Oak Tavern Bar Rescue Update (The Bullpen) – Still Open Today?

Is Oak Tavern still open today?

Oak Tavern Update - What Happened Next?

Now, let’s talk about how the bar is doing after Jon Taffer’s visit.

The Danny Serafini Bar Rescue episode has an absolutely crazy ending, so I encourage you to read to the end.

It culminates with the Oak Tavern owner being arrested for an alleged murder that happened in Lake Tahoe in 2021.

So yeah – from MLB player to bar owner to alleged murderer – pretty wild!

I’m getting ahead of myself, though.

First, I want to talk about the bar itself. Then, I’ll give you an update on Dan Serafini now.

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 my most recent check in early 2024, 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:

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 and On the Rocks as the new tenant at the old Oak Tavern Sparks, NV location.

Dan Serafini arrested in 2023 for alleged 2021 Lake Tahoe murder

As I’m updating this post again in October 2023, things have gotten absolutely crazy!

On October 20th, 2023, Dan Serafini, the Oak Tavern owner, was arrested for an alleged murder and attempted murder that took place back in 2021.

He was arrested alongside another woman, Samantha Scott.

The relationship with Samantha Scott is not exactly clear.

I saw one article reference her as Dan’s girlfriend.

Another article referenced her having some connection to the victims, potentially having worked for them as a nanny.

The two were arrested for their alleged connection to the shooting death of Serafini’s father-in-law in 2021, along with the attempted murder of his mother-in-law.

His father-in-law, Gary Spohr, and mother-in-law, Wendy Wood, were shot on June 5th 2021 in Lake Tahoe.

His father-in-law passed away from the injuries while his mother-in-law actually survived after being shot in the head.

Sadly, Wendy passed a way a year later because of the difficulty of rehab and life with disability after the shooting.

Here’s an article from 2022 that details what happened and highlights the police’s continued search for new leads.

Because the arrest just happened, that’s all of the information that I have for now.

If you want to learn more, here’s a news article from a local publication.

The news article actually mentions that he owned the Oak Tavern bar.

The couple once ran a bar in Sparks called the Bullpen Bar but it’s since gone out of business.

Erin Spohr told Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle in July they sold the business a long time ago and Serafini was working in underground mining in Reno.

She added, “I have no idea who did that to my parents. I wish I knew.”

Overall, this is just an absolutely wild end to the story.

The case has not gone to trial yet, so these crimes remain allegations at this point.

Dan was arrested in Nevada, but he will be extradited to California to face trial as that’s where the crime occurred.

In November 2023, Dan Serafini pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him, of which there are many.

Here’s a video that has more on the case and includes some video of Dan’s court appearance.

I will update the post as it moves through the legal system, though.

Dan waived his right to a speedy trial, so it will likely be some time until everything moves through the system.

If convicted, Dan Serafini would likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

RIP to both of the victims.

Final thoughts on the Oak Tavern

When I first wrote this update, I thought it was just another run-of-the-mill Bar Rescue closure.

The Oak Tavern did well for a few years and then ended up closing shop.

That’s happened to a lot of bars from the show.

But with the 2023 arrested of the Oak Tavern owner for the alleged murder of his father-in-law, this has turned into one of the sadder and darker episodes to the show.

RIP to both of the victims. So tragic.

As the case goes to trial, I will update this post when more information comes out.

So far, Dan has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, but I don’t see any more recent update since his first appearance in November 2023.

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.

And if you want to share your thoughts on the Oak Tavern bar episode or what happened to Dan Serafini, you can do so using the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

More Information

https://www.yelp.com/biz/oak-tavern-sparks
https://www.facebook.com/Oak-Tavern-475040295980452/


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Last updated: 2024-03-11 05:01