(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 7 | View All Season 7 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: March 15, 2020
The Bar's Original Name Was: Linda Lou's Time For Two
Purser's Bar Address: 2981 N Hill Field Rd, Layton, UT 84041
Episode Recap
Linda Lou’s Time For Two, later renamed to Purser’s Bar, was a Layton, Utah bar that was featured on Season 7 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Linda Lou’s Bar Rescue episode aired in March 2020 (right at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic), the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place well before that in August 2019.
It was Season 7 Episode 3 and the episode name was “Breaking Brandon”.
Linda Lou’s Time for Two is is located in Layton, UT.
If you don’t know your Utah geography, Layton is located along the Rocky Mountains almost straight north of Salt Lake city.
It has a population of around 81,000 and it has the ninth highest population among Utah cities.
Linda Lou’s Time for Two is owned by Brandon Purser.
Brandon’s mother, Winona, funded the bar for him because it had been Brandon’s dream to own a bar since he was 12.
She also thought it would be profitable.
However, given that the Linda Lou’s Bar Rescue episode exists, you can probably tell that she was mistaken.
The bar was a local dive bar when Brandon bought it in 2013, but it quickly began to decline.
Sadly, Brandon is now depressed and barely shows up at the bar.
His mother has invested another $50,000 into the bar to keep it going, but it kind of seems like just throwing good money after bad.
Currently, Linda Lou’s Time for Two is in debt and losing more money every day.
Jon Taffer has no room to park in the parking lot, so he parks in a nearby space.
Mixologist Phil Wills is with him, and the men discuss the odd exterior of the bar.
Jon believes the bar resembles a tea parlor, which probably isn’t the right vibe.
The duo move on to watching hidden camera footage of the bar.
The camera footage shows Anthony and Trina, the bartenders.
Utah law says food has to be served in any establishment that serves liquor, but the kitchen is not operational.
Hockey players Ryan Reeves and Nate Schmidt spy on Linda Lou’s for Jon Taffer and his experts.
The two men order cocktails, but the drinks taste wrong and are served without ingredients like whipped cream.
Brandon isn’t visible at the bar because he is in the back office even though there are customers needing help.
The spies ask Trina for a margarita, but she makes them incorrectly.
Trina also makes the spies chicken wings in a fryer without using gloves.
The wings are too greasy to eat when the spies receive them.
Phil enters the bar and has the bartenders make margaritas which they fail.
Next, Jon Taffer comes into Linda Lou’s and calls Brandon out for wasting his mother’s money.
Jon Taffer comes back the next day, and Brandon has stayed all night to clean the bar.
The employees confide in Jon that Brandon is the biggest problem at the bar.
They never know where he is or what he is doing in the office; they also lack the ingredients and tools to succeed.
Overcome with emotion, Brandon steps out to cry in private.
He seems like a nice guy – just overwhelmed by the situation.
To prep for the stress test, Phil trains the employees on making a basic margarita.
Anthony has been at the bar the longest but has no idea how to make it.
The bar is too small as there is only one workstation, so it’s hard for bartenders to work efficiently.
The bartenders are also not communicating with each other, causing delays at the bar.
A plumbing issue arises from the dishwasher and a flood forms.
The stress test is shut down due to safety concerns.
After the stress test, Phil continued to train the staff on signature drinks with novelty cups.
Jon Taffer’s team works all night to renovate the bar and fix the plumbing issue.
As part of the changes, Jon renamed the bar from Linda Lou’s Time for Two to Purser’s Bar.
Obviously, the new name is a play on Brandon’s last name.
Beyond the new name, the Bar is now themed like a speakeasy.
The front entrance resembles a laundromat with a secret door to enter the bar.
However, this would cause issues later on, as you’ll learn in a second.
There is a snack station to replace the fryer and chicken wings.
To help the staff work more efficiently, a new workstation has been added, as have POS machines.
Brandon is excited about the changes and can’t wait for his mother to see him.
Customers are happy with the new theme and snacks.
So were the Linda Lou’s Bar Rescue changes enough to save the bar?
Keep reading our update to find out what happened next and if it’s still open in 2024.
Purser's Bar Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Pursers Bar Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Layton, Utah.
Again, the visit happened in August 2019, so the bar actually had a solid seven months of time before the Covid-19 restrictions started happening, even though the Linda Lou’s episode aired right at the beginning of the pandemic.
Brandon seemed to trust Taffer’s changes, as he stuck with the new Purser’s Bar name.
However, it seems like that might not have been the best choice, as things didn’t work out well for Purser’s Bar.
Is Pursers Bar still open after Bar Rescue?
Purser’s Bar closed in December 2019, which was four months before the Linda Lou’s Bar Rescue episode actually aired on TV (though it was about four months after Taffer’s actual visit).
Unfortunately, it seems like the Bar Rescue changes just didn’t take.
Brandon said that he lost 2/3 of the customers after Taffer’s changes, in large part because regulars didn’t like the changes and some people didn’t recognize that it was a bar because of the speakeasy concept.
Reviews for the bar were decent, though, with a 4.7 star rating on Google Reviews.
The Yelp page had a 3.5 star rating, but most of those were for the older Linda Lou’s concept.
Here’s a sampling of a few reviews for the Pursers Bar concept that Jon Taffer put in…
5 star Google review from 2020:
Suprisingly fun little place.
Played alot of pool that evening and even developed a crush on one of the bartenders!
5 star Google review from 2020:
Always amazing.
The staff is amazing đź‘Ź.
Prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is generally very good.
Unfortunately, I can’t find many reviews beyond that, since the bar closed so shortly after Taffer’s changes went into effect.
Why did Purser’s Bar close?
After its closure, the bar was sold to new owners who planned to open a new bar in the location.
Through early 2022, the old Linda Lou’s Layton, Utah location seemed to still be vacant.
Given that the new owners would’ve purchased the bar right before Covid-19 restrictions went into place, I wouldn’t be surprised if their plans were disrupted.
However, as of 2023, I can now confirm that it’s occupied by a new bar named Southgate Tavern
Here’s what the old Pursers Bar Utah location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view:
If anything changes, I will update this post.
Additionally, if you live in Layton, UT and know anything else about what’s happening at that location, please let me know in the comments.
If you want to see some other Bar Rescue Utah episodes, you can check out my updates for The Fifth in Bountiful, The Union / The Midway Tavern in Midvale, and The Roost / Broadway Club in Tooele.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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Last updated: 2023-05-03 06:00
I grew up in Layton and a speakeasy does not make any sense whatsoever there.
I agree 100%. Taffer has had a lot of bad ideas over the years. A lot of them.
He knows the bar business, but sometimes gets too arrogant regarding what he thinks will work. He sometimes thinks a concept will work just because it was his idea.
This “speakeasy”, with the Laundromat front was one of the worst ideas he ever had. It was a bad idea to re-make this bar in any way, shape or form.
The owner was lazy and beyond clueless, and so were the employees. The bar was in too much debt and too far gone. The owner was just not into running a bar. It was beyond his intellect or motivation level. The same goes for the employees. They all stood around and did nothing in that beyond-filthy bar.
Maybe if Taffer had just re-made it into a regular country, neighborhood bar, cleaned it, helped him hire competent employees, and gave them new equipment, they may have had a chance. But, the concept of that bar was completely wrong for that rural area and for that country-mentality demographic.
The people in this area are rural, hard-working, simple people. They want a bar or restaurant that is clean, has good drinks, good food, and good service, where they can go and relax. This was too “hokey” of a concept, and way out of place. Most people in that area have never even heard of a “speakeasy”.
There is not enough people in that town to make that a “destination bar”, as Taffer called it. And it wasn’t a good enough concept for people to come from other towns. I was saying out loud when Taffer said what he is going to do, that it was a mistake.
When I saw the reveal, I knew it was a mistake, and predicted the bar wouldn’t be open 6 months. It closed in 4. I think even the owner and the employees think it was a mistake. A lot more bars on the show would have stayed open if not for Taffer’s hair-brained, misguided schemes.
For someone claiming to know so much about the bar industry, he sure misjudges his demographic a lot of the time, and as in this case, ends up actually screwing them over and hastening the bar’s closure instead of helping
Never pass up a great opportunity to SHUT UP!
Love how you insult the barstaff and owner claiming he hadn’t the intellect but then point out how dumb the whole town is by saying they don’t know what a speakeasy is. In the states that’s like saying they don’t know what the civil war was.
You predicted it would fail…good for your pessimism. I’m sure the community appreciates negative hateful people like you.
The only truth you see is your own disgusting hubris.
Sounds like you know too much. Maybe you should’ve bought it and redid it Mr. Know it all!!!
Where’s the spot a speakeasy works best? Chicago. Where doesnt it work at all? Utah. Should have done a neighborhood style bar like “cheers” or something.
They work real well in Portland Maine. Especially since they been around for years thanks to Maine being the first state to implement prohibition in the 1800s.
Looks like the place might be reopen again as a place called Southgate Tavern.
That is true
People can thank the current administration. They can deny it all they want.
Dafuq? The bar closed in 2019.
That stunningly ignorant response was an embarrassment. The “current administration” started in 2021, therefore it had ZERO possibility of helping OR hurting that bar since it closed during the PREVIOUS administration.
Since Trump was the president in 2019, when the bar closed, I agree 110%
The address for Southgate is 2920 N Hill Field Rd. I’ve been inside, and this used to be Linda Lou’s.
2981, according to the numbers displayed on the businesses, is in another part of the building and belongs to Airsoft Tactical Supply.
Brandon was mentally beat down in this episode. I agree with the others–there isn’t enough room in this place to make it a speakeasy. It works for Capo’s in Vegas which is upscale but not here.
Some of Taffer’s ideas are great. Some, not so great. This was the the worst idea I have ever seen him try to sell a community, by far.
I can’t imagine how he thought a “speakeasy” bar hidden behind a laundromat facade would fit in a suburban Utah town. Just plain nuts.
I live in Michigan and never have been to Utah, but I even thought that was a bad concept. It’s a shame cause I was really rooting for Brandon. Does anyone know an update on him? I hope he is doing well. I tear up watching that episode cause he is clearly having a panic attack during it.
Taffer blew it with this one. Dumbest idea. For as much as he seemed to care for the owner, he really stuck it to him with that concept. Doomed to fail.
Just saw this episode about 10 minutes ago. That was a dumb idea to put the laundromat façade on this bar. How do you expect people to know that there’s a bar in there?
I’ve only been to Utah once, but there’s no way in hell a speakeasy concept would work. Neighborhood bar with a “dive bar with a pretty face” look would have been much better. If the actual bar look was simply the whole bar it would have been great.
Personally, I didn’t agree with the speak easy concept as well for this area, but nonetheless, I have my personal opinion on this specific episode about Mr. Taffer’s tough facade. I watch the show frequently and like how Mr. Taffer can use his wisdom, knowledge and tactics to straighten up poorly managed bars. However, in my opinion on this specific episode, Mr. Taffer, belittled a man that appeared to be on the edge of suicide. I could feel the owners pain watching him being broken down. I feel sad that the bar didn’t make it, but I hope that Brandon is in a better place emotionally, with less stress, and the staff all has good jobs now.
No disrespect is meant to anyone, this is my personal opinion only.
Couldn’t agree with this one more. I really hope Brandon is ok.
To the admin of this great site.
I wanna apologize for my negative reply to that one comment see the truth left just can’t stand self-righteous ignorant people like that.
But I didn’t want to say how much I appreciate the work you put into the site I love it it’s been a good resource, and I find it comforting to be able to look into how the bars are doing. Always hoping to see that <>
Please keep up the good work, and know that you are appreciated
I have to agree with the consensus. My immediate reaction was really negative, and it seems to have been borne out. I sometimes wonder if Jon Taffer and his staff have had some these ideas in their heads for a long time and use some of the bars and experiments. Too bad for Brandon and company.
Very sad structure. Obviously the crew did not know anything regarding the running a business. Fun will run you into the ground. Friends hiring friends doesn’t equate to not succeeding sometimes.Unless they were acting it was sad.