Home » Santa Clarita News » Community News » Santa Clarita Restaurant To Be Featured On Spike TV’s ‘Bar Rescue’ Show
Cajun Belle bar rescue

Santa Clarita Restaurant To Be Featured On Spike TV’s ‘Bar Rescue’ Show

A Santa Clarita pizzeria and sports bar was in deep trouble, deep debt and at risk of being shut down for unpermitted construction — until the bar’s owners called “Demolition Man” Jon Taffer and his crew from Spike TV’s “Bar Rescue” series for help.


Sponsored Articles


Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking KHTS Santa Clarita News Alerts delivered right to your inbox.

The “Bar Rescue” episode featuring the Cajun Belle — formerly Grinders — in Canyon Country is scheduled to air on Spike TV on Sunday at 9 p.m. (pacific time). The show traces the bar’s troubles and how Taffer helped owners Jessica and Dave Murrie save their business.

The Murries’ tribulations began in 2014, after the Santa Clarita couple bought the Grinders pizzeria at 18283 Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country for $77,000.

Dave was a successful entrepreneur who wanted to add restaurateur to his resume.

“I owned a medical equipment business and it was a great investment, but it was time to move on to do something else,” Dave said in an interview with Spike TV. Jessica was head of sales for the company.

Get live news updates about Santa Clarita by following KHTS on Facebook and KHTS on Twitter

“(The bar) was not something that I expected to get into, because we really had no experience at all,” she said.

Once they took over ownership, the couple decided to remodel the restaurant.

“It was a no-brainer,” Dave said, “so I decided to open the walls to combine the spaces.”

But because he didn’t secure demolition and construction permits from the city of Santa Clarita before beginning work, city officials threatened to close Grinders until he got the proper permits and brought the remodeling construction up to code.

The Murries spent more than $100,000 dealing with city permits, code violations and remedial construction, which all but wiped out Jessica’s life savings. After months of frustration, Dave became so disillusioned he essentially threw up his hands and gave up.

“He worked really hard, but his efforts were to no avail,” Jessica said. “Our lack of experience was what screwed us up when we bought this.”

By the time the couple called “Bar Rescue” for help in late 2015, Grinders looked more like a construction zone than a bar. The business was losing customers and more than $2,500 a month, while the Murries’ overall debt ballooned beyond $250,000.

Late in January 2016, Taffer and the “Bar Rescue” team swooped in, made changes to the bar’s name, layout and decor, and added a few new items to the pizza-and-bar-food menu, creating a friendlier environment that began to attract new customers.

“The result was a Cajun-themed restaurant and bar, which was pretty different from Grinders,” Jessica said. “We were shocked and had to absorb the new theme and idea and figure out how we could get it to work in our community. After some thought and consideration, though, we loved it.”

Jessica said she and Dave took Taffer’s best ideas and strategies and combined them with their own.

“We created a new logo and added back some of the fun elements (Taffer) had removed, like some of our arcade and board games. And we’re continuing to have world-class bands come in and play.”

The rescue was a success and Cajun Belle is on the rebound.

“There are residents in Canyon Country who did not like Grinders — they’d come in once, try it and leave,” Jessica said. “Now they’re coming in. The food is more consistent, the atmosphere is comfortable and it’s still fun — all the things people liked about it before.”

The Spike TV crew filmed the entire Grinders-to-Cajun Belle transition over nine days in January for broadcast this Sunday on “Bar Rescue,” now in its fourth season.

The Murries will host a “Bar Rescue” viewing party at the Cajun Belle Sunday starting at 9 p.m. Click here for details. Check out a sneak peek preview of the episode here.

To find out more about the restaurant and rescue, visit the restaurant’s Facebook page here or call 661-313-7855.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Santa Clarita Restaurant To Be Featured On Spike TV’s ‘Bar Rescue’ Show

2 comments

  1. World class bands? Name one…

    • World class bands means that we are very picky about the bands that play here. If you come here on a Weds or Sat night you will see some great entertainment!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Stephen K. Peeples

Stephen K. Peeples is a writer/reporter and photographer for KHTS AM 1220 Radio News and SCVTV's SCVNews.com. He also writes the "SCV Rock Beat" for his “Peeples Place at KHTS” blog post and posts more entertainment news on his own site. He hosted, wrote and co-produced the WAVE-nominated “House Blend” music and interview television show on SCVTV, community television for the Santa Clarita Valley. He was a music/entertainment features writer and columnist for The Signal (2004-2011), and the paper's CNPA-award-winning Online Editor (2007-2011). Peeples is a Grammy-nominated record producer (“Monterey International Pop Festival,” MIPF/Rhino, 1992) and an award-winning radio producer (Radio Festival of New York for “The Lost Lennon Tapes,” Westwood One, 1988-1990).