TV Restaurants

What Happened to The Sandbar Brewery & Grill After Bar Rescue?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, The Sandbar Brewery & Grill has closed — confirmed via Yelp, September 2026.

Primary source
Yelp ·
Secondary source
barrescueupdates.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: The Sandbar Brewery & Grill's Yelp listing is explicitly marked closed, and independent reporting dates the closure to November 2019, shortly after its Bar Rescue makeover.

  • Season / episode Season 7, Episode 6
  • Original air date
  • Address 4100 San Mateo Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110

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What happened after Bar Rescue?

The Sandbar Brewery & Grill was an Albuquerque, New Mexico bar and restaurant at 4100 San Mateo Blvd NE, established in 2017 according to RestaurantGuru. Bar Rescue featured it in the Season 7 episode "Life's a Beach" (aired 2020-04-05, with the makeover filmed in August 2019 according to Bar Rescue Updates). According to Bar Rescue Updates, Jon Taffer renamed the bar Playa Island Bar during the rescue, but the business reverted to the Sandbar name shortly afterward. The reversion did not save it. Bar Rescue Updates reported that The Sandbar closed in November 2019, only a few months after the rescue aired. Yelp's listing for the business, updated 2026-09, is titled "THE SANDBAR BREWERY & GRILL - CLOSED" and shows 57 reviews and 52 photos accumulated over its run; a separate listing on RestaurantGuru also marks the business permanently closed. The brewery-and-grill concept combined a full bar with food service, a format that struggled to hold a consistent identity through the name changes described by Bar Rescue Updates. No source reviewed for this record indicates that a new business has since opened at the San Mateo Boulevard address, and no current website or active social account for The Sandbar or Playa Island Bar was found. The Yelp review count, accumulated between the business's 2017 opening and its 2019 closure, suggests it operated for roughly two years before the Bar Rescue makeover and only a few additional months after it. The short interval between the show's renovation and the reported November 2019 closure means the bar operated under its post-rescue branding, and then its reverted original name, for only a matter of months before shutting down. Reviews accumulated on the Yelp and RestaurantGuru listings referenced both the original Sandbar branding and the brief Playa Island Bar period, reflecting customer awareness of the name change during the business's final months.

Featured on Bar Rescue

Season / episode
Season 7, Episode 6
Original air date
Episode title
Life's a Beach
What was featured
An Albuquerque brewery and grill renamed then closed within months
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
The Sandbar Brewery & Grill

Frequently asked questions

Is The Sandbar Brewery & Grill still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, The Sandbar Brewery & Grill has closed — confirmed via Yelp, September 2026.

What happened to The Sandbar Brewery & Grill after Bar Rescue?

The Sandbar Brewery & Grill was an Albuquerque, New Mexico bar and restaurant at 4100 San Mateo Blvd NE, established in 2017 according to RestaurantGuru. As of September 2026, The Sandbar Brewery & Grill has closed — confirmed via Yelp, September 2026.

Is The Sandbar Brewery & Grill permanently closed?

As of September 2026, The Sandbar Brewery & Grill has closed — confirmed via Yelp, September 2026. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is The Sandbar Brewery & Grill located?

4100 San Mateo Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Bar Rescue featured The Sandbar Brewery & Grill?

Season 7, Episode 6 of Bar Rescue, first aired April 5, 2020. The episode is titled “Life's a Beach”.

Did the makeover last at The Sandbar Brewery & Grill?

The episode first aired April 5, 2020. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 6 years later —: As of September 2026, The Sandbar Brewery & Grill has closed — confirmed via Yelp, September 2026.

What do reviews say since Bar Rescue?

Yelp's listing for the business, updated 2026-09, is titled "THE SANDBAR BREWERY & GRILL - CLOSED" and shows 57 reviews and 52 photos accumulated over its run; a separate listing on RestaurantGuru also marks the business permanently closed. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is The Sandbar Brewery & Grill still using the Bar Rescue menu or branding?

The short interval between the show's renovation and the reported November 2019 closure means the bar operated under its post-rescue branding, and then its reverted original name, for only a matter of months before shutting down. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
4100 San Mateo Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110
Venue type
bar
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-sandbar-brewery-and-grill-albuquerque
  • barrescueupdates.com — https://www.barrescueupdates.com/2020/04/playa-island-bar-sandbar-bar-rescue.html
  • restaurantguru.com — https://restaurantguru.com/The-Sandbar-Brewery-and-Grill-Permanently-Closed-Albuquerque

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