What Happened to MT Bottle After Bar Rescue? (Murfreesboro, TN)

In the "Empty Bottles Full Cans" episode of Bar Rescue (aired November 10, 2013), Jon Taffer visited MT Bottle, a biker bar in Murfreesboro, Tennessee owned by Tracy Bigford. The bar served only beer, allowed customers to bring in their own bottles rather than buying drinks on-site, and lacked a liquor license altogether; it carried more than $250,000 in debt, and Bigford's wife Gina had taken outside employment to help cover costs. Recon visits also found unsanitary building conditions, including standing water that Taffer had tested for mold.

Taffer personally helped the bar secure a liquor license, brought in a mixologist to train bartenders on cocktail service, and addressed policies -- including one under which patrons paid to view a bartender's chest, which Taffer noted was against the law -- that had nothing to do with normal bar operations. For the relaunch, the bar was renamed Bottles and Cans and began serving cocktails and food for the first time. Producers reported the bar on pace for roughly $30,000 in monthly revenue shortly after the relaunch.

Jon Taffer returned to check on the bar in a 2016 follow-up episode, finding it still using most of the renovation, though it had by then lost its liquor license, a change tied, according to the owners, to a shift in county lines that placed the property in a jurisdiction that did not permit liquor sales. By that point the bar had also restored "MT" to its name, operating as MT Bottles and Cans. Owner Tracy Bigford died in April 2019, according to his published obituary, which credited him with operating the bar for eleven years.

According to Reality TV Updates, MT Bottles and Cans closed in December 2019, a few months after Bigford's death, and the property sold for approximately $325,000 in a transaction reported to be driven primarily by real estate value. The Murfreesboro, TN location at 3940 Shelbyville Hwy has since been redeveloped as a Domino's Pizza.