What Happened to Kilkenny's Irish Pub After Bar Rescue?

Kilkenny's Irish Pub had opened on the Redondo Beach Pier in 2006 under sisters Allie and Alexis Speed, drawing as much as $120,000 a month when business was strong. By the time Bar Rescue arrived, the sisters had let day-to-day standards slip and the business was carrying roughly $900,000 in debt. The episode's rescue effort centered on repositioning the bar away from its traditional Irish-pub identity toward a concept built around the pier's surf culture: Jon Taffer's team retrained the staff, including then-general manager Carlos Cable, redecorated the space, and renamed the business Breakwall.

In the weeks after the episode aired, the new surf-themed concept appeared to connect with a younger, beach-oriented crowd. Customers were described as coming out to "drink and party and have fun," according to co-owner Allie Speed's own comments to Redondo Beach Patch, and a bartender told the outlet his tips had improved under the new format. Online reviews told a more mixed story over time, with some customers describing declining food quality and thinning crowds in the months that followed; one longtime patron told Patch she had high hopes after watching the episode but came to feel the show's format had not fully accounted for how the pier location actually did business.

By early January 2012, Breakwall closed its doors. Records from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control show the business surrendered its liquor license on January 25, 2012, and a separate application for a new license, filed under the Kilkenny's name, was withdrawn in December 2013. In a statement to Redondo Beach Patch, co-owner Allie Speed said the bar became "impossible to keep it open," thanking patrons and staff for their support over its six years of operation under both names. Barney's Beanery later opened in the same Fisherman's Wharf pier space, on the pier's Redondo Landing side.