MovieChat Forums > Bar Rescue (2011) Discussion > Champagne's Cafe in Las Vegas

Champagne's Cafe in Las Vegas

posted 8 years ago by jefgg
11 replies | jump to latest

Are wine and champagne bars popular? Does anyone remember Swanky Bubbles in Philadelphia? Champagne's Cafe was popular with mobsters in the '80s. And it looked like it hadn't been cleaned or renovated since.

Greg the owner looked like a real doormat. He let employees walk all over him. But he doesn't give a toss about the $150,000 he borrowed from his mother.

Candy the bartender looks like a nice girl who you want to bring home to mother. She should get together with Jesse the green haired bartender from The Underworld

Lisamarie Joyce was the expert mixologist this week. A lot of fans like her. I prefer "Long Tall" Mia Mastroianni.

Isn't missing work without calling grounds for firing at many jobs? Corporations spend fortunes on training employees. But most imbeciles who own bars can't seem bother to train their bartenders. DUH!!!

I can't believe former mobster Frank Cullotta has the cogliones to show his face on TV. Cullotta gave evidence against Tony Spilotro and entered the federal witness protection program in 1982.

I can't believe they only served potato chips. I used to go to a bar that served homemade potato chips and they tasted amazing.

Jon Taffer usually tries to appeal to young bar goers. Do most people under 30 give a toss about the Rat Pack and classic Las Vegas?

[–] bcotten81 8 years ago

The theme would fail everywhere but Vegas or Jersey. It was a throwback...and don't underestimate the draw of bartop video gambling. Not sure why that wasn't talked about at all.

The bartenders were a joke --instead of a stress test with bartenders who didn't bother to show up to work he asks them to make the same drink over and over again for 5 people and the girl who claims to have just graduated from bartender school gets owned and then disappears when she freaks out on the opening until the end.

Candy clearly was a joke and got a pass for some reason. I thought Taffer was going to call for her and the other guy's firing but then nothing happened.

The mob element was cheapened with Cullotta even being involved as a sad relic who doesn't realize it.

Isn't Taffer based in Vegas? There was something about this episode that made no sense---it was basically just a makeover because he didn't go after the staff and owner at all.

[–] Gordon_Gartrelle 8 years ago

Amber was just nervous as fcvk.
Don't they give you a stress test at bartending school?

I'm pretty sure Candy used the I'm a single mom, please don't fire me speech.

I agree, the episode was very off.
Taffer to not change the decor or name because the owner asked him to?

I don't let anyone hot-comb out my HAIRitage!

[–] Gordon_Gartrelle 8 years ago

Isn't missing work without calling grounds for firing at many jobs? Corporations spend fortunes on training employees. But most imbeciles who own bars can't seem bother to train their bartenders. DUH!!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You would be amazed at how lazy alot of today's people are.
I don't know what has happened in the last 20 years that people are not afraid of being fired.

Back in the day when I worked these customer service jobs, I was always on time, I did my job, I was single and going to school. My biggest fear was losing my job and having no money.

But today. It is absolutely crazy, people don't show up, or call in with some stupid excuse, and of course the car breaks down, and I don't want to be that person, but God forbid you are a single parent, because that kid will be sick all of the time.

ALOT OF MANAGERS put up with it because they don't want to have to train new people and of course you always have that one sucker, 🇲🇪 who didn't want to get fired so worked additional shifts.
___________________________________________

I am always amazed at how many of these owners that borrow money from their family just don't really have an interest in paying them back. They may say they do, but they always come across as thinking was it a loan or a gift?

I don't let anyone hot-comb out my HAIRitage!

[–] Rainbowboys22 7 years ago

I agree there are a lot of people that don't care about being fired, but to me there is no loyalty on either side so if a company isn't loyal to loyal employees why should employees stress over it anymore...

I worked in a hospital stupidly I screwed up my back for a very bad company. I deal with the chronic pain everyday... January 2017 will be 10 years of daily pain... everyday 24-7-365....

I arrived 30 minutes prior to the start of my shift every day for the 5 years I worked there. I worked extra shifts to help cover shifts and planned my medical care around my work schedule, when I had to have surgery, I planned it out 6-7 months in advance kept my supervisors informed and didn't take any vacation time so I could use the time to heal without impacting my job. Other employees had minor surgery and did not plan time off for the elective surgery... they claimed they only needed a few days off but then suddenly called out for weeks, which short staffed us and other employees pre-planned vacations were canceled...

I got worse my supervisor modified my duties unofficially, when HR heard of it, I got into trouble and when I did official paperwork with HR suddenly I was the worst employee ever and they started writing me up for everything they could, till I got fired for being in pain. Oh and because I stupidly was 100% honest about the pain/issues I got screwed out of workers comp... I lost everything... I applied for other work, but no employer wants to hire someone with restrictions and that they cannot work into the ground. I was loyal to that company, and I lost everything including my home, so why be loyal anymore to a company that don't give a rats ass about their employees?

[–] Albert_Ingalls 8 years ago

Taffer fears the mob.

[–] Gordon_Gartrelle 8 years ago

I can believe that because there is no way that taffer would allow that bar to keep that horrible wall paper.

I don't let anyone hot-comb out my HAIRitage!

[–] chinaglenn 8 years ago

1982 was 34 years ago. I am sure all of the people that Cullotta dealt with are long dead or extremely old in a federal lockup somewhere. Does the Chicago Outfit even exist anymore? Cullotta has been in a lot of mafia documentaries on channels like A&E and whatnot.I was thinking that Cullotta would have been barred from coming into a gaming establishment and in the so called "Black Book" of barred people. But this might only apply to casinos. I unfortunately lived in Las Vegas for a short spell, and gambling machines are in supermarkets, liquor stores, convenient stores, truck stops etc.

But Cullotta was a thief, not involved (to my knowledge) in gambling. For those not in the know, the name "Hole in the Wall gang" was because the guys would just bust a big hole in the side of the building to gain enterence. this was done to bypass alarms and whatnot.Seems to me (and I may be wrong) but Tony the Ant seemed to have been "cowboying" in Vegas and doing his thing and not paying tribute to the boys back East and this is what got him whacked in the end

Sore of ironic because I watched Goodfellas again, and Henry Hill came out of the shadows and lived the last 10-15 years of his life in the open, and on television and Howard Stern, which means he was back in New York.Like Cullota's bunch, the guys Henry dealt with are dead and gone. The Feds with their RICO statutes basically decimated the Italian gangs like the Five Families and The Outfit. The remnants of the Five Families are basically small time mooks selling smack and getting drunk and sloppy.

[–] jefgg 8 years ago

I heard some Las Vegas gambling establishments have slot machines in their bathrooms. Is that true?

You are absolutely right. The old rules of the Mafia no longer apply. So people like Frank Cullotta have very little to worry about.

Are you from the New York area or Chicago? I grew up in the blue collar New York suburbs. I had connections with the Kosher Nostra. I was the Meyer Lansky of Columbus Elementary School in Lodi, NJ. I ran all the baseball action on that playground.

[–] Rainbowboys22 7 years ago

I live in Vegas, I have never seen any gambling in the bathrooms or even heard of it...

[–] jefgg 7 years ago

I heard that story from some really old relatives.

[–] LostInNecropolis2 7 years ago

There are slot machines in weird locations in Nevada such as Denny's and places like that.