(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 20, 2014
The Bar's Original Name Was: Pat's Cocktails
Pat's Cocktails A Mixology Bar Address: 12121 Riverside Dr North Hollywood, CA 91607
Episode Recap
Pat’s Cocktails, later slightly renamed to Pat’s Cocktails: A Mixology Bar, was a Valley Village, Los Angeles, California bar that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Pat’s Cocktails Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2014, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 37 and the episode name was “When Life Doesn’t Hand You Lemons”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer visits Pat’s Cocktails in Valley Village, CA.
Valley Village is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, so the bar is technically in Los Angeles even though the Bar Rescue wikipedia lists it as Valley Village.
It’s located in the valley, not too far from Burbank and the Griffith Observatory.
Ray Suruli, a successful businessman decided to buy Pat’s Cocktails 24 years ago.
That mean’s he’s been the owner for a long time at the time of the Pat’s Cocktails Bar Rescue episode.
Initially, he worked hard on growing the business but then when he reached his 70s he decided to take retirement.
Soon he handed over the bar to Jimmy who was an efficient employee at first.
But then he got married and his priorities changed.
The bar became totally neglected and even the staff agreed that it wasn’t a good place to hang out.
Jon Taffer came to visit this bar with the mixologist of the year 2012 Russell Davis.
As soon as they parked they noticed nearly 26,000 cars must pass in front of it daily.
That means the bar should be in a good place for success if they can whip things into shape.
However, the exterior of the bar looked extremely outdated, no young crowd would want to visit a place like that.
The seats and tables inside the bar are really in pathetic condition.
There are also weird issues, such as customers needing to order food from a separate window:
Pat’s Cocktails really seemed to be at its lowest point and Ray was totally absent from the scene.
They desperately needed help from Jon Taffer and his experts.
Vivian and Danielle, the two bartenders who were handling most of the daily operations, actually called the Bar Rescue team.
It was their last effort to save the bar.
When they saw Jimmy, he was busy drinking and making out with his wife.
The customers were rather uncomfortable with their excessive PDA. I gotta be honest – I agree because that’s super awkward.
Jon then sent his three spies to check the quality of service at the bar.
Vivian starts by checking their ID and nicely interacts with the customer.
Soon Jon catches up that Jimmy is the biggest problem of the bar as he was only paying attention to his wife while he was at work.
Jon then suggested to Vivian to make a free drink for herself to see if Jimmy will notice it.
As expected he didn’t, then Jon told her to give out as many free drinks as possible for which he will pay at the end.
Within a few hours, Vivian had given out more than 50 free drinks.
The customers even thanked Jimmy for the free drinks but he didn’t think much of it.
Soon Jon had enough and he went to Jimmy directly to call him out.
Taffer even told Jimmy that he was called by Vivian and Danielle who are the only ones doing a good job at this place.
The next morning, Ray also visited his bar after a long time and Jon quickly called him out too for being incompetent.
The staff told Ray that they often don’t have any money to refill the stock and they have to spend money from their own pocket while he drives a $90,000 car.
In the end, everyone acknowledged their mistake and even Jimmy’s wife decided to train to become a staff member.
While the experts get to work on training up the staff, Jon Taffer and his team start the renovations.
Unlike a lot of other bars featured on the show, Jon Taffer decided not to completely change the Pat’s Cocktails name to something new.
He did make a small tweak, though, changing it from just Pat’s Cocktails to Pat’s Cocktails: A Mixology Bar.
So was the Pat’s Cocktails Bar Rescue episode a success? Keep reading to learn what happened after and if Pat’s Cocktails is still open in 2024.
Pat's Cocktails A Mixology Bar Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Pat’s Cocktails Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened after Jon Taffer and his crew left Valley Village, CA.
Things seemed to start off well for the newly relaunched bar.
At the standard six-week check in with the Bar Rescue producers, we learn that the bar’s sales are up by more than 39% since Jon Taffer’s visit.
What’s more, Ray and Jimmy are more invested in making the bar a success.
Is Pat’s Cocktails from Bar Rescue still open?
As of 2023, Pat’s Cocktails is still open and serving customers in Valley Village, CA.
However, it’s doing so under a slightly new name and new management.
It now goes by Pat’s Off Laurel. I’m not sure if Ray has any part in the bar or if the management is completely new.
Here’s a screenshot of the new Pat’s Off Laurel Yelp page:
If it’s completely new, I might switch this one to “closed”.
It does seem like Pat’s Cocktails got a big renovation sometime around 2022 as part of the rebrand.
If you know anything about the management and whether Ray is involved in Pat’s Off Laurel, please let me know.
For some more evidence, here’s what the Pat’s Cocktails North Hollywood location looks like in the most recent Google Maps street view update from September 2022:
Reviews for the original Pat’s Cocktails bar generally seemed good as it had a 3.5 star rating on Yelp (the original Pat’s Cocktails Yelp page is now marked as closed).
That’s not amazing, but it is better than a lot of bars from the show. I think the highest rating that I’ve seen for a bar featured on Bar Rescue is four stars.
Even on Facebook, it has a rating of more than 4.2 stars with more than 7000 check-ins.
Here’s a sampling of a few reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
4 star review from April 2015:
Ain’t nothin wrong with this place! Since the “Bar Rescue” remodel, it’s like a classy dive bar if that makes any sense.
Would be a great, low key place to watch sports judging by all the flat screens…
DJ is spinning good tunes right now on this Friday night…
I’ll be back!
4 star review from April 2014:
I’ve been here for years and always loved the place.
Bar rescue came and made it look a lot nicer but they also stripped the place of the pool tables.
Most of the bartenders are awesome with the exception of one or two.
But in there defense they just get a little stressed out with the patrons.
They brought back a pool table and all was awesome again.
I gotta say it’s a great place to meet interesting people.
I do miss the live music though.
1 star review from July 2014:
This place was god aweful.
Bar rescue came in a changed the place but they should have just shut it down.
I went in with a friend and asked for the cocktail menu after it took the bartender 10mins to come over to us.
She said oh you must have seen us on bar rescue which I said no I haven’t to see why she would say it and she said we don’t have a cocktail menu or the smoked drinks that were on the show.
So instead I ordered a Jameson and ginger ale which she then took out a handle which is the 1.75L and poured away.
The drink was so gross since the ginger ale was flat and it was straight booze.
I said wow that was a lot.
She said well I gotta keep people coming back somehow. 1 the 1.75L bottles are not allowed in bars due to health codes of problems with them refilling bottles and over pouring doesn’t keep customers coming back it shys them away since it’s the quickest way to over-serve and get people over intoxicated.
Never will I go there again.
Overall, Pat’s Cocktails is still kind of around in 2023 using the name Pat’s Off Laurel.
However, there’s new management involved and I’m not sure if Ray is still part of the bar.
If I find out that Ray no longer has any involvement, I will probably switch this to “Closed”.
If you know anything, please let me know in the comments section below.
If you want to see some other Los Angeles Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out these updates:
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pats-cocktail-lounge-north-hollywoodhttps://www.facebook.com/The-New-Pats-Cocktails-534956243246659/
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Last updated: 2023-03-09 06:42
Is Vivian and Danielle still bartenders at the Pat’s Cocktails of Mixology Bar
Stopped by today. I don’t think those bartenders are still there.
A lot has changed since I was there last (pre-pandemic). They are under new ownership, and they have removed the pass-through window to the barbecue restaurant on the other side of the wall.
I read this page to the bartender, and she specifically said, “Ray is no longer affiliated,” lol.
They now have flatbread pizzas and some small food items separate from the neighboring barbecue restaurant.
Outside signage looks the same despite the name change.
Interestingly, it’s now a “Green Bay Packers bar.” There is a sister bar called the Norwood.
Cool thank you! I really appreciate it.
I will have to update this post then. I had a feeling Ray was no longer involved but I wasn’t sure.
I think this one should be marked as “closed” since nothing about the original is there anymore apparently, including the BBQ, the bartenders and owner.
Maybe Ray got eaten by an animal…which would be Karma since he wanted to murder so many wild ones, the prick. Hope he loses everything.
I just caught this episode again and I really hope Vivian is doing well wherever she is. She seemed like such a genuine, cool chick.
One of the best bartenders/staff on the entire show. That’s for sure.
Vivian is a Great Person! She has a Wonderful personality! Anybody who has her for a Friend is Lucky!!! God Bless All!!! First time I saw the show. And I’m 72!!!
I have been going to Pat’s for years. Last I went it was Green Bay Packers bar. It was always pretty good bar. Had food and management put out free pizza during football games. Only problem was that the way parking lot set-up. If you had like 3 drinks easy to get DUI.