(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 4 | View All Season 4 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 28, 2015
The Bar's Original Name Was: The Bullpen at Aspen Glen
Oak Tavern Address: 5215 Vista Blvd Sparks, NV 89434
Episode Recap
The Bullpen, later renamed to Oak Tavern, was a Sparks, Nevada bar that was featured on Season 4 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Oak Tavern Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2015, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 4 Episode 22 and the episode name was “”Take Me Out to the Bar Game”
Originally known as The Bullpen at Aspen Glen before Jon Taffer’s renovation, Oak Tavern was a bar located in Sparks, Nevada.
The bar was owned and opened by Dan Serafini, a former MLB baseball player.
Dan opened the bar as a change of pace after losing a significant amount of money in a divorce and some bad investments.
At first, The Bullpen Bar was doing quite well and had steady customers.
However, Dan started to become less hands-on at the bar, which led to things going downhill and bartenders taking advantage of the bar to use it as their own party house.
In order to turn things around for The Bullpen, Dan decided to call in Bar Rescue and Jon Taffer.
Jon initially had trouble even finding The Bullpen because its outside signage was so small.
Additionally, he wasn’t a fan of the layout inside the bar and the broken smoke ventilator meant it was way too smoky.
After observing the bar for a time, Jon went in and chastised Dan for basically letting his employees run the place.
Jessica, one of the bartenders, dresses in a very scantily clad way, which doesn’t jive with the family friendly approach that Jon Taffer wants for the bar.
It’s no wonder the bar was losing money when the bartenders were drinking whatever they wanted and not doing a good job.
Jon introduced new rules to organize the bar, such as a drinks production average (DPA) to make sure bartenders are on pace and doing their jobs.
In the stress test, only one bartender was unable to improve their DPA score (Wynter), which led to Dan, the Oak Tavern owner, firing her.
In addition to improving the staff and organization, Jon Taffer also did a full remodel of the bar with new signage and an improved interior aesthetic.
As part of the remodel, Jon changed the bar’s name from The Bullpen at Aspen Glen to Oak Tavern, which is what the bar continued to use after the Bar Rescue episode.
So was the Bar Rescue Oak Tavern episode a long-term success?
Keep reading to learn what happened next and if this Sparks, NV bar is still open in 2023.
Oak Tavern Update - What Happened Next?
The Oak Tavern Bar Rescue update happened in March 2015, even though the episode didn’t air until June 28.
The Oak Tavern owners seemed pretty happy about the remodel…at least at first.
On Facebook, they posted that “we are beyond grateful to the Bar Rescue team for our beautiful new bar”.
Additionally, they kept the new name (Oak Tavern) and stuck with Jon’s remodel choices.
However, in 2016, whoever posts on the Oak Tavern Twitter page didn’t seem to be as happy about it – check out these posts from the Oak Tavern Twitter page:
After the update, reviews were mixed but the bar generally seemed to be doing ok.
If you check the Yelp page, you’d see both positive and negative reviews, though a lot of one-star reviews were dragging the place down.
Here are some examples of the negative reviews…
1 star Yelp review from May 2019:
I wish I didn’t have to give a star. I hadn’t been to this bar in a year, we had friends in from out of town and decided to give it a try for Thursday night karaoke.
The karaoke was a joke, the “DJ’s” were just sitting around drinking.
There were multiple people who were WAY over served and fell multiple times spilling beer and breaking glasses and then continued to be served.
The bartender was very apologetic and seemed very nice, she even told us this was way calmer than it has ever been since she started working there.
I won’t be back.
1 star Yelp review from August 2016:
This is the worst bar ever!!
The owner is a jerk.
The bartenders care more about drinking then serving the guests.
I only liked one bartender and she was smart enough to leave this shit show.
I asked for a lemon drop and they didn’t have lemons, I then asked for a Margarita and they did not have the mix.
I finally asked for a vodka soda and amazingly they had that…
The smoke is TERRIBLE!!
And even though they advertise for food they don’t serve food.
This place sucks.
This mixed reaction was a good sign of things to come.
Oak Tavern Back to the Bar Episode
Oak Tavern was featured on a Back to the Bar episode from Season 5.
I can’t find the full episode, but I did find a YouTube clip.
It shows Phil Wills revisiting Oak Tavern.
Dan also reports that sales at the bar are up by 50%, including this quote:
As soon as we changed our game plan to what you and Jon talked about, it’s outstanding.
I actually love owning this place now.
This quote doesn’t really match with the Twitter posts above.
You can watch the clip below:
Is the Oak Tavern still open after Bar Rescue?
Oak Tavern was up and running through at least 2021.
However, Yelp has recently reported that Oak Tavern is closed for good.
As of 2023, the old Oak Tavern Sparks location is occupied by a new bar named On The Rocks Bar.
I’m unable to find more details about Oak Tavern closing, but it seems like it dropped off the face of the earth, with no activity on its Facebook page since December 2017.
In 2017, the Facebook page was quite active with events, but there haven’t been any posts since December 2, 2017.
There have been a trickle of reviews for the bar since 2017, but many of them mention that the bar seems to be closed all of the time.
For example, consider this review from January 2022:
This place is NEVER open.
Despite the “open” signs posted on Los Altos and Vista AND on the business itself.
I’ll stop by weekdays after 12pm and weekends up until 10pm and it’s still never open.
I’m only going by because of the signs posted on the street, or else I wouldn’t bat an eye to the place.
This is false advertising at its finest.
Unfortunately, while Oak Tavern was able to keep things going for at least 4-6 years after Bar Rescue, it seems like Oak Tavern and The Bullpen at Aspen Glen are officially gone for now.
I wish I knew more about what happened to the bar, though.
Unfortunately, Google Maps street view hasn’t updated since July 2018.
Here’s what the Oak Tavern Sparks Nevada location looked like that that time:
If you know anything about the bar, please let me know in the comments.
Additionally, if you know what’s happening with the Oak Tavern Sparks, Nevada location, please let me know that too.
2023 Update:
I played around with Google Street view some more and I was able to see the bar from another angle.
That second angle was updated more recently in July 2022.
It shows a new bar named On The Rocks Bar occupying the old Oak Tavern Sparks NV location as of 2022.
A commenter below also helped notify me about the new bar.
With that, I now feel 100% confident in marking the Oak Tavern closed.
If you want to see some another nearby Bar Rescue Nevada episode, you can check out my update for Money Bar / Murphy’s Law in Reno.
SacTown Sports Bar / Brannan Manor is also nearby in Sacramento.
There are also tons of Las Vegas Bar Rescue episodes, which you can find on the main Bar Rescue updates page.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/oak-tavern-sparkshttps://www.facebook.com/Oak-Tavern-475040295980452/
What did you think about the Oak Tavern Bar Rescue episode? I'd love it if you shared your thoughts on the episode in the comments below!
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And don't forget to check out all of the other Bar Rescue updates.
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Last updated: 2023-04-01 05:15
This bar is still very much open. I go in it about once a month or so to see what Jon did.
Can you ask them why they have it marked as closed on Yelp? I also see reviews from people saying that the bar is always closed, though it does seem like other people still go there.
I will update this post when I get more information.
According to the health department, the last inspection they had was in 2018. So, the bar is closed for business. The guy who claims he goes in once a month to see what Jon did is obviously not going to this bar. Besides, why would he have to go in monthly to see what Jon did, couldn’t he see it all the first time he supposedly went in?
according to Wiki they own a baseball throwing academy in NV.
This location is now On The Rocks Bar
Thanks for letting me know! I will update the post.
Good update. Jibe, not “jive”.
Another bar bites the dust. Why is it that people open a bar.when they have absolutely no clue about how to run it. This owner blames his drunk bartenders for.his failure when he only has himself to blame. And….on top of that, this guy loses $14million due to bad investments and a nasty divorce. Oh…dont forget, he allows his bartenders to live with him only having to fire one of them. Talk about awkward. And what about wifey #2. How did she feel about have 2 pretty bartenders living with them? This whole thing was a mess from day 1. The owner is an idiot. His parents are idiots for.putting their house on the line. His wife is an idiot too for allowing those bartenders to live with them. I am amazed that Jon Tapper even decided to take this one on. Maybe it was all of the drama. It makes him appear not so smart
The way the owner unprofessionally fired that bartender is inexcusable. His failure to adequately manage the staff was a major factor in employee morale and engagement. What a douche, not at all surprised the business failed.
Pro athletes are notoriously easy marks for Wall Street types to separate them from their millions. Sucks he threw 14m on the bonfire of zero due diligence, but leave your poor parents out of It. Having them mortgage their house after he blew his fortune, sooooo selfish and immature for a grown ass man to do. No way he doesn’t immolate those shekels too.
I knew Taffer was gonna torture me all episode with ham-fisted baseball cliches and puns. Someone on staff needs to write him some lines and save him from his undying love for cheesy af puns