Yard House settles into its newest location
Boasts more than 100 beers on tap
KING OF PRUSSIA >> Great food. Classic rock. World’s largest selection of draft beer.
With those life necessities beckoning right from its signage, Yard House made its long awaited debut at King of Prussia Mall in the massive space once occupied by Sears Auto Center.
Though largely unknown in the area, the 21-year-old chain that roughly trail-blazed the concept of countless taps, food and classic rock when it first opened its doors in Southern California 21 years ago, has readily distinguished itself from the sea of competition, noted general manager J.T. Taylor.
“People come in and they don’t expect it, thinking we’re just a big old sports bar, but that’s not true,” said the affable Ohio native, who has previously managed Yard House locations in Colorado, California and most recently, the Moorestown Mall.
“There are a couple of other concepts that have a lot of bottles, cans and maybe 40 or 50 beers on tap. But we’re focused solely on the draft beers, that’s the driving factor,” noted Taylor, sitting in one of the seemingly endless spacious booths, as Fleetwood Mac blasted from the overhead speakers. “We have regular domestics and imports, and we’re very heavy into regional and local craft beer. We really dive into the area we’re in, so every Yard House is different everywhere you go.”
Seating about 700 guests, with wraparound alfresco dining gaining in popularity as the weather warms up, the inviting
Yard House motif boasts dark woods, stainless steel and looming industrial accents, as silver tubes overhead transport beer from the keg room straight into a waiting tower in the centralized bar area.
On display inside the entrance is the chain’s glass namesake, a yard in length and bulb-shaped at the bottom with a widening shaft at the top.
“It’s a 3-foot-tall yard glass like they used to use for the old stagecoaches,” Taylor explained. “It was served by the company back in the day, but they had to stop around 2003, because of some of the local liquor laws, so we went to serving half-yards of 32 ounces.”
Taylor is happy to clear up the common misperception that the restaurant is somehow linked to Philadelphia-based Yard’s Brewing Co.
“I must have answered that question a hundred times, at the Yard House in New Jersey, and here in King of Prussia,” he said, laughing. “No, we’re not part of Yard’s Brewing, but we do carry their beer and are proud to serve it. People here love it.”
Although a newcomer to the area as of six months ago, Taylor and the rest of the crew — more than 200 strong, and expected to grow soon — keep a vanishing but still-loved mall moniker alive by referring to the restaurant’s location as the “Plaza” side of the center.
“We’re kind of set apart from the mall,” Taylor noted. “We don’t have a mall entrance. We have the parking right out front, with the mall crowd coming through here constantly. We’ve seen a big increase in our lunch sales and late night business recently.”
Yard House happens to be nestled in the middle of a Darden Restaurants cluster that includes Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and
The Capital Grille, which is proving to be an auspicious sort of outcome for the new kid on the block, Taylor pointed out.
“It kind of helps us because we have our Capital Grille partners over there, referring people here, and we have great relationships with all the managing partners,” he said. “We talk to each other a lot. It’s working out well. Darden has been looking at this area for a long time. We need a large amount of square footage and this space proved to be it for us.”
Despite the corporate connection, Yard House touts a decidedly non-chain sensibility, Taylor allowed.
“A lot of people think that because we’re part of a larger company we’re just a chain restaurant, but we don’t see ourselves that way,” he said. “We’re almost a full-scratch, open kitchen, where everything is made by hand, including all of our sauces. We do have 130 beers on draft but we also have about 130 items on our menu.”