At the new World of Beer in the Promenade at Coconut Creek, customers can enjoy more than 500 craft beers from places like Belgium and Japan. But the beer bar, which opened earlier this month, actually has no kitchen. Instead, World of Beer has a special arrangement with restaurants located both in and around the Promenade. Drinkers looking to soak up some suds can order food from any of those restaurants, and they'll deliver the meal right there to your seat.
You don't even have to stop drinking. Just flip through World of Beer's 14-page menu, place your order, and wait for your food to arrive.
Given the diversity of dining options at the Promenade, the
arrangement works out better than if World of Beer had a
kitchen of its own. According to General Manager Dereck Eldred, most,
but not all of the restaurants in the Promenade have signed up to be a
part of the service. There are even two eateries outside of the shopping mall,
Pasqualle's Pizza and Medellin Colombian Restaurant, that are
also delivering.
"Customers love it," says Eldred. "Let's say you're on a date and the woman wants sushi and the guy wants
pizza: It's done. You don't have to get up from your seat to eat or
anything. You can just hang out and party and they'll bring it right to you."
But
beer drinkers aren't the only ones benefiting from this arrangement.
Many other Promenade businesses are seeing a sharp increase in
customers thanks to the arrival of the craft beer bar.
Jamie
Maltese, co-owner of 160 Degrees/Muffuletta Sicilian Sub House, says
the bar has had a big impact on his business. "Sales, for us
especially, have been very good," says Maltese, whose restaurant is
located next door to World of Beer. "We've never stayed open
past 9 p.m. in the past year that we've been in business. But now we're open until
midnight on every night
except for Sundays, sending food over to the bar."
At the
opposite end of the Promenade, fast-casual restaurant Lime Fresh
Mexican Grill is also seeing a boom in business since the bar arrived. "In
general, we've been increasing our numbers each year," says Lime
General Manager Aaron Atkins. "But since [WoB] has opened, we've seen an
influx in orders, especially toward the end of the night."
Business
has been so good that both restaurants have started stationing wait staff inside of World of Beer itself to take orders firsthand.
160/Muffuletta has had staff running orders back and forth from 6 p.m.
to midnight for the past few weeks. The move, says Maltese, has allowed
his restaurant to take orders and zip them back and forth with even greater
efficiency.
For Lime, a partial-service restaurant without any real wait staff, the process has been much more experimental.
"This
is a totally new thing for us, actually having a person over there to
approach tables and take orders," says Atkins. "We'll probably use a
walkie-talkie to relay orders and are toying with the idea of a portable
credit card swipe to make the process easier."
Atkins says
figuring out the right formula could mean better business in the long
run, both for his store and other Limes. Case in point: The Tampa-based World of Beer
already has another location planned in the Dadeland Mall. And wouldn't
you know it -- it's right next door to a Lime.
No matter how the
service works out in the long run, Atkins is happy how the arrangement
with World of Beer has worked out so far.
"Let's put it this way," he says. "They're a dream neighbor for a restaurant."
