reviews that were specifically written after the episode, they still seem to be generally positive.
A few reviewers do seem to complain about the new, more “club-like” concept.
However, in general, most reviews are positive.
With that being said, most reviews from before the episode were also positive, so I don’t notice a huge shift there.
To give you an idea of what real customers are saying after the renovations, let’s take a look at some real customer reviews that were written after Phil and his team visited…
5 star Yelp review from December 2023:
5 star Yelp review from October 2023:
5 star Yelp review from October 2023:
5 star Yelp review from October 2023:
5 star Google review from December 2023:
Two 5 star Google reviews from November 2023:
1 star Yelp review from March 2024:
This dude is really not happy about the changes at the bar haha.
1 star Yelp review from December 2023:
1 star Google review from November 2023:
Final thoughts on Epic Lounge / Epic Live
So far, Epic Live seems to still be doing ok and using the name and concept from the episode.
While you can still see the old The Epic Lounge concept on some social media profiles, the bar seems to have largely adapted the Epic Live name.
New reviews for the bar seem to generally be positive, too.
That’s always a good sign, though there aren’t a super high number to choose from.
That wraps up my Epic Live Bar Rescue update.
If you want to see updates for other nearby California episodes, you also might be interested in my updates for Agave Junction Cantina / Scoreboard, Cirivello’s / The Aging Room, LA Brew Co / Los Angeles Brewing Company, and The Airliner.
I also have a page that lists all 53+ California episodes.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Epic Live episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
I especially like hearing from people who are able to visit the bar in person.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-epic-lounge-downeyhttps://www.facebook.com/TheEpicLoungeDWNY/
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Last updated: 2024-04-28 08:05
They teased us by having Jon back last week and now they’re taking it away again. Lame!
Jon would have had a lot of fun with this one. WWJD What Would Jon Do.
Jon would have rushed in, as soon as he saw the cooks stabbing that frozen block of chili. He probably would have thrown the block of chili on the floor.
He would have lambasted the owner for not paying an employee.
He would have used the term “Epic Fail” at the end of the stress test.
He would have named it “Noelle’s” after the owner’s daughter. Then they would have pulled the sign off the next day like Papa Joe’s because it’s stupid to name bars after children. There’s probably an empty bar named Leia’s still sitting there in Tracy.
These non-Jon episodes are totally lost. Jon plays a caricature of himself that Phil or anyone else can only attempt to reproduce. Phil is so muted compared to Jon that it seems to rub off on Vic Vegas. And the poor waifish girl who is supposedly a bartender expert is doing little more than pushing a brand. Seriously, who is going to shake a cocktail with multiple ingredients and put 3 fruit slices in it only to pour it in a pouch? No way that is still there.
Also, either the editing is really bad or Phil stutters a lot in this role. At least his jacket fits him unlike Jon’s, lol.
Jon doesn’t even appear on video to consult with Phil. I think he is getting old and maybe sick from smoking cigars his whole life. Ratings are dropping; show will probably get canceled after his current deal expires.
At least they are doing at least 4 bars per set now.
PlutoTV airs reruns every day of Bar Rescue. Just watching where the show has come from and where it is now the show looks tired.
Taffer isn’t as enthusiastic, both when he is there and by his notable absences.
I like that they are using guest hosts, but they are stuck in the shadow of Jon and the formula the show is rigidly adhering to.
If something doesn’t change, this is likely the final season of Bar Rescue.