Fast food restaurant chains looking to add alcohol to the menu to boost sales keep coming to South Florida as a testing ground.
First it was the Burger King Whopper Bars, which placed two of the chain's six locations pairing beer and burgers in Florida.
Now Sonic Drive-in is getting in on the act, targeting a soon-to-come restaurant in Fort Lauderdale and a Homestead location that opened in June as the first of its 3,500 locations to serve beer and wine.
The undisclosed Fort Lauderdale location will only sell beer and wine inside the restaurant. The new Homestead drive-in, located at 2425 NE Eighth St., will be the main feature, however, and will offer three types of draft beer, 25 bottled beers, and ten varieties of wine to customers who eat on its outdoor, beach-themed patio. Stay in your car and you won't be served -- for obvious reasons.
But Sonic isn't the only one jumping on the beer bandwagon. Several Seattle Starbucks locations recently began selling beer and wine, as well -- with more to come. Like its coffee, Starbucks alcohol isn't cheap: a beer will run you about $5 a bottle, a glass of wine up to $9.
Let's take a shot in the dark and suggest South Florida Starbucks among the first of future expansion locations chosen to usher in a whole new type of barista bar.
For a virtual tour of what your Starbucks could look like in the future, watch this video.
Follow Clean Plate Charlie on Facebook and Twitter: @CleanPlateBPB.
