(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: February 10, 2013
The Bar's Original Name Was: Turtle Bay
Spirits on Bourbon Address: 615 Bourbon St New Orleans, LA 70130
Episode Recap
Turtle Bay, later renamed Spirits on Bourbon, was a New Orleans, Louisiana bar that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Spirits on Bourbon Bar Rescue episode aired in February 2013, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that in 2013.
It was Season 3 Episode 1 and the episode name was “Turtle on Its Back” .
Turtle Bay is located on the historic Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The owner is Brad Bohannon, and he opened the bar in 2011.
He is the former owner of the bar across the street named Tropical Isle, so he knows a thing or two about life on Bourbon Street.
After a fallout with the owners, he left.
Side note – Tropical Isle is still open as of 2023, so the other owners also seem to know a thing or two.
When Brad opened Turtle Bay, he used the same theme and colors as Tropical Isle.
After he copied their signature cup, he was sued.
Steve Smith is another former owner of Tropical Isle who manages Turtle Bay.
The bar has no identity and no profit because it seems like just another lookalike.
As a result, they are losing a whopping $15,000 per month at the time of the Turtle Bay Bar Rescue episode.
Rent on Bourbon Street ain’t cheap, guys!
To help fix Turtle Bay, Jon brings in professional bartender Rick Gomez and Chef Ron Duprat.
The streets are busy, but everyone is passing by the bar.
John and Nathalie from The Black Sheep (later renamed The Public House), a former bar on Bar Rescue, go into the bar as spies.
They order the bar’s signature drink, The Turtle.
It tastes sour and looks identical to The Hand Grenade from the Tropical Isle.
You can definitely see why Tropical Isle took issue with it and sued Turtle Bay.
To make matters worse, the food isn’t much better.
The gumbo is served after being reheated in a microwave.
Jon comes in and asks Brad why he copied the other bar.
Brad responds by saying the other bar has his ideas.
Then, Jon Taffer reminds him that when he sold the shares to the other bar, he sold his rights to his unique ideas as well.
Steve doesn’t manage the bar very well and doesn’t know the price of the drinks.
They all have a lot to prove to Jon.
The next day when Jon meets with the staff, he finds out there are no set drink recipes.
The bar staff was never trained properly and just kind of does their own thing.
Again, it’s not hard to imagine the bar losing $15k per month in these circumstances.
There are hygiene issues too – Chef Ron finds a dead roach in the kitchen.
Jon then orders the kitchen staff to be deep clean the kitchen.
During the stress test, the team has thirty seconds to make cocktails and can’t keep up with the heavy demand.
Customers leave before they are even served their drinks.
The food is served cold, and Jon explodes when the kitchen staff admits they served the gumbo at the wrong temperature.
Chef Ron introduces a new gumbo dish, and there are new signature drinks like The Resurrection.
The Resurrection is similar to The Hand Grenade from Tropical Isle, but it now has a unique spin that’s unique to the bar.
Why is it called The Resurrection?
Well, as part of the renovations, Jon has changed the name of the bar to Spirits on Bourbon; he used the bar’s spooky history as inspiration for the new name.
A barber who worked in the building was supposedly murdered by his mistress.
The new signature cup is a flashing skull – here’s a picture of it:
Beyond the new name, Jon Taffer also renovates the interior of the bar and adds new equipment.
There is more interior lighting and a new POS machine for easier order taking.
Now that we’ve recapped the Turtle Bay Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about how the bar is doing in 2023 and beyond.
Spirits on Bourbon Update - What Happened Next?
So – was the Spirits on Bourbon Bar Rescue episode a success? The answer is a resounding yes!
In fact, it’s probably one of the most succesful rescues ever.
Soon after Jon Taffer’s visit, the bar is bringing in almost $10,000 per month in profit, which is a huge improvement from the $15,000 deficit when Turtle Bay originally appeared on the show.
Their annual sales are well over one million dollars.
Reviews for Spirits on Bourbon are both positive and negative, mainly on the drink taste.
Bar Rescue also did a lengthy revisit episode to celebrate Mardi Gras.
The video is about 26 minutes long – you can see the full video in this YouTube video (though a lot of the video is from the original episode – the new stuff start around the 19:30 mark, which is where I’ve started the video):
Is Spirits on Bourbon from Bar Rescue still open?
As of 2023, Spirits on Bourbon is still open and serving customers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
A lot of reviewers love the Resurrection drink, so it appears that they’ve stuck with the changes that Jon Taffer made.
Here’a s Google Maps street view from March 2022 that shows what the bar currently looks like.
It has a sign saying to “Get Your World Famous Resurrection”, so it seems like they really play up Jon Taffer’s drink:
It has just a 3.5 star rating on Yelp, but Spirits on Bourbon still seems to have a lot of happy customers and is a successful business.
Here’s a sampling of reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer:
4 star Yelp review from November 2022:
My boyfriend and I are fans of the show Bar Rescue.
A while back we saw this place on the show and instantly looked for it when we first got to Bourbon St.
We never got a chance to check it out in the evening, but when we did visit during the day there was live music and the vibe was pretty chill.
The bartender was really nice and she made us really good cocktails.
Of course my boyfriend ordered the skull cup signature drink which was about $15, but if you bring the cup back you get $5 off.
During our trip here, we came here twice just for the drink.
I, myself, liked the drink, but I could do without the jalapeno slice, it gave me acid reflex.
It’s not a must see, but it’s really cool to still see the bar and the signature drink.
4 star Yelp review from January 2022:
My boyfriend and I passed this place while drinking.
We decided that we needed more alcohol. Why not drink more??
You can never have enough booze.
We also heard about this place from Bar Rescue.
We both had the Resurrection.
I don’t remember at all what was in it, but it was delicious!!
It also came in one of those flashy mugs! Flavor was great!
I wish our bartender interacted a bit more.
Would have made the experience a bit better.
We didn’t order any food, but food menu looked good!
1 star Yelp review from September 2016:
We went to this place because it was on Bar Rescue so we wanted to give it a try.
Pros:
* the light up cups are cool to walk around with at night.
Cons:
* the live music was bad or maybe that was an off night
* the place doesn’t look clean
* most of Jon’s (guy from Bar Rescue) items wasn’t offered any more.
* the waitress took so long that we ended up leaving without ordering anything.
4 star Yelp review from September 2021:
During our party vacation week in the Big Easy we had to pay a visit to Spirits on Bourbon which was featured on Bar Rescue.
Fun spot and great bartender on duty when we took a few seats at the bar.
The place itself still has a dive bar look and feel to it.
Not much seemed to change that much from the Bar Rescue episode, as it looked as if they went back to their old look.
The barber shop chair was still there and we observed people getting spun in it and taking shots.
Kind of fun but I’m not stupid enough to do that. HAHA!
We both got the specialty drink in the light up skill glass, The Resurrection and it was really good.
A bit sweet but full of booze, and you get to keep the glass.
Fun to walk around with at night.
If you’re in New Orleans, make sure to check it out when you swing down Bourbon Street.
You can also learn more about the bar and see its menu on the official Spirits on Bourbon website. Here’s a direct link to the Spirits on Bourbon menu.
In addition to food and drink, the bar also sells merch such as a flashing drink club, skull and crossbones funnel beads, and more.
If you want to see some other New Orleans Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out my updates for The Annex / TJ Quills in New Orleans, Desi Romano’s Sports Bar in Chalmette, and The Second Line Co / Speakeasy in Kenner.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/spirits-on-bourbon-new-orleanshttps://www.facebook.com/SpirtsOnBourbon/
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Last updated: 2023-03-03 06:09
The “resurrection drink”was way too sweet. Poured it out…
No ghost seen, just sex!
Thanks for sharing!
I’m sorry, I’m kind of baffled that people are complaining the drink is too strong lmao. Is that not the point of a giant alcoholic cocktail, to get the job done? It seems like this place is doing it right! I’d love to get drunk off one drink.
I never mind a strong drink either – good value for the money! This comment was complaining about the Spirits on Bourbon Resurrection drink being too sweet, though.
There was another comment complaining about the strength of the drink, so maybe this was in response to that one.
It looks to be falling apart. Unless you meant to leave some tiles out. Bathroom was dirty, and I could not drink the resurrection. Way to stong.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Hopefully they can get it together.
Resurrection was to damn strong got drunk after 2 sips. Place needs a refreshing falling apart. Food was expensive! Not impressed!
Thanks for sharing! I think the Resurrection was created specifically for people who want to get drunk so I guess it works. Sad to hear they aren’t doing the upkeep and maintenance though.
Went yesterday for a girls trip. Resurrection is ok , but my favorite drink is the barber beer.
The place is run down could use some updating.
I always visit this place when coming to New Orleans because I love bar rescue.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Other people seem to agree that it’s looking a bit rundown.
Our Mardi Gras Krewe now holds an event here each Mardi Gras week. Good people in a great city!! The drink is fun!! Laissez les bon temps roule!!
Covid was rough on us all; you can imagine the hit the French Quarter took. Yes- ‘the city that care forgot’ could use a lil care.
Y’all come on down!
💜💛💚