Is The Roc Bar and Nightclub still open today?
Status: >> CLOSED <<
(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 5 | View All Season 5 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 6, 2016
The Bar's Original Name Was: Fort One Bar & Lounge
The Roc Bar and Nightclub Address: 2801 Leavenworth St San Francisco, CA 94133
Episode Recap
Fort One Bar and Lounge, later renamed The Roc Bar and Nightclub, was a San Francisco, California bar that was featured on Season 5 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Boulder Lodge Bar Rescue episode aired in November 2016, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 5 Episode 11 and the episode name was “Ice, Mice, Baby”.
In this episode, Jon Taffer visits Fort One Bar and Lounge in San Francisco, CA.
The bar is owned by Jason Wanigatunga, who was given the bar by his father in 2014.
That means he’s been running it for about two years at the time of the visit from Jon Taffer.
Jason’s father owned a popular nightclub where Jason was raised, so he thought he could run his place.
At first, the bar was successful, but Jason and the staff soon began partying at the bar.
Things quickly started going down hill, which is why the Fort One Bar Rescue episode exists.
Now, Jason’s dad has had to sell his assets to help Jason with the bar.
That’s obviously not a great situation and adds stress to the family dynamic.
Mia Mastroianni and Jon Taffer recon the bar.
The bar’s interior has two levels and a nightclub, but neither is used.
The footage inside shows Jason giving out free drinks.
Jon sends in two ladies as spies because it is rumored that Jason gives out liquor bottles to attractive women.
That’s such a classic bar owner move lol.
Olivia serves the girls in the bottle service section, which is outdated.
Jason goes over to meet the spies and gives them a free bottle right away.
How are you supposed to make money if you’re giving free bottles to every attractive lady?
He brings over more bottles for free for a total of $1,600. It’s crazy!
Scott is the manager and is also upset with Jason for giving out free drinks.
Jon goes into the bar and chats with the bartender Desiree at the bar.
She is drunk, which isn’t a good thing for an employee to be.
Scott and Olivia tell Jon how unhappy they are with Jason’s behavior.
Jon Taffer gets real and tells Jason he is more like a spoiled rich child than a bar owner in trouble.
He makes Jason stay to clean the bar all night.
Ashley, another bartender, tells Jon she loves her job, but Jason’s behavior makes it hard.
Spoiler alert – if you recognize Ashley, that means you’re a real Bar Rescue fan. And yes, this is the first Ashley Clark Bar Rescue episode. More on that later.
Scott also tells Jason he is ready to walk away if Jon doesn’t remodel the bar and get things back on track.
Jason is made a barback for forty-eight hours to knock some sense and respect into him, with Scott being named in charge of the bar.
If Scott still decides to leave, Jon will not rescue the bar and the Fort One Bar Rescue visit will amount to absolutely nothing.
Mia Mastroianni is introduced and makes Jason start filling up the ice buckets.
There is mold found in the bar, and Jon shows it to Jason by rubbing it on him. Karma, right?
Jon and Mia also find dead mice and fruit flies in the storage area. That’s why the episode name is “Ice, Mice, Baby”.
Jason has to clean the bar and throw away the mice.
Mia begins by giving the bartender’s intoxication goggles to show them that you can not make a drink properly when you are drunk.
After that task, she shows them how to make a margarita.
Ashley excels in making the margarita (which is kind of the bare minimum for a functioning bartender, I think – but Ashley was very good in general, as you’ll see later on).
Scott goes to hand out flyers to advertise the bar.
Ashley starts well; the customers are very interested in her.
She is in charge of the upper-level bar for the night.
Samantha, a former employee, comes to the stress test and tells Jon Taffer that Jason still owes her money.
Jon confronts Jason, who tells him he does not owe her money.
To avoid a fight, Jason writes a check to Samantha.
In the downstairs bar, the bartenders ignore the middle of the bar.
But in the end, all of the bars end up completing the night successfully.
Jon meets with Scott and Jason the next day.
Scott decides to stay as long as Jason continues to change.
That means it’s time for Jon Taffer and his crew to get to work on renovating the bar.
Once the crew finishes, Jon shows the staff the newly renovated bar.
As part of the changes, Jon renamed it from Fort One Bar and Lounge to The Roc Bar and Nightclub.
The bar now looks fancier.
Ashley stands out, and Jason steps up by cleaning the bar.
So – was the Fort One Bar Rescue episode a success? Let’s talk about what happened next in our update, along with whether or not Fort One is still open in 2024…
The Roc Bar and Nightclub Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Roc Bar Rescue visit, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left San Francisco, CA.
At first, things started off well for The Roc.
At the standard six-week check, we learn that sales at the bar have increased by 10%.
That’s less than a lot of the other bars that have appeared on Bar Rescue, but it’s still better than where the bar was before Taffer’s visit.
The bar also kept Jon Taffer’s name and continued doing business as The Roc Bar and Nightclub instead of Fort One Bar and Lounge.
On an unrelated note, Jon Taffer was also so impressed with Ashley Clark (the bartender) that he would later invite her to return to Bar Rescue as an expert.
You can check out a compilation of all her appearances in this YouTube video:
Enough of that – let’s talk about what happened to The Roc!
Is The Roc Bar and Nightclub from Bar Rescue still open?
The Roc Bar and Nightclub closed August 2019, which means it survived for a little less than three years after The Roc Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.
There was no closure announcement – the bar just turned off the lights one day and disappeared.
The bar had just a 2.5 star rating on its Yelp page at that time, so it’s no surprise that it closed.
A lot of the reviews single out the bar’s disgusting bathrooms, among many other issues.
I’ll share some examples of The Roc reviews below.
As of 2023, the old The Roc San Francisco, CA location is occupied by a new bar called The Cannery.
Reviews for it don’t seem great, though, as it has just a three star rating on its Yelp page.
Here’s what it looks like in the most recent Google Maps street view update:
The Roc reviews after Bar Rescue
Overall, reviews for The Roc were not very good after Jon Taffer’s visit.
1 star review from November 2016:
Sausage factory.
The sexy bartenders featured on bar rescue are no where to be found.
Stopped by for “happy hour” and couldn’t find a seat with a tv view.
Noticed the owner & manager seated at the bar in 2 prime tv viewing seats, not cool.
Oh well, $12 vodka/cran, no seat, bar 98% guys, I’m out.
1 star review from May 2020:
When will people start taking advice from Yelp just looked at the facts people bar rescue came here and still couldn’t save this piece of sh*t bar.
Read the reviews cover fees holding people inline bathrooms are closed high drink price rude customer service.
Above all. Security sucks.
Get a clue and avoid.
Oh. never mind they sunk themselves.
Bahahaha
3 star Yelp review from March 2019:
I overpaid for a beer. $7 for a Corona light on a slow Tuesday night.
Bartender was pretty cool.
Had a cool laid back attitude.
I actually liked how chill and quiet it was on this rainy evening.
They’ve got some cool couches to lounge.
In the back there’s a club that looks coo.
My homegirl said it gets kinda hood but I can’t say for sure.
Maybe I’ll check it out one day.
My girl ordered a vodka soda and since they didn’t have Tito’s she went with the well and it was that Platinum vodka crap.
Still paid $9. The other option was Belvedere.
I like the TVs all over the place as well.
A few TVs were playing retro NBA games.
The music was dope too!
1 star review from November 2016:
The bar was using some dirty cheating strategies to attract Halloween costume players to come over and stay late, but not even gave the so-called $1000 costume contest prize to anyone!
Me and my friends have to purchase the $20 ticket to get in, and stay until 2:00am to wait for the winner announcement.
But u know what, the winner was not even existing cuz no one knows who get the f*cking prize and they wouldn’t let us know!
Also, they r on bar rescue, so this contest might be their last straw.
Anyway, changing the name cannot help your infamous reputation!
You sucks!
Given these poor reviews, it’s no surprise that The Roc closed after Bar Rescue.
It seems like the Fort One Bar Rescue visit was always going to be an uphill struggle for Jon Taffer, unfortunately.
If you want to see a San Francisco bar that had success on Bar Rescue, check out my Patriot House Bar Rescue update. The bar was featured on Season 4 and is still open as of 2023.
Other nearby San Francisco Bar Rescue episodes include The Lister / Park 77 (infamous for “the couch) and Sam Jordan’s, a historic bar.
Or, you can check out my full list of all 48+ Bar Rescue episodes in California – it’s by far the most visited state from the show.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-roc-sf-bar-and-nightclub-san-francisco-2
https://www.facebook.com/therocbarandnightclub/
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And don't forget to check out all of the other Bar Rescue updates.
Last updated: 2023-04-01 04:58
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