The Grossest Things Ever Seen On Bar Rescue

Big Jon Taffer is either the first person you want to see enter your bar because you know he's on a mission to set your establishment straight, or he's the absolute last person you want to see storm in because you know he's about to reign hell down on you and your coworkers with the fury of a thousand irate storms. Jon Taffer knows what it takes to run a successful operation, and when you sign up for his help, you'd better be ready to take orders and follow his every word. He doesn't mince words or coddle the workers who seek his help, and that's what makes him so efficient when it comes to taking a failing bar and reinventing it so it brings in new business and keeps its patrons happy.

Throughout Taffer's time hosting his hugely popular show Bar Rescue, he's dealt with all sorts of employees. Some are ready to listen, but many others are stuck in their old ways and fight him on every suggestion he makes. But, oftentimes, it's not the workers that are the problem. Rather, it's the environment they're working in. Keeping a clean bar is vital for success, but unfortunately, cleanliness isn't always a number one priority. On plenty of occasions, Taffer's been absolutely appalled at the level of hygiene he's encountered, and you will be too after reading about the grossest things the host has ever seen on his show. Get some Pepto Bismol ready for this one.

Keeping food at the proper temperatures is perhaps the most important aspect of running a restaurant. Even if the service is slow and the or severs are incompetent at taking orders, at least those two traits won't leave people with a horrendous case of food poisoning. That's why Jon Taffer was absolutely appalled at the way the YNot Sports Pub & Grub in Everett, Washington, was keeping their food stored. Let's just say if you had a hankering for salmonella one Friday evening, this was definitely the place to visit.

After tasting several dishes he thought were absolutely appalling, Taffer marched the owners of the bar into the kitchen where the food was prepped. He wanted to know exactly what was going on behind the scenes. Once in the kitchen, he stopped and stared in awe at what looked like the front door to a house in the back of the kitchen. When he asked what the door led to, they said the walk-in fridge, which was an answer Taffer did not want to hear. The second Taffer walks into the fridge, he sternly tells them, "It's not safe! It's at a dangerous temperature the entire time. You're gonna f***ing kill somebody." Honestly, it's amazing they hadn't sent someone to the hospital already considering they stored food behind a door that was in breach of health code violations for so long.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. By that logic, if you're trying to achieve an establishment that rivals God himself in perfection, you'd better keep it clean. But it's not just the kitchen equipment and environment you need to be kept pristine — you need every employee to also adhere to high standards of cleanliness as well. Taffer, naturally, is huge on keeping a sanitized workspace, but when he took a trip down to Horn Lake, Mississippi, to investigate a spot called Joe's Thirsty Lizard Bar & Grill (renamed The Iron Horse after Taffer stepped in), he was actually appalled at one particular way the cook decided to keep clean.

The cook, who calls himself Dirty Red, was told by his manager that Taffer needed him to clean the entirety of the kitchen before he left for the evening, or else he would lose his job. The kitchen was in atrocious condition, so Dirty Red did as he was instructed and stayed the night scrubbing the grime off of every surface. Finally, at almost eight o'clock the next morning, he completed his task but was covered in the nasty stuff he set out to clean. Instead of heading home to shower, this guy decided to use the dish hose to take a shower in the kitchen. He stripped down buck naked and sprayed away at his body until he was clean. One of his coworkers even warned him not to "get the degreaser in the pee-pee, it stings."

Just because the words "bar" and "butt" both start with the letter "b" doesn't mean the two should ever find themselves mingling with each other. Let's just say the two should probably stay far away from each other for the sake of everyone's health. Well, at a place called Bottoms Up Bar & Grill in Stanton, California, the employees apparently never got the memo, and the workers had absolutely no problem mixing their butts with the bar, which did not sit well with Jon Taffer. "I'll have a Bloody Mary, but hold the tush."

The bar seemed more like a strip club than a place to gather with friends and relax with some drinks. All of the women working wore scantily clad outfits, gave lap dances to patrons, and seemed like they were incredibly tipsy. Not a good look for a place that's trying to appear like they have their act together. Then, it came time for the "butt shot," which is exactly what it sounds like. One of the female employees lied face-down across the bar while a shot of liquor was placed between her upper thighs. A woman was supposed to pull it out using just her mouth, but this was when Taffer marched in. Before he could put a stop to everything, though, another employee yanked the shot into her mouth anyway.

The last words you want to hear as a bar owner are, "There's a smell back here," from someone who's inspecting your establishment for cleanliness. But that's exactly what the employees of the Caribe Nightclub (rebranded La Luz Ultralounge post-episode) in San Diego, California, heard when Jon Taffer and his cohort rummaged through the less-than-sanitary items behind the bar. When the bar mats were picked up, they were caked in mold, which was definitely the cause of the odor. But that was far from the gnarliest thing Taffer and his friend discovered.

There was an abundance of fruit flies buzzing around the liquor bottles, which was an immediate indication that spilled liquor was dripping off the shelves. The flies were attracted to the sugary contents of the liquid. Then, upon further examination of the bottles, there were actually deceased fruit flies inside floating around deceased in the liquor! The employees' faces were colored with embarrassment, as they should have been. Taffer and his friend just kept pulling bottle after bottle out from behind the bar, and they all had the tiny corpses of fruit flies sloshing around in the liquor. But the grossest moment came when the two actually poured a shot full of the fly-filled liquor and then strained it through a towel. Dozens of the dead bugs were filtered out. Taffer admitted that over the course of his 30 years in the business, he had never seen anything like it before.

When it comes to bar fare, deep-fried goodies usually reign supreme. Few people crave a healthy salad when they start tossing back beers. They want something greasy and unhealthy to pair with their rising blood-alcohol content, and nothing hits the spot quite like a basket of goodies that just took a dip in a sizzling jacuzzi of hot oil. Plus, deep-frying is a quick and simple process so that paying customers can get their eager fingers on that delicious stuff quickly. Well, that's unless they visit The Airliner in Los Angeles, California.

When Taffer sent in his undercover group to try some of the food there, he wasn't surprised at all by their hesitancy. After several minutes of watching his friends discuss their disappointment, Taffer walked in to greet them, then kindly invited them back to the kitchen to see where all the "magic" happened. Taffer immediately walked over to the deep fryer and dropped in a basket of fries to show everyone just how putrid the oil was. The second the fries hit the oil, it began smoking and turned into a thick yellow glop because, as Taffer explained, "It is so contaminated with bacteria and filth." Nothing like a basket of fries with a side of bacteria.

While a rare steak is perfectly fine to consume (many steak lovers will tell you there's no other way to eat a steak other than medium-rare or rare), the complete opposite can be said of chicken. Chicken is one of those proteins you must cook all the way through before it's served. Unless, of course, you want your dinner guests to be stuck with the toilet all night. Raw chicken can be incredibly dangerous, which is exactly why Jon Taffer was far from thrilled when he visited Lucky 66 Bowl in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Taffer spent an evening shift at the restaurant helping to coordinate service properly and check on the patrons to make sure they were happy with their orders. However, when he approached one table of six, they were quick to show the host a piece of fried chicken that was slimy and pink in the middle. Taffer took the chicken and marched back into the kitchen to give the cooks a piece of his mind. Surprisingly, he kept his cool as he handed the head chef the chicken. "If there's anything we can't do, it's serve raw chicken," he said. The issue was resolved, and six people managed to avoid potentially brutal consequences that night.