No Holds Barred

How Entrepreneur and Bar Rescue Star Jon Taffer is Helping Bars Deal with Labor Shortages and Inefficient Management Techniques

- Charles Warner

Jon Taffer is best known for his reality television series, Bar Rescue, which follows the successful entrepreneur as he revitalizes failing bars and nightclubs across the United States with a brusque, no-nonsense, and confrontational attitude intended to goad the owners and staff into making drastic changes. The eighth season focuses on Las Vegas, Taffer’s residence and a city whose hospitality industry was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bars featured on the show are already in dire financial and operational change to situations by the time Taffer intervenes. Data shows that more than half of the bars featured have remained open.

Due to the ongoing labor shortage in the U.S., Taffer has been actively exploring ways to use innovative kitchen technology so that 60% fewer employees are needed in the kitchen, while still offering higher food quality and higher consistency. Innovation & Tech Today’s sister publication, Residential Tech Today, recently chatted with Taffer about his career, management style, and experiences with kitchen tech. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Innovation & Tech Today: Did you have a feeling in the beginning about how popular Bar Rescue would be?

JT: That’s a great question. I haven’t been asked that question. No, honestly, I thought I’d do a pilot and go home. That’s the absolute truth, and I never expected this. What was most important to me was creating an honest show. I really thought a lot of reality TV wasn’t very real, and I wanted to do something that was real. We always tried to create a dramatic show, but a show that had some intelligence to it. That’s how it all started.