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Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/674578
www.cheersonline.com 34 • May 2016 the guest coming back for more." Tupelo Honey Café's taps offer both beer and cocktails, though beer is poured from the most taps. For instance, at the new Denver restaurant, which will open in September, 48 taps out of 55 will be pouring beer. By the third quarter the concept will add tap wine—two draft lines will offer house-label wines with separate barreled and refrigerated systems. Next up may be nitro coffee. The Tupelo Honey restaurants that have added more taps now sell up to 50% more beer, wine and liquor by volume of sales mix. Had the chain stayed with eight to 12 taps, Alford estimates the concept would have missed out on more than $1 million in beverage sales in 2015. DOG HAUS OFFERS SELF-SERVICE BREWS Dog Haus, a gourmet fast-casual hot dog concept based in Pasadena, CA, began testing self-serve beer through the iPourIt system in its Santa Ana, CA, location in November 2014. With the system, once customers have shown their ID or driver's license at the point-of-purchase, they receive a prepaid beer card to use in the machine and a beer cup. "The iPourIt system allows us to free up space in an already crowded kitchen while speeding up the line," says Quasim Riaz, one of the partners in Dog Haus, which currently operates 18 restaurants. The Santa Ana store offers four beers, while a second Dog Haus in Fullerton, CA, opened last July with six. This has led to an uptick in beer sales. "Typically we see about 4% of sales from beer, and in Fullerton we see about 6%," Riaz says. Going forward, he and his partners will consider iPourIt for every new location and will offer four, six or eight beers, always in a variety of styles. Locations do need sufficient back- of-house space to keep a keg of each beer, plus a backup. The Fullerton restaurant holds 12 kegs, for example. Perhaps the best thing about the iPourIt system is the sampling it allows, Riaz says, because customers can pour as much as one-tenth of an ounce of beer. There's no loss for the restaurant, since customers pay for everything. And guests Asheville, NC-based chain Tupelo Honey Café is extending its tap beverage program to offer a minimum of 40—and as many as 55 taps in cities with a strong craft-beer following. Some of the seasonal cocktails that Tupelo Honey Café offers on tap include (clockwise from top left): a Sage G&T with TOPO Piedmont Organic gin, Jack Rudy Tonic syrup, sage bitters and fresh sage; Ode to Eleanor Sparkling Sangria, with white brandy, sparkling wine, thyme and citrus sour mix and hibiscus bitters; Lavender Collins, with Cathead honeysuckle vodka and house-made lavender-sour mix; and a Kentucky Mule, with Old Forester bourbon, orange-ginger-syrup, orange flower water spritz and fresh lime. Dog Haus, a gourmet fast-casual hot dog concept, has been us- ing self-serve beer through the iPourIt system at some locations for nearly two years.