Jon Taffer also tells you to keep your tap beer at a serving temp of as near freezing as possible.
Right now, I'm keeping things pretty cold, myself. Seems like it makes more sense to serve stout too cold than to serve lager too warm. But I don't know what I'm doing yet.
Jon Taffer is only known to be highly accomplished at two things: getting drunks to spend money, and entertaining TV viewers. He also holds himself out as a top-notch bar manager, but the credentials I can find on the web suggest he doesn't have that much experience running highly successful bars. If he did, he would make sure the world knew about it. He doesn't claim to be beverage expert. I don't think anyone with a sophisticated palate could drink Scotch and Amaretto. When he said that was his favorite drink, he didn't even mention a brand of Scotch, so he can't be too picky. Personally, I won't make a mixed drink with cheap booze unless it's totally overwhelmed.
He started a small chain, but that was recent, and there is no way he manages the places. They're in widespread locations, and he has a busy schedule. He says he consults for other businesses in the hospitality industry, but he doesn't seem to have a stellar track record on his own feet. He was around when other people started huge successes like T.G.I. Friday's, Outback, and Hooters, but he didn't do anything comparable. You can't go to your local mall in Great Falls and choose between Hooters, Dave & Buster's, and the Bar Rescue Saloon.
He tended bar, and the web says he spent about a decade, very long ago, running a place called the Troubador. This would have been back before computers revolutionized bookkeeping, inventory, and ordering and expediting. Basically the Stone Age. He couldn't have learned the modern ideas he espouses now from that experience.
Here's what his site says about his consulting work:
Concurrently, Jon runs Taffer Dynamics, his business operations firm which offers dynamic models for a range of well-known establishments and brands, including the NFL, Anheuser-Busch, Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Intercontinental, Fridays, Buffalo Wild Wings, Famous Dave’s Barbecue, and Wolfgang Puck Express.
Well, we've all read and written resumes. "I've worked in various capacities for Fortune 400 companies," means, "I was a clerk at a Holiday Inn, and I delivered Papa John's pizzas." "I've worked for well-known business such as," means, "These are the only well-known businesses I've worked for." And what is "business operations"? It's not a real field. At least it doesn't appear to be when I Google it.
Reading between the lines of a resume is a cruel art no one wants to be subjected to.
Gordon Ramsay can do every job in a restaurant, from ordering to cooking to promotion to keeping the books, and he's a real food and wine expert, but I don't think Taffer can do every job in a bar, and he doesn't seem to be a drink expert. He seems to be a brilliant hustler and self-promoter, though. Just my opinion.