(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 8 | View All Season 8 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 13, 2021
The Bar's Original Name Was: La Casona Bar and Grill
La Casona Bar and Grill Address: 2600 E Flamingo Rd Las Vegas, NV 89121
Episode Recap
La Casona Bar and Grill was a Las Vegas, Nevada bar that was featured on Season 8 of Bar Rescue.
Though the La Casona Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2021, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that during Taffer’s Covid-19 visits in Las Vegas.
It was Season 8 Episode 5 and the episode name was “Viva La Casona”.
La Casona Bar and Grill is in Las Vegas, Nevada, as are all of the other bars from the first half of Season 8.
Victor, a former car salesman, opened the bar because it was his wife, Claudia’s, dream.
Victor and Claudia bought the bar during the pandemic while their daughter Febe was home from school.
Febe used her savings and credit to open the bar.
She is the sole owner of the paperwork because of her credit.
The mortgage is also in her name.
Honestly, I think that’s a little messed up.
You shouldn’t put that on your kid.
The owners have no experience in the hospitality industry, which has led to the bar’s decline.
They have also lost their home and now live in La Casona.
It’s just a really sad situation and I’m hoping the La Casona Bar Rescue episode is a success, if only for the debt burden that Febe had to take on.
To commemorate Bar Rescue’s 200th episode, Jon Taffer recruits NFL players as his spies.
Mia Mastroianni, an expert mixologist, is watching from the command center with Jon.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are QR code menus.
The spies order a Paloma and margarita.
The bartender does not know what a Paloma is and makes something random that tastes terrible.
Jon Taffer sees the kitchen cross-contaminate food with raw chicken.
Honestly, at this point I’m more surprised when the kitchen doesn’t cross-contaminate food on Bar Rescue.
He immediately enters the bar and shuts down the kitchen.
The owners then tell Jon that they are in considerable debt even though they have only owned the bar for a short time.
The couple was evicted from their home and now live above the bar in a cramped space with five children.
The owners are made to tell the staff their financial situation.
Pablo, the cook, walks out.
The other staff members are highly emotional about the news.
Expert Chef Tifanny Derry joins Mia Mastroianni as Jon’s expert.
Isabel has been named the new cook since Pablo left.
Tiffany shows them how to make Cochinita Pibil.
The bartenders are trained on how to make a margarita.
The stress test begins, and people are let into La Casona Bar and Grill.
Katy, a bartender, does an excellent job at the bar making two drinks at once.
The drinks are not getting dumped like they usually do during stress tests.
However, Victor puts all the orders in at one time and overwhelms the kitchen.
The kitchen falls behind because Victor slams them, and the stress test is shut down.
Victor and a server start to argue during a meeting, but Victor takes accountability for his mistakes.
Jon Taffer meets with Victor alone and brings in his family.
Victor apologizes to them and promises to be better.
The family is sent to a spa compliments of Jon.
Thirty-six hours later, the bar is renovated.
Jon has not changed the name of the bar, keeping the La Casona Bar and Grill name.
Showgirls from Caesar’s come to promote the bar.
The Mexican theme is more visible with lots of bright colors.
The bar has been gifted four POS systems and a new entertainment system.
During the relaunch, Claudia keeps up in the kitchen.
She sends out tasty fast food.
Victor is helping and being a supportive leader.
There are also a lot of delivery orders with drivers on scooters delivering them.
The owners of Atmosphere TV came for the relaunch and donated $25,000 to the Briseño family, which was a nice thing to do.
So was the La Casona Bar Rescue episode a success?
Keep reading to find out what happened next and if it’s still open in 2025.
La Casona Bar and Grill Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the La Casona Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened after Jon Taffer and his crew left Las Vegas, NV.
Unfortunately, while a lot of the bars from the first half of Bar Rescue Season 8 are still open, La Casona is not one of them.
Is La Casona from Bar Rescue still open?
La Casona closed in January 2022. The bar’s Facebook page was deleted, as was the website.
I’m not sure why La Casona closed because the owners did not provide any information and just disappeared.
All I know is that La Casona is gone for what seems like good.
There is a bankruptcy case for La Casona that was also filed in January 2022, though, so money likely played a role.
I’ll share more details on the bankruptcy case below, including a link to all of the filings.
The bar did seem to also have some issues with cleanliness, though.
La Casona was featured on the local ABC news channel’s “Dirty Dining” segment.
You can see this segment on YouTube below:
To be fair, the sign in the segment looks like the old sign, so it might’ve been before the visit from Jon Taffer.
So far, I can’t tell if a new bar has moved into the old La Casona Las Vegas location.
On Google Maps Street View, the last update is from June 2022 and it still shows the La Casona building:
As of 2023, it seems like there might be a new restaurant there named Ambiente Cantina & grill.
Here’s a Google Maps street view shot from the nearby road that seems to show Ambiente Cantina and Grill at the old La Casona Las Vegas location.
If you know anything, please let me know in the comment.
As of 2022, Victor Briseño seems to be listed as the CEO of Cars, Trucks, and Toyz in Las Vegas, which is a used car shop.
La Casona reviews after Bar Rescue
There weren’t a lot of reviews written after the La Casona Bar Rescue visit, but the reviews that I could find were generally negative.
Here’s a sampling of reviews that were written after the Bar Rescue episode.
1 star review from September 2021:
… (long stuff about the food)
Now, I might not have posted a review for just these reasons; however it was also karaoke night. Lord save us.
I can enjoy Mexican music as much as the next person but this was seriously painful.
Mostly it was the karaoke jockey and two guests that kept the torture going and at maximum volume too!
I honestly stuffed pieces of napkins in my ears as I was developing a headache.
The good news is they had buy one get one free alcoholic beverages but they should give them for free as I think about 4-5 of them would be sufficient to make you not care about how horrendous the music was.
Not one note was hit the entire time we were there.
We ate what we could get past our gag reflexes and paid the check and left most of the food uneaten.
Over $100 worth.
We had to save ourselves and figured the sacrifice was worth it.
Go at your own risk and take some ear plugs just in case.
1 star review from August 2021:
Horrible service and food the server was rude.
We got a horrible margarita and just because we tried it she said we couldn’t return it.
Plus the exterminator was there spraying.
Please don’t go eat there
3 star review from August 2021:
… (long review intro)
Overall the food and drinks need improving.
Water is $3 for the baby size Fiji.
Chips are only complimentary 1st round.
Cash only as machine was down but their inside ATM worked.
Servers were friendly and gave good service.
By time we left about 6 tables were seated so more full.
Karaoke guy had good variety and sang himself to try to get crowd going; he had a good voice.
Bathrooms were just okay clean.
Again, servers were nice and on their jobs.
Food/drinks not so great.
2 star review from August 2021:
Ill give this place a 2 star for being clean. Where do I start.
Music is way loud.
They have a dj but they play the same music over and over.
Waiters/waitresses ..hmmm crossed ur fingers that they ever come back and check on you.
I ordered my second drink and it never came.
Too disappointed that I just want to leave.
I asked for my check and it never came too.
I just got up and paid it on the counter and noticed that they charged me for the 2nd drink that never came.
… (review continues)
Overall, there seem to have been a lot of complaints about the music – especially how loud it is.
La Casona bankruptcy case
As I mentioned above, a commenter below did alert me to a bankruptcy case involving La Casona.
The case seems to have been first filed in January 2022.
As you learned in the episode, everything about the bar really does seem to be in Febe’s name.
You have to pay to get more information beyond that, though, so that’s all I know.
You can check out the bankruptcy case yourself by clicking this link.
If you scroll down in the Docket header, you can see that the debtor is “LA CASONA BAR & GRILL, LLC” AKA “FEBE GABRIELA MARTINEZ”.
I hope Febe is able to recover financially from the bar’s closure.
That wraps up my La Casona Bar Rescue update!
If you want to see updates for some of the other Covid-19 Las Vegas Bar Rescue episodes, check out these posts:
- Paradise Cantina update
- Capo’s Restaurant update
- Cork and Thorn update
- Nevada Brew Works update
- Griff’s Bar and Billiards update
Or, you can also read my full list of all Las Vegas Bar Rescue episodes, including the 2025 status of each bar.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the episode, you can use the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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Last updated: 2023-06-23 06:06
Yes, we want to know what happened to La Casona. It was as a very touching episode. They had so much potential. What happpened?
It’s all there in the post 🙂
I don’t think I have ever seen a more disgusting episode. The parents sacrificedtheir daughter for their own greed. Not quality parents.
I want to know if the daughter went to grad school and did they burry her in debt? Pobrwcita.
Terrible business plans, lead to failure.
The mom and dad struck me as con artist . They probably left the daughter hanging with the mortgage . .
I passed by yesterday 10/18/2022. The bar seems to have been sold to a new owner. It’s renovated from the outside. The new name is “El Ambiente”.
I wonder what happened to the daughter.
Sad this family could not keep this open!
It sounds like a great family story coming together to end up failing anyway. My guess is the family took all the money they made after the relaunch & disappeared. This bar/restaurant was a struggle from the start & the family probably knew it would take to much to stay at float considering the family had no experience in the business….. I’m sure they screwed a lot of people by just disappearing.
As to the claim of being the 200th episode, Nevada Brew Works was shot before this one per the production codes on Wikipedia but aired after, so it was the 199th bar rescue “aired” per Jon’s count.
By my count which includes the Lost Episode and Music City Mess which wasn’t supposed to air, this was the 198th bar aired, 199th filmed per Wikipedia’s production codes (Nevada Brew Works was apparently filmed before this one), with Champagne’s and Second Base only counted once each.
So I think to make this the 200th episode filmed, I think you have to remove the Lost Episode (pilot) and count the 2 re-rescues as well as Music City Mess to make it the 200th episode filmed.
I know that Bar Rescue claims it as the 200th, so that’s what I’m going on. E.g. this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIUirCyhjCs
I didn’t do the math myself though, so you could be right! I’m not sure how the Bar Rescue team calculated it.
Thanks for your contributions – I appreciate the detail you put into it.
In Google Maps , as of FEBRUARY 2023 the restaurant is now called “Ambiente Cantina and Grill”
So the ‘Parents’ Stole it During Plandemic, stuck their daughter w/mortgage, took all the Rest Free John & the $25,000 that Company Also Gave Them & Skied up & He Bought a Car Truck Toyota Place. Yup. FIGURES.
Ohhh come on people. What kinda parents pull their daughter out of college about to get a wonderful degree only to put all their debt on her???? That’s NOT what normal loving parents do!! All of you people saying what a great family kill me. Not a great family at all! Worst dad and evil step mom ever!
Totally agree. Bad, selfish father. I would’ve thought they’d go to Mexico to escape their debt. Wonder what John thinks of these con artists? They sure laid their troubles on thick. Why’d they wait so long? Who told them about John?
Everything was in Febe’s name. Do LLC bankruptcies effect her personally?
Also, found her listen on LinkedI n says she is at Stanford.
Febe Martinez, for those concerned.
https://www.inforuptcy.com/browse-filings/nevada-bankruptcy-court/2:22-bk-10020/bankruptcy-case-la-casona-bar-and-grill-llc
I believe it would affect her personally, which really sucks.
Usually you have to provide a personal guarantee for these types of loans, in addition to using the business.
I’m not 100% sure though.
She did her undergrad there and she was saving for her Masters. Yes, since she was the guarantor of the LLC then she is on the hook. Her dad and step mother ruined her early life and career and should be ashamed.
I’m so confused. First, their Google Places page is still up, says they are open, and their website is still up.
Second, they also got $25,000 from AtmosphereTV on top of the renovation, let’s not forget about that.
Third, that server Gaby should have been fired on the spot for stacking the tickets and then refusing to stop doing it.
Fourth, the parents are disgusting for doing this to their child. Her credit will be ruined for 7-10 years now. I hope she can dig out of it sooner rather than later, she got a bad deal thanks to her own parents.
Not sure why Google Places says it’s still open. The Google Maps street view already shows the new tenant moving in to the old La Casona Las Vegas location.
I was going to comment but luckily you said everything I was going to. Especially Gaby being fired.
If inquiring minds want to know, the bankruptcy was roughly for $162,000 and had 42 creditors listed. Ouch.
I felt so bad for Febe. How evil was it of parents to take their tens of thousands of dollars debt, and pile it onto their 22 y.o. daughter ? So instead of having her own grad school or career, she’s gonna be stuck with debt and ruined credit for years to come. I hope she can recover from it quickly.