What Happened to Turtle Bay After Bar Rescue? (New Orleans, LA)

Turtle Bay opened directly on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, built by owner Brad Bohannan using much of the same tropical theme, color scheme, and signature-cup design as Tropical Isle, the bar across the street where he had previously been a partner before a falling out pushed him out of that business. When it appeared on the February 10, 2013 season premiere "Turtle on Its Back" (Bar Rescue S3E1), Jon Taffer found a bar so devoid of its own identity that his recon team walked past it without noticing, according to Wikipedia's episode summary; the copycat approach had also drawn threats of legal action from Tropical Isle over the similarity. The bar was losing roughly $15,000 a month, hampered further by microwaved food and a kitchen and bar staff with no set drink recipes.

Taffer's team, including bartender Ricky Gomez and chef Ron Duprat, rebuilt the food program, introduced a new signature cocktail called The Resurrection served in a light-up skull cup, and renamed the bar Spirits on Bourbon, building the new concept around a local legend that a barber had once been murdered in the building, complete with an installed barber's chair as a physical prop. The rename proved to be one of the more durable outcomes to come out of the show: Spirits on Bourbon operated under that name for roughly a decade, with owner Brad Bohannan and Jon Taffer maintaining a public relationship that included podcast appearances and a return visit for a Mardi Gras-themed follow-up episode. That run ended around December 2023, when Spirits on Bourbon closed after being sold, according to Reality TV Updates, and new owners opened their own concept, The Tipsy Trumpet, in the same space.

Reality TV Updates' March 2024 update on the bar cites a February 21, 2024 in-person account posted to X by user @JustWonOne, along with a matching Reddit report, both describing the interior as fully converted to The Tipsy Trumpet's menu and branding; per that same visitor account, the exterior Spirits on Bourbon sign remained in place even after the changeover. Because a new operator replaced it with a different concept at the same 615 Bourbon Street address, the bar featured on the show is considered closed, and The Tipsy Trumpet is a separate business.