(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 4 | View All Season 4 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 22, 2015
The Bar's Original Name Was: Los Angeles Brewing Company
LA Brew Co Address: 750 S Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90014
Episode Recap
The Los Angeles Brewing Company, later renamed to LA Brew Co, was a Los Angeles, California bar that was featured on Season 4 of Bar Rescue.
Though the LA Brew Co Bar Rescue episode aired in March 2015, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 4 Episode 17 and the episode name was “Lagers and Liars”.
As you would expect from the name, The Los Angeles Brewing Company is located in downtown Los Angeles, CA.
The owner is Richard Ramos, who bought the bar in 2012.
This means he’s owned it for around three years at the time of the Los Angeles Brewing Company Bar Rescue visit.
Despite having brewing company in the name, the bar doesn’t actually brew its own beer, which is a bit odd.
At first, things seemed to still be doing well despite that, as the bar was reportedly bringing in over $2 million per year at one point.
However, things have quickly gone downhill at the bar, which is why the episode exists.
Richard fired the staff and hired his family to cut down on labor costs.
The inventory was also cut in half.
At the time of the visit from Jon Taffer, the bar is supposedly losing $15,000 per month.
Abel, Richards’s nephew, who works with his uncle, says he is hell to work for.
Richard refuses to listen to his staff members and uses costs from his family glass business to cover his losses.
Keyla is Richards’s sister, and she says no one knows how to run the bar.
Maria Menounos, a celebrity, is brought in by Jon Taffer to help recon the bar, which is huge at 7000 square feet.
Besides Maria, Jon also brings in his friends John and Jason.
The sign on the bar says they offer 100 beers, but when asked, they tell Jon they only have 18. A bit of false advertising, right?
Jon Tasks for a glass of every beer they have.
The bartender pours the beer the wrong way, asking him to make another beer.
Jason and Jon are ignored at the other end of the bar, and Maria doesn’t like her drink.
Monica, the cook, is squishing the burgers in the kitchen, which causes them to dry out.
Jon Taffer shuts down the bar after Jason and John’s burger is served raw.
Jon then calls a staff meeting to find out what’s causing all of these problems.
Abel tells him that his uncle Richard doesn’t know how to run a bar.
The rest of the family wants to sell the bar, but Richard won’t.
Everyone raises their hand when Jon asks if they think Richard is the cause of the failing bar. Ouch!
Jon returns the next day and says he needs Richard to show more confidence before he will help rescue the bar.
BBQ expert Kevin Bludso is brought in.
Neil Witte is also brought in to help the bar because he is a draft beer expert.
The beer tap chromes are gross and need to be cleaned thoroughly.
Neil tells Richard that there is also mold in the lines; he also tells him Richard needs to become more knowledgeable about the beer system.
Kevin and Jon tell the staff they can’t be trained in the kitchen until it is cleaned.
Neil then trains the staff on how to pour a beer properly.
After the kitchen is cleaned, Kevin shows the kitchen team how to make chicken wings.
During the stress test, Richard doesn’t know where to get nitrogen for the beer.
Jon shuts down the bar for the night and tells the customers to go home.
Jon tells the staff he will remodel the bar, but it is up to Richard to sell it or keep it.
Neil trains the team on a drink called the Snake Bite. Kevin shows the kitchen new items added to the menu.
During this, the bar is heavily remodeled. Bar Rescue invested a ton of money into the bar, as it’s supposedly the most expensive Bar Rescue renovation of all time.
Jon has added a system to promise they will not run out of gas again.
Despite all the changes, he mostly kept the original name, though with a small tweak to make it more brandable.
Instead of the lengthy The Los Angeles Brewing Company named, it will now just be LA Brew Co.
On the relaunch, customers are pleased with the new décor, food, and drinks.
So did all the money Bar Rescue poured into the Los Angeles Brewing Company renovations make it a success?
Here’s what happened to the most expensive Bar Rescue renovation of all time…
LA Brew Co Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the LA Brew Co Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened after Jon Taffer and his crew left Los Angeles, CA.
Things seemed to start off well for the newly named LA Brew Co.
At the normal six-week check-in with the Bar Rescue producers, we learn that drink sales at the bar are up by 30%.
Food sales have also increased almost as much, with a 25% boost from before the Bar Rescue episode.
The bar is also more self-sustaining, which means that Richard doesn’t have to pull money from his family’s business.
Unfortunately, the good times would not last.
Is LA Brew Co from Bar Rescue still open?
LA Brew Co closed in April 2015, which is just one month after the LA Brew Co Bar Rescue episode aired on TV (though it was more like five months after Taffer’s actual visit).
LA Brew Co closed because of two reasons.
First, the bar lost its liquor license.
Second, the owner listed it for sale.
The original asking price for the bar was $650,000, which seems pretty cheap given that LA Brew Co was the most expensive Bar Rescue renovation.
You can still see the LA Brew Co for sale post on Archive.org:
LA Brew Co reviews after Bar Rescue
It’s hard to get an accurate picture of LA Brew Co reviews before its closure because a lot of angry Bar Rescue fans left negative reviews.
However, if you filter out the legitimate reviews, the picture still seems pretty negative.
The complaints range from the food to the service to the atmosphere…pretty much everything about the bar.
Basically, it’s no surprise to me that LA Brew Co closed.
Here’s a sampling of some of the legitimate reviews that were written after the Los Angeles Brewing Company Bar Rescue episode.
1 star review:
Probably the worst gastro experience in la.
Beer is watery, wings are way too sour and borderline uneatable.
How can you possibly ruin chicken wings?
Casadilla is very unimpressive.
1 star review:
Strangest bar.
It’s 9:15pm on a Friday night after a show.
Walk in and there are literally no employees.
I watched probably 40 people filter in and all of them eventually left because no one was served.
The only reason why our party continued to sit was because we were deep in conversation catching up.
Apparently there was one bartender and it took my friend 20 minutes to get a drink to bring back to the table.
Meanwhile some guy was throwing glass outside shattering all over and there were no employees to address the situation.
Would never recommend this place.
2 star review:
How would you like it, if a hot hot HOT chick (or fella) told you to come over to “cuddle”, and when you got there there was no “cuddling”?
That’s exactly what this place does.
Lures you in with the promise of 15% off, good food and great ambience, then you get there and find out they lied about the discount, food is typical bar food, and it’s empty for the most part or too damn loud to hear yourself think when its busy.
Here’s the closest thing that I could find to a positive review…
3 star review:
I ended up here Valentine’s day for some Hispanic music since that’s what was promoted.
Hospitality was great , drinks could of been better, not sure why but my Jack & Coke felt like water to be honest , the place is huge …
How much did the LA Brew Co Bar Rescue renovation cost?
LA Brew Co is the most expensive Bar Rescue renovation of the show. A big part of this is because Jon Taffer and the show invested in a $125,000 draft beer system for the bar.
That was just for the draft beer system – I imagine the overall renovation cost more than that, especially because of how big the bar was.
However, even all that free renovation money couldn’t save the bar.
Jon Taffer actually seems pretty annoyed with this.
In an interview with BroBible, he said the following about about the LA Brew Co renovation:
You know what’s amazing?
I have an app on my phone because of all the cash registers I put in these bars all report back to us.
I know everybody’s sale every day right on my app.
What’s remarkable to me is LA Brew Co…
I put in $125,000 draft beer system in that bar, as you may recall.
It was the most expensive remodel I’ve ever done because the place was so large.
The night their show aired, they did over $10,000 in sales which is a record for them.
You know what really gets me?
They never used that draft beer system once.
They never even turned it on.
That’s honestly pretty wild to me – it seems like they really had no plan to ever implement Jon Taffer’s changes, even though the show spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on improving the Los Angeles Brewing Company.
Jon Taffer was even more rough in the answer to a following question:
I don’t want to be insulting because I understand that everybody has their shortcomings in life, we all do.
But the fact of the matter is I gave these guys every button, all they had to do was push ‘em.
And the beer system was idiot proof, the draft beer system — Smart Brew, it’s called.
It’s idiot-proof.
You push a button and it does it.
You have to not be an idiot to want to use it.
Ya hear what I’m saying?
Side note – don’t you hear Jon Taffer’s voice when you’re reading the part about it being idiot-proof?
Overall, Jon Taffer seems to really think LA Brew Co missed out.
What happened to the old LA Brew Co location?
For a time, the old LA Brew Co Los Angeles location is occupied by a similarly themed restaurant named Los Angeles Biergarten.
Here’s an image from Google Maps street view that shows the Los Angeles Biergarten in the old LA Brew Co Los Angeles location:
Los Angeles Biergarten opened up immediately after LA Brew Co closed in 2015 and it seemed to be doing much better.
You can learn more about it at the official LA Biergarten website or its Yelp page, where it had a 3.5 star rating.
However, LA Biergarten seems to have closed some time in mid-2022.
As of February 2023, the property is still vacant as far as I can tell.
However, in the most recent picture of the property from Google Maps, you can see a sign saying “Leased”.
So, it seems like a new tenant will be moving in soon.
If something new moves in, I will update this post.
And if you know anything about what’s going on there, please let me know in the comments.
If you want to see some other nearby Bar Rescue Los Angeles episodes, check out these posts:
- The Airliner update
- Dimples Karaoke update
- Pat’s Cocktails / Mixology update
- Theory / Paladino’s update
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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Last updated: 2023-06-27 07:57
Owner was just clueless. Didn’t learn anything before Jon showed up and it looks like he didn’t learn anything while he was there.
I had a feeling he would take the bar remodel and sell immediately after. He had no heart for that business.
The owner foolishly tried to relocate the LA Brew Co. to Duluth, Minnesota, where the name just did not work.
They shouldn’t be allowed to sell a bar for at least one year after a rescue.
Could tell when the owner had a sup of the new beer at the bar before opening he didn’t have any long term plans. His body language told me hey, getting publicity, new bar, that should increase the value somewhat!
Updated Google maps photo shows the location as a footlocker store.
I don’t think that’s the right location. The Foot Locker is on the other side of the street directly across from the old LA Brew Co property.
I think a lot of these people use Bar Rescue for a financial uplift and have no intentions to continue their businesses.
Exactly. They never planned on keeping it. Just a quick facelift and place a sale add on it.
Half of all these people who appear on the show just used it to be able to get an extra couple of hundred thousand extra. Nothing more.
I have lived in the L. A. County all my life. And one of the things I dont do is hang around Downtown Los Angeles after dark. Not safe for anyone. And if I did, I wouldn’t drink any alcohol then drive home. Not with LA Police just looking for someone to bust.
And as far as the owners of the bar goes, they did what half of the bar owners on this show do. They plan on ridding themselves of their bar but can’t really sell it without a cleaning and remodeling job. So they get Bar Rescue to come in, do their thing and then quickly put it up for sale. By doing so they quickly increase the value by a couple of hundred thousand (depending on location) and can claim their place is famous because it appeared on TV. The owners never planned on staying on.
And after all, some places can never be brought back to any sort of real success once it’s hit rock bottom. And the Los Angeles Brewing Company is such a place. As a Hispanic I knew this place sucked the first (and only time I ever set foot inside) and I was hearing Mexican music being played very loud in an area of L. A. that is already over saturated with Mexican people, eateries, small cheap businesses, transients and just poor individuals living on the streets along with Blacks begin to survive.
This place was doomed to failure if they ever thought affluent whites would come there to socialize when Hollywood and Beverly Hills is close by. Whitey is afraid of such areas. And Maria M. would never hang out in that area. What a bunch of bull. She is not helping that area at all. She’s with all the Hipsters and Rich Caucasian A-Holes she socializes with. Jon T. was suckered as he has been before into just fixing a place for a higher sale value.
Yup, yup, and absolutely.
I’m watching the episode right now. It’s a shame that all that $ was put into this bar and then they close it and sell it. Sorry bar rescue spent all that money and then that happened.
Is LA Brewing Company appearing in the wrong season? According to Paramount, Champagne’s Cafe is the first episode of Season 5.
Ahh I had it tagged wrong in the backend so it was showing up in Season 5 on the main Bar Rescue updates list for some reason. You’re right that Champagne’s is the first episode of Season 5.
I just updated it so things should be fixed now.
Foot Locker looks like it is 749 S Broadway, across the street.
Drove through DTLA yesterday and glanced over to see if something new is there; still empty, but that green “Leased” sign was replaced by a different real estate ad (same realtor) that has been there for at least a year. I think it is just empty. Only new thing is fresh graffiti on the window to the left.
A couple of things about this bar…
Before everyone on the Internet including Jon trashes this place for never even turning on the brewing equipment, there is a very significant start-up cost for the raw materials to brew beer, and it requires an actual skillset to do it. It’s not like putting a Turbo Chef in the corner to heat frozen pizzas. These owners never had the ability to brew beer. They would have been better off just faking being a brewery like the Beechwood in St. Louis.
Second, this is in downtown where you can’t even conveniently park your car. Its storefront is a only few small windows, and it’s part of a huge building; no way to really brand this.
For the nth time, you can’t make a business keep a new name/brand for a year (or any time) when the owner doesn’t like it or it doesn’t work. It’s a business, people, it stops being a TV show the day production leaves.
Owners agree to have a TV show filmed in their business for a few days and nothing else. Some of the enhancements are props meaning rented property.
Even when he made “Clear Bar” “keep” the name, they left it as a small annotation on the door; similar for Zanzbar.
You clearly missed the part about it being a Smart-brewer system. Load and go. Including the recipes being built- in. They just didn’t want to do it.