(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 13, 2025
The Bar's Original Name Was: Tropic MKE
Montego Bay Beach Club Address: 518 N Water St, Milwaukee, WI 53202
Episode Recap
Tropic MKE, later renamed to Montego Bay Beach Club, was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Montego Bay Beach Club Bar Rescue episode aired TBD, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place before that in September 2024.
It was Season 9 Episode TBD and the episode name was TBD.
In this episode, Bar Rescue is back in Wisconsin for the fourth time this set/season (and the sixth time overall).
Thankfully, Jon Taffer is back in the driver’s seat and handling this rescue himself.
More specifically, Jon is in Milwaukee, which he had previously visited back in Season 4.
He’s in town to rescue Tropic MKE, a Jamaican-themed back that has a relatively short history, having only been opened back in April 2022.
To help him, Jon also has Bobby Portis, an NBA player with some of the craziest eyes out there.
Jon calls him “one of the best forwards in the game”, which might be a bit of a stretch.
He is a good player, though I’m not sure about his bar expertise.
The bar is located on Water St in Milwaukee, which is right near the Milwaukee River (hence the “water” name, I suppose).
The bar is owned by Hyacinth Nembhardt, who also owns another Milwaukee bar named Concoctions.
According to her, she only has enough money to keep the bar going for about another 1-2 months.
In the preview video for the episode, we see Jon Taffer talking to the owner.
Taffer is critiquing her leadership and hosting skills.
The owner says she’s short staffed because she fired 5-6 people in the past month.
They were fired for being “too friendly with her daughter” (the owner’s daughter, Hyleah Pulley, is the manager of the bar).
The owner says that she would’ve fired her daughter if the daughter weren’t family.
Taffer gives her a classic heart-to-heart about getting back on track.
As always, I’m writing this update the day before the episode airs on TV, so I will try to find time to come back and flesh this recap out.
I do know what new concept Taffer chose to put in place, though.
As part of the renovation, Jon Taffer changed the name from Tropic MKE to Montego Bay Beach Club: Caribbean Food and Kitchen.
I’m not sure about the name change, as I kind of prefer the original Tropic name (spoiler – the owners seem to agree with me).
Some people on Reddit also weren’t happy about the change:
The bar got renovations inside, along with plenty of great call to actions on the windows, including the following:
- Ice Cold Beer
- Tropic Cocktails
- Good Vibes
- Island Fare
Interestingly, in a bit of a “fail”, the show misspelled “Caribbean” as “Carribean” in the smaller sign that hangs from the signpost.
Here’s a picture – hat tip to Googoogaga53 on Reddit for the photo:
So – was the Tropic MKE Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if this Milwaukee bar is still open in 2025.
Montego Bay Beach Club Update - What Happened Next?
Now that I’ve recapped the episode, let’s talk about how the bar is doing after Jon Taffer and Bobby Portis left.
I’ll start by talking about whether the bar is still open.
Then, I’ll look at some real customer reviews from after Bar Rescue, as well as any other interesting details that I can find.
Is Montego Bay Beach Club still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check, the bar is still open and serving customers in Milwaukee.
However, they seem to have ditched the Montego Bay Beach Club name/concept from Taffer and gone back to the original Tropic MKE branding.
The bar’s online profiles all exclusively refer to it as Tropic Lounge now.
What’s more, searching for Montego Bay Beach Club on Google doesn’t even return a Google places listing.
As far as I can tell, the bar never really even tried to use the Montego Bay Beach Club concept for very long, opting to go back to the Tropic branding pretty quickly.
For example, when I look at the bar’s Facebook posts from October 2024 (right after the rescue), I don’t see any mention of Montego Bay Beach Club.
They seem to have just continued with the Tropic branding.
Here’s a post from October 2024 that uses the Tropic name while also advertising an “exciting new food menu”.
I also found a news article that interviewed the owner where she confirms she’s keeping the Tropic name:
Bar Rescue renamed the bar “Montego Bay Beach Club,” but Nembhardt says she is keeping the original Tropic Lounge name.
Hyacinth does otherwise seem complimentary, though:
“Bar Rescue took my vision and elevated it,” says Nembhardt. “They brought in design elements I would have never thought of.
The bar is still quite active on social media, regularly posting about events and specials.
They seem to really lean into Happy Hour, which I guess makes sense given the bar’s downtown location.
One thing that I did not see posted, though, is any sort of promotion for the Tropic Bar Rescue episode.
Unlike other bars from this season, they don’t seem to have hosted a watch party (or at least they didn’t promote it very much, if they did).
There’s also an official Tropic website.
You can still see the Montego Bay Beach Club signage in the background of some images on the website.
However, outside of that, it seems to exclusively refer to the bar as Tropic.
Here’s what the bar’s location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
Google hasn’t updated the picture since 2021, so it doesn’t even include the Tropic MKE branding.
I’m mainly just including it so that you can explore the area around the bar (it’s where Violet Beauty Lounge is in this picture).
Tropic MKE reviews after Bar Rescue
Now, let’s dig into some real customer reviews for the bar from after Taffer’s visit.
Even though the bar doesn’t seem to have kept Taffer’s concept, it is still benefiting from the renovations and systems that Taffer put in place, so you’d hope to see an improvement in the customer reviews.
Overall, the bar has a 4.2 star rating on 152+ Google reviews and a 3.7 rating on 10+ Yelp reviews.
However, both of those numbers include reviews from both before and after Taffer’s visit.
As always, I try to exclusively focus on reviews that were written after the bar’s September 2024 rescue.
When looking at reviews from after the visit, I would say that they generally seem to be more positive than negative.
People seem to like the events at the bar, with some noting that the bar is very busy during events (a good sign for the business).
A couple people did complain about having to pay a $10 cover for the events, though.
Some reviewers do seem to have issues with the food quality or how long it takes to get food.
But in general, I would say that they’re positive about the service, drinks, and general experience.
The owners also seem to respond to pretty much all of the reviews, which I’ll include below.
Here’s a sampling of a few Google reviews that were written after the September 2024 visit from Jon Taffer…
5 star review that mentions Bar Rescue renovations:
5 star review that mentions the events:
Two 4 star reviews that compliment bar and drinks but not food:
3 star review that complains about the cover charge:
1 star review that complains about the cover charge:
5 star review that mentions the renovations:
1 star review that complains about automatic 18% gratuity:
4 star review about food:
I also found this review that comes from the owner’s daughter (who is the GM at the bar). You probably shouldn’t be leaving yourself positive reviews!
Final thoughts on the bar
This is the first bar from this season that doesn’t seem to have embraced the rebranding from the show.
Instead of keeping on with Taffer’s Montego Bay Beach Club theme, the bar seems to have quickly gone back to calling itself Tropic Lounge.
The owner does seem appreciative of the renovations, though.
Will keeping the name doom the bar?
I think it’s too early to tell.
But if anything does change, you can be sure that I’ll update this post.
That wraps up my Montego Bay Bar Rescue update.
If you want to see some other Wisconsin episodes from the show, you also might be interested in my updates for Blue Line Tavern / Top Shelf in Fond du Lac, Interlude II in Kenosha, Nick’s House / Y-Not III in Milwaukee, Harbor Lights in Sheboygan, and Packy’s Pub / Campbell’s Irish Pub in Milwaukee.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the bar or the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
As always – thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/tropic-mke-milwaukeehttps://www.facebook.com/TropicOnWater/
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Last updated: 2025-03-24 09:50
Looks like Paramount did a bait and switch and aired a different episode.
Bar Rescue Updates posted for both Tropic and Daq Shack.
YouTube TV calls this episode E37, so it was presumably slated to air 10 episodes from now. Of note, the production codes and IG trail suggests that the Milwaukee set (looks like at least 5 bars now) was filmed last, after St. Louis and Detroit/Toledo.
Seems like they swapped it out after they ran the previews.
Yeah the preview video clearly showed Tropic. I also saw Milwaukee news articles saying Tropic would air on the 23rd. Not sure what caused the mixup but I’ll need to find time to do the full update for Daq Shack.