(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 17, 2013
The Bar's Original Name Was: Headhunters
Metal and Lace Address: 720 Red River St Austin, TX 78701
Episode Recap
Headhunters, later renamed Metal and Lace, was an Austin, Texas bar featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Headhunters Bar Rescue episode aired in February 2013, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 2 and the episode name was “Rock N Roaches”.
Headhunters is located in Austin, TX.
The Headhunters owner is Steve Ricci, who was an engineer before opening the very weird Headhunters bar.
Side note – does anyone else think that Steve looks like Willem Defoe? I can’t be the only one who sees it!
Seriously, Headhunters is a weird bar – I think you can agree (and Jon Taffer definitely agrees).
When they first opened up, the bar was making close to $70,000 dollars a month and really stood out because of how unique it is.
Austin, Texas is a bit of a quirky place, so I think a bar like Headhunters would definitely stand out.
However, things definitely started going down hill for the bar, which is why the Headhunters Bar Rescue episode exists.
At the time of the episode, the bar is filthy.
They also offer extreme fetish shows.
Jon does the recon with his wife Nicole, chef Joe Brooke, and service expert Jessie Barnes.
The exterior looks worn out, and customers visit other bars in the area.
Jon and Nicole enter the bar and leave the experts in the SUV to watch the undercover footage.
The smell of the bar is terrible, and the dancers are all dressed inappropriately.
When Jon asks about the stinky smell, he is informed that it is cat pee that comes from the bar’s resident cat.
Umm…that’s really gross. I don’t want to be smelling cat pee when I’m trying to enjoy a night out.
The bartender goes to pour their drink, and Nicole notices a roach.
The bartender tries to hide it, but it is too late.
Nicole is highly distraught about being served a drink with a cockroach in it, and she gets up to leave.
The owner, Steve, is defensive and says that his bar isn’t the only one to have roaches.
Steve isn’t taking this seriously and is making jokes.
The next day the staff meets with Jon.
The situation is worse than they thought, and Jon shows the staff video of the bugs scampering away from the exterminators.
Jon has everyone clean the bar and pour out all of the bottles.
Steve doesn’t pay his staff; the bartenders are only paid in tips.
This practice angers Jon Taffer (and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal, too).
Steve says he offered them payroll, but they denied it.
The team says that is not true, and Jon makes them legit employees, as they deserve.
Jon promises to help the bar for the staff and not for Steve.
He promises to help them find new work if they decide to leave.
They choose to stay and help Steve out.
Jessie teaches the staff how to serve guests quickly.
Joe teaches them the basics of making cocktails.
Steve tells the team he will do better.
That night is the stress test.
Steve is asked to help, but he is nowhere to be found.
Everyone is getting overwhelmed, and Steve is no help at all.
Steve is admonished for leaving the staff during the stress test.
The following morning Joe trains the staff on new cocktails that will attract younger customers.
Jessie helps with confidence and customer service.
The bar is renovated and Jon renamed the bar from Headhunters to Metal and Lace, a steampunk-themed bar that will help the bar escape the old fetish theme.
The bar has a new POS system and cool and stylish uniforms that fit the bar’s theme.
The staff readies for the relaunch.
The dancers are dressed better and are dancing on the stage.
The live band produces no feedback.
Steve is greeting customers instead of helping the staff like he is supposed to.
So was the Headhunters Bar Rescue episode a success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and how this Austin bar is doing in 2024 and beyond.
Metal and Lace Update - What Happened Next?
So – was the Metal and Lace / Headhunters Bar Rescue visit a success?
Let’s put on some heavy metal and dig into it…
Six weeks later and staff members Jewel and Chloe were named the managers.
Customers seem to like the new changes, but Steve, unsurprisingly, started sliding back to old habits after Jon Taffer left.
While I don’t think they completely ditched Jon Taffer’s Metal and Lace name, most people still referred to it as Headhunters (more on that below).
Reviews for the bar were generally quite negative, as it had just a 1.5 star rating on its Yelp page.
However, a lot of angry Bar Rescue viewers wrote negative reviews without actually visiting the property (this type of review bombing can happen when an owner is especially combative – e.g. the O Face Bar Rescue episode).
I went through the various fake reviews to try to find some authentic reviews from real patrons.
E.g. people who actually live in Austin and have been to the bar, rather than people who watched the episode and wanted to leave an angry comment.
Here’s a sampling of authentic (or as authentic as I can find) reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
3 star Yelp review from April 2014:
I have been to some great shows here..
Smokin punk gigs.. epic Metal fests
Keep in mind this location is not for everyone, and your probably better off ordering something that comes to you sealed, avoiding the ice or the pop gun…
The staff is great and fun to be around..
So, I think the main thing here is…
its a tight venue..
and when the band gets cranked up…..and the crowd is right.. this place can produce some wonderful rock and roll moments…
Give it a shot if your Genre is playing..
2 star Yelp review from April 2013:
Been coming here for years back when it was Headhunters and the remodel has not changed the place much.
Sadly the space is so small you get claustrophobic while in there.
This is a good place to pop into after a show at Stubb’s for a quick piss and a cold beer.
Have seen some decent relatively unknown bands here and the new soundsystem is a HUGE improvement and very long overdue.
Bar staff is almost always friendly and quick to serve me and my friends.
There is an additional bar on the patio out back and on occasion a 3rd bar upstairs is open as well.
This makes for almost no wait to get beers, very nice.
One can often find DJs playing dubstep out on the back patio but Plush usually has better DJs IMHO and like this place is also no cover on most nights.
Back patio has a couch type thing, a few tables downstairs, and at one time had an HDTV out there where you could watch football etc.
You can also smoke cigarettes out back while enjoying your beer, although sometimes cigs are not the only thing being smoked out there :-/
…[review continues in screenshot]
4 star Yelp review from February 2013:
Ok folks, take a breath and relax.
All the people who’ve never been here and are posting reviews based on a TV show need to understand something very important..
I know this may be hard to believe, but, sit down and brace yourself: reality TV is FAKE.
I haven’t seen the episode, but I know from my first hand experience what I’ve seen.
And I can tell you, I’ve drank A LOT of booze here and never seen a bug in it.
For someone to see something like this on their very first visit, and it happened to be recorded?
Yeah, that’s staged.
The place has never been anything I’d call CLEAN, but it’s a good place.
Headhunters is the best representation of the stark difference between 6th street and Red River, and for those of us that love RR, the change to the place is abhorrent.
Thankfully, it’s going back to the way it was.
…[review continues in screenshot]
Is Metal and Lace from Bar Rescue still open?
Metal and Lace closed at the end of April 2014, which is a little over a year after the Metal and Lace Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.
At that time, it was still mainly going by Headhunters.
For example, when the venue hosted musical acts during the 2013 SXSW festival, it still advertised its name as Headhunters.
You can see a band performing at Headhunters during SXSW 2013 in this YouTube video (there are lots of other YouTube videos, too):
Most local Austin folks also still referred to the bar as Headhunters, as the Metal and Lace name really never caught on.
So – why did the Headhunters bar close?
Headhunters closed because the building that Headhunters / Metal and Lace was in was purchased by a new owner.
After that, Steve struggled to keep the lease for Metal and Lace.
At that time, Steve was looking for other locations to reopen Metal and Lace.
In total, he was looking at nine different possible locations to reopen the bar.
However, that never happened and Metal and Lace remains closed to this day.
As of 2022, the original Metal and Lace Austin location seems to be empty.
In a March 2022 Google Street view image, you can see an “Available” sign on the frontage of the building:
There’s a post from WCRE, a real estate company, that lists the old Headhunters Austin Texas location as available.
It seems like the owner is planning to renovate the place and do a full remodel of the interior and exterior.
The plan is to lease it out as office space.
You can see some renderings on the property’s Loopnet listing.
However, as of the February 2023 Google Maps street view update, it’s still showing the same old abandoned building and “Available” sign.
I’ve embedded the Google Maps street view below so that you can explore:
If anything changes, I will edit our Metal and Lace update to reflect the new business.
And if you live in Austin and know what’s happening with the property, please let me know in the comments.
Headhunters Jon Taffer Back to the Bar Episode in Season 4
After Headhunters closed, Steve, in keeping with habits, allegedly (don’t sue me!) didn’t pay his staff.
This was covered in Back to the Bar on Season 4, where Jon Taffer talks with “delusional owners”.
You can see a clip of this in the YouTube video below, where some former Headhunters staff were trying to get Steve to pay them.
It’s pretty sad! I hope the staff were able to get back on their feet.
What happened to Chloe from Headhunters?
I’m really sad to report this.
However, Chloe passed away in 2022 at age 37.
You can see the obituary for Chloe Trueheart on Legacy.com.
In addition to her appearance on Bar Rescue, Chloe seems to have led a really interesting life.
She was a stuntwoman who was the stunt double for some popular actresses, such as Drew Barrymore in Whip It!
You can see this on Chloe’s IMDB page.
She also leaned into Bar Rescue on her Instagram page, calling herself a “reality TV star” (she’s obviously joking).
Overall, I was just so sad to hear about it. RIP Chloe.
Final thoughts on Metal and Lace / Headhunters
Overall, Jon Taffer’s rescue of Headhunters was not able to achieve long-term success.
Steve quickly ditched Jon Taffer’s concept and seemed to continue having issues, as detailed by the unpaid staff in the Back to the Bar episode.
Given that, it’s no surprise to learn that it closed just around a year after the episode aired on TV.
I’m not sure what happened to Steve, the owner, as he doesn’t have much of an online presence.
However, I am really sad to report that Chloe passed away in 2022.
If you want to see another other Austin, Texas Bar Rescue episode, you can check out my The Brixton / Rocket Room 6 update.
The Morgue / Kiva Lounge episode also took place near Austin, though not in the city.
I also have a page that lists all of the Texas Bar Rescue episodes.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the Headhunters episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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And don't forget to check out all of the other Bar Rescue updates.
Last updated: 2024-03-07 05:46
The employees should have let Jon find them new jobs and let Steve crash and burn in his failure knowing he wasn’t gonna change! One of a few I wanted to go through my tv and punch him.
Absolutely. Steve is a piece of crap narcissist
What a piss poor owner’s attitude!
I am not surprised it closed. I can imagine the IRS had something to do with that!
He just refuses to pay his staff!!!!! Sick. He is not a man, period!
This guy is a POS… and I’m not talking about Jon’s POS system that was installed.
I hope they found jobs that treat them better. And hope Chloe got to punch him 🤣
I’ll punch him in the face for her.🤣❤️
I watch the show and can tell you right off the bat if they are gonna make it after the the rescue. Once the owner says they are hundreds of thousands in debt, took out loans and maxed all the credit cards, and this happens on my shows, well it’s over, there is nothing Jon can do and he knows it, even if the owner is the nicest guy in the world and treats his employees great it’s over. There can be those rare cases but the bottom line, the bar, employees, bugs, no bugs, great stage or bad, it all comes down to debt and in most of these cases it’s unrecoverable debt and the best the owners can do is close the doors and file bankruptcy to protect their own personal assets. Jon, well he’s got a show to do to make his money and I’m all for that, and he does help businesses succeed, many of which did better and are still growing strong. Jon is an amazing man and he has a passion to help, but understandably so, Jon has got to make a living to. I’m addicted to bar rescue, it’s an awesome show. Im a former business owner of two businesses, Home building and Granite Counter tops. I sold in 2006 after 18 years, sold just before the collapse and that was pure luck, I had no idea the 2007 collapse was coming.
I feel for the employees at this bar as they were in full speed to make it a great place. I feel Steve needs some deep counseling and some come to reality talks cause he is not a young guy anymore. He received a new bar with new look and new drinks and threw it all back in John’s face. Thanks to John for his expertise and I pray the employees are doing good elsewhere . Sometimes if your not appreciated you got to move on.
The girls should have originally left the bar; I’m sure their tips did not pay their living expenses. I also think Jon, knowing their experience, should still help them find other jobs. As for the owner, since his business is shut down, he has plenty of time for therapy.
Not surprised this place didn’t survive. One of the few owners I just couldn’t believe in. He never cared during the episode. He was a jerk, took advantage of his employees and they all should have bounced out on him instead of sticking it out.
I LOVE a good dive bar, but this one was always just too gross, and I never felt safe going there alone as a young woman, I would always walk right past it. I went one time with a group of friends, had one beer, and bounced. It was filthy and empty. That Steve guy seems like the kind of guy who would hit on his own son’s girlfriend…total douche. These rich bored idiots that buy a bar or restaurant but have no idea what they’re doing are the worst. Find a different hobby, you’re messing with people’s livelihood.
Also I just want to say that I have bartended at several places in Austin and
NO, not every bar in Austin is infested with roaches. That coward was just trying to come up with a lame excuse to justify being a filthy slob. Disgusting.
Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience! Not surprised that Metal and Lace closed based on that.
I almost had to turn this episode off… The roaches coming out of everywhere after it was fumigated made me sick. Steve should be ashamed of himself. But he’s a disgusting person so I doubt he felt anything.
This episode to me was so disgusting, not only with the bugs, lack of cleaning supplies and contaminated liquor but because of the owner Steve Ricci or whatever his name is.
He had no grasp of what it takes to run a bar. He didn’t know how to do the books, keep the bar clean or even how to put his staff on the books so they would be paid fairly and not get audited in the future by the IRS.
I believe the staff should’ve taken Jon’s advice and left so he could give them great reference letters to be employed at better businesses.
Actually, what made me sick the most was the fact that Steve kept a cat in this bar to keep put the vermin and not once did I see any food, water or a litterbox for this cat. That is gross animal abuse to keep a cat locked in a business establishment as well as illegal.
I really hope that poor kitty was rescued and brought to a better place because as a cat owner myself, the thought of keeping my cats locked up somewhere with no food, water, toys, beds and litter boxes makes me want to be buried alive. Steve will get his well deserved karma.
Steve is an idiot. To the nth degree. Looking a gift-horse in the mouth is one of his specialties. He deserves no help from anybody ever again.
I’m a big fan of Jon Taffer but that doesn’t mean I’m biased. It just means that Jon tells the truth and he knows that he’s talking about. I was very hopeful for this place and I was very hopeful so hopeful for Steve but a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Steve is a human being and was vulnerable talking about his dad and that was a very touching scenario so I thought he would do it for his dad (but when I discovered that he didn’t pay his staff ~ whoooboy. Nothing screams a**hole more than that! He said he would! He even filled out all the paperwork! I’m just not sure where things went wrong. So I was very very disappointed when I saw “CLOSED” (I always check up on Jon’s bars afterwards. I know their history I know what happened. I read the details down to the bottom line.)
I could watch Bar Rescue all day long. Ultimately too many people said it – the problem has to be Steve. Is he a narcissist? I don’t know, but my God, he sure comes across as such a jerk. But it seems like everything was getting better until that whole lease business. All I know is that Steve should not own a bar. He doesn’t know how to treat people regardless of how much he loves his dad and wants to be a success. (Was he a good engineer before opening the bar? Maybe he should go back to being an engineer.) Good luck, Steve!
Ahh yes, the obligatory “touching, sensitive, humanizing moments” that happen every episode about 23 minutes in. Yeah right.
I bet the employees or rather people working there would of been shocked to see the actually monetary gain that Steve was getting for his personal gain.
Sad. I would of gone for Taffer finding me a job.
The staff should have bought the place. If the owner won’t pay them, they should have the opportunity to employ themselves.
So, Chloe who did no cleaning because “it would have taken hours” became manager. That owner was a POS, but bar rescue always creates sympathetic characters out of those
Who don’t deserve it. She knew exactly the bug hell she was feeding people and did nothing.
RIP chole https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/austin-tx/chloe-trueheart-10894236?fbclid=IwAR317IKpceBJfyIW4myjZJwGvLXjEkZk-JV7bZlqU7E2puqqZrG28N_rfm4
R.I.P Chloe Truheart. She was amazing
Do you remember when Medical Park Tower used to put kitties out on the windowsills to keep the pigeons away? I cannot imagine the thought processes of a ? PERSON? that would even think that was okay. Just shows you that ANYONE who would think that was okay, is NOT OKAY in their mind!
I like to come to this site after watching each show to see if my guess is right on whether they are still open or not.
For this episode, I knew within 3 minutes it wouldn’t last. Looks like another owner that took advantage of the show and sold soon after.
I’m the same way haha. That’s why I made the site. I would always Google as soon as the episode ended but sometimes it was hard to find current information about what happened.
Thanks for reading!
Just have to say because sick of hearing it, yes it’s edited, some tests staged for tv, but never have I’ve seen anyone put bugs in bottles, because someone in other reviews said no bugs. Human behavior, filth, legal issues owners have, landlords ECT.. are the causes of failure. How can someone put bugs in so many bottles, infest whole building.. ? I’ve worked on sites, what you actually see is real as far as the site! Of course some people come to tests are kinda rigged, but bar leaves them in far better shape than when arrived! Any unfinished projects get completed! some properties the landlord prevents what can do. I feel for the employees here, Steve won’t even pay them, where are the authorities? These bats get publicity before and after bar rescue, $100,000 average makeover, training… Job done! Rest is on the human behavior of owner. Jon is as you see bur cares, uses basic psychology and verbal judo ECT. But owners and staff get along great..