‘Grueling’ Bar Rescue TV episode a ‘good experience’ for Pepe’s

BY Kelly Lopez

Bar Rescue TV personality Jon Taffer is known for his brutal approach to reforming a bar and its owners. The nationally-televised show broadcast on Sunday had Jon critiquing and correcting the bar at Pepe’s Restaurant and Cantina in Canyon Lake. Owners Victor and Laura Demoreno were the victims of his scorn.

Pepe’s owners and staff await their marching orders from Jon Taffer, producer of the show Bar Rescue, during a scene from the Pepe’s episode. Employees were candid in their input for improvements and owners Victor and Laura Demoreno, far left, were eager to implement much of the show’s advice and training. Photo courtesy Paramount Network

“We have been watching Bar Rescue for years so we knew it wouldn’t be easy,” Laura said this week after the airing on the Paramount Network. “But we also knew we needed to make some drastic changes and the show was a great way to do that. In fact, we have always joked that Pepe’s needed a bar rescue. When they called us to see if we were interested, we jumped at the chance.”

The episode of Bar Rescue featuring Pepe’s is titled “In The Rough,” a golfing term, but also a slam on Pepe’s bar. The show is expectedly critical of managers and employees, but especially owners. The appeal of the show is how dramatic it can be and that emotions always run high. In the Pepe’s episode, Jon and his staff criticize the cooking, the bartending, the service and especially the management of the bar.

The remodel at Pepe’s has shifted to a nautical theme after the bar was renamed Del Lago Bar at Pepe’s. Photos by Laura Demoreno

In preparing to film the episode, which was filmed in February, Jon and his staff noticed the huge number of Canyon Lakers who get around the community with golf carts. Jon assumed this meant they all played golf. He rounded up dozens of Canyon Lakers on their golf carts and over-filled Pepe’s bar with customers as part of the show.

This “Stress Test” is a situation that the producer of the show creates in order to determine the weaknesses that a bar has. With chaos abounding throughout the slammed bar and kitchen, Jon put the Pepe’s staff to the ultimate test. Customers waited for food and some received the wrong orders. Drinks were flat. Food was not hot. Diners pounded on tables and chanted, “We want drinks!”

Meanwhile, owners Victor and Laura watched from security cameras in their offices above the bar. Jon played up them not being hands on as the central theme of the episode. After riling up the crowded patrons, Jon brought Victor and Laura into the bar.

When they came downstairs from their office and walked into the bustling bar, they were booed and yelled at by the patrons.

“One thing that will always stick out in our memory is that, as seen in the beginning part of the show, Jon Taffer was asking ‘where are the owners?!’,” Laura said. “We came out and all of the customers booed us and yelled at us. But, when the cameras weren’t rolling, everyone was so kind and supportive. It made it so much easier to carry-on.”

The entrance to the bar at the rebranded Del Lago Bar at Pepe’s has been updated as part of the remodel inspired by the advice give in episode of Bar Rescue televised Sunday.

As the show progressed, very receptive and malleable Victor and Laura worked with their staff and with Jon and his crew to make changes in the operations of the bar. Meanwhile, Bar Rescue rebranded the bar with a golf theme and remodeled it accordingly. They put up signage changing the name of the bar to Par Bar.

The show’s producers mistakenly assumed that Pepe’s was a golf bar and served primarily a golf community. Victor and Laura kept the name and decor for a little while, but then eventually changed the bar name to “Del Lago Bar at Pepe’s.”

“After we heard from the community that they were not overly impressed with the renovations made by the show, we decided to change the name of the bar to Del Lago (of the lake) as a homage to the lake community that has always supported Pepe’s,” Laura said. “We’ve kept the things from the rescue we think will work and got rid of the things we didn’t like and made some design changes inside.”

“Overall, choosing to film Bar Rescue was a good experience,” Laura said. She said she knew that the schedule of taping the episode would be grueling and she knew that the show’s storyline would portray them very negatively. Knowing that prepared them for how difficult it would be. She and Victor knew they needed to make some drastic changes to Pepe’s bar and Bar Rescue was the best way to start making those changes, Laura said.

Laura and Victor saw an increase in business after the taping of the show, but unfortunately, just a few weeks after the filming, restrictions were put on the county and state because of COVID-19. Pepe’s had to change gears and fill take-out orders only. The gains that they saw from the show diminished.

Laura and Victor are using this down time to make some of their own improvements to Pepe’s.

“We are still doing some work and are excited to show the community what we’ve done when we are able to open up again,” Laura said. “We are optimistic that we will be open for in-house dining soon.”

Pepe’s Restaurant is a mainstay for Canyon Lakers. It has been across the street from the Main Entrance to the community for 50 years. It was one of just a handful of restaurants with servers in the 1980s in all of Southwest Riverside County.

Until the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, Pepe’s is available for to-go orders, but the Del Lago Bar is closed. Laura said the entire staff is eager to be able to reopen and show off the remodeled bar.

The restaurant’s website is www.pepescanyonlake.com and it can be reached by phone at 951-244-7373.