Tear Jerker / Bar Rescue

• Some of the where are they now epilogues, if the bar continues to fail or closes down after Taffer leaves. As many as half of the bars featured on the show still end up closing after their relaunch.
  • What's especially sad is the cases where the bar fails due to circumstances beyond the control of the owner or employees. Several bars ended up losing their liquor license or having to remove Taffer's new decor and features due to local laws and building codes.
• The sheer state of affairs of "Bungalow Bar". You know the classic format of the bar being run to the ground by a irresponsible owners, this isn't that. These are owners who were running a successful bar only to be run into the ground by Hurricane Sandy and using all their savings to rebuild after a catastrophe, and it still wasn't even close to enough. This makes Jon's turnaround even more satisfying.
• Gipsy/SBLV. The owner walked out before the relaunch and closed it for good two days after filming.
• O-Face and its questionable practices, particularly the only two sensible employees being treated like shit by the rest of the staff. The manager who attacked a bartender kept her job and the bartender was fired instead because the owners felt she had it coming. O-Face's owners likely suffered Laser-Guided Karma because the town government was so embarrassed by the fiasco O-Face's episode became that they declined to renew O-Face's liquor license.
  • The real Tear Jerker in O-Face was co-owner Matthew Overmyer turning out to be a sexual predator who tried to assault one of his employees. Thankfully, he was arrested and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.
• One of the owners of the Toucan Oceanside Bar and Grill lost his only child and his resulting grief ended up hurting the business. Even Taffer was brought to tears when he learned about his situation.
• Big Mike's Sports Bar & Grill in Denham Springs, LA. Taffer was also brought to tears when the owners of the bar told him about the devastation the flood left behind.
• The owner of Libad's closed down his kitchen in memory of his nephew, who had hanged himself.
• The brothers who own Rhythm And Brews had it rough. Eric lost his car and had his house foreclosed twice because of how little money they were making, Steve had to pick up a second job to stay afloat, and Stu was outright homeless. Particularly touching was the scene where he shows their father the couch he sleeps on in the basement of the bar. He proceeds to tear it up while Taffer eggs him on, and vows to never spend another night on that couch.
  • In the comments, Stu reveals that their father died shortly after the episode aired. He leaves several comments stating that he misses his dad and that he still watches the clip mentioned above sometimes, thinking about how low he was and how far he's come. I'm not crying, you're crying.
• In "Close But No Cigar," the owner (Rhobb Sr.) reveals that he feels like he sheltered his son (Rhobb Jr.) because he himself never had a male influence in his life. A couple of members of the staff are crying as Rhobb Sr. describes how he suppressed the feeling about not having a dad until his son was born, at which point he became a nervous wreck because "I never wanted [Rhobb Jr.] to feel about me the way I felt about my father".
• Taffer, as well as the employees of The Dugout, finally hit their Rage Breaking Point at the drunken behavior of Ed, the owner, when he shows up to the reveal of the refurbished bar totally inebriated. They all leave and abandon the relaunch after thoroughly ripping into him, telling the waiting crowd outside not to patronize the new bar with equal measures of disgust and disappointment. The end shows Ed wandering around the newly refurbished-but-empty bar, pouring himself a pint and drinking all alone during what was supposed to be the grand reopening, quietly despairing to himself as if he'd just realized what he'd done but much too late.
  Staff Member: (to the crowd, while leaving in tears) Do not give any money to this man.
• The story behind Piratz Tavern's financial woes is especially saddening; not so much for the delusional owner of the restaurant, who refused to part with a theme that had alienated her customer base and failed to uphold anything resembling a quality standard, but because her disastrous business sense had forced her entire family to live in the basement of her own parents' house. With her debts ballooning to almost a million dollars, her sixteen-year-old daughter would be hard-pressed to afford college, and she was forced to make ends meet by working at the bar which continued to struggle after they destroyed everything Jon had implemented to help them bounce back. Ultimately, Piratz Tavern was forced to close its doors as its tacky theme and consistently poor service had finally sunk them. (However, they later opened a similarly-themed bar in Florida, where they had moderate success.)
• Harbor Point Club & Grill, at first glance, seemed like a decent bar in a pretty good location. Jon looks at the camera feeds and doesn't seem to think that the bar is failing. Thinking that the owners, John and Burt, are pulling a fast one on him and his crew, he sends a team member to relay the message that he isn't coming to help their bar. The end result? John and Burt both start tearing up and grieving over what will now become of them and the bar, which was actually struggling to be kept running. Taffer finds this very difficult to watch, so he goes into the bar and gives John and Burt a pep talk to help them get back on their feet.
• Liz quitting KC's Bar & Grill. Here's a girl who was a good manager and had every potential to be a good owner, but due to the guy she bought it from turning it to his own party house in his retirement and not filing the paperwork correctly, it was putting her into financial ruin. When the owner refuses to recompense, she rightfully decides her best choice is to leave and find her dream elsewhere. While Taffer agrees that it was the right decision, it's clear it was not an easy decision for her and she was in tears leaving, as were the other workers who were fond of her.

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