Is The Thirsty Ox Still Open? Bar Rescue Update (Oxnard, CA)

The Thirsty Ox has operated at 640 N. Ventura Rd. in Oxnard, California, and was featured in Bar Rescue's "A Drunk, a Fruitfly, and a KnightWalk Into a Bar" (aired 2024-03-17). Filming took place in August 2023, and during the makeover Jon Taffer renamed the business Foxy Ox, according to realitytvupdates.com's recap, last updated 2024-03-17. Owner Phil Wills reverted the name to The Thirsty Ox roughly a month after the relaunch, per the same recap, because customers associated "Foxy Ox" with a gentleman's club rather than a neighborhood sports and karaoke bar.

Under the restored name, realitytvupdates.com reported customer ratings of 4.2 stars on both Yelp and Google, alongside a Facebook posting pace of about once a month, suggesting the bar leaned on regular clientele rather than active marketing. Yelp's page for the address, shown updated in September 2026, continues to list the business as The Thirsty Ox, describing it as a karaoke bar, cocktail bar, and dive bar with two billiards tables, eight big-screen televisions, a Friday-and-Saturday DJ, and happy hour until 8 p.m., with posted hours running as late as 2 a.m. most nights. Yelp categorizes the listing under four tags — karaoke bar, restaurant, cocktail bar, and dive bar — reflecting a broad, multi-purpose format consistent with what remained of the original Thirsty Ox concept once the Foxy Ox rebrand was dropped.

A Google Places record for the same coordinates marks the location operational under the same name. Between the 2024 recap describing the reversion from Foxy Ox and the September 2026 Yelp listing carrying current hours and amenities, the venue's operation under The Thirsty Ox name is documented across two independently dated sources spanning more than two years. Nothing found in our search indicates the bar changed hands or closed at any point since the 2024 relaunch; the main change on record is the abandoned Foxy Ox rebrand itself, reversed within weeks of the episode's air date.