What Happened to CJ's Pub & Grill After Bar Rescue? (Smithton, IL)

CJ's Pub & Grill (also written CJ's Pub and Grill), at 102 N Main St in Smithton, Illinois, appeared in Bar Rescue's ninth season episode "On the 3:10 to Failure," which aired May 4, 2025 on Paramount Network. According to Bar Rescue Updates' coverage of the episode, filming took place in late June 2024, and owners Christy and Jeremy operated the bar going into the visit. The site reports that Jon Taffer initially renamed the bar "Smithton Station Classic Kitchen & Cocktails" during the on-camera relaunch, but that the business reverted to the CJ's Pub name before the episode aired.

The relaunch was short-lived. According to Bar Rescue Updates and a related Reality TV Updates account, CJ's Pub and Grill closed in September 2024 -- about two months after the Bar Rescue renovation -- when Christy and Jeremy sold the business to new owners, with the sale taking effect September 15, 2024. Both accounts describe the buyers as having since reopened the location under a different name, The Roost Bar & Grill. Consistent with that account, a Google Places listing for 102 N Main St shows the business status as permanently closed under the CJ's Pub and Grill name, and a Yelp listing for the same address -- headed "CJ'S PUB AND GRILL - CLOSED" and updated in September 2026 -- likewise marks the location as no longer operating under that name.

The Facebook page associated with CJ's Pub and Grill remained reachable during this check but returned only page-framework content rather than a clear operating status. Taken together, the Yelp closure listing and the Bar Rescue Updates account of the September 2024 sale indicate that CJ's Pub and Grill, as featured on Bar Rescue, closed on September 15, 2024, and the Belleville News-Democrat reported that the buyers opened a separate bar, The Roost Bar & Grill, at 102 N Main St on September 27. New co-owner Terra Smith, who had worked at CJ's, told the Belleville News-Democrat that one of CJ's owners asked whether she wanted to buy the business, and The Roost held its own grand opening that September.