What Happened to The Abbey Pub After Bar Rescue? (Chicago, IL)

The Abbey Pub had operated on West Grace Street in Chicago for twenty-four years by the time Bar Rescue's crew arrived, having been opened by Irish immigrant Tom Looney and later run for fifteen years by his son Pat. When Pat left the business to become a firefighter, another son, Tom Jr., took over as manager, and the pub's fortunes declined afterward. The Abbey combined a bar and a separate live-music venue in one building; producers found the music side of the room packed on a given night while the bar side sat largely empty, cutting into the potential for combined sales.

Recon visits turned up stained furniture, uncollected litter, and a general manager who was eating rather than attending to customers. The family itself was divided, with tension between the two brothers over how to run the space and the parents wanting to retire but unable to afford to. The rescue brought in a whiskey expert to assess overpouring and drink-recipe consistency, and a chef to overhaul a menu that needed trimming and updated food-safety practices in the kitchen. Staff retraining covered both drink-making and service standards, and Jon Taffer's team renamed the business The Green Room at the Abbey as part of repositioning it as a more food-and-drink-forward venue tied to the live-music side of the operation.

A soft opening initially overwhelmed the kitchen with orders, but staff reported the new menu drew a positive response once service caught up. For several years after the episode aired in 2011, the renamed venue continued operating with the Looney family in charge. That run ended when the family sold the building itself to raise money in 2015 and negotiated a lease with the new owner; a fire that same year gutted the space and forced its closure. A dispute followed between the Looneys and the new building owner over the cost of repairs -- the family sought roughly $500,000 to rebuild, while the owner offered less -- and the Looneys were never able to reopen under their ownership.

Tom Looney died in July 2022. A separate, unrelated group later took over the same address; as of October 2026, its website advertised a "Grand Opening Summer 2026" for a different venue it calls Chicago Abbey, and Reality TV Updates reported that an earlier version of the new operator's site said it was no longer affiliated with the original ownership.