(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 13, 2014
The Bar's Original Name Was: Bryant's Ice House
Wildcatter Saloon Address: 26913 Katy Fwy Katy, TX 77494
Episode Recap
Bryant’s Ice House, later renamed Wildcatter Saloon, was a Katy, Texas bar that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Wildcatter Saloon Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2014, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 36 and the episode name was “Taxed Out in Texas”.
Bryant’s Ice House is in Katy, TX.
Katy is a small city located just west of Houston, TX. So while the Katy population is only around 20,000 people, it has a chance to pull from Houston as well.
Jeff Simon is the owner of the bar.
He was an accountant but left his job to start his dream of owning a bar. This is a pretty common bar owner origin story as everyone wants to own a bar.
The bar had a bad reputation, and he invested a million dollars but didn’t change the name, so the bar stayed rowdy.
It’s popular with the motorcycle crowd and a lot of motorcycle clubs are regulars at the bar.
The bar’s location also doesn’t draw in customers as it is on a barely lit road.
The staff is also rude to the customers.
Basically, there are a lot of problems to fix, which is why the Bryant’s Ice House Bar Rescue episode exists.
Jon brings in mixologist Russell Davis to help save the bar.
They can’t find the bar, so they call the staff, who admits that many people get lost since there are no signs.
When they arrive, both Russell and Jon think the bar looks dangerous.
Nadia, Missy, and Kimmy are the bartenders.
Shelly is Jeff’s girlfriend, who assists at the bar from time to time.
Erin and Jessica, two locals, spy on the bar for Jon.
The girls order a cosmo and margarita.
The drinks are terrible, and they also feel uncomfortable because the bar is male-dominated.
The spies also order food that is made in a food truck.
The cook leaves the kitchen to bring them their food, violating health codes.
Randy is another staff member – he works on the bar’s maintenance.
He is drunk and starts talking to Erin and Jessica.
Soon the girls are scared and leave the bar.
The bar staff begins fist-fighting in front of the customers, which is just…wow.
While the chaos occurs, Jeff sits and doesn’t do anything.
Jon Taffer is fed up and goes to talk to Jeff.
The staff is being very disrespectful, and Jon is upset by it.
Randy is made to say sorry to the spies, but he chooses to walk out.
The bartenders make up and blame Jeff for not being strong enough.
Jon arrives the next day, and Randy is back and sober.
He is apologetic about his behavior the day before.
The staff is on board to better the bar, but Randy says Kimmie steals.
Jon tells Jeff he caught Kimmie on camera stealing, and Jeff is aware of the situation.
Jeff is then forced to fire Kimmie, which he probably should have done long ago.
Randy works with the construction team on the bar.
Russell is introduced to help the bartenders, along with food truck expert Eric Regan.
Russell trains the staff on basic cocktails.
Missy doesn’t drink, so she doesn’t know if the drink she makes tastes correct.
I guess that’s better than some of the bartenders who are drunk all the time, but it’s still a bit odd for a bartender.
The food truck staff is educated on why it is terrible to cook with frozen food.
The stress test begins to see how the staff an handle a tough environment.
The bartenders can’t keep up, especially Missy.
The cook in the food truck can’t keep up either.
Missy messes up too much hand Jon and the cook start fighting.
Jeff fires Missy after the stress test, which means Bryant’s Ice House has already lost two employees at this point in the episode.
Rachel and Lexie are brought in to work at the bar.
Russell trains the staff on new signature cocktails.
The cook learns how to make a healthy chicken sandwich in the food truck.
As part of the renovations, the bar is renamed from Bryant’s Ice House to Wildcatter Saloon.
The bar is an oil worker theme since most of the jobs in the area are oil-related.
The new name also gives it a chance to shake its motorcycle association.
The cook can now call the servers to pick up the food from the truck.
The bar opens for the relaunch.
The customers love the food truck, and they even offer vegetarian options.
So was the Bryant’s Ice House Bar Rescue episode a success? Let’s find out how this Katy Texas bar is doing in 2024…
Wildcatter Saloon Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Wildcatter Saloon Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened after Jon Taffer and his crew sped on down the Katy, TX freeway.
Things at Wildcatter Saloon got off to a good start.
At the standard six-week check-in, we learn that sales at the bar are up by more than 35%.
The bar has also lost its motorcycle club vibe, as a lot of the motorcycle clubs have stayed away after the Bar Rescue changes.
Overall, Jeff seems to have kept most of Taffer’s changes, including the new name.
Beyond the sales, reviews for the bar seem quite good as it has an excellent 4 star rating on its Yelp page.
Here’s a sampling of Wildcatter Saloon reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
5 star Yelp review from November 2014:
Great live bands on Sunday cheap drinks and relaxed atmosphere .
Was rescued on Bar Rescue TV show, still hidden location not sure if they really want to keep it that way?
Biker friendly brunch buffet on Sunday and food truck is open as well.
5 star review from November 2019 (this review has a spoiler!):
Went there cause I saw this place on bar rescue.
Met with the owner who actually used to own the end zone in west Houston.
Nice staff. Fast service I enjoyed my visit and if I’m back in the area I’ll come back.
4 star review from November 2021:
This place is fun, they almost always have live music on the weekends, small stage inside, a medium sized stage out the back door, and a rather large stage outside across a bridge.
People host wedding receptions, cook-offs and other events, but it’s also just a fun bar!
We saw this place on an episode of bar rescue and decided to check it out, we’ve been several times since then.
Dart board, pool table, cornhole boards scattered around….
cold beers and a few food trucks to check out if you get hungry.
The road to the bar is ROUGH!
Very sketchy stretch filled with potholes, but don’t let it stip you, the place is worth the venture.
We haven’t been to see anything on the larger stage yet, but we’re going to check it out eventually, until then….
Overall, the bar seems to have pretty good reviews, so it’s probably not a surprise that it’s still open.
Is Wildcatter Saloon from Bar Rescue still open?
As of 2023, Wildcatter Saloon is still open and serving customers in Katy, TX.
The bar is quite active on Facebook, regularly posting about events and specials.
Wildcatter Saloon seems to have lots of sports, as well as music and other events.
Wildcatter Saloon even had Corey Feldman perform in person, along with getting lots of other celebrities for a special Halloween event.
Her’s what the Wildcatter Saloon Katy TX location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view…
The bar has had a bit of a rocky ride, though.
For a time, it looked like Wildcatter Saloon actually would end up closing.
Let’s go through it…
On January 25 2017, the Wildcatter Saloon owners posted on Facebook that the bar would be closing.
This is probably the most difficult Facebook post I have ever had to write.
It is with great sadness that I would like to inform the customers of the Wildcatter Saloon that Saturday January 28 th 2017 will be our last night.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the many great years of support.
I have met a lot of great people over the years and ask if you could find it in your heart to come by one last time, so I can personally say thank you.
Change is hard, but the memories that were created will not change and I will carry them forever.
However, two days later on January 27, the bar made another post saying that the Wildcatter Saloon would stay open.
I’m going to say this in as few words as I can so pass this along!
We ain’t closing!!!!!
We ain’t closing!!!!!
We ain’t closing!!!!!
Wildcatter is staying open!!!!!
What caused the quick turnaround?
Well, the bar was actually sold to another person – who just so happened to have also been featured on Bar Rescue!
Yes, it seems like Wildcatter Saloon was purchased by Justin from Houston Sports Hub / End Zone, which was also featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Justin has kept the bar open under the Wildcatter Saloon name that Jon Taffer gave it and the bar still seems to be doing well under his ownership.
So – while Wildcatter Saloon is under new ownership, it’s still open and it’s stayed within the Bar Rescue family.
There was some more drama in 2018 when Justin blamed Bar Rescue for delaying repairs on the bar after Hurricane Harvey.
I guess Bar Rescue had promised that they would pay for all the repairs at Wildcatter Saloon, so Justin put a halt on doing them.
However, Bar Rescue later pulled out, which meant he had delayed the repairs for no reason.
Apparently Bar Rescue was planning to do it, but Jon Taffer got sick and it messed up the schedule.
Here’s the response from the Bar Rescue PR people:
Our host, Jon Taffer, fell ill with pneumonia and we were unable to proceed with filming.
Due to the show’s production schedule…..
we would not have been able to return to Houston for six months at the earliest.
If you’re in the Katy, TX area and want to plan a visit or if you just want to see the Wildcatter Saloon menu, you can check out the official Wildcatter Saloon website.
To see some other Texas Bar Rescue episodes, check out our The Brixton update or our Headhunters update.
I also have lots of other Texas bars on the full Bar Rescue open or closed list page.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-wildcatter-saloon-katyhttps://www.facebook.com/thewildcattersaloon/
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Last updated: 2023-02-03 05:53
If the episode aired in 2014, how were the folks at Bar Rescue libel for repairs in 2018 because of an Act of God (hurricanes in insurance-speak). I mean, was there a contract that stated they will repair the place forever?
The owner said that Bar Rescue had contacted him and agreed to do a second rescue to fix the hurricane damage. It wasn’t that Bar Rescue was liable to do the repairs – the Bar Rescue producers were just interested in doing a “special” episode to save the bar again.
This wouldn’t be the first time Jon Taffer rescued a bar twice. He also did two rescues at Champagne’s Cafe in Las Vegas:
https://realitytvupdates.com/bar-rescue/champagnes-cafe/
Because the Wildcatter Saloon owner thought Bar Rescue was coming again, the owner said he didn’t do the repairs himself. But then later, Bar Rescue pulled out so he had delayed the repairs for no reason and was upset about that.
I would have never expected that this bar would have survived given its out of the way location. Even more surprised to see Justin owning it. From the website and photos and videos, it looks like they are very active and doing well. This one was quite the turnaround from the biker bar dive it originally was.