Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue Update (Jolt’n Joe’s) – Still Open in 2024?

Is Gaslamp Social still open today?

Status: >> CLOSED <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)

Season: 7 | View All Season 7 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: September 6, 2020
The Bar's Original Name Was: Jolt'n Joe's
Gaslamp Social Address: 379 4th Ave San Diego, CA 92101

Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue Update (Jolt'n Joe's)

Episode Recap

Jolt’n Joe’s, later renamed to Gaslamp Social, was a San Diego, California bar that was featured on Season 7 of Bar Rescue.

Though the Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue episode aired in September 2020, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place back at the beginning of 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was Season 7 Episode 15 and the episode name was “The Gaslamp Redemption”.

Jolt’n Joe’s is in located in sunny San Diego, CA.

The bar is located in the Gaslamp Quarter of the city, which will become important when it comes to Taffer’s renovations.

Phil Paccione is the owner who bought the bar in 2004, which means he’s had it for over 16 years at the time of the Jolt’n Joe’s Bar Rescue episode.

Jolt'n Joe's owner Phil

He turned the bar into a sports and pool bar and an event center.

In his words, he wanted it to be like Chuckie Cheese for adults (which pretty much sounds like Dave and Busters).

The bar was successful for years. Sadly, Phil got cancer and hired Sean Kisner as general manager to take over the work load.

Beyond Phil’s health issues, the bar’s finances are in bad shape.

Jolt’n Joe’s is losing around $10,000 per month and Phil has a total debt burden of over $1.2 million, which is obviously a huge albatross around his neck. 

Phil is better and comes back to the bar, but he has a strained relationship with Sean.

Jolt'n Joe's GM Sean

The two are in dispute about sweat equity. Sean controls the staff and the business because of this.

The bar has been neglected and is falling apart.

Mixologist Alex Goode and Chef Vic Vegas join Jon Taffer to help save the bar.

Because there is no parking in front of the bar, Jon needs to park the SUV command center in another location.

The hidden camera footage shows the owner, Sean, bartenders Mindy and Angela, and Erica, the server.

Local radio hosts spy on the bar and order a Mai Tai and Bloody Mary.

The spies describe the Mai Tai as sour and say the Bloody Mary reminds them of a hotdog.

I’ve never heard a Bloody Mary described like that, but it definitely doesn’t sound good.

For food, the spies order a chicken sandwich and a steak burger.

The food is terrible, so they return it for tacos and cornbread, which are also awful. Notice a theme?

Jon Taffer enters the bar to meet with Phil and Sean.

Phil tells Jon more about his health issues and says he hired Sean to run things while he was out.

As the spies are giving Phil their feedback, Sean comes over.

Jon immediately yells at him about the standards of the bar.

Sean places the blame on the cook.

The cook tells Jon it is Sean’s fault for micromanaging. 

Jolt'n Joe's cook

Basically, everyone is pointing their finger at someone else.

The staff met with Jon the next day.

Phil tells his employees they only can afford to stay open for a few more months.

Then the team confides in Phil about the issues with the bar, including the foul-tasting food and inconsistent standards.

The staff goes for training while Jon Taffer sits down with Phil and Sean. 

Sean tells Jon that he was promised part of the business through his sweat, but Phil denies this.

Phil thinks Sean makes too much money.

Jon says to see how Phil works for the stress test, and after that, they can make a business deal or part ways. 

Alex trains the staff on how to make a Bloody Mary consistently.

Mo makes fried chicken in the kitchen, and Jason gives him feedback.

Jason shows him the correct way to make fried chicken.

Once the staff has had some training, it’s time for the stress test to start.

Mindy stands out as a great bartender.

Phil is in the kitchen and is pushing Mo to serve raw chicken.

Raw food is being sent back.

Sean is running food in and out of the kitchen.

Jon has to shut down the test when he sees enough. 

The next day the bartenders are shown new cocktails by Alex.

The kitchen is shown how to make spicy shrimp tacos.

Phil and Sean are left alone for a meeting.

Jolt'n Joe's owner Phil and GM

They decide on a deal where Sean will receive fifteen percent of the bar’s earnings. 

While all of that’s happening, Jon Taffer and his crew have been working on renovating the bar, including giving it a new name.

Instead of Jolt’n Joe’s, it will now be Gaslamp Social, named after the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in which the bar resides.

The bar is updated and has been given new pool tables, among many other improvements.

Mo has been given a new chef’s coat.

Tasty food is served to customers who leave happy. 

So was the Jolt N Joe’s Bar Rescue episode a long-term success? Keep reading to learn what happened next and if it’s still open in 2024.

Gaslamp Social Update - What Happened Next?

Now that we’ve recapped the Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left sunny San Diego, CA.

Things seemed to start off well for the newly named Gaslamp Social.

Sean was given more room to manage the bar and seemed to be doing well.

Sales were up and the bar was attracting new customers.

Reviews for the bar after the Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue episode seemed pretty good.

Here’s a sampling of reviews that were written after Jon Taffer’s visit.

5 star Google review from May 2020:

Recently remodeled, love the new look.

Come check out new edition to Gaslamp.

Food is on point.

5 star Yelp review from September 2020:

It’s the great cooking for me!

They have the best chef hands down.

The management and bartenders are great as well.

It’s an overall dope bar and an experience that will keep anybody coming back.

Unfortunately, the bar would become another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Is Gaslamp Social from Bar Rescue still open?

Gaslamp Social closed in April 2021 because their landlord evicted the business due to non-payment of rent.

This means that it only survived for around a year after the Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.

Where this gets tricky is that there was supposed to be an eviction moratorium at that time because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can see a video about the eviction and issues in this video from CBS 8 San Diego:

The landlord claimed that Gaslamp Social had a long history of non-payment of rent, even going back to before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Allegedly, Gaslamp Social violated a 2020 agreement that was signed before the pandemic to address past issues, which is why the San Diego eviction moratorium didn’t apply.

Here’s an excerpt of a letter from the landlord about the eviction, which you can read in full in this news article from CBS 8 San Diego:

The Sheriff conducted the lockout today, April 20, 2021 at 8:30 this morning.

A copy of Jolt’n Joe’s eviction notice is attached.

Unfortunately, this tenant has had a long history of non-payment of rent, lease defaults and non-performance of lease obligations.

All of these defaults existed long before, and unrelated to, the pandemic.

In a 2020 agreement the tenant was required to perform certain obligations before it went into effect, which he did not perform, therefore, the agreement became null and void and the eviction process began.

I checked Google Maps street view and you can see the Gaslamp Social building with boarded up windows in this November 2020 image:

Gaslamp Social boarded up windows

As of 2022, the old Gaslamp Social San Diego, CA location seems to still be vacant.

I can’t find any record of a new business moving in since then, which makes sense because not many places were opening during Covid-19.

It also makes sense because the developer wanted to build a luxury hotel on the property. I can’t find any record of that happening yet, though.

Here’s an updated view of the property from October 2022:

Old Gaslamp Social San Diego property October 2022

I also found a listing that shows the property as available for rent.

The old Gaslamp Social San Diego property will cost you a cool $160,000 per year (around $13,300 per month), so you better be selling a lot of drinks and food if you want to move in!

If anything changes, I will edit the Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue update.

And if you know anything about what happened to that location, please let me know in the comments.

If you want to see some other San Diego Bar Rescue episodes, check out these posts:

Or, you can also check out my full list of all 48+ Bar Rescue episodes in California, which makes it by far the most-visited state from the show.

Thanks for reading!


More Information

https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-gaslamp-social-san-diego
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60750-d855554-Reviews-Jolt_N_Joe_s-San_Diego_California.html


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Last updated: 2023-03-29 06:14

14 thoughts on “Gaslamp Social Bar Rescue Update (Jolt’n Joe’s) – Still Open in 2024?”

All comments are the sole opinion of the commenter and are not endorsed by RealityTVUpdates.

  1. This joint was in the former Old Spaghetti Factory, a vintage brick building in the bustling heart of San Diego. It never lived up to the classy history and tradition of the former Italian restaurant. The city is better off since the eviction, and locals just hope a winning option comes to town to replace this loser.

    Reply
    • Nope. The former and current location of Old Spaghetti Factory is 275 Fifth Avenue. Gaslamp Social was at 379 Fourth Avenue, a completely different building.

      When I think of the Gaslamp Quarter, I think of Fifth Avenue. I know it is bigger than that, but there’s a huge difference in the vibe just one block over.

      Reply
    • I was going to ask the same thing no mention of her at all
      One thing they failed to mention when Shawn took over as manager was the business profitable and go downhill. That is something we were never told on the show, and if it was going downhill after he took over, he should’ve been fired.

      Reply
      • Since the very beginning of the show, Sean was working all over the restaurant while the owner just played pool. I don’t think it was fair for Jon to just scream at him because his recipes were bad. I think he was disgruntled because the owner screwed him over out of the promise. And the owner had the audacity to tell him he needed to even harder for him to fulfill the promise. The owner was such a POS! He deserved at least 25%. Especially after the relaunch, he was killing it, while the owner did nothing. He couldn’t even pour a drink or make a hamburger. At that age, and couldn’t even cook a burger? That’s pathetic. Even if he jumped in the middle, you can tell when a burger is done

        Reply
        • That’s terrible. Atleast when you go to Walmart and pick up one of those angus cheese burgers. U know it’s cooked right. But blame the manger for putting together a menu&recipes that don’t work. I’m watching now. It’s a good bar. The landlord kicked out the owner&manager for not paying the rent. It sounds like Shawn was shining on the landlord and that’s illegal. I’m no restaurant owner/bar/company owner.even I know it’s illegal.

          Reply
  2. This couldn’t have been doing well before the manager was hired as they allegedly had about $1M in debt, were losing $10K per month, and Shawn had been there for about 3 years. 36 x $10000= $360,000, that’s a far cry from $1M

    Reply

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