This year, 6,500 failing bars nationwide will close their doors for good. If things don’t change soon, Myerz Pourhouse in El Cajon, California will become just another statistic. In 2011, serviceman Jeremy Myers retired from the Coast Guard with the hopes of following in his grandfather’s entrepreneurial footsteps. Jeremy searched far and wide and in February 2012, he found the perfect bar. Due to the economic crash of 2008, Jeremy was in bankruptcy and had his mother cosign for the bar. After renaming it Myerz Pourhouse he and his crew had their official launch in April 2012. However, at the height of his success, Jeremy abruptly stopped coming into the bar. As it turns out, Jeremy believed the bar to be haunted, becoming so frightened he wouldn’t even come into the bar during the day, instead opting to attempt to run the bar from the outside. Soon, Jeremy learned that his staff had also experienced the haunting. Without Jeremy present to hold his staff accountable, the bar’s profits are being poured down the drain. Now, with his grandfather’s retirement at risk and his mother’s house on the line, Jeremy is 6 months away from closing the bar for good. With nowhere else to turn, Jeremy has agreed to pull back the doors, bust open the books and make a call for help to Bar Rescue.
For the bar, Jon brings in master bar trainer mixologist Lisamarie Joyce. With her ability to overhaul any bar staff’s deficiencies and ingenuity in crafting balanced cocktails, Lisamarie can transform this bar into an El Cajon hot spot. For recon, Jon sends Matt Mira – cohost of the “Nerdist” podcast – and Jordan Morris – cohost of the “Jordan, Jesse, Go!” podcast – into Myerz Pourhouse. The bar is a 2,000 square-foot space with two bartender stations, one POS system and a stage in the corner of the bar. Recon reveals that bartender Nicole is overpouring her cocktails. She is routinely putting drinks over the bar that have three or more ounces of alcohol when they call for pours of between one and one-and-a-half ounces.
The Science
One of the first things that Jon notices is that Myerz Pourhouse has a sign that’s hard to read. Jon and Lisamarie have difficulty reading the sign while at a distance of just 30 feet. A bar’s sign should be easily readable at 100 feet.
When a bar is located in an area like a strip mall, signs are often grouped together. Often times, these signs feature white backgrounds and black text. In order to stand out, use the color red and the other signs will “disappear.”
When divided into one-and-a-quarter ounce servings, a one-liter bottle of liquor produces 27 cocktails. Pricing a cocktail at $7 translates into total sales of $189 per bottle. An overpour of 3 ounces of liquor reduces the total servings per bottle to 11 cocktails. This translates into total sales of only $77, resulting in a loss of $112 of potential revenue per bottle.
The Result
Six weeks after the relaunch, sales have increased 30%. Nicole has stopped overpouring. Jeremy and his staff report that haunting activity at the bar has ended.
To find out more about Bar Rescue episodes make sure to check out Spike TV.