Court: O'Face Bar (Featured on "Bar Rescue") Can Keep Its Liquor License

Iowa has a unique relationship with the Spike TV reality show Bar Rescue. Only one of our bars has been on the show so far and it ended up being the first and, so far, only bar that Jon Taffer walked away from before actually rescuing it. I'm talking about O'Face Bar in Council Bluffs, IA. You can read my earlier posts on this bar here, here, here, and here.

Back in May 2014, the Council Bluffs City Councils voted 3-4 to recommend the denial of O'Face Bar's liquor license. The city's mayor claimed that Council Bluffs had been "irreparably harmed" by the bar's episode of Bar Rescue and most of the city council agreed.

O'Face Bar's owner, Matthew Overmyer, appealed this decision and, as I predicted, he got his liquor license back:

Administrative Law Judge Margaret LaMarche overturned a May decision by the Council Bluffs City Council to deny the O Face Bar's liquor license after it was featured on a Spike TV show called "Bar Rescue,"The Daily Nonpareil reported...

Matt Overmyer, who owns the bar with his wife, appealed the city's decision to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division. He claimed the show's producers encouraged his staff to engage in staged fights and disorderly conduct for the cameras. He also said business has declined at the bar because of the show...

Overmyer said the business has had only one liquor law violation in more than three years.

LaMarche agreed with Overmyer, saying there wasn't enough evidence to justify denying the bar's liquor license renewal.

Representatives from the City of Council Bluffs have indicated that they will not be challenging this court decision.