Self-serve beer has arrived in the North Hills
Self-serve beer is here.
At the Oxford Athletic Club in Pine. As part of a remodel and expansion of its members-only food and drinks service, the lifestyle fitness facility has installed the first iPourIt brand “self-service beer wall” in Pennsylvania. The 11-tap system allows members to pour their own beer and wine in its grab-and-go Market Cafe.
The wall opened Monday. The public can check it out — and buy drinks from it — at an open house at the club from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The iPourIt walls and systems like it are popping up in bars and other venues around the country.
A spokesperson says that since 2012, the Lake Forest, Calif., company’s systems have poured 100 million ounces, generated more than $51 million for its operators, who also get consumption and demographic data. The company says they also save because selfserve eliminates free tastes and reduces waste.
That’s because each customer must swipe her or his driver’s license and credit card to get a card to get an RFID (radio frequency identification) bracelet (other systems use cards) that customers scan at the taps, where touch screens display information about the beverages such as alcohol content, maker and price per ounce. Customers can pour as much or as little as they want. The software prevents them from pouring more than a total of 32 ounces without checking in with a human and having the bracelet reactivated. When they checkout, their credit cards are charged.
Earlier this month, an iPourIt executive said that, nationwide, the average pour is 4.7 ounces and patrons go to the taps 5.5 times per visit, consuming 28 ounces. Customers pay an average of 54.5 cents per ounce.
The company has been putting
in the systems, with twice or three times as many taps, in restaurants and bars around the country, but says this one is its first in a fitness and wellness facility. Here, members (who are 21 and older, of course) can have the RFID stickers affixed to their membership cards and all charges are billed that way.
Brian Shanahan bought Oxford last year and is continuing a renovation that adds outdoor fitness turf, a new pool, a sports performance and a virtual-reality spin studio called Les Mills’ The Trip that he says is the first in the state and one of only five in the country.
Mr. Shanahan, whose PCG Capital owns Cool Springs Sports Complex in Bethel Park, recently purchased and started renovating Wildwood Highlands in Hampton as well.
Demonstrating the new tap wall earlier this week, Jeff Esswein, Oxford’s general manager and PCG Capital’s vice president of sports and recreation, says he first saw the self-serve taps at the Marriott World Center Orlando near Disney World. He says prices are on par with those at the bar in the club’s neighboring sit-down restaurant, but self-serve is a good fit for this grab-and-go area. So far, Oxford members are liking it, and so he might add more self-serve taps near the club’s new golf simulators, and may put them in at Coolsprings and Wildwood, too. Mr. Esswein said that the selfserve tap system required no special approvals from the state Liquor Control Board.
This weekend’s open house includes tours, samples of food and drinks (not the alcoholic ones, though) from chef Martin Thomas (formerly of Coraopolis’ Seasons Cafe, Westmoreland Country Club and Sewickley Heights Country Club, and now running the club’s sit-down restaurant, The Terrace), free fitness classes and prizes, and, of course, the chance to join. Learn more at www.oxfordathleticclub.com.
Otherwise, the nearest iPourIt is a 44-tap system at Whistle & Keg in Youngstown, Ohio, whose owners say customers like the variety and the chance to try small amounts.
A system debuted this summer at McLanahan’s Downtown Market in State College that was made by Pour My Beer, one of several other companies that sell self-pour tap systems. Another Pour My Beer system will be part of Diletto Winery when it reopens in its new location in Boardman, Ohio.
Last month, Draftserv — an Atlanta area-based company started by Moon native Jose Hervia — began installing self-serve soda systems at Hersheypark. He says, “It allows guests to skip the lines and self serve their sodas by scanning a QR coded cup or their season pass to the park.” His company also installed a 21-tap “Pour Your Own Beer” station in the newly renovated Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., but hasn’t sold one to a Pittsburgh venue yet.
Self-serve beer and wine taps are to be part of The Vault, which is going into the former Beehive Coffeehouse and Dessertery on Carson Street on the South Side early next year.
PLCB spokesman Shawn Kelly confirmed that the liquor code does not prohibit self-serve taps, but they must be clearly marked with the brand of beer, and the PLCB licensee using them still is liable for code violations such as furnishing alcohol to visibly intoxicated patrons. So self-serve systems still require some human oversight, if not a bartender’s friendly ear.