Is Bottoms Up Bar and Grill still open today?
Status: >> CLOSED <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 7 | View All Season 7 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: May 31, 2020
The Bar's Original Name Was: Bottoms Up Bar and Grill
Bottoms Up Bar and Grill Address: 8595 Katella Ave Stanton, CA 90680
Episode Recap
Bottoms Up Bar and Grill was a Stanton, California bar that was featured on Season 7 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Bottoms Up Bar Rescue episode aired in May 2020, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 7 Episode 12 and the episode name was “Bottoms Up, Going Down”.
In this episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer heads to Bottoms Up Bar & Grill in Stanton, California.
Suzie Blevins owns Bottoms Up Bar and Grill, a bikini bar with an all-female staff.
This is why it’s also sometimes referred to as Bottoms Up Bikini Bar.
She brought the restaurant in 2006, which means she’s owned it for well over a decade at the time of the visit from Jon Taffer.
At first, men were very interested, and Bottoms Up brought in $1,000.00 a night.
Due to the success of the bar, Suzie opened five more locations.
Suzie gave the slowest bar to her son Patrick because she thought it would be easy to succeed.
Due to lack of experience and poor management, the staff lost respect for Patrick.
Patrick seems like a nice guy – he’s just a bit in over his head.
The team is always drunk and sloppy.
Sarah, the owner’s girlfriend, abuses her power.
Jon arrives with Maria Menounos and Keven Undergaro to begin the rescue.
Jon notices many bikini themed restaurants in the area.
Jon watches the footage from the bar and sees a lot of physical contact.
The bartender even serves a beer after touching her bottom.
One customer twerks on the bar.
Maria is being pressured into taking a shot from the bartender’s chest. Sarah takes the shot instead.
Jon comes in and orders Sarah to a corner and makes Patrick call his mother.
He’s not happy – this YouTube thumbnail does a pretty good job of summarizing his feelings haha.
Jon asks Suzie what will happen if the restaurant fails.
Suzie says if Bottoms Up fails, she will sell it, but if it succeeds, it’s Patrick’s.
Sarah has to be sent home because she is out of control and too touchy with the staff.
Sarah says her behavior is what draws in the customers.
Suzie admits she hasn’t trained Patrick the right way.
Jon tells Patrick it is time to step up, or he will walk away and not rescue the bar.
Phil Wills, mixologist, and Chef Vic Vegas come in for recon.
Dancer Jillian Schmitz also comes in to teach boundaries to the staff.
Phil Wills orders various drinks, and Vic Vegas orders the food.
The bartenders do not have the correct tools they need to succeed.
The food takes a long time, but Vic says it does have potential.
Jillian Schmitz teaches the staff how to be sexy yet classy.
Vic teaches the kitchen staff how to make a pastrami meatball sandwich.
Jon starts the stress test with 32 customers.
The staff has 16 minutes to speed serve beer and food.
The bar is slow on drinks, and the girls cant connect with the customers.
Jon also notices there is no ticket system.
Sarah, who is sober, steps up and ensures all patrons are served during the test.
Jon can also see real promise in Patrick as a manager.
Phil teaches the girls new co*cktails, and they do very well.
Jillian trains the girls on how to touch the customers subtly and how to be respectable.
During relaunch, they serve 100 patrons.
The bartenders are entertaining, and the drinks are well made and come out on time.
Patrick has stepped up and earned the respect of his team. Suzie is happy, and Jon is proud of Patrick.
Patrick has found his confidence.
So was the Bottoms Up Bar Rescue episode a success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Stanton, CA bikini bar is still open in 2024 and beyond.
Bottoms Up Bar and Grill Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Bar Rescue Bottoms Up episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Stanton, CA.
Things seemed to start off well for the bar.
Six weeks later, Patrick is maintaining his new-found prowess and Sarah is a supportive girlfriend and worker.
Is Bottoms Up Bikini Bar still open?
The Bottoms Up Bikini Bar location in Stanton, CA that you saw on Bar Rescue closed in December 2023.
This means that the bar stayed open for around 3.5 years after the episode aired on TV.
However, while the Bottoms Up Stanton location from the show closed, there are other Bottoms Up Bar locations that are still open in 2024 and beyond, including one other location that Susie acquired after that bar appeared on Bar Rescue (which I’ll talk about later in this post).
To announce the closure, the bar posted on Instagram:
Prior to the bar closing, the reviews were generally positive and praised the friendly, fun staff.
At around the time of its closure, the bar had the following ratings on various review platforms:
- Google Reviews – 4.2 stars
- Yelp – 4 stars
- Facebook – 4.5 stars
- GrubHub – 3.4 stars
Prior to the bar’s permanent closure in December 2023, the Bottoms Up bar did also have to briefly close due to Coronavirus restrictions.
However, it was able to reopen after that and seemed to be doing fine until December 2023.
Here’s a sampling of reviews that were written after the visit from Jon Taffer…
5 star review from April 2022:
This is the legendary Bottoms Up that was on bar Rescue.
It was formerly Fuzzybears (which was a grimy spot) but after Bottoms took over they really cleaned it up.
The bar is much more inviting and the girls are a lot of fun.
They have bar food & ice cold beer.
I’ve been here probably hundreds of times over the years and have always felt welcome.
The regulars are friendly and if you have Jukebox credits the crowd loves a good song, anything from Hip Hop to rock to Country.
Its always a good vibe, I always stop by when in the area.
5 star review from September 2020:
This place is awesome!
Girls are great, and John Taffer did a wonderful job with the space!
4 star review from April 2021:
We went on a weekend night so it was pretty packed.
My buddy said you know it’s ghetto when the security holds a gun!
No joke! Insert the emoji with big eyeballs!
It’s definitely a rowdy crowd and one of the bartenders was SUPER cool…the rest think they are too hot to help new customers unless they know you have money.
My one pal started throwing money at one of the blondes and she just stood there doing nothing.
I get it. This isn’t a strip club but if someone throws money at least act like you a) want it and b) care.
The brunette who wears pigtails is awesome-she helped us numerous times & we ordered food from her too.
There seems to be continual drama in this spot though-lots of “macho” behavior happening.
Their bathroom is beyond disgusting.
The floor was soaking wet, the trash was overflowing with used tampons(SO GROSS!!!!) and there was limited supplies of paper products.
I guess pee before you go or enter at your own risk!
2 star review from July 2020:
Damn shame Bar Rescue came out here and wasted their time on this place.
Came in on Thursday night. Ordered a drink, waited 20 minutes and nothing.
Had to walk inside and order from another bartender to finally get a drink.
Bartenders are nice but spend all their time taking care of their regulars.
Since there was only about 12 other guys here, I’m guessing this place is losing a bunch of $$ everyday and I can see why.
Here’s what the current sign looked like from the Facebook page:
And here’s what the Bottoms Up Stanton location looks like in the most recent picture from Google Maps street view – it doesn’t seem to have updated since the bar closed:
The sign is different in Google Maps street view, so I guess they changed it after the sign picture that I posted above.
Bottoms Up owner acquired another Bar Rescue bar
This doesn’t have anything to do with the Bottoms Up Stanton location, but it is an interesting bit of trivia for Bar Rescue fans.
Suzie, the Bottoms Up bar owner, actually acquired another bar that appeared on Bar Rescue.
More specifically, Suzie acquired Brix / Pacific Coast Wine Bar from Season 4.
I believe the acquisition happened some time around June 2021.
After acquiring the bar, Suzie changed the name to Sunset Lounge Bottoms Up, and the bar seems to still be open today:
This means, prior to the Bottoms Up closure, Suzie owned not one, buttwo bars that have been rescued by Jon Taffer.
Interesting!
Here’s what the Sunset Lounge Bottoms Up location looks like in the most recent update from Google Maps street view:
Final thoughts on Bottoms Up Bikini Bar
Overall, Bottoms Up Bikini Bar was able to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and stay open for around 3.5 years after its Bar Rescue episode.
While that’s not a long-term success, it is still longer than a lot of other bars from the show.
Plus, while the Bottoms Up location that you saw on Bar Rescue is now closed, Suzie does still have multiple other Bottoms Up locations that are still open and using the same name/concept.
So, the concept is definitely not atotal failure.
That wraps up my thoughts on Bottoms Up Bikini Bar and its Bar Rescue episode.
If you want to read about some other nearby California Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out my updates for The Cave in Anaheim, Agave Junction Cantina / Scoreboard in Norwalk, and Second Base / Extremes in Orange.
And if you want to share your thoughts on Bottoms Up Bar and Grill, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/bottoms-up-bar-and-grill-stanton
https://www.facebook.com/bottoms.bikinibar/
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Last updated: 2024-02-04 05:38
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