Hockey On Reality TV

I don't watch a lot of reality TV because it's not reality to 90% of the population. I understand why networks rely on them - cheap to produce, easy to edit, very easy to replicate for multiple seasons - but there are a lot of times where I question how real the situations are in reality TV. One of the reality TV shows that falls under those three elements week after week is Paramount's Bar Rescue where Jon Taffer is a well-versed, experienced consultant, but I never expected to see a former NHL player on the one of the older shows that aired on streaming service I happened to catch today.

Before we even get into the episode, it should be noted that for everything Jon Taffer knows, there are some businesses and owners who simply cannot be saved despite the lifeline he throws them. As of January 2024, Yahoo!'s Naomi Kennedy wrote that "of the 229 total bars featured on "Bar Rescue" from the series start in 2011 to now, 108 are still slinging drinks to customers, making the overall success rate of Taffer's interventions an impressive 47%". In short, Taffer's methods can and do work for owners who are willing to accept his help and suggestions. Keep that in mind as you read this article.

On Season 1, Episode 10 of the reality TV show, Taffer heads out to Framingham, Massachusetts to try and rescue a bar called "Angry Ham's Garage". The episode was filmed in June 2010, and the format, if you're familiar with Bar Rescue, is that Jon does surveillance and reconnaissance before going into the bar to meet the owners, and this one had all sorts of drama as we saw the chaos during the bar service before Taffer hears about situation with the bar that features a former NHL player who is involved with the bar.

This is where we learn that one of the owners of "Angry Ham's Garage" is former NHL player Lyndon Byers. When he and his two business partners, Tim Hanna and Richie Oleson, went to obtain a liquor license from the city of Framingham, they were denied by the city due Byers’ and Richie Oleson’s records of drunk driving arrests. As a result, Hanna bought the business outright, was able to gain a liquor license, and was finally able to open the bar. As a result, Byers was moved to being responsible for marketing while Oleson would be responsible for management and maintenance. Because neither have a financial stake in the bsuiness, however, Hanna officially had the final say on all of the big decisions for everything Jon proposed in the episode. Byers and Oleson have no financial stake in the business.

Before we even more forward, I realize there are two sides to every story. Editing allows the producers of Bar Rescue to show people how they need them to be framed to tell their story, so this story needed Byers' side of the story to be fair. Gayle Fee of the Boston Herald followed up with Byers in 2011, so let's hear his side of things as well.

"I get that I had OUIs, and I live in the bed I made," Byers said. "So we decided Tim would be the owner, I would do marketing and PR and Richie would help manage and do maintenance, and we shook on it."

Things started off fairly well for "Angry Ham's Garage", but patronage dropped which caused sales to drop, putting "Angry Ham's Garage" into a deficit situation. Some of that was due to the neighbourhood as "Angry Ham's Garage" was situated in a neighbourhood with elderly people. Another factor was the bar name as "ham" is a term people from other cities use to insult the city's residents. The third may have directly related to the deficit seen as curb appeal, employee discipline, and management ignorance seemed to keep and/or drive people away. Hence the call to Bar Rescue.

There were some very clear problems that emerged when Taffer sat down with the three owners. As we know, Hanna has the financial investment while the other two men are simply there to assist, and that becomes a problem when you realize that Byers and Oleson cannot legally go behind the bar and train employees, assist the staff, or serve drinks due to their prior legal convictions. That clearly works against the entire premise of a bar, so Jon may be working shorthanded when it comes to who is being trained.

Speaking of shorthanded, the morning meeting where Jon meets the entire staff has a key person missing: Lyndon Byers. As the staff prepare for the stress test, Byers still hasn't arrived at the bar. Hanna calls him to find out where he is, and Byers doesn't answer. During the stress test, Hanna tries to get Byers on the phone again, but the calls go unanswered. In the end, Lyndon Byers is absent for the training and the entire stress test. Taffer states he's "disappointed".

Before Hanna and Oleson leave for the night, Taffer informs them that he has setup a meeting with city executives in order to try to fixed the broken relationship with the city. Hanna and Oleson seem pleased that they'll have the opportunity to meet with them, and Taffer hopes the third member of the trio shows up for the meeting.

In the morning, Byers is still AWOL, but Taffer says he's relieved that Byers didn't show for the meeting. The meeting with the city seems positive, and Hanna extends an invitation to the two city executives to visit the bar's re-opening. Both Framingham executives seem to accept the invitation as Hanna and Oleson leave smiling.

At the bar that evening, Taffer assembles the staff outside for the unveiling of the rebranded bar. For the first time in days, Lyndon Byers is at the bar, and Taffer notices his presence. He asks the three owners to gather away from the staff where they have a quick discussion about Byers' absence over the last few days. Byers tells Taffer that he had a charity event to attend which he admitted to Gayle Lee in the Boston Herald article.

"I went to Mark Wahlberg's charity golf tournament for the weekend and they called me like 100 times trying to get me to come back," he said, and, as an objective observer, my immediate thoughts went to wondering how much Byers cares about the failing bar if he's willing to walk away during a major rebrand. Yes, I realize he has commitments to uphold, but one would think he'd have more interest in saving his failing business, no?

Taffer wasn't having any of it, and he fired Lyndon Byers on the spot. Byers wasn't thrilled with how he was portrayed as per Lee's article.

"They (bleeped) all over me then sent me down the river," Byers said. "It's a comical thing."

Regardless of the effort that Taffer put in, it seems the changes at "Angry Ham's Garage" - now rebranded to Octane Bar and Grill - didn't last long. The follow-up at the end of the show stated that the bar's overall sales in the six weeks following the rebrand went up 27% and that the bar turned a profit for the first time in July. Unfortunately, though, Byers had not reconnected with Hanna or Oleson.

In July 2011, it seems Hanna and Oleson had a change of heart as they told Farmingham executives that they were reverting back to "Angry Ham's Garage" as Octane Bar and Grill wasn't "economically feasible". The re-rebrand turned the bar into "Angry Ham's Octane Bar and Grill". One year after they had shown a profit and turned a profit for the first time, everything Taffer had done for them seemed to have evaporated.

Reviews of the bar online were less than favorable, and didn't really show an upward trend after Bar Rescue had done their work. It doesn't seem that Hanna and Oleson ever recovered as the bar and property were sold to the Sharma Group, LLC, of Framingham sometime in 2016.

There's more to the story of the business, including its closure, that goes beyond the 2016 sale, but I was focused only on the hockey portion of this story. Byers, however, never reconnected with Hanna and/or Oleson, and Lee's article indicates that his presence at the bar was part of the reason some of the patrons were visiting.

"People come in and the first thing they ask is, 'Where’s L.B.?'" said one employee. "It's like going to Disney World and not seeing Mickey."

I'm not sure that comparing Lyndon Byers to Mickey Mouse is fair, but I understand the celebrity appeal. However, if going to a bar or restarant just to see a former NHL player is the attraction, it's not a business. If Byers had been a more involved owner who had a stake in the bar, he could have been a successful former NHLer-turned-businessman who could have shook hands with his customers as they were lining his pockets. His celebrity appeal would actually benefit him rather than just making him a character at the bar.

Am I blaming Byers for the problems that "Angry Ham's Garage" had? No, and it would be patently unfair to drop that at his feet. Did he play a part in the bar struggling? That part should be carried by him just as it's carried by Hanna and Oleson. Just as Taffer said in the episode, "The problem with every failing business is that it has a failing manager or owner."

Lyndon Byers seems like a good dude by every measure, but he's just not a great businessman. That's not a knock on him as a person - it's just the reality of the situation. For a guy who scored 71 points while amassing 1081 PIMs in 279 NHL games, he knows what it takes to reach the top in hockey. He may not be a bar guy, but Byers is a proud alumni of the Bruins and he still attends events for the team.

I know he's had a few medical issues in the past, but here's hoping that Lyndon Byers can keep bringing hockey stories and laughter to fans around the world. That's where he excels on a day-to-day basis.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!