Is The Olive Pit Still Open? Bar Rescue Update (Orange, CA)

The Olive Pit had operated in Orange, California since 1962, concealed behind a strip mall with no visible signage from the street, when it was featured on the August 19, 2012 episode "Bottomless Pit" (Bar Rescue S2E5). Owner Tim Eyerly, a former banker who had bought the bar with his savings in 2001, had let his drinking and his conduct toward women patrons put the long-running business at risk; per Wikipedia's episode description, the bar was hemorrhaging money, having lost more than $60,000 in the year before the episode. Jon Taffer's fix centered on ownership rather than décor: he pushed to get Eyerly's daughter, Tracy, into a hands-on leadership role so the bar would have someone capable of enforcing standards day to day.

The rebrand that came with the relaunch shortened the name to The O.P., a modernized take meant to signal the changed direction while keeping a nod to the original. Regulars did not take to the new name. According to updates from Reality TV Updates and Popthruster, longtime customers resisted The O.P. branding strongly enough that Tracy eventually changed the name back to The Olive Pit sometime after the show left. A Yelp listing for 834 East Lincoln Avenue, last updated in August 2026, shows 120 reviews and 30 photos with a 4.1-star rating drawn from more than 275 reviews, and TVFoodMaps independently lists a current phone number and full weekly operating hours for the same address. Between the ownership change Taffer pushed for and the community's attachment to the original name and identity, The Olive Pit has continued operating for well over a decade past its Bar Rescue episode.