Wrigleyville bar makeover airs on 'Bar Rescue' this weekend; owner calls experience a nightmare

It’s not often that Cubs fans and reality TV aficionados can find a show to watch together, but that may be the case with a Chicago-based episode of "Bar Rescue" airing this Sunday.

But before you tune in, know that the Wrigleyville bar owner featured on the bar-makeover show is less than happy with the results.

“You can’t build a bar in five days. I don’t care if you’re Jesus Christ,” said The Dugout owner Eddie Cressy of his experience with the television show, which airs on Spike.

“It was a complete nightmare, what he put me through,” added Cressy about show host Jon Taffer.

Taffer declined to comment through a Spike spokesperson.

The Dugout, stumbling distance between the Addison Red Line stop and Wrigley Field, is the star of the episode premiering 9 p.m. Sunday. It’s the latest in the series in which Taffer and his team allegedly rescue bars across the country by overhauling everything from the decor to the menu to even the name.

A sneak-peek clip of the episode shows a fruit fly infestation and an employee using bare hands to handle a hot dog, presumably to be served to a customer, as examples that prompted the show to get involved.

"Bar Rescue" executed the makeover last fall, just weeks before I visited The Dugout for the Tribune's guide to every bar in Wrigleyville. By then, the space had already been renamed Press Box and decorated with faux ivy and giant typewriter keys, with a menu highlighting Coors Light and a hot dog.

Now, the basement bar has already changed its name back to The Dugout. Press Box, however, remains; Cressy moved the concept upstairs, into a closed pizzeria in the building. (He didn't want to invest in changing the sign again, he said.)

But if you were hoping for a watch party at either bar, you will be disappointed to learn that both are currently closed.

“I had to redo all the things that Jon did wrong,” said Cressy. For one, "he did a quick paint job that looked good on camera, but (he) used really cheap paint that flakes off,” the bar owner said.

“They took up all my time in a 10-game home stand. It made no sense," said Cressy of the show.

Cressy has also added an interior staircase and new finishes made from reclaimed lumber.

And forget the show's menu makeover. Cressy said he’s dropped the new ham sandwich, which he said “bombed,” and is bringing back the bar's signature loaded tots with bacon, pulled pork, sour cream, onions, chives, tomatoes, jalapenos and cayenne pepper.

Cressy said he hopes to reopen The Dugout downstairs and Press Box upstairs March 9.

"Bar Rescue" has two other episodes set in Chicago expected to air in August. The show will not yet reveal which bars they feature in those episodes.

I smell a bit....

I don't like white rappers.

Not sure why anyone would use this bar rescue guy. He tried this shit with the owner of Hopleaf early last year:

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/2/29/11130440/hopleaf-bar-rescue-tv-show-rejection

While Hopleaf has declined a bit over the years, they just went through a major expansion and were always busy. This just seems like a bad scam.

This clown asked for my help and then questioned me through the entire process. He is completely ignorant when it comes to bar science. SHUT IT DOWN!

This clown asked for my help and then questioned me through the entire process. He is completely ignorant when it comes to bar science. SHUT IT DOWN!

"Bar Rescue" has two other episodes set in Chicago expected to air in August. The show will not yet reveal which bars they feature in those episodes.

Michael and Louise Roper are bar science deniers.

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

Louise's name is Molnar. I don't think she likes being called Mrs. Roper.

I don't like white rappers.

JORR, have you seen the stories that Michael has been sharing on Facebook around the bar's history? If not, let me know and I'll copy them up here somewhere. Its a pretty amazing read.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

There was a bar on Ridge in Roger's Park that had been around forever. It was the kind of place where you could find generations of the same family drinking in at the same time. It was occasionally packed but never empty. Even on weekdays you could find a retiree having a few beers and looking for a friend. It was a place that could make an owner a steady salary but not rich (running stuff out of there was where the real money was produced)

A well intentioned young neighborhood guy bought the place and wanted it to be more than it was. He expanded with a party room, he changed the menu of alcohol, he tried to serve food but he also increased the prices. He attracted new customers from outside the neighborhood and made it a younger type of bar. However, this alienated the steady base. After the fickle tastes of youth moved business elsewhere and he no longer had his regulars, he busted out on a business that had been there for in excess of 60 years.

Now, he got desperate, messed with the side business at the place and almost got himself kneecapped, but that is a story for another day.

The moral of the story is that more often than not, a bar is just a bar. There are a few, and it is very few, who make a killing in that business. If you work your shop, you can usually make yourself a living but it is really shitty work. People who go into the business as a vanity project are almost guaranteed to lose their money.

Rule number one: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Spoiler: The owner says the process was a nightmare, the remodel job was cheap, and the new menu "bombed."

I'm shocked (SHOCKED!) that reality TV isn't so real...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct ... story.html