The Sandbar in Albuquerque is Rescued on ‘Bar Rescue’

Tonight on Paramount’s Bar Rescue, the crew and host Jon Taffer travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to rescue a bar called The Sandbar Brewery and Grill where the owner and an investor are in a battle over a sinking bar.

During each episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and crew perform surveillance on the bar and then confront the owner about what’s going wrong and what needs to be changed. For the Sandbar, one of the first things noted by the crew was that it was “enormous and ugly.”

Bar Rescue airs at 10 p.m. ET/PT on the Paramount Network. Tune in to see how Taffer renovated the Sandbar.

The Restaurant Was Renamed Playa Island Bar

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As is often the case with Bar Rescue, The Sandbar Brewery and Grill was no longer called “The Sandbar” after the Bar Rescue visit. Instead, during the renovation, the bar was renamed to Playa Island Bar.

The renovations of the restaurant took place in August 2019 and took a little over three weeks to complete.

According to the sneak peek for tonight’s episode, the Sandbar Brewery and Grill was first opened in late summer of 2017 and the owner, Sean, brought in investors. One of those investors put in an additional $60,000 after the initial investment wasn’t enough, but that investment came with the stipulation that if the loan was defaulted on, the owner would lose his shares in the bar. He defaulted on the loan, so they decided he would step away in exchange for 10 percent equity.

Taffer also pulled the investor, Mike, out to speak with him and get his side of the story. He did not believe Sean owned any of the bar. He said that they did offer Sean 10 percent equity, but Sean never signed the document.

“Okay, I’ve heard both sides of this story, and Sean’s side of the story is not adding up,” Taffer said. “I don’t think he owns any of this bar, so I’ve gotta resolve this issue between him and Mike before I can even begin rescuing it.”

Sandbar Update: The Bar is Now Closed

According to a Reddit thread, the bar was previously called Sneakers and Sandbar, but since the show, they have renamed and began charging more for drinks.

According to both Yelp and Google, the Sandbar Brewery & Grill is now permanently closed. The latest reviews on Yelp were placed in December 2019 and the most recent review on Google was placed just three months ago meaning the bar has closed since then.

The reviews prior to the closing of the restaurant were average to negative. On Google, out of 217 reviews, the bar had a 3.7-star rating. Many people posting positive reviews mentioned good music. The negative reviews, on the other hand, mentioned pricey drinks and “rude” bartenders.

According to an interview with general manager Kenny Sullivan, the name wasn’t set in stone after the renovation and they were hoping to re-brand to get old guests to come back.

“We did the name change mainly to see a little bit of re-branding that will invite some of the old guest back who had bad service and all of that stuff,” Sullivan said.

He also said they would be adding more TVs and possibly changing the name back.

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