On tonight’s episode of Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer and his team are in Valrico, Florida to rescue JF Kicks.
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In 2019, Johnny Spieldenner bought JF Kicks in Valrico, Florida with financial help from his brother Jimmy. Johnny, a construction contractor with no experience in the hospitality industry enjoyed immediate success thanks to his brother Jimmy’s help, who also relocated to Florida to work at the restaurant/bar.
However, not long after opening, business took a turn for the worse when Jimmy tragically passed away, leaving Johnny short-staffed and shouldering the massive workload on his own. That’s when Johnny turned to his inexperienced 18-year-old son Tanner to help run the kitchen.
Despite his son’s help, Johnny was still consumed with the business to a point where the stress started to take a toll on his heath – contributing to a stroke that caused him to lose vision in one eye, while putting him in the hospital for three days.
Now, with $300,000 in debt, stress still an ongoing health threat and business on the decline, Johnny put in a call for help to Bar Rescue.
The rescue happened back in February 2022 and Jon changed the name of JF Kicks to Jimmy’s, in honor of his brother’s legacy. Johnny decided not to keep the name and reverted back to JF Kicks a short time after the rescue. Johnny also made changes to the new Taffer menu.
Not a Good Bar Rescue Experience?
On March 2, 2022 a customer complained on the JF Kicks Facebook page about the food and service, along with a follow-up post saying “Bar Rescue wasted their $!” rescuing JF Kicks.
JF Kicks responded with the following:
“Bar Rescue was a setback…don’t always believe what you see on TV.”
In a separate Facebook post on April 12, 2022, a user asked “what was the point of doing bar rescue if you changed everything back?Just curious?”
JF Kicks responded with:
“The juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze. We thought things were going to go much differently.”
A Closer Look
- Here’s the JF Kicks website.
- JF Kicks is also active on Facebook, and Instagram.
- You can check out post-makeover online reviews via Google Reviews, Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Google Street View of JF Kicks
Image via Screengrab/Twitter