Yargh!
I spent my night at Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring, at the Bar Rescue viewing party!
If you don’t know the story, here’s the short version:
The bar owners called in Bar Rescue, hoping for some solutions to their debt, and the people on Bar Rescue told them they had to change EVERYTHING, because they are in a corporate area and they should cater to those people during lunch and dinner hour. Essentially, they told these people to not be “freaks” and “weird.”
A few problems with that:
1. The area’s locals are very eclectic and NOT corporate for the most part. On the show, they didn’t show the regulars or the people who had shown up on the filming days to support the bar, most of whom were dressed much like the staff.
2. People in the DC metro area don’t get hour-long lunch breaks. We get take-away or delivery and we eat while we work. Pretty much everybody does. We don’t get to have sit-down lunches at restaurants during work.
3. They bought equipment that they didn’t bother getting the proper permits to use. Montgomery County (where Silver Spring is located) has very strict laws concerning alcohol. So getting them a tap that they couldn’t use was ridiculous.
4. At least one of the buildings the host said was an office building was a parking garage.
5. They did a miserable job remodeling to the point where their remodel was falling apart. There’s a reason they didn’t show you that front room on the show.
6. “Corporate Bar and Grill” is the worst name ever for anything. And those Bar Rescue people should be ashamed at their lack of imagination.
7. You can’t change people, and more than that you can’t “Fix” people, as the Bar Rescue host attempted to do. In fact, to look someone up and down and to assume they need fixing because they don’t fit into your worldview is just wrong. Yes, Bar Rescue host, they dress like pirates. So what? You yell at people you’ve never met for a living. Who’s to say you’re not the one who needs fixing?
There have been some improvements made to the bar, but they are, most definitely, back to being a Pirate Bar, and really, it’s the way it should be. It does have a soul and personality, and really, having a business isn’t just about making money. You have to love what you’re doing, or else what’s the point?
