Mary’s Outpost Bar Rescue Update (Thirsty’s Roadside Bar) – Still Open in 2024?

Is Thirsty's Roadside Bar still open today?

Status: >> OPEN <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)

Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: May 4, 2014
The Bar's Original Name Was: Mary's Outpost
Thirsty's Roadside Bar Address: 1002 S Great Sw Pkwy Grand Prairie, TX 75051

Mary's Outpost Bar Rescue Update (Thirsty's Roadside Bar)

Episode Recap

Mary’s Outpost, later renamed to Thirsty’s Roadside Bar, was a Grand Prairie, Texas bar that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.

Though the Mary’s Outpost Bar Rescue episode aired in May 2014, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.

It was Season 3 Episode 39 and the episode name was “Scary Mary’s”.

Mary’s Outpost is located in Grand Prairie, TX.

Grand Prairie is a suburb in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

In fact, it’s smack dab right in between Dallas and Fort Worth, with a population of around 175,000 people.

Mary's Outpost owner

The owners are good friends Bill and Joe, who opened the bar in 2009.

That means they’ve been running it for around five years at the time of the Mary’s Outpost Bar Rescue visit.

Bill’s personality helped bring customers into the bar.

They were making almost five thousand a month.

Bill met his wife Kimmie at the bar, now the general manager.

Kimmie is not a fan of the bartender Pinky who undermines her. 

Mary's Outpost Kimmie

Bill and Pinkie party in the bar with the customers but scare off newer patrons.

The bar is in debt and close to closing its doors for good if they can’t turn things around.

Mixologist Lisamarie Joyce and chef Tiffany Derry join Jon Taffer to help rescue Mary’s Outpost.

The outside of the bar is dull.

Inside, there’s at least a little excitement…

The experts and Jon Taffer watch as Bill flirts with women in front of his wife.

That’s excitement, but not the good kind of excitement (at least not for the bar).

Lisamarie Joyce and a friend are going to spy on the bar.

Inside, Rachel serves them warm beers.

The female spies also order a burger and fries, but Lisamarie is forced to spit her food out when it arrives.

Bill invited the girls into the back office and flirts with them.

Jon storms in when Bill orders the women to take off their tops, which is totally inappropriate.

The spies and Jon let Bill know how sleazy they think he is. 

Jon meets with the staff the next day and informs them about Bill’s behavior in the back office.

Kimmie confronts Bill, and he apologizes and promises to change.

The bar is dirty and moldy, they have no POS system, and the draft beer system is terrible. 

There is a lot of gunk in the kitchen, and a hair straightener is plugged in.

Elena is the cook, and the staff is made to clean the bar and the kitchen.

Chef Tiffany trains the kitchen to make a roast chicken and roast beef sandwich.

Lisamarie tests the team on cocktails, and they make them too slow. 

Jon brings in many women for the stress test to make sure Bill behaves himself.

In a positive turn of events, Bill is being helpful and taking care of the patrons.

There is tension between Pinkie and Kimmie, but Kimmie still manages.

Mary's Outpost Pinky

Chef Tiffany has to help the cooks in the kitchen, and Pinkie messes up. 

Jon gives the staff feedback and tells them they lack communication.

Kimmie comes clean about Pinkie; she wants her gone.

That is when Bill steps up and fires her.

Bill gives Kimmie more power, and the first thing they have to do is hire a server to take Pinkie’s place. 

Lisamarie trains the staff on two new drinks.

While the drinks and food are getting an upgrade, Jon Taffer and his team work on renovating Mary’s Outpost.

As part of the changes, Jon renames the bar to Thirsty’s Roadside Bar.

Sponsors such as 360 Wraps helped to warm up the interior with bright colors.

Brandi has hired a new server, and Kimmie is feeling more confident.

The relaunch is a success.

Brandi is an excellent addition to the team, and Bill is helping out. 

So was the Thirsty’s Roadside Bar Rescue visit a success?

Keep on readin’ to learn what happened next and if it’s still open in 2024 and beyond…

Thirsty's Roadside Bar Update - What Happened Next?

Now that we’ve recapped the Mary’s Outpost Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer left Texas.

Things started off well, as food sales at the bar were way up.

Bill is also trying to be more respectful to women.

However, Bill and Joe didn’t love all of Taffer’s changes, as they ditched the Thirsty’s Roadside Bar name and went back to Mary’s Outpost.

Is Mary’s Outpost from Bar Rescue still open?

As of 2023, Mary’s Outpost is still open and serving customers in Grand Prairie, TX.

However, it’s doing it under the original name – Mary’s Outpost – rather than the new Thirsty’s Roadside Bar name that Jon Taffer gave the bar.

If you want to learn more or see the menu, you can check out the official Mary’s Outpost website.

If you’re in the area, they have karaoke four nights a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

The bar also has themed karaoke nights – for example, a recent Pop Punk Karaoke event:

Mary's Outpost karaoke

They also regularly post about events on the Mary’s Outpost Facebook page, including live music and other stuff.

Here’s what the Mary’s Outpost Grand Prairie, TX location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…

The picture is from December 2022 and you can see the Mary’s Outpost sign.

Mary’s Outpost reviews after Bar Rescue

Next, let’s take a look at some reviews from after the Bar Rescue episode.

Reviews generally praise it as a solid dive bar, though the reviews are quite mixed.

It has a 4.1 star rating on Google Reviews.

It’s also jumped up to a 3 star rating on Yelp, which shows that things are improving (though still not great).

When I last updated this post last year, the Yelp rating was only 2.5 stars.

In general, people seem to like the karaoke and pool tables.

They also praise the laid-back atmosphere, which is what any good dive bar should have.

People do note that there’s a lot of cigarette smoke, though, so non-smokers don’t always seem happy.

Here’s a sampling of some reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…

3 star Yelp review from August 2016:

Haven’t been in Mary’s for about ten years until last night.

My pool team played there and the home team was great, great group of guys.

Needed cash for pool, but ATM was broken.

No biggie. Played our match and decided to hang out for a beer and karaoke.

I realized there was a birthday girl there so I offered to buy her a shot.

It was taking a while for the Bartender to get the shot so I jokingly said “did you forget about me?”

Was instantly responded to extremely rudely, I was quite taken aback.

I asked for my check and hung out a bit more finishing my drink with my friends and singing an obnoxious Michael Jackson song.

I ended up joking with the bartender about it later, but the initial response was so intense it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Even other Patrons came up to me and apologized for the rude behavior.

I will probably only go back if I have to for pool.

I understand they get a lot of yahoos there because they were on Bar Rescue, but you just can’t be that rude to people. Period.

1 star Yelp review from January 2015:

A small, smoky place out of the beaten path…

You must be a regular to even know this place exist.

The only reason why we went to visit this place is because of Bar Rescue.

Nothing too much to write about…

We went early Saturday around 5pm.

Most drinks are .50c off during early hours.

That’s all I have for now, will definitely update after a second visit.

1 star Yelp review from June 2021:

So I’m from this area.

But haven’t been in Mary’s Outpost since the late 90’s early 2000’s.

Only because it was pretty crappy then.

So when I watch John Taffers Bar Rescue.

And saw the changes.

I was like ALRIGHT !!

So I went by there and was totally flabbergasted.

It was NOT anything like I saw on tv.

Now I also have to add.

The episode I just seen a week ago was a rerun from 2014.

So 7 years come & gone.

I don’t know when they decided to change the name back to Mary’s Outpost from Thirsty’s RoadsideBar.

Oh well, I guess that’s been known to happen a time or two.

But for them to go back to the way it was before the show.

And not keep up the outside appearance is just beyond me.

It looks just as run down as it did in early 2000

I will never go there again.

Bill has also responded to a few of the older Yelp reviews, though not recently.

In general, I found his responses to be pretty fair.

For example, this was a pretty bad Yelp review, so I think Bill’s response is justified:

Mary's Outpost Yelp review

That wraps up my Mary’s Outpost update!

Even though the bar ditched Jon Taffer’s Thirsty’s Roadside Bar name, it still seems to be doing well for itself given that it’s now survived for almost a decade after the original Mary’s Outpost Jon Taffer visit.

If you want to see some other nearby Texas Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out my updates for G Willickers Pub in Arlington, Stampede Saloon / Whiskey Girl Saloon in Fort Worth, and Harbor Point / JB Taco in Richardson.

Or, you can check out my full list of all the Bar Rescue episodes in Texas.

And if you want to share your thoughts on the bar or the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!


More Information

https://www.yelp.com/biz/marys-outpost-bar-grand-prairie-2
https://www.facebook.com/marysoutpostbar/


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Last updated: 2023-04-28 04:40

8 thoughts on “Mary’s Outpost Bar Rescue Update (Thirsty’s Roadside Bar) – Still Open in 2024?”

All comments are the sole opinion of the commenter and are not endorsed by RealityTVUpdates.

  1. That a****** of a husband needs a good elbow across his nose he will never change. You got your girl you don’t have your lady what a butthead

    Reply
  2. Hard to believe Kimmie, his wife, would still be around watching Bill carry on w- Nikki/Pinkie, after he “fired her.” That was strictly for the show. Otherwise, why would she be back? Kimmie told Jon: either she goes or I go. I always wonder what happens to the owners after the shows. Glad his bar is still Open- but If he chose to bring her back, I’m guessing his marriage may be on the brink of ‘closing.’

    Reply
  3. I had a feeling they were gonna bring pinky back. If I was Kimmie I would of left long ago. She’s probably outside every 15 minutes chain-smoking cigarettes again. Poor lady

    Reply
  4. I can’t believe they hired Pinky back but no surprise, she probably threatened a sexual harassment lawsuit if she didn’t get her job back. That’s what you get, Bill! Hope it was worth it to put your wife through hell. To quote Taffer, “THAT’S WHAT WHORE’S GET!”

    Reply

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