The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Selling food is key to the success of Red’s Beer Garden
In early March, Red’s Beer Garden celebrated its fourth anniversary in southeast Atlanta’s Benteen Park neighborhood.
Once a laundromat, the storefront features a sprawling wall of serve-yourself beverage coolers, a beer-friendly food menu and a family- and dogfriendly beer garden.
Kristen “Red” Sumpter, who owns Red’s with her husband, Ed, explained what their business is all about: “People come in. We say ‘Hey, how you doing?’ They say, ‘How does this work?’ We say, ‘We have beers on draft. You can check out the coolers. Take your time to peruse. See what flavor profiles there are.’”
The choice can be overwhelming, she said, so “we like to give recommendations. People love it.”
Since they opened, the food menu has grown from hot dogs to include bigger sandwiches and baskets of chicken tenders, loaded nachos and cheesy seasoned fries.
“Being a restaurant and selling food has saved our business,” Sumpter said, “because people will stay longer when they are eating.”
The beverage list also has expanded, beyond beer and wine, with cider, hard seltzer, mead, kombucha and a growing number of nonalcoholic beers.
Red’s also has started collaborating with Atlanta breweries.
“Last year, we did a witbier with Elsewhere Brewing,” Sumpter said. “The year before that, we did lager with Sceptre Brewing. The current collab is Queen of Benteen hazy pale ale with Round Trip Brewing.”
Sumpter also likes Red’s location across the street from the Empire Zephyr housing development. “There are people living there already,” she said. “We knew that going into this location it would be long haul at first, but that there was a lot of development coming up, and that was a plus.”
After one year, Red’s was able to lease the space next door and triple the size of the beer garden. Now, there’s dog, handicap and stroller accessibility, as well as expanded parking.
“We just got a $50,000 grant from the city of Atlanta for property improvements,” Sumpter said. “It’s specifically for people who lease their space and don’t own the property. So, we just repainted, we got all the landscaping done, and we got new hanging lights. It’s what I always wanted, as a kind of hyperlocal spot and the neighborhood watering hole.”
“What makes me proud is all of the groups that come and make memories,” she said. “We have running groups, cycling groups and a motorcycle group.”
Another factor in Red’s success, Sumpter said, is the staff.
“We’ve been extremely lucky,” she said. “The majority of our people have been with us going on three years now. There’s only nine of us, so we’re really tiny, but they ... kept us going.”
And, she said, “we’re finally getting to understand what a cyclical year looks like. We’re going to be slow in the winter, and we’re going to be prepared to be up and running come March, and we’re going to be slammed.”
1328 Boulevard SE, Atlanta. 770-6372299, redsbeergarden.com