(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 4 | View All Season 4 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 23, 2014
The Bar's Original Name Was: The Dirty Rooster
The Dirty Rooster Address: 25855 Rt 173 Antioch, IL 60002
Episode Recap
The Dirty Rooster, later renamed to Lake Marie Lodge, was an Antioch, Illinois bar that was featured on Season 4 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Dirty Rooster Bar Rescue episode aired in November 2014, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 4 Episode 8 and the episode name was “Swinging from the Rafters”.
Located in Antioch, Illinois, the Dirty Rooster was a struggling bar with two owners who hated each other.
The owners are (former) best friends Rob Hoffman and Steve Mallmann.
They originally opened the bar in 2013, which means they’ve only owned it for around a year at the time of the Dirty Rooster Bar Rescue episode.
They were both equal partners, each investing $40,000 of their own money into the bar.
They also brought in another owner, Scott Lopes, to help with the finances. Scott invested $25,000 in exchange for a share of the bar.
In total, Rob and Steve own 37.5% each and Scott owns 25%.
However, there’s major tension between Rob and Scott, which ends up becoming a huge issue after the Bar Rescue episode (spoiler alert!).
The Dirty Rooster started off well, but quickly started to go downhill and is now losing $4,000 per month at the time of the visit from Jon Taffer.
Rob has started to let himself go and drinks instead of focusing on the business.
Scott, the third investor, thinks that Rob is sabotaging the bar with hsi drinking.
To help rescue the bar, Jon Taffer brings in Raul Faria for the drinks and Nick Liberato for the kitchen.
To recon the bar, Jon Taffer sends in Jessica and some of her friends.
The girls are getting tons of free drinks, while Rob is binge drinking.
Jon Taffer has the experts go in to talk with Rob and it turns into a bit of a dramatic scene with Rob and Steve fighting and Steve shutting down the bar for the night.
To help figure out part of why the bar is losing so much money, Jon Taffer turns to Partender.
When Jon Taffer installs Partender, he finds that the bar only billed $2,700 for what should’ve been $9,600 in liquor sales, which goes a long way towards explaining why it’s losing money.
Jon Taffer also sat down with the three owners to see what can be saved.
Jon asks Rob if he would walk away from the bar for $40,000 right now.
However, Rob says no because he loves the bar so much.
On the other hand, Steve says yes, while Scott is on the fence.
Eventually, Jon Taffer seems to get through to Rob and Rob promises to stop behaving how he has been.
As part of Jon’s attempt to save the bar, he rebranded and changed the name from Dirty Rooster to Lake Marie Lodge.
But – spoiler alert – the owners ended up keeping The Dirty Rooster name despite Jon’s best efforts.
With dysfunctional owners who wouldn’t take Jon’s advice, The Dirty Rooster never really stood much of a chance.
With that being said, let’s talk about what happened next after the Dirty Rooster Bar Rescue episode, including whether this Antioch bar is still open in 2024.
The Dirty Rooster Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Lake Marie Lodge Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Antioch, IL.
First, as I mentioned above, the owners did not keep Jon Taffer’s name and went back to the Dirty Rooster shortly after.
Beyond that, Taffer was also unable to fix their relationship, as the strained relationship between the owners would eventually lead to the bar’s closing.
But first – Jon Taffer did manage to re-visit the Dirty Rooster.
Dirty Rooster Jon Taffer Back to the Bar Episode
Jon Taffer talked to Rob from Dirty Rooster as part of a Back to the Bar episode from Season 4.
I can’t find the entire segment, but I did find a 3-minute clip of this interaction on YouTube, which shows Jon Taffer talking to Rob in the studio:
Is the Dirty Rooster still open after Bar Rescue?
The Dirty Rooster closed at the end of 2015, which means that it only survived for around a year after the episode aired on TV. The bar closed primarily because of disputes between the owners.
According to owner Robert Hoffman, he said the drama on the show was all real.
Robert commented on Facebook, saying:
That part on my show about me and Scott hating each other is real.
So Scott decided to sue the bar and me personally for 125k….
That was enough to put me over the edge.
Not to mention the state of Illinois get a tax on it because they saw me giving away alcohol on TV that cost me $12,000.
Time to move on
Here’s a screenshot of the Facebook post:
Rob ended up selling everything possible and closing up shop.
As of 2023, the old Dirty Rooster Antioch, IL location seems to be occupied by a fishing/bait shop and bar named Musky Tales.
You can see this in the shot from Google Maps Street View:
Now, let’s talk about some of the Dirty Rooster reviews after Bar Rescue…
Perhaps it’s a good thing the bar closed, because the Yelp reviews continued to be horrible.
My favorite is this one-star review from Boadicea:
Wish I could give this HORRIBLE place a negative 10 was dirty and the drumk ass owner was a complete DICK!!!!!!
My husband and I STRONGLY advise against going here
Overall, the bar had 3 star rating at the time that Dirty Rooster closed.
Here’s a sampling of some other reviews that were written after Jon Taffer’s visit.
1 star Yelp review from September 2015:
Have been to this place a few times since it’s Bar Rescue debut and it’s really gone down hill.
Went in last night (Saturday) and there were three patrons in the bar until we showed up.
With Us it totaled 8.
I ordered one of their specialty drinks and was told this was the bartenders first time behind the bar.
I looked around and noticed she was the only employee even there.
First red flag.
Huge gang of bikers rolled up and we were ignored the rest of the time by the lone bartender since she seemed to be part of their crew (she was wearing their biker gear) one of the guys under his breath said he was going shove a horseshoe up one of my friends bottom because of a song on the jukebox.
We felt incredibly uncomfortable and left ASAP.
The bar wasn’t super dirty but it wasn’t clean either.
Very bland inside and no food service was available.
We won’t be back.
1 star Yelp review from May 2015:
Dirty place with a “frat party” feel. The feeling was more along the lines like I stepped into someone else’s living room than a bar.
I haven’t had this feeling since I was in college and bounced between people’s houses looking for a party.
The owner sat on a bar stool – drinking with his friends – controlling the jukebox and ensuring all around him were as intoxicated as he was to have as much fun.
Sadly, when you are running a bar and looking for people to frequent your place – not the type of environment I’m looking for.
Steered away from food and anything not bottled – it all looked dirty.
Good news – booze is cheap.
Very few places you can get 6 drinks for $20.
Sadly, I will not be returning.
4 star Yelp review from November 2014:
After watching the Bar Rescue episode the wife and I thought we would give it a try.
Otherwise would have never thought of going there not to mention it was a 25 mile drive.
A pleasant Saturday afternoon drive following Thanksgiving.
Tara was the bartender and we were greeted with a smile and a warm welcome.
Ordered the nachos and they were very good. White cheddar cheese and homemade nachos chips came out in 5 minutes.
More then enough for the two of us.
Draft beer nice and cold and got a clean glass on our refill without asking, don’t normally see that.
Wish more bars did.
My only issue is with the bathrooms, they need a little bit of work.
Keep up the good work.
If in the area will stop by again
I can safely say that the Dirty Rooster is closed, with no chance of it returning.
It seems like the issues between the owners were too much for Jon Taffer to overcome, so there was very little chance of the Dirty Rooster Bar Rescue visit being a success no matter what Jon did.
If you want to see some other Illinois Bar Rescue episodes, check out these posts:
- BR Steak / Pro’s Sports Bar update
- Casual Tap update
- The Dugout / Press Box update
- Island Lounge / Island Bar update
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/lake-marie-lodge-antiochhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Marie-Lodge-Formerly-known-As-the-Dirty-Rooster/845551718810642
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Last updated: 2023-02-22 06:27
So sad that Rob Hoffman was so stupid as to not understand that he was 100% responsible for the bar’s failure. It wasn’t dysfunctional owners, it was one dysfunctional man who bought a bar so he could drink for “free” — it was a horrible show to watch and I finally had to just turn it off.
I agree 1000%, he just let loose like a kid in a candy store…. I hate to think he worked hard at one time and saved up and then just drank himself broke? He could have been living a modest lifestyle, and he’d never have to bust his ass for someone else’s company.. sad
I don’t know why Jon bothers with such bars. It is clear it will do no good.
Doubt Scott got any money from Rob in his lawsuit. Would be surprised if he is homeless.
When a bar owner thinks he can drink to the point of getting drunk is a fool. This place could have been a goldmine. Too bad that he just couldn’t get it. Wonder what he’s doing now. Too bad.
So true..
Last I heard, Rob became a truck driver.
It would be nice if Taffer brought along a bouncer to pound some sense into the many drunken lowlifes that are bar owners.
I don’t understand why the bar, or any of the bars john rescued don’t make it. If I was John these aholes, just want a bar remodeled so they can sell it later for a bigger price. I think I have watched every episode from wonder bra, which John should have walked away from to this one also. John always leaves these bars in a better place, especially this dive.
How could you f- up a remodeled restaurant right on the lake? Nice going, Rob. Have another drink.
So agree, sometimes I would like to punch these bar owners
Look like Rob went back to drinking and Scott saw the writing on the wall. Rob was a selfish drunk who put everyone’s livelihood and wellbeing on the line so. He can party.. Scott was right to sue he was absolutely damaged by Rob’s actions. That place could have made money hand over fist.