TAP HERE FOR PROFIT

With so many polarizing items in the news right now, I’m sure you’re as sick and tired as I am listening to more conversations that divide us.

So today, let’s talk divided lines that bring us together. That’s right, your draft systems. Now, we’re not talking taps for beer. That’s too simple. Everybody has them, so what’s to say? No, I’m talking about wine and cocktails on tap. Coffee too. It’s seriously fun business for guests and staff, and around the country introducing these drinks on tap is changing the paradigm for many businesses.

Walk into almost any Dunkin’ Donuts and you’ll see the newly installed Micro Matic draft system. It’s one way they’re speeding up service and keeping coffee fresh.

At my local Dunkin’, the installation of the Micro Matic draft system came as part of a recent renovation. The store closed for a day or two and when it opened, shiny new taps for cold brew, iced tea and iced coffee were proudly on display and streamlining the workflow of the staff. That’s one way to do it- eat the 24-plus-hours of missed profit to get the job done. Or, as Kris Byrd, Director of National Ac- counts at Micro Matic recommends, consider it early on in your build out. He shares, “I always say that conversation can’t be held early enough. When you’re working with the architect and in the initial stages of planning, that’s the best time. Of course, we can go in later and put in a system, but if you’re thinking about it, don’t wait.”

Waiting, as Byrd points out, can make things tricky on the MEP side, “There are unique electrical requirements, for example for the chiller you will need a different current, you need to consider the water line floor sink, floor drain and the best place for a trunk line to run. The tubing that has the glycol running through it to keep everything cold is best underground and it has to be part of the plan.”

Of course, all is not lost if you haven’t started thinking about it early on as Byrd mentions, “It can go up above and into a conduit but then you’re talking about more trunkline and more capital expense.”

Thinking early on in the physical plant planning process saves capital, and thinking about the draft system early on in your menu development can truly help build capital.

At Finch & Fork, the 150-seat restaurant in the Kimpton Canary Hotel in

Santa Barbara there are always eight wines on tap, and it’s been that way since they remodeled. Christine Tran, Director of Food & Beverage, notes, “The restaurant just went through a remodel. It has been around for ten years, though the remodel was a year ago and the wine system went in then. We added it because we wanted to offer higher end bottles that guests definitely would be able to enjoy by the glass.”

With the draft system Tran is pleased to be able to offer higher end bottles to guests that they would have to pay more for because they’d have to buy the whole bottle otherwise. It also gives her and her staff an opportunity to show off the local wines. They concentrate on Central Coast wines, offering guests a real taste of the region. She comments, “We are special in that we are located in a wine region, so our guests like to come to us in order to be able to try various local wines. All eight wines are central coast and that’s how they can experience our wine program and not just be another wine program. We’re hyper local.”

Offering a hyper local flavor is one great reason to add taps to your system. It also helps with the upsell as Tran notes that guests coming in looking for a nightcap are often willing to

Francine Cohen is an awardwinning journalist covering the business of the f&b/hospitality industry, and a proud native Washingtonian (DC). In addition to her work as a journalist she keeps busy fundraising for Citymeals on Wheels, Les Dames d’Escoffier, NY Women’s Culinary Alliance, and the USBG Foundation and serves as chief storyteller and brand steward for clients in the food and beverage sector by providing them with strategic marketing and business growth guidance. She has never met a cheese or beverage she does not like, and lives with her husband in New York; leaving him behind to visit New Orleans every summer. (Except 2020-21. Darn pandemic.) You can reach her at francinecohen@mindspring.com splurge a bit and try something new without much risk.

In her role as Wine and Service Director for AC Restaurants, which includes Poole’s, Poole’side Pies, Beasleys, and Death & Taxes, Kat Robinson is a big fan of having wines on tap. Particularly at Poole’side Pies, the more casual family pizza concept. Having wines on draft encourages sharing carafes going by inspire more tables to order too. Robinson notes the benefits with groups, “Having a large carafe on continued on page 114