What Happened to Stix & Stones Bar and Grill After Bar Rescue?

Jon Taffer traveled to Sugar Creek, Missouri for "Stix and Stones May Break Your Bar," which aired 2019-08-25, to help owner Billy Banks save Stix & Stones Bar and Grill, a drag-racing-themed bar carrying roughly $400,000 in debt and losing about $5,000 a month, according to Mashed's coverage of the episode (2022-09-03). Banks had stepped back from day-to-day management after a cancer diagnosis and had asked a friend, identified on the show as Waterman, to run the bar as a favor. Recon footage showed bartender Razzo serving drinks while holding a lit cigarette and appearing intoxicated on shift, and Mashed reported that customers were often unable to order food through their bartender and instead had to walk to a kitchen window themselves.

The space itself was crowded with nine pool tables, which Taffer's team viewed as a poor use of the floor plan. For the relaunch, Taffer renamed the bar The Pit Stop Bar and BBQ and had two Kansas City Chiefs players, Mitchell Schwartz and Andrew Wylie, take part in the recon. The show's built-in six-week update reported that Razzo was drinking less on shift, Waterman was on track to become a partner in the business, and sales were up 20 percent. According to Mashed, those numbers did not hold up.

The bar was listed for sale within six weeks of Taffer's visit, and the new Pit Stop Bar and BBQ name was quickly dropped in favor of the original Stix and Stones name. Mashed reported that the bar closed for good in 2020, roughly a year after the Bar Rescue visit, and that bartender Razzo passed away about six months after the episode was taped. The building has since taken on a different kind of business entirely. A Jackson County, Missouri environmental health inspection record for the address, dated August 28, 2024, lists the occupant as Arrowhead Liquor & Mart, a retail liquor store rather than a bar or restaurant. No bar or restaurant has operated at the address since Stix & Stones closed in 2020, according to Mashed and the county inspection record.