(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 14, 2024
The Bar's Original Name Was: La Perla Sports Cantina
La Perla Sports Club Address: 5723 W Glendale Ave, Glendale, AZ 85301
Episode Recap
La Perla Sports Cantina, later renamed to La Perla Sports Club, was a Glendale Arizona bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the La Perla Sports Club Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2024, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place around October 2023.
It was Season 9 Episode 8 and the episode name was “A Perla in the Rough”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer’s crew of experts head to La Perla Sports Cantina.
Unfortunately, Jon Taffer will not be doing the main rescue for this one.
Instead, Dustin Drai will take over the “Head Rescuer” position for this episode.
La Perla Sports Cantina is located in Glendale, AZ.
If you’re not familiar with Arizona geography, Glendale is in Maricopa, just about nine miles northwest of Phoenix.
That is, it’s in a pretty big metro area, which should means there are lots of potential customers for the bar.
The bar is owned by Mark Tafoya.
At the time of the episode, Mark is in a whopping $750,000 of debt according to the show.
That’s…a lot of debt haha.
Dustin definitely has his work cut out for him, because Mark is going to need to sell a lot of drinks to pay down that debt mountain.
When the experts watch footage from the bar, they’re confused why a “cantina” can’t make a spiced margarita (along with the frozen margaritas not being ready).
The proportions of the drink are also off, which ain’t great.
As always, I write these updates the day before the episode airs on TV.
As such, I won’t be able to add a more detailed episode recap until after it airs (which sometimes takes me some time).
However, I do know what happened to the bar.
As part of the renovations, Dustin slightly tweaked the name.
He switched it from La Perla Sports Cantina to La Perla Sports Club.
Obviously, that’s not a huge name change.
But it does shift the emphasis at the bar to a more club’y atmosphere, which the bar wants to play up at night.
So was the La Perla Sports Cantina Bar Rescue episode a long-term success?
Keep reading my full after-episode update to learn what happened next and if this Glendale, AZ bar is still open today.
La Perla Sports Club Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped Bar Rescue visit to La Perla Sports Cantina, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after the show left Glendale, AZ.
I’ll start by answering the question of whether it’s still open, along with what type of events the bar is hosting.
Then, I’ll take a look at some real customer reviews of the bar from after the Bar Rescue episode, which will show whether or not the bar has been able to turn it around.
Before I do that, I usually like to check for the bar’s reaction to the episode.
However, as far as I can tell, La Perla Sports Club has not posted a single thing about Bar Rescue, nor have they posted publicly about any type of watch party.
Mark also didn’t post anything on his personal Facebook page (though he hasn’t posted publicly since August 2023, so I don’t think that means anything).
Given that, I have no idea whether or not Mark and La Perla enjoyed the Bar Rescue experience.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the most important question on your mind…
Is La Perla Sports Club still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check in 2024, La Perla Sports Club is still open and serving customers in Glendale, AZ.
More importantly, the bar seems to be continuing to use the new “Sports Club” concept from Bar Rescue, and has not reverted to the older Sports Cantina concept.
On its website, the bar promotes itself as a “Sports Bar By Day, Dance Club By Night”.
The bar is also very active on social media, regularly posting about upcoming events.
They seem to have lots of live music, which makes sense given the club focus.
Here’s an example of a Facebook promo post for one of the acts:
They also have a Mexican buffet every Sunday, which sounds like a fun time.
Another unique event is the “Lowrider Cruise”, which seems to happen every Saturday.
I guess that’s fun for car people.
Here’s the full event schedule from March 2024 to give you an idea of what’s going on:
Around the time that the episode aired on TV, the bar also posted that it was hiring dishwashers and cocktail waitresses, which I think is a good sign (though it’s not always positive).
The La Perla Sports Club website is also a lot better than most bars from the show (many of which don’t even have a website).
The design is pretty good, too.
Here’s a direct link to the menu if you want to check it out.
The prices seem fairly reasonable, though I’m not familiar with that’s normal in Glendale Arizona.
Here’s what the La Perla Sports Club location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view – it hasn’t been updated since the changes, but the outside signage is still pretty much the same since Bar Rescue didn’t change much:
La Perla Sports Club reviews after Bar Rescue
Next, let’s take a look at some real customer reviews of La Perla Sports Club from after the Bar Rescue episode.
Overall, the bar has just a 2.8 star rating on Yelp and a 3.7 star rating on Google Reviews, which is pretty bad.
However, the vast majority of those reviews came from before the Bar Rescue episode (and probably explain why the bar needed to be rescued in the first place).
To see if the bar has been able to turn things around, I always focus exclusively on reviews that were written after the bar was rescued (which again, was around October 2023).
On Yelp, all of the reviews written after Bar Rescue seem to be positive.
However, there aren’t a ton of reviews to choose from (only 3-4), so the sample size is pretty small.
Still, that’s a good sign.
On Google, the reviews are a little bit more mixed, but still definitely more positive than before the rebrand to La Perla Sports Club.
So, at least based on the reviews that exist now, the bar seems to have made positive changes after Bar Rescue.
Let’s take a look at some real customer reviews from after the Bar Rescue changes…
4 star Yelp review from March 2024:
5 star Yelp review from November 2023:
5 star Yelp review from November 2023:
5 star Google review from March 2024:
5 star Google review from March 2024:
4 star Google review from March 2024:
4 star Google review from February 2024:
1 star Google review from March 2024:
1 star Google review from March 2024:
1 star Google review from December 2023:
2 star Google review from November 2023:
Final thoughts on La Perla Sports Club / Cantina
Overall, La Perla Sports Club seems to be doing better so far in terms of customer reviews.
The reviews from after the episode are notably more positive than those before.
Still, $750,000 in debt is a big hole to dig out of, so Mark has his work cut out for him if he’s going to keep La Perla Sports Club open.
As always, I wish the owners the best and I hope that Mark is able to turn the bar into a long-term success.
That wraps up my update for La Perla Sports Club / Cantina.
If you want to see some other nearby Arizona Bar Rescue episodes, you can also read my updates for George and Dragon, Armadillo Grill / Brenda’s Inferno, Havana Cabana / Rocky Point Cantina, and Brick and Barley / Baseline.
I also have a page that lists all 13+ Arizona episodes from the show.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the bar or the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
I especially love hearing from people who have been able to visit the La Perla bar in person.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-perla-sports-cantina-glendalehttps://www.facebook.com/LaPerlaSC/
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Last updated: 2024-04-14 08:38
We want Taffer back! Shut it down! You’re going to kill somebody with the lack of Jon Taffer.
I hope them the best, too early to know but seems like another scam on bar rescue, owner sells deal thing. Too many mentions about other businesses successful, no real fear in face! Hope to God I’m wrong, come back sat sorry! Kinda different because worked with Jon, gets louder response which shows. Just skeptical here. Prove wrong lol 👍
Mani-tow-wick… omg. It’s Mana-ta-wok. 🤯🤯🤯
I cringed when he said that.
I won’t waste my time watching any episodes without Taffer. “Bar Rescue” is “The Jon Taffer Show”. HE’S the reason that I got hooked on the show, not the concept itself. I understand that he’s getting on in years (I’m slightly younger than he is and have already retired) and may want to pass it on. But his larger-than-life personality is what drives the show. It can’t ever be the same without him.
First of all Dustin Drai…DOES NOT OWN DRAI’S NIGHTCLUB IN LAS VEGAS.
His FATHER…VICTOR DRAI…actually OWN Drai’s Nightclub in Las Vegas.
While Dustin Drai is a VP… he doesn’t OWN the CLUB
So his self serving of himself is complete bullshit.
While he has expierence…to claim on TV he OWNS Drai’s is an absolute lie
Sitting in the bar as I type this. Ordered 2 draft beers and they ran out, it’s a Wednesday night the day before a holiday. I guess the will be out for the 4th of July. Changed to bottle beer and they were both warm. Food was ok, it looks like they kept the menu. One bartender on staff and no waitress. Several people tables full but had to go to the bar for service.
Any owner buying giving away drinks for themselves customer family friends should pay for the drink.
It only makes sense.
They should tip the server also.
People go to places if they are getting free drinks, why not?
That is not making people have a good time, it is creating a parasite.
Sad.