La Casona Bar and Grill - Bar Rescue Update - Open or Closed?

In this Bar rescue episode, Jon Taffer visits La Casona Bar and Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada.

La Casona Bar and Grill is owned by Victor, a former car dealer.

He opened a bar and restaurant as it was his wife Claudia’s dream.

Before they could get the bar, the pandemic hit and Febe his daughter came home from school.

They bought a well-known bar in the middle of the pandemic for a steal.

Febe put up most of the money using her savings and credit.

Febe is the sole owner in all the documents because of her good credit the mortgage is in her name.

The business soon opened but their inexperience and the limitations are leading to slow business.

They are struggling to pay their staff, they lost their home and live in the bar while declining further into debt.

This is Jon’s 200th rescue and he has some well-known football stars act as his spies to sample the services.

Mia Mastroianni, an expert mixologist joins him from the command center.

Jon breaks down the ownership situation of the bar to Mia and introduces the family.

Mia is shocked to hear where they got funding from and that no one has any hospitality experience.

The spies are handed physical menus and then then they order a paloma and a margarita.

The bartender does not know what is in it and makes something incorrect.

The spies hate the drink, it is very strong and too sweet.

In the kitchen, Claudia is stressed with the orders coming through.

The preparation process for some chicken has lots of cross contamination, especially on the salads.

As a result of this Jon goes in to stop the food service.

The kitchen is shutdown through the fear of making someone sick due to the cross contamination.

Jon takes the family outside to talk to them calmly about what he has seen so far.

They tell him they have only owned the bar for nine months and are in $80,000 debt.

They live over the bar as they were evicted from their home four months ago.

They had only left the house three days previously and the couple along with five kids live together in a small room.

Jon is sympathetic but warns them he will be tough on them.

Jon comes in the next day to meet with the staff.

He has the owners tell the staff their living situation then showed them the Partender report.

They had lost $1274 in just one night from free drinks and overpouring.

Pablo the cook walked out and refused to come to work.

The rest of the staff are emotional as they have been severely affected by the pandemic.

Jon introduces his experts mixologist Mia and expert chef Tiffany Derry.

Training commences with Tiffany and Isabel is going to be the new cook along with Claudia.

They are trained on making a Conchinita Pibil.

Mia trains the staff on making a proper margarita with tamarind.

They are soon on to the stress test and a controlled number of people are let in.

The bartenders are friendly and Katy is doing well making two drinks.

The staff are great at making the drinks and drinks aren’t being dumped, as they usually are during stress tests.

Febe is also doing great but they all need to be much faster.

In the kitchen, they are still waiting on orders while they are being collected.

They know that they will soon be slammed if they all come at once.

Victor stands around doing nothing until he puts the orders in and Jon corrects him to be more hands on.

In a quarrel with the server both the server and Victor neglect the food ready for service.

The floor is being neglected by the bar because of the slow service.

While the kitchen has thirty-minute ticket times because they were slammed with multiple orders at once.

The bar has been buried and Victor is made to shut down the stress test.

Afterwards during feedback Victor and the server bicker again about the service but Victor owns up to his part in the problems.

The next day Mia starts the training commending them on only dumping just one drink during the stress test.

The bar staff are trained on making a mango margarita.

Jon meets with Victor alone to motivate him to step up more.

When his family is brought in and he apologises to them promising to do better.

Jon sends them to a spa to relax as a day off for the first time in a long while.

The bar renovations are started and 36 hours later the staff are gathered to unveil the bar.

Jon reveals that he has not changed the name of the bar.

There is a new bold sign on the building and another on the road to attract customers.

For promotion they have hired some of Caesar’s showgirls for the evening.

Inside it has been updated with the wood theme warmed up.

There are lots of pops of colour that ties in to the Mexican theme of the bar.

They have Bluezone for cleaning the air, Atmosphere TV for the mood and Pathspot for hand cleaning.

There are four Harbour Touch POS systems and a new Orange Door entertainment system.

Jon has also provided a subscription to Partender, a frozen margarita machine and Taffer’s Seltzers.

George Wallace, Mr Vegas comes to the host the ribbon cutting and customers are let in to the bar.

On relaunch, the orders come in fast to both the bar and the kitchen.

Claudia is excited and happy but not overwhelmed making great food going out.

The bartenders are more confident and faster at serving drinks.

Victor knows where to help and is supporting everywhere.

A number of deliveries are also going out on the scooters.

The Atmosphere TV owners came in person to the relaunch to help and donated $25,000 to the family.

What Happened Next at La Casona Bar and Grill?

La Casona Bar and Grill closed in January 2022.

Reviews after the show are mixed with customers both loving and hating the food and service.

Click for more Bar Rescues

Next episode - Nevada Brew Works

Previous episode - Cork and Thorn

This post was last updated in March 2022.