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'Bar Rescue' TV show restores four metro Detroit clubs

samsung1

Ohio

“Bar Rescue” has been rehabbing in the Motor City.

Now in its fifth season, the Spike TV cable series works with bars and restaurants across the country to revamp their image, service and place of business.

The first of four metro Detroit episodes airs at 10 p.m. Sunday. It will feature the transformation of Hooch Bar and Grill into the more stylish and auto-centric Proving Ground Bar and Grill.

On the outside, the Dearborn Heights business — a small establishment tucked away on Telegraph Road just north of Powers Avenue — looks bare, despite a fresh paint job. Yet step inside and you’ll enter a mini Henry Ford museum, complete with car seats (yes, real car seats with seat belts), old Ford blueprints and classic photos of Mr. Ford himself.
The once floundering bar that had been flocked by fishnet-clad, Hula-Hooping women is unrecognizable, having been restored into a rockabilly, chic sports bar with a classic feel. Everything about Proving Ground screams “Motor City,” from the vintage Ford car grilles decorating its walls to the car wires criss-crossed beneath the TVs.

Even the bar logo is all about Detroit: a vintage Ford Gran Torino sits below the Proving Ground name, which itself is derived from automobile testing grounds.

While old factory signs like “Vehicle Durability” and “Sound Test Area” add to the Motor City nostalgia, Proving Ground stays modern with an Internet jukebox, an entire side room dedicated to games like darts and poker and a top-of-the-line bar.

But the remodeling didn’t come easily. In an episode preview, “Bar Rescue” star Jon Taffer calls the owner of Hooch “quite possibly the most unlikable person I have ever seen,” scolding her for the way she treats her employees and threatening, “I will not rescue your bar if you disrespect (your staff)!” (The bar's owner said she wasn't permitted to talk about the show.)

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment…