Cheers

Cheers

The Beverage Business Magazine for Full-Service Restaurants and Bars

  • Beverage Trends
    • Beer
    • Wine
    • Spirits
    • Wine Reviews
    • Marketing
    • Operations
  • Operators
    • What I’m Drinking Now
    • eRNDC Login
    • SG Proof Login
  • Recipes
    • Submit a Drink Recipe
  • Events & Awards
    • Cheers Beverage Summit
    • Growth Brands
    • BevX Awards
    • Supplier Awards
  • Podcasts
  • E-News
    • E-News Subscribe
  • Digital Issues
  • Cheers@Home

Chain Beverage Innovation: Tupelo Honey Café Tunes Into Taps

06/15/2016

by: Amanda Baltazar

Throughout this summer, Cheers Magazine will highlight how chain restaurants are testing and implementing new products, equipment and tactics to produce unique experiences for guests.

Chains sometimes get a bad rap for being followers rather than leaders. It can be harder for them to be innovative, as operating multiple locations across the country poses challenges with standardizing wine lists, beer offerings and cocktail menus. Still, there’s a great deal of beverage innovation going on at these businesses, which Cheers wants to share with its readers this summer.

Tupelo Honey Café

Scratch-made comfort food chain Tupelo Honey Café is extending its draft beverage program to offer a minimum of 40 taps—and as many as 55 at locations in cities with a strong craft-beer following. This is a far cry from the 12-unit, Asheville, NC-based concept’s original restaurants, which offered just eight taps. But it’s a fast way to increase revenue since the ROI is almost immediate, says beverage director Tyler Alford.

Advertisement

“By having more taps, we increase the number of options to the guest,” he says. “But more taps also increases the revenue for beverage, and the percentage of beverage to food as a mix, which is the ultimate goal. We want to sell more quality drinks that make an immediate impact on the bottom line and keep the guest coming back for more.” Tupelo Honey Café’s taps offer both beer and cocktails, though beer is poured from the most taps. For instance, at the new Denver restaurant, which will open in September, 48 taps out of 55 will be pouring beer.

By the third quarter the concept will add tap wine—two draft lines will offer house-label wines with separate barreled and refrigerated systems. Next up may be nitro coffee.

The Tupelo Honey restaurants that have added more taps now sell up to 50% more beer, wine and liquor by volume of sales mix. Had the chain stayed with eight to 12 taps, Alford estimates the concept would have missed out on more than $1 million in beverage sales in 2015.

Amanda Baltazar is a freelance writer based in the Pacific Northwest who frequently writes about food and beverages.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

beer taps beers innovation beer Tupelo Honey Café

Last modified: 06/16/2016

Previous Story:
Large-Scale Cocktails and Punches Make Big Impressions on Guests
Next Story:
Raising a Glass—And Funds—For Orlando Shooting Victims

About the Author: Amanda Baltazar

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




In The News

  • Dogfish Head Releases Nonalcoholic Wheat Brew, Lemon Quest
  • Diageo Buys RTD Brand Loyal 9 Cocktails
  • Podcast: Pandemic Alcohol Trends — and Rum
  • What I’m Drinking Now: Tanya Saxena and the Promise at Dawn
  • Stranahan’s Original Single Malt Receives Rebranding, New Recipe
  • Dallas Celebrates 50 Years of Frozen Margaritas
More News >>

Follow Us

Facebook
Twitter

Featured Drink

  • Around The Corner
    Around The Corner tequila cocktail

Drink Recipes

  • Around The Corner
  • Bohemian Remedy
  • An Easter Parade of Spring Cocktails
  • April Fools
  • Bulette

Current Issue

Cheers Current Issue

Cheers Magazine

  • About Cheers
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Market Research

Events & Awards

  • Beverage Excellence Awards
  • Cheers Beverage Summit
  • Growth Brands Awards

Magazines

  • Cheers
  • Beverage Dynamics
  • StateWays
  • Beverage Wholesaler
  • Beverage Handbooks (research)

E-Newsletters

  • Better Bartending
  • Cheers
  • Beverage Dynamics
  • StateWays
  • Beverage Wholesaler
  • Beverage Universe
  • Cannabis Regulator
  • About EPG Media
  • Send File
  • Privacy Policy
Powered by WordPress and Versal.