Brewpubs in all kinds of places

Three business travelers strolling through the Salt Lake City International Airport with time to kill before a connecting flight went looking for a quiet place to have a beer. One suggested they shouldn't hope for anything out of the ordinary, given that Utah isn't known as a beer friendly state.

Imagine their surprise to find the Wasatch Front Pub, serving the same beers as the Wasatch Brew Pub in nearby Park City. They even were able to order a flight of tasters, sampling four of the Wasatch beers. Had they ventured elsewhere in the airport they would have found a Squatters Pub, serving beers from still another Utah brewery.

Brewpubs, often "faux pubs" as Fred Forsley of Shipyard Brewing Co. calls them, are popping up not only in airports, but in baseball stadiums, multi-purpose complexes and even at Disney

In surveying customers, Marriott has found customer satisfaction is in the 80s (out of 100) and intent to return is in the 90s.

World. While the number of high-profile opportunities such as these is understandably limited, there are still some out there.

"We get phone calls every day with people thinking of unique opportunities for a brewpub," said Rob Gentry, vice president of brewing operations at Big River Grille and Brewing Works, which operates a brewpub on Disney's BoardWalk.

Gentry wasn't answering phone calls back in 1995 when Big River made its deal with Disney -- he was busy making them. "We only had two stores open at the time and were still learning our way around, but we heard from the grapevine that they were interested in doing a brewpub," Gentry said. Management at Big River quickly but carefully put together a presentation of what had been done in their Tennessee pubs, complete with color photographs.

"Somehow that package got in the right person's hands," Gentry said. "The next thing we knew they called and wanted to come visit."

Of course, it wasn't that simple. The fact is that while Host Marriott Services can make it almost easy for a brewpub or brewery to be part of an airport pub, it's the more aggressive pub owners who are claiming the high-profile spots. The Red Bell Brewery ended up with an actual on-site brewery in CoreStates Center in Philadelphia because brewery president Jim Bell first did a hard sell to put Red Bell "brewpubs" at Veterans' Stadium. Shipyard Brewing's brewery in Orlando International Airport began with Forsley standing in an underutilized part of the airport, realizing it was over a delivery area with a freight elevator and saying, "You could actually put a brewery here." It took more than two years of work to get the job done.

Marriott's 'faux pubs'

The Wasatch Pub was one of the first brewpubs to partner with Host Marriott Services, because owner Greg Shirf made a "two-year sales call." Shirf was even further ahead of the game than Marriott vice president Stan Novack, who deserves much of the credit for the proliferation of airport "brewpubs." Forsley calls him a visionary, even though Novack uses the word "brewpub" and Forsley calls them "faux pubs" because Orlando is the only airport where beer is actually brewed.

Marriott, which handles food services at 66 U.S. airports and a half-dozen overseas, opened its first "brewpub" in 1993. "We were bidding on the Boston airport and we were looking for local concepts," Novack said. Marriott was already serving Samuel Adams beers in its Cheers bar when Novack approached Boston Beer Co. president Jim Koch about putting a Samuel Adams Brew House in the Boston airport.

"I was asking to use his brand equity," Novack said. "On his part, it was a risk." After all, although Marriott controls everything about the pub except the beer, the Sam Adams name hangs above the door. If the food or service is bad, old Sam is going to get the blame. Marriott has dealt primarily with microbreweries rather than brewpubs, so carrying a brewpub's food menu isn't a consideration.

"We've really developed our own menus around the local market," Novack said. Bringing in local beer is part of that. "A lot of times a customer will come in for one day and won't be able to sample much local. This gives them a chance."

All the breweries have to do is provide beer. "Basically we sign a licensing agreement," Novack said. "Depending on the legalities, they can provide or lend us things to decorate with. They also can approve the look."

As far as Marriott is concerned, the pubs have been an unqualified success. Sales in airport "brewpubs" range from $5,000 to $35,000 a week. More important, in airports where a bar has been converted into a "brewpub," sales have increased from a minimum of 35 percent to as much as 150 percent. In surveying customers, Marriott has found customer satisfaction is in the 80s (out of 100) and intent to return is in the 90s.

"It's succeeded beyond our expectations," Novack said. Marriott was operating 27 pubs in November, with several more planned. Expansion includes more pubs in airports where there is already a pub, including St. Louis, home to one of the more than half-dozen Samuel Adams Brew Houses. "I get calls all the time now," Novack said. "Now, it's the breweries calling, asking, 'Where can we go?' "

Building an actual brewery

Shipyard was one of the first breweries to sign on with Marriott, opening a "brewpub" in the Portland, Maine, airport. The brewery didn't sell a large volume of beer at the pub, but "back when we were developing, it really helped us. It gave us a feeling of permanence in the marketplace," Forsley said. "You are hitting a lot of the customer base we were looking for." Because of Shipyard's relationship with Marriott, during a vacation Forsley stopped to visit with a Marriott manager in Orlando. The next thing he knew he was proposing building a brewery. Alan Pugsley, his partner at Shipyard, visited next. "This could work," he said.

"It definitely had its challenges," Forsley said. Shipyard operates the brewery and Marriott runs two Shipyard "brewpubs" in the airport. The pubs are decorated in a nautical theme and use plenty of Shipyard paraphernalia. There are signs that explain the brewing process, along with pictures of Kennebunk, where Federal Jack's Brew Pub spawned the Shipyard Brewing Co. "You forget you are in an airport," Forsley said.

He doesn't think the brewery, which opened in the spring of 1997, will start a trend. "It is something that takes a unique situation," he said. "In an airport, space is expensive and building is expensive."

Marriott is not the only airport concessionnaire, and not the only one involved with brewpubs. CA One Services, based in Buffalo, N.Y., which operates food service in 30 airports, has also moved toward local themes, and that sometimes includes "brewpubs." Additionally, individual breweries and brewpubs lease their own space in airports. Red Bell has a pub at Philadelphia International Airport, so Jim Bell knows that's an expensive proposition. "We've had an incredible learning curve when it comes to being in high-profile places," he said.

Putting an arena in the beer business

Bell used a presentation complete with computer graphics -- a virtual reality "brewpub" -- to make his pitch to get into Veterans' Stadium. Soon three Red Bell pubs were averaging $30,000 in sales a day, with almost all of that in beer sales. Next he began talking to ARAMARK, which manages the Spectrum, about a brewpub for that indoor facility. "They had a real space problem," Bell said, so he set his sites on the CoreStates Center, which was then under construction.

"We needed to show them a way to be in the beer business," he said. The result was the Red Bell Brewery & Pub. It is the second brewing facility inside a sports stadium -- it was already a given who was going to operate the brewery in Coors Field in Denver. Red Bell built the brewpub, and later a 5,000-square-foot cigar bar, with its own capital, and pays ARAMARK a percentage of sales.

Bell already had learned about rent from his airport experience. "People ask me how much we pay at CoreStates. I tell them you couldn't afford it," he said. "You have to do joint ventures."

The brewpub doesn't have a kitchen, but instead offers a few food items that can be prepared elsewhere at CoreStates and served with some flair in the pub. That also avoids the problem of what to do with leftovers, since the pub is open only on nights when CoreStates has events. Keeping beer fresh certainly hasn't been a problem. "What doesn't get consumed at a Monday night hockey game gets consumed at a Thursday hockey game or a Saturday night concert," sales managed Dan Gannon said.

The 10-barrel system has been pushed to the limit, Bell said, because six out of 10 beers sold at CoreStates are Red Bell products. "The pub does $20,000 to $25,000 per night," he said, and 90 percent of those sales are beer. On a night when hockey is played, most of that business will be done in three 20-minute spurts -- one before the game and one at each intermission. Bell said each of 10 servers will pour at least 500 pints during an evening.

The pub has 18 television sets, and some fans spend more time there than in their seats. Hockey games, like airports, attract the demographic group in which craft brewers have found their best customers. "The average hockey ticket (at CoreStates) is $67. They don't balk at $5.25 for a pint," Bell said.

Making do with less room

Disney World also attracts the type of clientele -- albeit more family oriented -- that most brewpub owners crave. "It's the highest-grossing-per-square-foot store in our system," Rob Gentry said. The company has four Big River pubs in the South and runs two Rock Bottom Restaurants, with more in the planning stages. "Our average store has 10,000 to 12,000 square feet with a 100-seat bar," Gentry said. The entire Disney pub is only 5,000 square feet, with 800 square feet reserved for the brewery, and the bar seats 25.

Still, the pub sold 1,000 barrels of beer in the first year and has begun to work on building its late-night traffic. "It would be tough to do more food business," Gentry said. "At Disney, it stays busy all day long."

The building itself is long and narrow, and has no back door. All the supplies must come in through the front door and all the garbage and spent grain go out the same way. "They told us it would be a challenge, but they've taught us a lot about the use of limited space. They are the master of that," Gentry said. Big River leases the space from Disney.

The constant traffic challenges the waitstaff more than the brewers, but Big River still doesn't try to serve the variety at Disney it does in other locations. Instead of offering eight to 12 beers, as at other spots, the Disney store keeps three regular beers on, along with one or two seasonal beers.

The name above the door

While another Marriott-run airport bar might offer four draft choices, most Marriott "brewpubs" have five or six handles. They also serve samples. In Salt Lake City, Wasatch recently expanded its choices to eight beers, sometimes nine. Shirf has been an active participant in the airport pub. "It's been a great wholesale account," Shirf said. "I wish it was retail, but it's a great account."

Since Shirf Brewing distributes beer outside the Wasatch Brew Pub (the brewery sold 12,675 barrels in 1996) the airport pub is a powerful marketing tool. "People get exposed to the product," Shirf said. He first convinced the airport to sell bottles of the brewery's beer in 1988, two years after Wasatch opened. "We were doing 150 cases a month, but when Host Marriott took over they had an across-the-board-rule that their bars would serve only Miller Genuine Draft, Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light and Heineken," Shirf said.

He never quit trying to get back in, and has worked to make the most of it since he did. Shirf periodically rounds up a group of up to 10 airport pub employees and takes them to the brewery for orientation and brewing. The Wasatch Front Pub is due for renovation in 1998, and Shirf expects it will take on more of a brewpub feel. "We are helping them redefine the menu and expand it to have more items we serve at the brewpub," he said.

Menus already carry the brewpub's story, and there's a beer quiz on the placemats. "As we've shown (Marriott) we can do things that attract customers, they've reached back to us for more," Shirf said. He understand that it doesn't matter where the beer is actually made, but whose name is above the door.

"The consumer considers this our place," he said.

This story appeared in BrewPub magazine in November 1997.