The Recovery Room Bar Is Now The Base Line — Bar Rescue Update

The Recovery Room Bar was a neighborhood bar in San Antonio, Texas, purchased by Heather Stich with her life savings in 2013. The "Tanked and Toasty" episode, broadcast April 14, 2019, focused on Stich's own drinking while working, including giving away rounds of free drinks to friends at the bar, and the strain this placed on her marriage to husband Howard, who largely funded the business without holding formal ownership. Recon footage showed a dim, sparsely decorated space with servers giving away hundreds of dollars in comped drinks over a single weekend, and a hands-on demonstration had the owner make a batch of margaritas to show she was not sober while working a shift.

During the rescue, Stich agreed to make her husband a formal 50% partner in the business, and the bar's staff received training on standard drink recipes and faster service, including a timed exercise in which bartenders were able to produce fifteen drinks in four minutes by the end of training. As part of the relaunch, the bar was renamed The Base Line, given brighter decor, two new bartending workstations, a new draft system, and a pizza oven, with Stich choosing to keep the new name going forward rather than revert to the original. At the standard six-week check-in, producers reported sales at The Base Line were up 20%, and the bar continued operating under that name and under Stich's ownership for years afterward at its Harry Wurzbach Road address, drawing a mostly military and college-area customer base near Fort Sam Houston.

Customer reviews posted through 2022 continued to describe an active, welcoming neighborhood bar known for its "Transfusion Shot" and pizza. A current, independently dated confirmation of operations in 2026 could not be located during this check, though no credible reporting of a closure was found either; recent third-party directory listings continue to show The Base Line at the same address with no indication the business has shut down.