Jon Taffer

About

Jonathan Peter Taffer (né Cass; born November 7, 1954) is an American entrepreneur and television personality. He is best known for hosting the reality series Bar Rescue on Paramount Network and Face the Truth on CBS with Vivica A. Fox.

Taffer was born in Great Neck, New York, on November 7, 1954, to Russian-Jewish parents. His father died from a heart attack in 1956, and Jon took his surname from his second stepfather, Lester Taffer. He graduated from William A. Shine Great Neck South High School in Great Neck in 1972, and after a short time at the University of Denver studying political science and minoring in cultural anthropology, he relocated to Los Angeles.

Taffer was born into a family of entrepreneurs. He first worked as a bartender in 1973 for Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood while performing as a drummer in a band.
Taffer’s first bar management job was at The Troubadour night club in West Hollywood in 1978. In 1981, he was given full control of the bar, where staff theft was common. He opened his first bar as owner in 1989.
In 1989, Taffer patented an apparatus and method for selecting and playing music. The patented system includes a set of…