(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 9 | View All Season 9 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: June 29, 2025
The Bar's Original Name Was: Slotzy's
Vitale's Hideaway Address: 7708 State Rte 4, Worden, IL 62097
Episode Recap
Slotzy’s, later renamed to Vitale’s Hideaway, was a Worden, Illinois bar that was featured on Season 9 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Vitale’s Hideaway Bar Rescue episode aired in June 2025, the actual filming and visit from Bar Rescue took place before that in June 2024.
It was Season 9 Episode 40 and the episode name was “Slotzy’s Last Shotzy”.
In what I believe is the finale of Bar Rescue Season 9, we finally get Jon Taffer back in person and handling the rescue himself instead of sending someone else.
Jon Taffer is heading back to Illinois for the fourth time in this set of episodes and the 11th time overall.
More specifically, he’s in Worden, Illinois to rescue a bar named Slotzy’s.
If you’re not familiar with your Illinois geography, Worden is a small city in the south of the state.
Like other Illinois bars from this season, the biggest city nearby is actually St. Louis Missouri.
In addition to being a bar, Slotzy’s also has video poker, slots, and other gaming, so people can come to gamble as well.
They also have pool tables, darts, and other fun stuff.
Nick Lang, the current Slotzy’s owner, inherited the bar from his father.
However, the bar has been around at that location for quite some time, as it was originally built all the way back in 1950.
It hasn’t been operating as Slotzy’s that entire time, though. Previously, it had other names like Worden Y Club and Diggers Dugout.
Nick only acquired the bar in 2022, though, so he had only been running it for a couple of years at the time of Taffer’s visit.
Unfortunately, Nick is now relying on an untrained manager to run Slotzy’s, which has the bar struggling.
After all, Slotzy’s wouldn’t be showing up on Bar Rescue if everything were going well.
As with other recent episodes, the Bar Rescue team has not published a full preview video for this episode, which means I can’t provide a more detailed recap yet since I’m writing this post a day before the episode airs on TV.
I did see a short preview video on Facebook, though, in which Jon Taffer and the expert watch a bartender improperly make a pineapple martini and get her fingers all over the drink.
In addition to the finger on the glass, the bartenders are also having other issues.
For example, they can’t find the ingredients for the birthday cake martini, which the expert calls a “sad, sad cocktail”.
Back in the kitchen, things aren’t much better.
They decide to cook the burger well done because they didn’t bother to ask the customer how they wanted it.
They’re also cooking it on a gross cooktop and squishing the hamburger against the cooktop, which makes it super dry.
Beyond that, they do something super weird for the steak salad, which I’ve honestly never seen before.
Instead of cooking the steak and then cutting it before putting it on the salad, the chef cut up the steak before grilling it.
That sucks because it means you can’t get a nice medium piece of steak – instead, everything will be well done.
Regardless of the lack of a full preview video, I do know the new concept that Jon Taffer decided to put in at Slotzy’s.
He changed the bar’s name from Slotzy’s to Vitale’s Hideaway.
The name is based on a famous St. Louis mobster named John Vitale.
This is why it’s spelled with an “e” and not as Vitaly’s Hideaway, which I’ve seen some people write.
In addition to the new name and renovations, Bar Rescue also upgraded the menu.
Some of the new signature menu items include a new homemade “mobster meatballs” dish, smoking gun wings, cheese cannolis, and pulled pork.
So – was the Slotzy’s Bar Rescue visit a long-term success?
Keep reading my update to learn what happened next and if this Worden, Illinois bar is still open in 2025.
Vitale's Hideaway Update - What Happened Next?
Now that I’ve recapped the episode, let’s talk about how the bar is doing after Jon Taffer and the Bar Rescue crew left Worden.
I’ll start by talking about whether Vitale’s Hideaway is still open and using the name from Jon Taffer.
Then, I’ll look at the bar’s reaction to the show, including some interview quotes from Nick Lang about the Bar Rescue experience.
Finally, I’ll share some real customer reviews from after the rescue to give you an idea of how people are reacting to the changes from the show.
Along the way, I’ll also share any other interesting details that I’m able to dig up, including a local news segment on the bar.
Let’s get into it…
Is Vitale’s Hideaway still open after Bar Rescue?
As of my most recent check, Vitale’s Hideaway is still open and serving customers in Worden, Illinois.
More importantly, they seem to have fully embraced the new Vitale’s Hideaway name and concept from Jon Taffer and are using that name across their entire business.
The bar is very active on its social media profiles, regularly posting about events and specials at the bar.
First off, they seem to have a regular standup comedy night on every third Saturday of the month.
In addition to paid shows, they also seem to have free open mic nights.
They also seem to host poker tournaments every Thursday, which sounds like a good time.
I also see other occasional events that you’d expect to see from a bar, such as karaoke.
Vitale’s Hideaway was also hiring staff as recently as a week or so before the episode aired on TV, which I think is a good thing.
I mean, sometimes hiring staff can be a bad sign because it means there’s turnover.
But based on other signals, I think Vitale’s Hideaway is doing quite ok.
Vitale’s Hideaway also seems to run some pretty crazy specials.
For example, on a recent Monday, they had $0.75 wings and $0.75 12 oz draft cups, which I would be all over if I lived in the area.
Here’s a screenshot of part of the Vitale’s Hideaway menu to give you an idea of the regular prices and what’s on offer.
Here’s what the Vitale’s Hideaway location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view.
Google most recently updated the picture in April 2025 so it already shows the new Vitale’s Hideaway name and concept.
Side note – when I was playing around with different map locations, it seems like a previous Google Maps shot actually took the picture when Bar Rescue was there filming.
If you look at this picture, you can see all of the trucks and tents for the Bar Rescue production crew.
Pretty cool coincidence – it’s wild that Google just happened to update the pictures when Bar Rescue was there.
I wonder if Taffer is in one of the shots.
Owner and bar reaction to the episode
Whenever a new episode airs, I always like to see how the bar is reacting to the experience.
Some bars will basically ignore it and never mention Bar Rescue.
Other bars will host watch parties and really lean into the Bar Rescue angle.
I’m happy to report that Vitale’s Hideaway seems to be in the latter category and Nick has been embracing the Bar Rescue experience.
First off, Vitale’s Hideaway hosted a watch party when the episode originally aired on TV.
They actually paired the Bar Rescue watch party with an open mic comedy night, which seems like a fun time.
Nick and two of his employees were also on a local news program, My St. Louis Live.
In the segment, Nick explains how he got to be on Bar Rescue and also shares some of his other thoughts on the episode.
He also says that “it was amazing. We couldn’t believe we had the opportunity to do that”.
They also show off some of the new menu items that came from the show.
You can watch the full segment below:
Finally, Nick Lang gave an interview to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where he shared some thoughts about the experience.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes…
First, it appears that he’s not delusional like some other owners and recognizes that there were things the bar can do better:
He’s just like the show.
He’s very direct, knows what he’s talking about.
If he’s yelling and screaming, it’s because you deserve it.
He made us better at what we do.
He also seems to believe in the changes from Taffer:
If you stay the course and you follow the tools that they’ve given to you (you’ll succeed)
Nick also said that the bar has been welcoming more customers since the changes and is seeing new customers every day.
Here’s a link to the actual article and here’s the Archive.ph link so that you can view the unpaywalled article.
Vitale’s Hideaway reviews after Bar Rescue
Next, let’s take a look at some real customer reviews for the bar from after Jon Taffer performed his magic.
Overall, the bar has a 4.4 star rating on 205+ Google reviews and a 4.6 star rating on 5+ Yelp reviews.
While the Yelp reviews only include reviews from after the changes, the Google reviews include reviews from back when it was Slotzy’s as well.
As always, I try to exclusively look at reviews that were written after the rescue happened.
Remember – the actual rescue took place in June 2024, even though the episode didn’t air on TV until June 2025.
Overall, I would say that the reviews are pretty positive.
Even though there are only 5 Yelp reviews, a 4.6 star rating is still pretty dang strong.
On Google, most of the reviews also seem to be pretty positive, though with a few mixed reviews.
One two star review alleges that the “staff [were] showing their breasts as the night goes on”, which sounds a bit interesting haha.
But in general, I would say that the reviews definitely lean toward the positive side.
People seem to be especially happy with the pork tenderloin dish, which matches what the general manager said in the local news segment that I embedded above.
Here’s a sampling of a few representative reviews that I found to give you an idea of what customers are experiencing…
5 star Google review that mentions tenderloin:
4 star Google review:
4 star Yelp review:
2 star Google review that alleges the staff were showing their breasts:
Final thoughts on the episode
Overall, things seem to be going well for Vitale’s Hideaway so far.
I like that the owner seems to have really embraced the changes from Jon Taffer.
The bar seems to be active on social media and recent reviews seem to be pretty positive.
Given that, I hope this one is able to become a long-term success story.
That wraps up my Vitale’s Hideaway Bar Rescue update.
If you want to see some other bars from the show in a similar area of Illinois, you can also read my updates for The Airliner in East Alton, Swamp Town / Swamp Tales in Carlyle, and Smithton Station / CJ’s Pub in Smithton.
And if you want to share your thoughts on Vitale’s Hideaway / Slotzy’s, Jon Taffer’s rescue, or anything else about the episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
I especially like hearing from people who have experience visiting the bar in person.
That’s it for now.
As always – thank you for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/vitales-hideway-wordenhttps://www.facebook.com/p/Vitales-Hideaway-61563740289559/
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Last updated: 2025-06-30 07:53
Tapper as usual is an egotistical asshole and loudmouth that knows nothing but to run his big, fat mouth and throw stuff. Was glad to hear he was getting sued for his actions on another episode.