(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 23, 2024
The Bar's Original Name Was: Tumbleweed Grill
Gold Rush Saloon Address: 725 W Apache Trail, Apache Junction, AZ 85120
Episode Recap
Tumbleweed Grill, later renamed to Gold Rush Saloon, was an Apache Junction Arizona bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Gold Rush Saloon Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2024, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place back in October 2023.
It was Season 9 Episode 17 and the episode name was “Mis-Steaks Were Made”.
In this episode, the Bar Rescue crew heads to Apache Junction, Arizona.
Unfortunately, I have to say “Bar Rescue” and not “Jon Taffer”, because Jon will not actually be attending this one in person (as has been the case for a lot of other episodes this season).
Instead, he’s sending Dustin Drai to rescue the bar, who’s part of the family behind some popular Las Vegas nightclubs.
Dustin is in town to rescue the Tumbleweed Grill.
If you’re not familiar with Arizona geography, Apache Junction is located just to the east of Phoenix that spans both Pinal and Maricopa countries.
It’s located near some beautiful nature and historical sites, so I imagine it gets a good bit of tourism.
When Dustin sends his spies into the bar, the bartender struggles to make common drinks, such as an Old Fashioned.
Despite the Old Fashioned being a very popular drink, the bartender didn’t know how to make it even (even having to ask the customers and other staff members how to do it).
Eventually, she Googled the drink to learn how to make it lol.
That’s all I have for the episode recap as I’m writing this a day before it airs, but I might come back and update this later in the future.
I do know what Dustin did at the bar, though.
As part of the rescue, Dustin opted to change the bar’s name and concept.
He switched it from the Tumbleweed Grill to the Gold Rush Saloon, which capitalizes on the bar’s location near historic gold rush sites.
So was the Tumbleweed Grill Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if this Apache Junction bar is still open in 2024.
Gold Rush Saloon Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Dustin Drai and his crew left Apache Junction, AZ.
I’ll start by discussing whether the bar is still open (spoiler – it’s not) and what type of events the bar had going on.
Then, I’ll take a look at some real customer reviews to see if Dustin’s changes had any effect on how people felt about the bar.
Let’s get into it, starting with the most important question…
Is Gold Rush Saloon still open after Bar Rescue?
Unfortunately, Gold Rush Saloon / Tumbleweed Grill closed for good on April 19, 2024, which was around two months before the episode aired on TV.
Prior to its closure, the bar seemed to have primarily gone back to using the original Tumbleweed Grill concept, though they did still use the Gold Rush Saloon branding in some places. More on this below.
Since the bar was rescued back in October 2023, though, that means it stayed open for around six months after Dustin’s actual rescue.
Here’s what they posted on April 19 to announce the bar’s closure:
We are sad to announce that Tumbleweed Grill will be permanently closed as of Friday, April 19th, 2024.
We want to thank our loyal staff for being part of this incredible journey with us.
Thank you to all our loyal customers for the support and friendship over the past couple of years.
It has been an honor to serve you and we will truly miss all of you.
Here’s a screenshot of the post in case it gets deleted.
The post actually generated a ton of engagement, racking up 90 comments from people.
A lot of people were sad at the bar’s closure, while some others seem to have thought that it was long overdue.
Later on April 19th, they posted another message saying the following:
Thank you to all of the wonderful entertainers who made Tumbleweed a great time for all.
Here’s a screenshot of that post, which also got a good amount of engagement.
As I mentioned above, it seems like the bar had gone back to using the Tumbleweed Grill name for most promotions.
If you look back at this October 2023 post, you can see that they initially seem to have embraced the new Gold Rush Saloon name from Dustin:
They continued using the Gold Rush Saloon name through at least mid-November.
For example, you can see them promoting it as Gold Rush Saloon in this post from November 13, 2023.
However, sometime shortly after this, they seem to have gone back to using the Tumbleweed Grill name, as that’s the only name I saw on most of the promotions.
For example, this post from November 17, 2023 advertises a singer performing “Every Thursday at Tumbleweed Grill”.
After this, they seem to have mostly just used the Tumbleweed Grill name, though they did still include Gold Rush Saloon in the name of the Facebook page.
Here’s a post from November 2023 where the bar confirms going permanently back to the Tumbleweed Grill name, including changing the physical sign back:
Our Tumbleweed sign originally went up one year ago today.
Our name was changed when we recently received a surprise makeover but today our Tumbleweed sign is going back up.
Seeing this pop up in my memories today confirms we are doing the right thing.
Prior to the closure of Tumbleweed Grill, the bar seemed to be pretty active with hosting a number of events.
They had regular karaoke, which is a staple at a lot of bars.
They also seemed to host a good amount of live music, including both bands and solo performers.
Beyond that, they had other things like a regular bingo night at the bar.
As well as unique events like a comedy hypnotist and comedy country band.
Here’s what the Tumbleweed Grill Apache Junction location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view.
It hasn’t been updated since 2021 – I’m mainly just including it so that you can explore the area around the bar.
Gold Rush Saloon reviews after Bar Rescue
At the time that the Tumbleweed Grill closed, the bar had an overall 2.5 rating on 24 Yelp reviews and a 4.1 star rating on 415 Google reviews.
However, both of those numbers include reviews from both before and after Dustin’s visit.
As always, I try to only look at reviews that were written after the October 2023 Bar Rescue visit so that I can try to get a feel for how people felt about the bar after Dustin’s changes.
Unfortunately, the reviews don’t seem to be very good.
On the bar’s Yelp page, most of the reviews are universally bad, with people complaining a lot of about the food and the service.
The vast majority of the Yelp reviews were one or two stars, which is pretty bad.
For example, here’s a set of two negative reviews from right after the Bar Rescue episode:
And then here are a bunch of one-star Yelp reviews written in March and April 2024, right before the restaurant closed.
And then here are even more negative reviews from earlier in 2024:
There were a couple of positive reviews on Yelp, but they were few and far between.
With that being said, things were definitely better on Google.
There, the reviews for the bar were much more mixed, with plenty of positive reviews (but also plenty of negative reviews).
Still, I’m not really surprised that Tumbleweed Grill closed given the quantity of negative reviews from after the episode.
Final thoughts on the Gold Rush Saloon bar
Overall, Dustin’s rescue of the Tumbleweed Grill was not able to achieve long-term success.
While the bar initially seems to have embraced the new Gold Rush Saloon concept, they seem to have switched back to primarily using the original Tumbleweed Grill name around a month after the Bar Rescue visit.
They stayed open for around six months in total, but eventually closed in April 2024, which is before the episode even aired on TV.
There were a lot of negative reviews for the bar, so I’m not really surprised that it closed.
That wraps up my Gold Rush Saloon Bar Rescue update.
If you want to see updates for some other Arizona bars, you can also read my posts about Natalie’s / Skip and Jan’s in Gilbert AZ, Havana Cabana / Rocky Point Cantina in Tempe, and Skybox Ultra Sports Lounge / Hogwash Saloon in Fountain Hills.
I also have a page that lists all of the episodes in Arizona.
And if you want to talk about the bar, your opinion on Dustin as a Bar Rescue host, or the episode in general, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/tumbleweed-grill-and-bar-apache-junction-2https://www.facebook.com/tumbleweed85120/
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Last updated: 2024-06-24 09:33
I do not understand WHY are the newest Bar Rescues years in and then at the end literally before they are rescued and they close up just a couple of months after filming even before the show is televised?
Not paying rent and the whole place is locked up so the owner of the building can take the property, the bar rescue property for non-payment?
I am really disappointed that places are within closure of days.
NO WONDER THEY CLOSE.
I think Dustin did an incredible job. Too bad the bar closed but it was obvious from the beginning with their lack of basic business knowledge and management skills, would end up being their detriment. I hope that bartender/server got her money back. Those owners are idiots.
Dustin tries to behave like Jon, but in this case, it works against him. He doesn’t have Jon’s theatrics or entertainment value, so he just comes across as mean. I would have left, too, if I was the cook.
I think everyone here missed the point–why would a small town bar that looks like it is in a strip mall want to serve steak in the first place? Do people go to bars for a medium rare steak? Obviously not in this case.
Too bad for these owners–totally clueless and unsavable.
Please just shut the show down if Jon can’t get his salary to be the host. It’s insulting to actual fans of the show.
Agree with BR Fan. Dustin seemed like he was trying to be the new JT and failed miserably. Made the episode not fun to watch. There’s others JT has had to fill in and they were their own personalities. Still need Jon on the show or it’s not worth watching
yay, another episode this season i can skip and go straight to this page for the summary!
such a boring start, better off watching older series.
I don’t understand why they insisted on keeping streak on the menu. They should have kept the menu simple with chili, chili cheese fries, and loaded nachos, etc. Also, same good for the drink menu. They continued to make it so difficult for people who do not know how to cook certain foods or bartend. This one was sad because although it was nice to see owners who really wanted it to work but then have zero experience