"Was it the lack of an actual bartender in the bar?"

I would guess it's the lack of an actual bartender in the bar.

From what I hear in the industry it's the nasty behavior, of the Chef de Cuisine who created a lot of problems for all the the staff and showed no respect to anyone, add in the fact that the wine menu was a complete farce and a talentless, unprepared Chef de Cuisine and the "creative" resume of the Executive Chef and that equals a miserable failure!!!