You tell me you don't want to serve food

Here is a question I received this week from Daniel.

“Hi Tom, could you write an article addressing having food at your taproom but having the food handled by an outside party? Having worked food service for much of my youth I have little desire to revisit that and would prefer my full attention on the brewing side. I know food is critical to success for a taproom.”

Well, Daniel is right about food being critical to the success of a taproom. I believe that’s true because you can almost buy an unlimited selection of excellent beer at your local liquor stores, but you go to your local brewery because it’s local, yes, but also you go for the “experience”. The Oyster I call it, or vibe. Depending on the town you are in and the competition, or lack-there-of, you could easily get by with just a simple beer menu, and talk a beer truck into coming by to offer your customers more than just the beer.

The problem I have with using an outside food service truck or some similar arrangement, is that you have zero control over it. Even if their food is great and they always show up - something I hear would be rare - they could have crappy service. That doesn’t come back on them, it comes back on you. It’s not fair but there you have it. You can hear your customers the next day talking to their co-workers, “Yeah it was alright. Great beer but the service really sucked like we the customers were a burden they had to put up with.” Ouch.

Also I have found that food sales tend to outsell beer. If someone else is doing that for you, then you are just supporting their excellent business.

So Daniel, I hear you, food service can be a real drag. But I think it’s a necessity if you are to be successful - in most cases. That means your goal is to eliminate as many headaches as possible if you are to run your own food operation. Here are some ideas:

• Buy your own food truck or trailer. That will eliminate the need for installing a commercial kitchen in your tasting room. That way you have the benefits of a food truck, and in addition, the knowledge that it won’t ever leave you hanging on a Friday night. And you will get to make the money from those extra sales.

• Having food will keep people in their seats longer. It can become more of an event for them. It’s not just beer.

• Serving food may change your license to a brewpub license which may - depending on what state you are in - allow you to sell wine and other beverages too.

• Start small. The easiest thing would be simple panini sandwiches, or maybe some street tacos. Simple but great burgers would also work. My book the Brewery Operations Manual explains how to manage the food part of your business, but with a really simple menu like burgers, or 5 types of pizza, or simple tacos, your food cost is going to be good and in most cases it only takes two people in the kitchen. Just keep it really small and limited at first.

• Running a food operation in a brewery is actually better than in a stand-alone restaurant. That’s because breweries are just more fun to work in. Hopefully that will help with less employee turn-over. Which also goes back to the simplicity of a menu so you don’t need a big kitchen staff.

That’s probably not the answer you were looking for, but it’s the one I believe in. Just avoid the temptation to fulfill every customers wish that you include on your menu: the things that the customer believes are a “must have”. I’ve seen those menu’s and they are pages long, and a complete nightmare to manage. Keep it simple. I’m happy to discuss this further with you Daniel and answer any questions you may have. This was a good question though.