Quotes from Jon Taffer

A plate of food hits the table, lands right in front of you. One of two things happens. Either you sit up and look at it and react to it, or nothing happens. If nothing happens then that restaurant is stuck in mediocrity forever.

My company was based in Palm Beach, Florida, but when 'Bar Rescue' took off, I knew I had to move west. It was a choice between L.A. and Vegas. I have a lot of friends in Vegas, and it became my choice. I'm so glad because I love it here. There's a real sense of community. It's a big town that feels like a small town. Everybody knows everybody.

Failure is an awful thing, and when I look at the common denominator of failure, it seems to always be the same thing: excuses.

Excuses destroy success every time.

Bars need to be conceived and built for the local audience, not the personal tastes of the owner. Huge mistakes are made with regard to market research and concepts. Research and capital are paramount!

Any time a bar or chef cares more about their own ego than the tastes and comforts of their customers, they should just open a monument to themselves and not a business.

No matter how far society "progresses," our thirst for community and connection will never diminish. Bars satisfy this need.

A bar is a factory, a marketing organization, and a service organization all in one.

Nine out of ten people who are failing blame their failure on somebody else. And that is the common denominator of failure.

When you're finished, bars are not inherently profitable. You got to work at them to make them profitable.

I believe that every person's failure is their fault, every single time.

If I were to pick the life of someone whom I professionally mimic in many ways, it would be Howard Hughes, surprisingly.

There is not one obstacle standing in the way of your success anymore.

The Knack were a very, very powerful band, and you got to understand, when they came in, all the punk stuff was still going on. There was an amazing conflict within the scenes.

Pushing for excellence is a fight. You have to fight to hire the right employees, fight to get the supplies you need, to move line items around. Being a great manager means pushing to get those few extra inches every day. It's almost like a football game - the team that wins sometimes wins by just inches.

Failure is an extremely personal thing, and so is success. The problem with people is they don't own their failure, and if you don't own your failures, you're never going to own your successes.

You give me someone with the right personality, and I'll give you a bar manager in three weeks. You give me someone who has been a lousy bar manager for 30 years, and in three weeks, you'll still have a lousy bar manager.

I think success is a relative term. If you're a caveman, success is capturing an elephant. Success is achieving better than the norm. Success is being exceptional. It's exceptional reputation, exceptional income, and exceptional respect.

Any business, no matter what it is, lives or dies by the customer reaction it creates.

People see themselves on camera. They're ashamed of the things that they do, so they have a choice: Either they accept responsibility for it, or they blame the show for it. It's a human reaction.

Don't open a bar if you think all you need to be is social and greet the customers. You have to run a business.

I've had a best-practices reputation in this industry for a long time. I don't know anything about those other apps, because in the bar space, there really are none.

I have no personal or professional regrets. I really don't.

Great negotiations happen when people are relaxed, so a relaxing environment is important. A high-energy environment tenses people up. It closes them up. You're not as likely to get that concession.