Unlikely Retailers and Restaurants Embrace Quality Beer
Beyond the basics
If supermarkets can become beer destinations, can convenience stores be close behind? The answer is yes, if you’re talking about the Longhouse Market & Deli on the grounds of the 7 Cedars Casino on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Longhouse Market is a far cry from the gritty c-stores of yore, destinations for little more than Slim Jims.
“I like to call it the Nordstrom’s of convenience stores,” said grocery manager Terry Weidemier, pointing to the shop’s natural wood decor, stone countertops and spotless, inviting atmosphere. Located 80 miles northwest of Seattle (including a half-hour ferry ride), not surprisingly, Longhouse Market sees its share of beer connoisseurs, and so the 5-year-old store has risen to the challenge, offering 15 cooler doors of fine beers. The store stocks about 250 different beers—largely high-scoring ones with some imports like Chimay and Celebrator—priced from $3 to $19 for a 22-ounce bottle of Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew. And despite the venue’s rather remote location, Longhouse sometimes receives coveted beers before other retailers, such as Alaskan Brewing’s Pumpkin Porter last summer. Beer represents up to 7 percent of the store’s total sales, significantly more than that of a typical c-store.
Beyond the selection—which Weidemier calls “the best in two counties”—the convenience store seeks to expand its customers’ beer knowledge with monthly in-store tastings. The free events offer up to four 1-ounce pours of beers from the likes of 21st Amendment, Deschutes, Full Sail and Pike. For the first time last summer, Longhouse and the casino—which attracts guests from the Northwest and Canada—organized Clallam County’s first beer festival, the Far West Beer Fest.
Noting that “most people are dumbfounded when they come in here and see the beer,” Weidemier says he plans to maintain and even build upon Longhouse’s beer reputation. “We’ll keep pushing our distributors to try to be aggressive in getting new beers for us.”
A sprinkling of drugstores are also becoming beer-savvy. Several New York City locations of Duane Reade, a Walgreens subsidiary, have been offering beer growlers for $9.99. On the West Coast, Seattle’s Bartell Drugs recently opened a new store boasting six local beers on tap for growler takeout, priced at $9.99 to $10.99. Response has been so strong that the company—which operates 58 stores—is considering growler stations at more locations.
Beer treasure hunt
Specialty and home-furnishing retailers are also setting their designs on fine beer. More than 250 Cost Plus World Market locations, for example, sell beer, with its website recently listing selections like Ommegang’s Hennepin Saison, Three Philosophers Quadrupel Ale and a Chimay gift pack. But beer is hardly a new product for the chain, which has stores in 31 states. “Cost Plus World Market has been selling alcohol in some stores since the early 1970s,” said Matthew Gee, vice president, food and beverage. “Through the years, we’ve discovered that beer is an important category and provides great gifting and entertaining options for our customers.”
As with its other in-store merchandise, World Market focuses on an ever-changing array of beers, giving customers the feeling that they’re on a treasure hunt. “We are constantly changing our assortment with outstanding and unique discoveries to suit passionate beer lovers,” says Gee, adding that beer selection can be very different from store to store.
With its emphasis on different products, flavorful beers are ideal for World Market, and the retail executive notes that the chain is “able to act quickly and make opportunistic buys—limited offerings, last of a style, first to market—which sets us apart from some other retailers.” World Market also works with a number of breweries in launching their beers nationwide, Gee says. World Market’s parent company, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., is also reportedly testing the sale of beer and wine in some of its stores.
Other big-box operators have found great success with beer. Despite its limited offerings, Costco membership wholesale clubs have found high-end beer accounting for almost one-third of its malt beverage sales. In some markets, the chain has put a big emphasis on large-format bottles, offering as many as 20 different bombers, priced between $5 and $22.99 a bottle. Similarly, Target has been quietly adding beer at some of its stores and seeking beer licenses at others. While selection varies by store, the retail chain’s website lists brands like Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada’s Celebration and Ruthless Rye IPA, as well as a number of beers from Boston Beer, Redhook and Pyramid.
Belly up to the coffee bar
The retail market’s embrace of flavorful beer is not limited to just stores (or “off-premise” accounts in trade lingo) but unexpected eateries (“on-premise” accounts), as well. Pizza parlors, for example, are no longer just the domain for pitchers of Coke and carafes of cheap Chianti. Indeed, Bambino’s Pizzeria in Seattle not only serves up 16 beers on tap but also up to as many as 200 bottles. New customers are pleasantly surprised to see the emphasis on beer, according to co-owner Belle Coelho, particularly because “our beer menu is six times longer than our food menu.”
Rather than focusing just on locally produced beers like so many other Seattle venues, Bambino’s features a much wider variety. “Since many of us can’t travel very far, we like to offer our customers a wide selection from around the world,” the restaurateur explains.
Drafts at Bambino’s, located near Seattle’s Space Needle, typically range from $5 to $7 per pint, with high-alcohol beers served in 10-ounce glasses. To finish off a meal of Neapolitan-style pizza, paired with a special beer, Bambino’s has come up with the perfect dessert: gelato made with Le Baladin Xyauyù Etichetta Oro ($2.50 per scoop).
Coffee shops around the country are increasingly finding that serving premium beers (and wine) later in the day can make for great supplements to their morning-driven coffee business. Kudu Coffee & Craft Beer in Charleston, SC, is such a business. For the last three years Jason Bell and his co-owners have built a draft system that today offers 22 choices, generally priced between $5 and $8. Bell reports that he tries to emphasize local breweries, and recent features have included the likes of Holy City Pluff Mud Porter and Westbrook White Thai. Baladin Nora was another recent feature on draft at the Charleston coffee shop. In addition to a great beer selection, Kudu hosts regular events, including tap takeovers and brewer meet-and-greets, such as the recent visit by Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisanal Ales.