In my most favorite Bar Rescue episode ever, Jon debuts his show, marking the start of his illustrious career as its host and showcasing his unmatched capabilities as a well-established and effective bar and hospitality consultant. Being that the show is new and this is the first we see of Jon and the bars and people he rescues, Jon’s expertise as a consultant is front and center, as is his no-nonsense, tell it like it is approach, albeit a little understated. As a long-time fan, seeing Jon as a fresh-faced host is heartwarming. Also seeing the debut of several of Jon’s principles that are still in action 13+ years later highlights the amazing level of integrity he has.

At the start of the episode, Jon and his wife, Nicole, perform reconnaissance by going into the bar and ordering food and drinks. At this point, they examine the bar as patrons would and identify initial issues with it. Renee Vicary’s establishment, Angel’s Sports Bar, located in Corona, California, has plenty of issues.

The first problem Jon identifies to the audience is that Angel’s has no cohesive identity or concept. It is a sports bar that is primarily a biker bar and should be a neighborhood bar. As Jon also puts it, it “looks like a strip club on the outside, looks like a strip club on the inside, and the staff working in it are strippers.” Right from the start, we see Jon is serious about rescuing this bar. For the first issue alone, he needs to make the outside aesthetically appealing, distinguishable from the attached strip club, tolerable to women, and properly conceptualized to fit the market.

Jon initially confronts Renee in her office with such quiet and calm that, if you have ever seen another episode of Bar Rescue, you may wonder, “Is Jon possessed by aliens?” No fear, though, he heightens his intensity when he calls her bar a “shit hole,” fixates on the thousands of staples in the walls, and asks Renee if she wants him to make a squirrel living in a burrow by the back door her business partner. His truth comes to light when he tells her, as she sits across the desk crying because of what he previously said to her, “I’m very honest, Renee, and there’s going to be difficult moments between us.” When he addresses the staff during their first meeting, he continues with another common proclamation, “I have no time for B.S., so either you guys are going to get on my bus or I’m going to run you over.” Both of these statements could be on the warning label for every episode to come.

The problems with Angel’s Sports Bar are numerous, but Renee is a serious owner who is there for the money, which Jon appreciates. Many of the staff there are single mom’s, and Jon has a soft spot for them, wanting to improve their chances of making a good living and increasing the pride and safety they feel at their workplace. The staff receives bartender and customer service training. During manager training, Jon identifies the most problematic issue as Renee’s general manager, Wayne, and tells her to fire him. Renee doesn’t have the guts to fire Wayne, and in an easy turn of the tables, she tells Jon to do it since he is the boss of the establishment while he’s there. Jon has no hesitation in showing her how it’s done, and lays it bare to Wayne, “You know what my expectations are a little bit from the past day, and you know that you don’t have the ability to deliver that. So let’s just make this simple, no more discussion, non-negotiable. I’m going to fire you now. Pack up your stuff and good luck with your next opportunity.” Jon wasn’t kidding when he said to get on his bus or get run over by it.

Jon tells us another truism that impacts his approach to owners and employees every episode and is the basis of his book, Don’t Bullsh*t Yourself!, “I cannot accept somebody who does not accept responsibility for their own actions.” Jon’s perception of how much accountability owners and their staff are willing to take drives his approach to breaking through to them, and the most classic episodes are those with the most stubborn, excuse-filled owners. Renee is one of the few and far between owners that seems truly concerned about her bar and knowledgeable about running it. We can see that Jon is impressed by Renee, and when he’s finished rescuing Angel’s Sports Bar, Jon appears to genuinely beam with pride over having provided Renee and her employees with the chance to make a good living in an environment where they’re proud to work. He ends the episode with a final truism of both his and Bar Rescue‘s, “We’ve touched a few lives.”

I invite you to consider and share your answer in the Comments: What are some characteristics about Jon that you’ve seen him display since Bar Rescue first aired?