What Happened to Dirty Rooster After Bar Rescue? (Antioch, IL)

Dirty Rooster was a lakeside bar in Antioch, Illinois, on the Chain O'Lakes, run by owner Robert "Rob" Hoffman when Bar Rescue's crew visited for "Swinging from the Rafters" (aired November 23, 2014). Before the rescue, Hoffman was more than $110,000 in debt and had developed a drinking problem of his own, at one point selling liquor for as little as one to two dollars a pour and consuming a significant share of the bar's own product. His staff had lost respect for him, and his investors were in open conflict over the bar's direction and their investment.

Jon Taffer's team worked with Hoffman on the debt, his drinking, and the friction with his partners, and renamed the bar Lake Marie Lodge as part of the makeover, along with new furniture, decor, and inventory. By the end of the episode, Hoffman had reconciled with his partners, staff, and himself, and the show reported food and beverage sales up 70 percent six weeks after Taffer's visit, with Hoffman said to be operating the business sober. Lake Marie Lodge kept elements of both names for a period afterward, with its website and Facebook page referencing the original Dirty Rooster branding alongside the new one, before the business ultimately reverted fully to calling itself The Dirty Rooster.

The bar closed at the end of 2015, about a year after the episode aired. Per Hoffman's early-2016 Facebook post, as relayed by the fan site Bar Rescue Updates, a lawsuit from a former business partner over roughly $125,000, combined with a state tax assessment tied to on-air alcohol giveaways that he said cost him around $12,000, had contributed to the closure. Hoffman said in the same post that he was selling off the bar's equipment, including the point-of-sale system Bar Rescue had provided, after paying to have it inventoried and placed into storage during the ongoing legal dispute. No reporting has surfaced since indicating the bar reopened under new ownership at the Route 173 location.