What Happened to O'Face Bar After Bar Rescue? (Council Bluffs, IA)

On the "Punch-Drunk & Trailer-Trashed" episode of Bar Rescue (aired March 23, 2014), Jon Taffer visited O'Face Bar in Council Bluffs, Iowa, co-owned by married couple Matthew and Karen Overmyer, who had bought the bar in 2011 using retirement funds. The bar had briefly generated strong revenue but was, by the time of filming, losing roughly $4,000 a month against more than $260,000 in debt. Recon visits documented unsafe practices including improperly handled flaming drinks, reused single-use shot containers, and staff drinking on shift while the bar went unattended; a physical fight broke out between two staff members during a recon visit.

After Taffer gave the owners an ultimatum over the fight, and after a stress test in which food and drink service broke down entirely, background research commissioned by the show turned up footage of co-owner Matthew Overmyer physically confronting a former employee, along with additional records of past incidents at the property. Taffer opted to leave without completing a renovation or rename, a rare outcome for the show. According to the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, the city council moved to revoke the bar's liquor license shortly after the episode aired, a decision the paper reported was later reversed on appeal.

Separately, according to the Daily Nonpareil and the Omaha World-Herald, co-owner Matthew Overmyer was arrested in February 2016 and later pleaded guilty to charges connected to a February 2016 assault, receiving a jail sentence, probation, and sex-offender registration requirements; he was later returned to custody for violating the terms of his release. Reporting on the bar's post-episode operating status is mixed: one source describes the bar as continuing to operate under the same ownership as of a documented check, while another source notes a maps listing for the address has shown it as permanently closed. This record treats the bar's current operating status as unconfirmed given that conflict.