Corner Pocket II

What happened after

Lost its ABC liquor license following a string of violent crimes on the property, per NC Alcohol Law Enforcement.

Closure date on record: 2024-2025

What happened on the show

An absent owner, an untrained staff and a pest infestation defined a bar in Hickory, North Carolina. At Corner Pocket II, the state of the room was bad enough that Taffer skipped the recon entirely, immediately confronting the staff, alongside Vic Vegas, about the disgusting condition of the bar after watching the camera footage. The rescue worked to impose the oversight and standards the absentee owner had never provided and to clear out the infestation. Taffer reopened the venue as The Gateway Pub and Grill, a rebrand meant to give the neglected room a fresh identity, betting that real management, a clean space and a clearer concept could turn a pest-ridden, ownerless bar into a functioning business in Hickory, with the usual test of whether it would hold.

After the cameras left

Corner Pocket II, rebranded The Gateway Pub and Grill, has since closed. It lost its ABC liquor license following a string of violent crimes on the property, per North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement, with the local Hickory Record documenting both the rescue rename and the license-driven closure, which puts the ending at high confidence, dated across 2024 to 2025. The neglected bar did not survive: whatever the rescue cleaned up, the violence at the property cost the room its license, and losing that license effectively ended it for good.