Jon goes to the hospitality capital of the world on a personal call to help UNLV who is having a major event for their alumni and a delay in construction threatens to put everything on hold unless Jon Taffer can fix an older room and make sure their students are ready.
This work contains examples of
- The Baby of the Bunch: Inverted, one of the students picked to help with the event is a 29-year-old who said this was his last chance to make something of himself.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: UNLV not only has a successful VIP and alumni event, but they get called the best hospitality school in the world for the second year in a row
- Formula-Breaking Episode: While it still has the bare elements of a Bar Rescue episode, the purpose is different. No bars are at risk of closing, instead, UNLV is requesting a remodel with Taffer's assistance because the room they were going to use wasn't ready on time. Additionally, they want to prove to the alumni and VIP why they're #1 in hospitality so they want to make sure their technique is perfect. Jon is much more supportive and after the stress test, he focuses on what they did right not wrong.
- Skilled, but Naive: The theme of the episode. As opposed to Jon teaching people with no experience, these students are well-trained but only have experience in labs, not in a real-world setting.
- Wrong Genre Savvy; An aspiring mixologist tries putting gold leafing his drink to make it look nice. One of the experts points out, that's more for pastries as in drinks it just looks unpleasant having something floating inside.
