barBar Rescue · Season 6, Episode 32 · Aired April 21, 2019
Kiva Lounge and Bar
San Marcos, Texas
The rescue did not hold; it later closed.
What happened after
Renamed The Morgue after its Bar Rescue makeover, then closed. Yelp's own listing for the location states "Yelpers report this location has closed."
What happened on the show
Two burnout rockers had lost 200,000 dollars just two years into owning their bar, and Taffer had to make them face the music before the lights went out for good. At Kiva Lounge and Bar in San Marcos, Texas, the pair's inexperience and lack of seriousness had bled six figures out of a young business, and the rescue was as much about forcing them to grow up as about fixing the room. Taffer reopened the venue as The Morgue, a darkly themed rebrand meant to give the rockers' bar a distinctive identity, betting that a memorable concept and a pair of owners finally taking the business seriously could stop the bleeding before the losses closed the doors for good. Two years in and a fifth of a million dollars gone, the San Marcos bar had little runway left, which made the reckoning Taffer forced all the more urgent.
After the cameras left
Kiva Lounge, rebranded The Morgue, has since closed. Yelp's own listing for the 202 North LBJ Drive location reports that the location has closed, which holds the closure at medium confidence, and the original Facebook page remains up but inactive. The burnout rockers' bar did not survive: whatever the rescue changed, the pair could not overcome the 200,000 dollars they had already lost, and the room Taffer reopened as The Morgue eventually shut its doors in San Marcos.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.