Who Runs The China Grove Trading Post Now? Bar Rescue Update

When Jon Taffer arrived at The China Grove Trading Post outside San Antonio for the episode "Big Trouble in Little China Grove" (aired 2019-05-12), he found a neighborhood bar run by longtime owners Wendy and Raymond Jenkins who were nearing retirement and struggling to rein in family friction that was spilling into the business. The episode centered on a strained family dynamic at the bar, with the couple unable to set boundaries with a relative whose behavior was hurting operations. Recon inside the bar turned up chaotic scenes, including a wandering possum that became one of the more talked-about moments of the visit, according to CultureMap San Antonio.

Taffer's team overhauled the physical space and rebranded the bar as The Tipsy Bull, giving it new signage, a refreshed bar program, and a revamped menu built around the honky-tonk character of the original spot, while keeping fixtures like a taxidermied coyote that had long hung over the bar. The rebrand did not hold. Filming took place in June 2018, roughly eleven months before the episode aired, and CultureMap San Antonio reported that The Tipsy Bull had already closed by October 2018. Texas alcohol-sales records reviewed by CultureMap showed only a modest bump in business after Taffer's visit, and the Jenkinses did not make a public statement about the closure, though they had hinted on camera that they were close to retirement.

The story did not end there. Two longtime regulars, Jim and Sue Sutter, bought the property from the Jenkinses and quietly reopened it in March 2019 under a new name, Mr. Jim's Trading Post, according to CultureMap San Antonio (2019-06-28). The Sutters kept the reopening low-key for months before publicly announcing the new ownership in a June 19, 2019 Facebook post, and they leaned into the bar's television history by hosting a viewing party for the original Bar Rescue episode when it finally aired. The taxidermied coyote from the Taffer-era remodel remained on display.

The bar continues operating under the Sutters at the same Highway 87 location as Mr. Jim's Trading Post, with the venue's official website listing weekly live music, karaoke, and other events along with current hours. Texas liquor-license records still list the bar under the same company, China Grove Trading Post LLC, with the permit first issued in 2013, so Mr. Jim's Trading Post is the same bar continuing under new owners and a new name.