Many Bar Rescue fans are aware of the controversy surrounding the infamous Piratz Tavern rescue that started off Season Two, but in case you didn’t know, it’s kind of hilarious and worth a mention because the Piratz Tavern owners and staff were extremely vocal about their displeasure with Jon, his criticisms and ideas. Jon, being his illustrious self, handled it all like the G.O.A.T. he is.

Since the Piratz episode in 2012, Jon has been very successful. He has established Taffer’s Tavern franchising, created Taffer’s Browned Butter Bourbon, written three books, including a New York Times’ best-seller, and will be airing his 250^th bar rescue this month. To put things in perspective, Jon has rescued about 240 more bars in the 12 years since the Piratz Tavern one.

In the same time frame, Piratz Tavern owners, Tracy and Juciano Rebelo, had fifteen minutes of fame as self-made nemeses of Jon’s; they lost their lease for Piratz Tavern, closed it, moved to Florida to open a new bar that closed in 2018, and were arrested in 2017 for DUI and battery charges, respectively.

What the Rebelos think about Jon is about as significant as barnacles on a ship’s hull.

As a matter of fact, nothing more is really needed for me to see the stark difference between these folks and Jon and to side with Jon on this issue just because of it. But let’s delve deeper anyway.

Do I think Jon’s ideas are always perfect? No, but they are certainly more effective than the owner’s decisions that have led them to the brink of financial ruin. Jon hits on this when he asks Tracy, who was living with her husband and teenaged daughter in her parents’ basement at the time of their bar rescue, “Do you want to play pirate or do you want to send your daughter to college?”

The problem is that Tracy didn’t “play” pirate, she thought she was one, although, I doubt she owned a boat or was into the dark side of pirating—you know, the rape, plunder, and pillage part that makes pirates pirates.

For more background on the situation, in what is perhaps one of the most well-known episodes ever of Bar Rescue, “S2E1: Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Dumb,” Jon heads to Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, located inside the Capital Beltway. The bar’s pirate theme, while unique, isn’t translating into profits. Jon’s review of the demographics of the area leads him to rebrand the bar from its pirate theme to a theme that fits the data.

The controversy develops because the Piratz pirates not only like their concept, but they live it, and, unfortunately, living like a pirate doesn’t match the demographics or culture of their location. Even a layperson knows this is a problem because: Location, location, location. Jon turns their bar into the Corporate Bar & Grill in order to fit the demographics, and the pirates are outraged because it couldn’t be further from their wishes than the horizon is from their sails.

The whole episode is full of tension because Jon and the pirates do not mesh at all. As I mention in my review of “S1E5: Swanky Troubles,” Jon doesn’t see things like this pirate “play” as an amusing quirk; it is a serious problem that negatively impacts the finances of both the owners and the staff members and puts their business in danger. His job is to remedy that.

But the Piratz Tavern folks would have none of it. The day after the launch of their rebranded bar, Corporate Bar & Grill, they changed it all back to Piratz Tavern. In an infamous YouTube video, they also take down their new Corporate Bar & Grill sign, burn it in effigy while they sing an original song about how arrogant and narcissistic Jon is, and call him a bastard while simultaneously admitting they didn’t know anything about the show because they had never watched it. They spout off about how the changes he made would “serve the corporate elite,” which is exactly what they were intended to do.

It’s quite a spectacle of ingratitude and finger-pointing, especially considering Jon spent a week of his life helping them out for free. As he says in this “Back to the Bar” episode clip on YouTube, “In all my years as a bar consultant, I’ve come up against people who’ve challenged my ideas, but Piratz Tavern is the only one who outright threw them in the trash.”

The song in the effigy burning video indicates that they didn’t expect Jon to be mean to them. I get that, too, especially if they never watched an episode of Bar Rescue, which is plausible since this was in the early days of the show when only ten episodes had aired. Bar Rescue didn’t have its own channel on PlutoTV then, and streaming services weren’t anywhere near like they are today. Jon says some harsh things, and there’s even fan-created media that uses an audio clip from the Piratz episode where Jon criticizes an employee for being dressed like a six-year-old.

The pirates hold their pirate lifestyle near and dear to their hearts, and that kind of unexpected criticism can be jarring and hurtful, which Jon knows and uses to his advantage when he tries to tap into people’s motivations. This time, though, it wasn’t an advantage, which actually surprises me because I don’t usually think of pirates getting their feelings hurt since they have to be hard-hearted in order to rape, pillage, and plunder—you know, like real pirates do.

These videos bring to light a controversy about Jon’s intentions with rebranding the bar that has been brewing among fans ever since the episode first aired: Should Jon walk the plank for being petty and choosing the Corporate name and theme as some form of retribution for the pirates’ ignorance and hostility toward him?

Fans who answer “yes” believe that the drastic change stripped the bar of too much of its unique and cherished identity and that the Corporate name and concept were so sterile and awful, Jon had to be personally jabbing at the owners. I see this point of view mostly aired in Bar Rescue fan forums (for example, this Reddit thread). Online articles about the episode, especially ones that came after the episode aired, fall more along my line of thinking, which you can probably guess if you’ve read the subtitle of this blog: Jon did the best he could to help Tracy and Juciano, and it’s their own fault they didn’t succeed.

To understand my point of view, it’s essential to consider Jon’s esteemed career and his unwavering professional and personal principles. Jon is far too illustrious to engage in any janky behavior, such as rebranding Piratz Tavern out of personal grudge. His decisions are always rooted in what is best for the bar’s success. His focus is on creating reactions that customers enjoy and want to experience again, effectively utilizing the demographic research findings, and ultimately setting up the business for long-term success.

Jon fights for the people and the businesses under his charge, not against them. I mean, check out this clip from the Piratz “Back to the  Bar” episode and watch Jon swallow every ounce of anything negative he might personally feel against the Rebelos to treat them courteously, respectfully, supportively, and even jovially.

As Jon often says, “We started off on the wrong foot, but now I can call you a friend.” In this short clip, we get to witness Jon’s interpersonal talent, charm, and brilliance in all its glory, as Jon takes a guy who hates him and is on video proudly saying, “I think Jon Taffer is fucking stupid” and gets him to laugh and high-five him within two minutes. Now that is some professional behavior worthy of an Emmy.

Another factor that influences my perspective is that Jon bases his decisions around the concept for bars very heavily on the demographic data that he gets from ESRI. In this episode, he did an excellent job of providing the rationale for what they needed to do to draw people in during the day for lunch and later for happy hour. His decisions are always data-driven—hence the “bar science” aspect of the show—and aimed at maximizing the bar’s potential success.

With the Corporate Bar & Grill, Jon’s goal was to create a space for corporate people, accustomed to a more regimented and formal environment, find a little more fun in a comfortable space for them. He introduced interesting technology and other elements to make it a little less stuffy and to create a unique experience that aligned with their professional lives.

Some fans argue that no sane person who works in an office or cubicle would want to go to an office-based bar concept for lunch or happy hour. I disagree with that, and it’s not because I’m insane. It’s probably because that wasn’t my experience when I was climbing the corporate ladder.

People need nearby places where they can meet, talk, have lunch, and do things that fit into their professional scopes but are away from their actual office. For instance, teachers do teachery stuff, even in their free time. They go to the library, school sporting events and plays, etc. Football players and other professional athletes go to sports bars and gyms, and musicians go to bars and clubs in their free time, even though that’s where they actually work, too. Jon has rescued several bars that are military themed to match the military demographic of the area and no one thinks he did it to spite the owners.

Corporate people going to a corporate bar doesn’t seem so far-fetched or like some sort of personal vendetta Jon suddenly decided to pursue because he didn’t like the clients. It’s more likely that the people who think the corporate theme was Jon trolling the Rebelos don’t like their own jobs and think they would never fraternize or have fun in a work-themed location for them. I get it, and I also know that’s not how it is for everyone, especially in the DC metro area.

There are other factors that impact my point of view as well. The Piratz episode was an early episode of Bar Rescue, and Jon was not yet a widely recognized celebrity operating in “Bar Rescue reality.” His approach was no-nonsense and straightforward as ever, but he was also more metered. He tackled the rescues with straightforward honesty and professional demeanor. His ability to cut through the crap, diagnose, and then address the underlying issues was on full display in those early episodes, which is what propelled the show to great success, but he wasn’t quite to the point where he could (or would) take crazy liberties in expressing his frustration with safety violations like those that later became his signature catch phrases and most memorable moments.

Jon has always said that his brand is him, and his utmost professionalism is evident in his work, especially in the earlier seasons when the show was still in the proving ground. He often emphasizes that his name will be associated with the bar, and thus his reputation is on the line. As I mention in my recap of “S1E7: Bad to the Bone,” Jon tells owner Bill Rodenhiser, who incidentally is a recon spy in the Piratz episode, that he will not have his name attached to something called “the Chicken Bone” because it represents failure.

Jon was then—and is still to the latest episode in Season Nine—giving his heart and soul to help owners turn around their lives and succeed both personally and professionally, no matter how shitty they are as human beings in general or to him specifically; however he draws a sharp line at selling out his own integrity. That’s one of the many amazing things I admire about Jon.

Plus, if Jon was going to do something as backhanded as purposefully giving owners a shitty concept, he surely could have done it with at least five of the creepy, resistant, argumentative assholes from the ten episodes before Piratz. On the whole of Bar Rescue, I can think of about two dozen other owners off the top of my head that Jon helped out that I probably would have throat punched, but Jon wasn’t swayed by them; he stayed steadfast and focused on his goal and eventually turned them into friends.

The idea that he would purposefully do something to hurt people he has shown up to help and wants to fight for is unimaginable, especially when we consider how much he enjoys a challenge.

Jon’s focus extends beyond just making the bar profitable; he aims to create a positive experience for customers that will keep them coming back. This episode is a testament to Jon’s consistent professionalism and dedication to setting up owners and their businesses for long-term success, regardless of the personal challenges involved and how much the owners despise the change. As Jon has cautioned in multiple episodes, fixing people’s bars is a “serious commitment” for him and he pledges to give his heart and soul to accomplish that goal. He also kindly reminds owners that their ideas have led them to the brink of failure so that if they want to protect “what is,” they are going to have to go through him to do it—at least for the next four or five days—because “what is” isn’t working.

While I understand the attachment to the pirate theme the owners and staff of Piratz Tavern had, Jon’s expertise in turning around people and businesses can’t be ignored. His level of dedication and professionalism, along with the deep honesty he is able to extract from people is spectacular. It’s one of the things that draws people like me into the show.

Bearing witness to a person who can be so commanding and so just and so amazingly compassionate and generous with his knowledge and his checkbook is mind-blowing. Add to that the courage to make unpopular decisions and the ability to watch people throw tantrums and whatever else they can muster to keep him at bay without letting it truly impact him and we are talking about a whole different level of human competence.

Jon is far too illustrious to ever let personal feelings dictate his professional actions. He’s into doing right by others and ensuring their success, not fostering pettiness for some sort of personal pleasure, even if I secretly wish he would sometimes.

To me, that video the pirates made where they burned the Corporate logo and sang about how terrible Jon was to them actually served as an inadvertent announcement of Jon’s success, barely making a ripple in his steady voyage to the top. Seriously, nothing says, “I’ve arrived!” more than someone making a five-minute YouTube video of themselves burning an effigy of you in a giant bonfire accompanied by an original song lamenting how egotistical and narcissistic you are after you invested a week of your time and a hundred thousand dollars of your money into their failing shit hole of an idea for free.

Then after a couple of years of listening to their crazy bullshit, you take the high road, extend them a hand, and graciously offer up some acknowledgment of your role in their pain and try to make amends in a public space, and I start to wonder if maybe Jon is a descendent of Jean Lafitte, the “Gentleman Pirate”?

All of which leads me to answer the question, “Should Jon walk the plank for rebranding Piratz Tavern to Corporate Bar & Grill?” Absolutely not. If anything, it’s the Rebelos who should be walking the plank for their failure to recognize Jon’s help as the lifeline it was when he threw it to them, but instead they chose to go down with their ship. Farewell, scallywags.

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I invite you to consider and share your answers in the Comments: Do you think Jon intentionally chose a poor concept for Piratz Tavern’s rebrand? Why or why not?