(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 6 | View All Season 6 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 3, 2018
The Bar's Original Name Was: Barley Pop's Bar and Grill
The Valley Saloon Address: 3328 E Charleston Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89104
Episode Recap
Barley Pop’s Bar and Grill, later renamed to The Valley Saloon, was a Las Vegas, Nevada bar that was featured on Season 6 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Valley Saloon Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2018, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place way before that all the way back at the beginning of 2017.
It was Season 6 Episode 12 and the episode name was “Down and Out in Las Vegas”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer visits Barley Pop’s Bar and Grill, a Las Vegas bar owned by Chris Woodbury.
Chris has owned the bar for six years at this point, so he’s got some experience under his belt.
The bar was successful at first, but now Chris drinks at the bar and does not support his staff.
The bar is falling apart, and the kitchen has not been used.
Barley Pop’s Bar and Grill is now in debt, and it seems as if Chris has given up on saving it.
All these reasons are why the bar needs help and why the Barley Pops Bar Rescue episode even exists in the first place.
Chef Ryan Scott and mixologist Shawn Ford join Jon Taffer to help rescue the bar.
The footage shows Chris sad and drinking at the bar.
Paige is also shown; she is the manager and head bartender.
Justin, Carmela, Kari, and Johnny bartend at Barley Pop’s.
To get some inside knowledge, Todd Michaels, a radio host, spies on the bar with a friend.
They order drinks, and the bartender does a shot with them.
Drinking on the job is a pretty classic thing for bartenders on Bar Rescue, right?
The specialty drink the bartender creates for them tastes terrible.
The spies then ask for food.
Even though the kitchen is closed, the bartender takes their order, and Justin goes to make their food.
There is mold on the frying baskets in the kitchen.
The spies want sliders but are told those are not an option, but they order chicken tenders instead.
Amber goes to the kitchen to cook the food, but Chris doesn’t help his staff.
Chef Ryan enters Barley Pop’s to stop the service because it’s a health risk.
When Jon Taffer enters the bar, Amber starts to cry.
Amber and Chris have a child together and are engaged.
Chris usually lets Amber pick up on his slack.
The following day Jon returns, but Chris and Amber are absent.
The staff tells Jon they want to see Barley Pop’s succeed because they like Chris.
Jon Taffer calls Chris, the owner, and Amber tells Jon that Chris is passed out.
Justin goes over to Chris’s house to get him back to work.
The experts are introduced to the staff, and Kari says she will cook in the kitchen.
Shawn shows the bartenders how to make a specialty margarita called tequila moon.
Chef Ryan shows Kari and Paige how to make a buffalo shrimp dish.
Chris still hasn’t arrived, and the stress test is about to start.
After talking to Amber and Justin, Chris finally arrives at the bar.
Jon and Chris talk about Chris’s drinking problem, but Amber has a severe panic attack and has to be taken by ambulance to the hospital.
A counselor comes into the bar to talk to Chris about his grief from losing his wife and stepson.
The bar is inefficient, and the kitchen is falling behind.
Many customers have not been served or haven’t paid for their drinks.
Justin has been trying to keep tabs open but lost count.
Eventually, the bar is shut down after the stress test is a failure.
Paige and Justin are taken to a distillery in Nevada to sample whiskey and vodka.
Chris continues to meet with Oscar, his counselor, while Amber is released from the hospital.
The staff is trained on how to make drinks with Frey Ranch liquor while Paige and Justin are at the Frey Ranch Distillery.
While all of that’s happening, Jon Taffer and his crew are hard at work on renovating the bar.
As part of the changes, the bar is renamed from Barley Pop’s to The Valley Saloon.
There are many rustic elements in the bar.
There is a new workstation and a POS system.
Justin makes great drinks behind the bar, and Chris is happy with the changes.
So was the Barley Pops Bar Rescue episode a success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened to the bar and if it’s still open in 2024.
The Valley Saloon Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Valley Saloon Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Las Vegas, NV.
First off, it wouldn’t stay named The Valley Saloon for very long.
Shortly after Jon Taffer’s visit, Chris changed the name back to the original Barley Pops.
It seems like the bar also had some issues with cleanliness.
In mid-2017, the bar had to close after failing a health inspection because there was a cockroach infestation, along with fruit flies in the liquor bottles (a Bar Rescue classic).
The health inspection failure happened long before the Barley Pops Bar Rescue episode aired on TV, but about half a year after the actual visit from Jon Taffer.
Remember – Jon Taffer actually visited Barley Pops about a year and a half before the episode aired on TV.
So was Barley Pops able to turn it around and keep things going? So far – yes.
Is Barley Pops from Bar Rescue still open?
As of 2023, Barley Pops is still open and serving customers in Las Vegas, NV.
However, it’s doing so under the original Barley Pops name, rather than The Valley Saloon, which is the name that Jon Taffer gave it.
There’s also a pizza business called One Slice of New York that operates from inside of Barley Pops.
So if you’re drinking at Barley Pops, you can also order pizza from One Slice of New York
There’s also an official Barley Pops Las Vegas website.
Here’s a link to the website, and here’s a screenshot of the One Slice of New York/Barley Pops menu to give you an idea of the prices.
Here’s a Google Maps street view embed showing the Barley Pops Las Vegas location today:
Barley Pops reviews after Bar Rescue
Reviews for Barley Pops are good but not amazing.
It has a 3.5 star rating on Yelp and a 4.4 star rating on Google Reviews.
Here’s a sampling of some recent reviews that were written after the Barley Pops / The Valley Saloon Bar Rescue visit…
5 star Yelp review from December 2021:
Cold beer friendly bartender Coda.
Can’t beat the draft price – $1.75
Really exceptional sandwiches
We had Barley Pops Sub and I had Fat Boy’ Sub.
Fries to die for.
L&G
5 star Yelp review from June 2021:
Great dive bar with outstanding food and service.
Bar staff is friendly, fast and knowledgable.
The restaurant serves up really good food .
I had the stuffed mushrooms. Amazing!
$2 draft beer, friendly customers and a relaxed atmosphere?
Barley Pops is a winner, for sure.
5 star Yelp review from August 2019:
Great local bar with affordable drinks and games.
Always have wonderful service, with awesome bartenders.
Have no doubt we will get taken care of when we come here.
Overall, people seem to really like the low prices, among other positives.
There are still some negative reviews, though. Here are some examples.
1 star Yelp review from September 2020:
Terrible service.
Had to pay for drinks and food seperate.
Beers tasted old didnt see any foam on the head of the beer.
Wings didnt have any flavor very rubbery tasted old.
Waste of 30 bucks.
When i questioned my bill the bartender got aggressive and walked off mid sentence.
I wouldn’t recommend this place.
1 star Yelp review from November 2018:
Formerly “Valley Saloon” this used to be a place I frequented to often.
Though I was told by employees there was no ownership change just the name I find this hard to believe.
It used to be your traditional local dive bar, decent priced drinks and good food.
I stopped in not long after the name change on a Saturday night, the atmosphere was more hip hop with a DJ but the place was pretty packed so the atmosphere was tolerable.
I have since visited three separate times during the week and it’s always Hispanic music and a mariachi type vibe.
It also felt like I was getting the “what are YOU doing here look by some of the Hispanic patrons who dominated the establishment.
I mean no disrespect to ours neighbors from the South who reside here but I am a good old traditional American and “Barley Pops” is not a welcoming place for my kind.
Overall, despite ditching the name change from Jon Taffer, the Barley Pop’s Las Vegas location seems to be doing pretty well.
If you want to see some other nearby Bar Rescue Las Vegas episodes, you can check out my updates for Shattered Bar / Eliphino from Season 6, Jack’s Place / The Regan Lounge from Season 5, and The Bradley / City Bar from Season 5.
Or, you can check out my full list of all 25+ Bar Rescue episodes in Las Vegas and Nevada – it’s one of the most popular locations for the show.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/barley-pops-las-vegashttps://www.facebook.com/BarleyPopsLasVegas/
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Last updated: 2023-04-01 05:02
It’s shame that Barley Pops went from rags to riches into Valley Saloon and then to see Chris the owner let it go back to a nasty saloon. Sad ! Sad!Sad!
I don’t see where he and his fiancé broke up , she moved away and he married someone else lol there’s a reason they were engaged for 5 years and never married ! Lol
Been there couple of time is the past month. Definitely still at hood bar.
john taffer is a joke. Most bars in vegas suck. they all think they are the next thing. most overpriced with nothing , not even atmosphere. Most bartenders can’t make a decent drink. amateurs. owners concentrate on screwing their staff. that’s about it. Barley Pops is a silly ass name.
They should change the name to reflect the smell in that place “BO AND BUTTHOLE”
“This fryer grease, this is the same grease that’s in your hair” haha ouch.
When Taffer opened the fridge and saw a single bag of ore-ida freezer burned tots from Costco he knew he was doomed haha. You know that scene is Rambo first blood where they shower him him off and delouse him violently, Taffer needed to take that owner to the high velocity hose dish pit, strip him down and wash some some of the skank off him. Engaged for 5 years? Run lady, never look back.
In the opening of the episode, I thought I was watching an episode of Intervention! He is such a major alcoholic!
Am I the only one here that is curious if Chris got his shit together and stopped drinking, at least in excess? Losing your stepson at 25 to cancer and then your wife to suicide can’t be easy to deal with, I felt bad for him – he was a mess.
No. The couple split up. He married someone else and she left Las Vagas. It’s in the 6week update at the end of each episode.
That’s crazy!? I see he married someone else by the end of the next month after Bar Rescue had visited. I didn’t find anything about Amber leaving but if she left Vegas I’m assuming she took theie child too? So he decides to marry someone else? Damn! How long did he know her and how long after Amber left? How bizarre and crazy his life may be!
Another codependent pretty lady enabling her alcoholic fiancé. When he cleans up in the episode you can see him appear to look 10 yrs younger. But the trip to the ER should’ve told us where this was headed.
From minute one in this episode I was telling the TV “run lady, RUN!”.
Good to hear she’s done & away from him.
Praying she took her child.
The relationship often explodes when the alcoholic starts to get better. The stress of propping him up finally broke through.
The show is fascinating. This episode made me sad.
The last place this guy should be is in a bar, no less the owner.