(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 3, 2013
The Bar's Original Name Was: Alibi Casino
Garnet Lounge Address: 1690 N Decatur Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89108
Episode Recap
The Alibi Casino, later renamed to Garnet Lounge, was a Las Vegas, Nevada bar/casino that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Garnet Lounge Bar Rescue episode aired in November 2013, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 25 and the episode name was “Drunk & Dirty Dolls”.
In the Garnet Lounge episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and his crew visit what is originally named The Alibi Casino, a motorcycle bar in Las Vegas, NV.
According to Jon, the bar has an “inept owner” and a “staff of busty cougars”.
Other fun tidbits include a blow up doll in the bar.
Let’s recap the episode and then I’ll share what happened to the bar.
The Alibi, owned by Artie Coury, is in Las Vegas, NV.
Artie began his career in the hospitality industry as a dishwasher.
In 1998, he opened The Alibi, which means he’s had it for around 15 years at the time of the Alibi Bar Rescue episode.
A friend of Artie’s named Joey was hired to manage the bar.
At first, the bar was highly successful.
Sadly, Artie was in a racing accident, and while he was recovering, his staff became unruly.
Instead of reprimanding his staff when he returned to work, he added race car décor to the bar.
The customers were not happy with this and stopped coming into the bar.
Now, Artie is in severe debt and needs help from Bar Rescue if the bar is going to survive.
Expert mixologist Mia Mastroianni and Chef Nick Liberato help Jon Taffer on this episode.
Two women spy on The Alibi for Jon Taffer.
Behind the bar, the bartenders are openly drinking alcohol straight from the bottle while a blow-up doll sits behind the bar.
The drink the spies order tastes terrible, and the blow-up doll makes them uneasy.
The bar is geared towards men; there are too many sexual comments.
When Jon Taffer enters the bar, he notices a light flickering.
He calls the staff together and calls out the bartenders who drink top-shelf liquor.
One employee, Jen, had to leave because she was too drunk.
Jon Taffer goes disgusted with the bar and the sex toy.
The next day, Mia calls out the random staff members hanging out behind the bar.
She also said the ice is dirty and needs to be changed.
Dirty ice is so gross and it always makes me scared at bars because I don’t know if their ice bucket is clean.
In the kitchen, the appliances are covered in grease and grime.
The cook tells Chef Nick he is too busy cooking to clean.
Before training can start the staff, have to clean the bar and kitchen.
To prep for the stress test, the bartenders are tested on making basic drinks.
Mia walks around the bar and helps the bartenders improve on their mistakes.
Chef Nick takes the kitchen through the steps of creating a proper steak.
After the training, the employees say sorry to Artie and commit to him to be better.
During the stress test, the bar runs out of cups.
Artie finds new glasses but trips and breaks them as he carries them out.
The drinks are poorly made, so Jon shuts down the test.
Jon Taffer tells the staff it was a bad idea to comp the steak meals that were messed up.
He thinks the customers should have been given complimentary cocktails instead.
Once the stress test is finished, the experts can get to work on really training and improving the staff and concept.
Mia trains the bar staff on female-centric cocktails.
Meanwhile, the kitchen now learns recipes that fit in with the neighborhood.
The bartenders also prepare drinks with jiggers while the cooks are taught how to make a shared meal.
Before the relaunch, Artie gives Joey more freedom with managing.
In order to help save the bar, Jon makes the decision to rebrand it to the Garnet Lounge.
As you might expect from the name, this is a decidedly more upscale approach than the original concept.
For the relaunch, mostly female customers come in.
Artie steps up to support his team when they fall behind.
Soon the cooks are making great food, and the drinks are tasty.
Joey does excellent as the manager.
So was the Alibi Bar Rescue episode a success and was Artie able to overcome his debt?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened and how The Garnet Lounge is doing in 2025 and beyond.
Garnet Lounge Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Garnet Lounge Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Las Vegas, NV.
Initially, things seemed to start off well for the new bar.
At the normal six-week check-in with the Bar Rescue producers, we learn that sales at the bar have gone up by 20%.
They’re also attracting more women to the bar, in part because of ditching awkward stuff like the blow up doll.
Unfortunately, even the increase in sales would not be able to save the bar because of its huge debt load.
Is Garnet Lounge from Bar Rescue still open?
Garnet Lounge closed for good at the end of 2013/beginning of 2014, which was just a few months after the Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.
The Garnet Lounge owner cited the economy and industry-wide changes as the reason that Garnet Lounge closed.
On December 31, 2013, they posted this goodbye message on their Facebook:
With more regret than words can express, we have to close our business and accept the defeat brought to us by our economy and the changes in our industry.
Our last night will be tomorrow night, New Year’s Eve.
Please come out and see us, have some drinks and say goodbye.
We will miss serving you at the Alibi and Garnet Lounge and will update you as our incredible crew finds new homes.
Here’s a screenshot of the Facebook post and some of the responses, in case it gets deleted:
So while Garnet Lounge did technically make it into 2014, it was only for one day!
The fact that Garnet Lounge closed a mere ~2 months after its episode aired on Spike TV means it is far from one of Jon’s successes.
Oh well, bon voyage Garnet Lounge and Alibi Casino!
As of 2023, the old Garnet Lounge Las Vegas location is occupied by a new bar/casino named Dotty’s Casino.
Reviews for Dotty’s Casino don’t seem great, though, as it has just a 3 star rating on Yelp.
Here’s what the old Garnet Lounge location looks like in the most recent Google Maps street view update – you can see the new Dotty’s Casino location:
At the time that Garnet Lounge closed, it didn’t have a lot of reviews, so it’s hard to know what it was like.
There were just two Yelp reviews, both of which mention Bar Rescue.
One review was positive and one was negative – so it seems like things were split, at least in this sample size of two!
Here’s the positive 5 star review from December 2013:
Sad to say this place will be closing as of January 1st 2014.
My partner and I stopped in while visiting from Out of State.
We are big fans of the show Bar Rescue and only recently saw the episode with this bar (Garnet Lounge, formally The Alibi)
After a long run and a make-over on the show Bar Rescue I am sad to say they are shutting the doors.
The service was great, small-town feeling and super polite.
Cougar Balls on the menu were very yummy, my boyfriend adored them.
Here’s the negative 2 star review from November 2013:
came here on a Saturday night around midnight for two reasons:
1- this place is a two minute drive from my house
2- this place was on that Bar Rescue show.
Because of that, my expectations were fairly high, as I’ve seen the show a ton and they always do cool stuff.
So, why two stars? Well…
First and foremost, this placed used to be the Alibi.
Jon Taffer and his crew decided they needed to appeal to the ladies more, so they changed it up and all that.
It’s nicer, cleaner, and the drinks are apparently better than they were before.
Except that when my buddy and I went, not so much.
The bar has these little stands that show the drinks the bar is known for, and we ordered one.
Except the bar tender had no idea how to make it or what was in it.
While my drink was ok (meh) my buddy’s drink had enough lemon juice in it to make him squint and say “it tastes like bad lemon cough drops.”
Not the best.
The service was ok, but could’ve been better given that this is supposed to be a local dive.
I expected some sort of banter with the bartender, but he was only good for “at least the drinks are ok.”
Thank you, sir, for that uplifting insight.
…(review continues)
That wraps up my thoughts on Garnet Lounge!
Jon Taffer has done a bunch of Las Vegas Bar Rescue episodes – too many to list on this page.
If you want to see some other bars, here are a few to start you off – Champagne’s Cafe (which Taffer rescued twice), Club Platinum, and Capo’s Restaurant and Speakeasy.
Or, you can check out my full list of all the Bar Rescue episodes in Las Vegas as of 2025.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/garnet-lounge-las-vegashttps://www.facebook.com/garnetlounge
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Last updated: 2023-04-03 05:26
Jon did a great job giving the Alibi new life as the Garnet Lounge but ya can’t fix poor ownership, out of control employees and a reputation for low quality in five days unless you have a group of people who truly are passionate to make it work!
Does any other bars from bar rescue survive ???? I don’t get it
As Larry said, “ya can’t fix poor ownership, out of control employees and a reputation for low quality in five days unless you have a group of people who truly are passionate to make it work!” Even with the help of Jon, it is difficult to save any failing enterprise. Even so, according to Bar Rescue Update, 69 of 160 Bars from the show Closed, 82 of 160 Bars Are Still Open With Same Owners, and the upgrades made 9 Bars appealing enough to be Sold.
Even though Jon has a great reputation, I think he has made a few missteps. Making over a bar into a Steampunk-themed lounge (Metal & Lace), even in a town like Austin, TX is a mistake (I love Steampunk; I am in the minority). Other times, I think looking at the ownership and staff, Jon should have just walked away without trying a rescue.
Most of the bars I’ve watched on the show, were so far gone, I don’t think they were worth trying to save. It’s a tough business, and it’s survival of the smartest. Dumbass owners SHOULD go out of business. Especially the ones who get drunk and rowdy or allow their staff to do do. When I tended bar, if a customer bought you a drink, you drank soda or tea. NOT booze. Stayed sober the whole time you were behind the bar and shut people off that have been overserved. I can remember driving some patrons home rather than then getting a ticket or killing somebody. And contrary to Jon, it IS easy to overserve somebody. I’ve seen some people had two drinks and they were wasted.
When you’re hundreds of thousands in debt, a few days isn’t enough to get you by. These owners owe rent on the property or taxes, they owe vendors for products, they owe employee wages. Cant always dig yourself out of that hole.
Especially if you don’t stick to Jon’s plan and fall back to old habits.
It all starts and stops with owner/management. You can’t put failure on the staff because if they’re not doing their job, they can be fired.
Don’t blame Taffer either. He only has 5 days to turn a bar around, including remodelling it. Most stupid owners go back to their bad habits after Taffer leaves and often discard the modelling changes too. Case in point was the Pirate Tavern. Then they had the audacity to blame Bar Rescue for their failures. These kind of people deserve to lose their bars!!!
Taffer…..the KISS of DEATH
I think Jon sometimes rescues the wrong people The ones that do nothing to help themselves like CLEANING and organizing dont deserve help from anyone. The appearance of a bar inside and out make a big difference to potential and lasting customers.
@terry I 100% agree
Terry, You’re absolutely right. I’m so tired of hearing, “not one of Jon’s successes.” Jon makes these people brand new bars, and supplies training and all the tools needed to be successful. After that happens, he’s done and gone. The rest is up to the owners and management. If they can’t then control themselves or their employees, that’s 100% on them. They failed, not Jon.
Jon claims a huge success rate. I have checked on most bars after the episode airs his success rate is a bout 25-30%. Supporting much of the comments above. The underlying issue is the ownership n they can’t be fixed in five days.
9 of 10 Rescues close within a year and deservedly so. Very few people are qualified to own or operate a bar. Even the so-called successes are fake – reporting “sales increased by 25%” isn’t enough to erase $300,000 debt.
At the end, they said sales are up 20% , we’ll 20% of next to nothing is it much of an increase not much wonder it couldn’t take itself out of the hole it was in.
More often than not when you have that type of staff working for you most of them should all be fired for the way they behave, five days isn’t going to change the way they operate.
It’s too bad we don’t have a lot of locals report on these comments to tell us if staff stay true to their word and gave it there all or did they go back to their old ways.
This!!! I’d love to know from locals if the girls went back to drinking on the job etc. and as you said, 20%. So if they were losing $10,000
Per month, that 6 week update would mean, they were losing $8,000 per month instead of 10; No way to get out of that hole really.
Idk, just my thoughts.
@Patrick I had the same thought, to the point of literally busting out laughing when I saw the “sales are up 20%”. 20% increase from $1000 a week when a truly good bar should be making $20,000 a week is an absolute joke.
I mean, I do love this show and I do see a lot of good from it, but it’s moments like this when I realize that this is still just another reality TV show.
And all those commenting about Pirate Tavern? Again, I love this show. However, it was kind of dumb of Jon and the production team to even think changing a bunch of overgrown children, with their ridiculous themed bar, into some corporate hotspot lounge would actually work. The idea of that actually working is nearly as dumb as the bar was originally. Truth be told, I don’t actually think Jon is an idiot and already figured the bar was going to revert to their old ways and fail. So why not have some fun with it?
I also think they had the same thoughts for this one as well. The owner was crap and really didn’t belong in the business. The staff basically acted like trash. You’re not gonna take a bunch of trash like that, who had absolutely zero respect for their boss as a boss, and turn them around in a few days. So again, why not make a joke of it all and move on.
I have a problem with Jon helping an owner who lets his/her employees do whatever they want from the get go.
I realize when you are thousands of dollars in the hole each week, some people lose their will to fight. BUT!!!!! Every one of those owners & employees are miked and know they are being recorded, yet they won’t even TRY to be better. Sure it’s reality tv and their incompetence is ‘great tv’.
Question: why would Jon remodel their bar when they have NO GIVE A CARE? So of course they end up the way they were before. You can’t get proper training in 4 days! I think each employee and each owner should attend classes to better themselves first! Then when they get their certificate, Jon can help them! That shows commitment of wanting to be successful!
They could still televise the antics, but the success rate would increase if they had proper training because without any consequences, they end up with a beautiful FREE BAR and no accountability !!
Honestly, most of these bars are worthless before, & stayed worthless after the remodel.
I wonder how the companies that donate their very expensive products feel about all the failures? Their product ends up sold for pennies on the dollar.
I think changes need to be made.
My opinion….