Training Days
Red Robin encourages staff to come up with beer recommendations of their own, as it’s an important component in the dining experience. But the chain also educates servers to help guests select a pleasing pairing.
Employees learn about different styles, and smell and taste the beers on the menus as part of that training takes place in the restaurants alongside food education.It allows Red Robin to demonstrate ways that beer interacts with the food, and creates an interactive experience about a featured pairing.
Training for Red Robin staff also includes a focus on local and regional beers. The tools provided are designed to continually reinforce the content covered in training, even if servers cannot taste the beer.
“We provide training tools that allow restaurants with elevated beer knowledge to get more granular with the details and personal pairing recommendations,” Burkle says, “while still providing content that talks directly to Team Members just starting their beer journey or are under 21.”
The training tools include job aids designed to fit in servers’ books and posters that hang in high-traffic, team-member training areas. These provide a food-recommendation with each featured beer as well as a beer recommendation for every featured food item.
Red Robin keeps up with beer and beverage trends, such as the explosion of canned beer. Craft breweries across the country have started canning lines. A year ago, Red Robin did not even allow canned beers in its system.
Burkle has also noticed a recent rise in retro beers, such as PBR and hard sodas such as Not Your Father’s Root Beer. “We were the first chain to really bring that brand national,” she says, with the Root Brewski Float ($7.49) launched this past fall.
Boozy Roots
Red Robin actually began as Sam’s Tavern with a single location in Seattle in the 1940s; the name eventually changed to Sam’s Red Robin, and the first Red Robin restaurant opened in Seattle in 1969.
In fact, the restaurant was originally known as Red Robin Burgers and Spirits Emporium and focused heavily on cocktails. But as the brand became more family friendly, the percentage of sales from alcohol dwindled from the mid teens to 5% about six years ago.
The brand went so far away from its spirited roots that “some of my friends still say to me, ‘Wait, Red Robin has a bar?’” says Post with a laugh. Post joined Red Robin in 2011 as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. She also served as the company’s executive vice president and chief concept officer before she was named president in February.
The company began stepping up its innovation behind the bar about five years ago. It launched the Oktoberfest Beer Milkshake promotion with Sam Adams beer in 2012, which was followed by several beer-shake limited-time offerings.
Red Robin’s first Can-Crafted Cocktails, served in a limited-edition, reusable beer-can cup, came out in 2013. One was made with Coors Light, ginger liqueur and lemonade, another with Blue Moon, Svedka Clementine vodka, orange juice and fresh lime juice.
The Ameri-Can Mule ($6.99), was an LTO last summer made from Tito’s vodka, Stirrings ginger liqueur, simple syrup, fresh lime juice and soda water and served in a copper can cup.
A Divalicious Red Wine Shake, made with Little Black Dress Divalicious red wine, vodka, raspberry purée and vanilla soft-serve ice cream, debuted in 2014. Red Robin’s drink menu also includes hard lemonades and Mai Tais, though Margaritas remain the best seller among all alcoholic beverages.
Despite the beer rebranding, “We will not be taking our eye off the rest of our beverage program,” says Burkle. Red Robin has a number of tests in progress to enhance the variety, innovation and consistent execution of the cocktail side of the beverage program, she adds.
One adult beverage promotion strategy that Red Robin has moved away from is the traditional happy hour specials. The chain had offered a happy hour as of two years ago, but Post said that the daily discounts had become a continual challenge to manage.
Red Robin now offers an all-day/everyday low-price strategy, Post says. The price of craft beers differs based on location and brew, but the chain aims to keep it affordable for guests, Post says. The price of a base draft, for instance, is about $3.50.