more beer
the comment thread on my last beer post got me thinking... what is the beer-side recipe for a successful bar here in lowell?
one commenter raised the corpses of caffe paradiso and fortunato's to excoriate the evils of "$8 beers". (actually he went as high as 10 in his remarks, but i'll dismiss those last 2 bucks as playful hyperbole). which got me thinking: bars who have failed in my general neighborhood include not only caffe paradiso and fortunato's, two of the pricier, more ridiculous stabs at pretension around, but also furey's and at least one incarnation of the white eagle, who were, i think it's safe to say, a little bit lower on the price scale in their offerings.
so what have we learned?
dharma buns purveyed teen comfort food (burgers, fries and shakes) at a bit of a premium with a fridge full of more-expensive craft bottled beer and without well-promoted delivery services. their ambiance was a trifle discomfitting. their seating less than welcoming for informal groups. fail. wings over lowell took the same space with a menu full of teen comfort food (this time wings) at a bit of the same premium, and by all indications are doing just fine. they ditched the beer, but put in booth seating an a no-nonsense ordering and take-out process, and are feeding lines of kids every hour of every day they're open. (pending) win.
caffe paradiso leveraged "cafe culture" for all it was worth, with $8 beers, $12 cocktails, and some of the worst service you could devise. they had a devoted following, but not nearly enough of one to remain in business. (perhaps this is the exact point the commenter was on about). fail. fuse bistro moved in the same space, offered the same outdoor cafe seating, and improved the layout and comfort inside at the same time as coming up with a menu featuring $9 burgers and $5 beers. the 5-year test suggested by the commenter has not been completed, but i'd put a fiver on this outfit doing just fine on this corner with how they're doing it. yup, they can mix you a $12 drink and serve you a $22 sirloin steak, too. and, i think, this may be part of the secret of their success on the flip side of letting burger-and-a-good-beer patrons get their preference on for well less than $20, tip included. portfolio theory is not wrong--something for everyone. AND, i'm happy to point out, no "bud light" among the taps to confuse their customers. (pending) win.
furey's put the "dive" in "dive bar". i wrote here some time ago of having a problem understanding a $9 tab for three beers and a burger--i swear, as god is my witness, that i could not understand how a joint could stay in business at prices like that. i guess i was not wrong. the commenter would, i'm guessing, want to link this to the concept of a "blue collar town" (whatever does that mean if there are no blue collar jobs left here for people to have?) and suggest it's the way to go. oops--fail. hong cuc still slings $3 banh mi sandwiches on the back side of that same building. no beer at all--just absolutely great food at fair prices. grab your own six-pack down the block of the flavor your prefer, and have some friends over for a cheap feast. absolute win.
the courtyard was a hard-smoker-and-drinker's institution. can't get much better "blue collar if only there was blue collar anymore" than that. i can't count the number of times folks i was with said, well after midnight, "let's go to the courtyard", and there they went to chain smoke cigarettes and drink on the cheap. no idea what happened, but, as we all know, fail. instead, some wanna-be-visionaries have instituted in its place an emporium of absolutely maniacally awesome burgers, great pizza, and, no word of a lie, the biggest array of grilled cheese sandwiches i have ever seen on a menu at one time. and $4 half glasses of the most awesome lineup of beers in the city. 5 year rule, yes, i understand. but has anyone gone by the place to look at the numbers? we're talking the same hard-smoker-and-drinker (cheap) kids just like before, only now dropping their cash on GOOD food and GOOD beer. i'll even allow that the jury's out on this one. but, like i said before, i'd still be willing to put a fiver on the five year life-span. (pending ?).
so what do we learn? overpriced joints suck, and they fail. everybody, and i mean everybody, cheers. but, ironically, even the cheapest of the cheap joints fail. furey's even had awesome burgers. but their beer sucked. absolutely sucked. i'm not saying it would have been enough to save 'em, but i would have liked to see 'em try. the courtyard was cheap. it failed. what, then, does "blue collar" even mean around here???
the point of a business is to find what customers want. wings over lowell counts on ease-of-ordering and comfortable booth seating to put their little $6 trays of wings over. ward 8 slings pricey grilled cheese with pricey (awesome) beer to wash it down and gets plenty of takers, too.
i'm just sayin', if you're running a place with the interest on making people happy, you ought to at least offer some decent beer. it can't hurt.
one commenter raised the corpses of caffe paradiso and fortunato's to excoriate the evils of "$8 beers". (actually he went as high as 10 in his remarks, but i'll dismiss those last 2 bucks as playful hyperbole). which got me thinking: bars who have failed in my general neighborhood include not only caffe paradiso and fortunato's, two of the pricier, more ridiculous stabs at pretension around, but also furey's and at least one incarnation of the white eagle, who were, i think it's safe to say, a little bit lower on the price scale in their offerings.
so what have we learned?
dharma buns purveyed teen comfort food (burgers, fries and shakes) at a bit of a premium with a fridge full of more-expensive craft bottled beer and without well-promoted delivery services. their ambiance was a trifle discomfitting. their seating less than welcoming for informal groups. fail. wings over lowell took the same space with a menu full of teen comfort food (this time wings) at a bit of the same premium, and by all indications are doing just fine. they ditched the beer, but put in booth seating an a no-nonsense ordering and take-out process, and are feeding lines of kids every hour of every day they're open. (pending) win.
caffe paradiso leveraged "cafe culture" for all it was worth, with $8 beers, $12 cocktails, and some of the worst service you could devise. they had a devoted following, but not nearly enough of one to remain in business. (perhaps this is the exact point the commenter was on about). fail. fuse bistro moved in the same space, offered the same outdoor cafe seating, and improved the layout and comfort inside at the same time as coming up with a menu featuring $9 burgers and $5 beers. the 5-year test suggested by the commenter has not been completed, but i'd put a fiver on this outfit doing just fine on this corner with how they're doing it. yup, they can mix you a $12 drink and serve you a $22 sirloin steak, too. and, i think, this may be part of the secret of their success on the flip side of letting burger-and-a-good-beer patrons get their preference on for well less than $20, tip included. portfolio theory is not wrong--something for everyone. AND, i'm happy to point out, no "bud light" among the taps to confuse their customers. (pending) win.
furey's put the "dive" in "dive bar". i wrote here some time ago of having a problem understanding a $9 tab for three beers and a burger--i swear, as god is my witness, that i could not understand how a joint could stay in business at prices like that. i guess i was not wrong. the commenter would, i'm guessing, want to link this to the concept of a "blue collar town" (whatever does that mean if there are no blue collar jobs left here for people to have?) and suggest it's the way to go. oops--fail. hong cuc still slings $3 banh mi sandwiches on the back side of that same building. no beer at all--just absolutely great food at fair prices. grab your own six-pack down the block of the flavor your prefer, and have some friends over for a cheap feast. absolute win.
the courtyard was a hard-smoker-and-drinker's institution. can't get much better "blue collar if only there was blue collar anymore" than that. i can't count the number of times folks i was with said, well after midnight, "let's go to the courtyard", and there they went to chain smoke cigarettes and drink on the cheap. no idea what happened, but, as we all know, fail. instead, some wanna-be-visionaries have instituted in its place an emporium of absolutely maniacally awesome burgers, great pizza, and, no word of a lie, the biggest array of grilled cheese sandwiches i have ever seen on a menu at one time. and $4 half glasses of the most awesome lineup of beers in the city. 5 year rule, yes, i understand. but has anyone gone by the place to look at the numbers? we're talking the same hard-smoker-and-drinker (cheap) kids just like before, only now dropping their cash on GOOD food and GOOD beer. i'll even allow that the jury's out on this one. but, like i said before, i'd still be willing to put a fiver on the five year life-span. (pending ?).
so what do we learn? overpriced joints suck, and they fail. everybody, and i mean everybody, cheers. but, ironically, even the cheapest of the cheap joints fail. furey's even had awesome burgers. but their beer sucked. absolutely sucked. i'm not saying it would have been enough to save 'em, but i would have liked to see 'em try. the courtyard was cheap. it failed. what, then, does "blue collar" even mean around here???
the point of a business is to find what customers want. wings over lowell counts on ease-of-ordering and comfortable booth seating to put their little $6 trays of wings over. ward 8 slings pricey grilled cheese with pricey (awesome) beer to wash it down and gets plenty of takers, too.
i'm just sayin', if you're running a place with the interest on making people happy, you ought to at least offer some decent beer. it can't hurt.
posted by kad barma at 1:55 PM
9 Comments:
You're missing the point. Yes blue collar places fail in Lowell, as they do everywhere. Its the nature of the small business beast. But they at least have a chance to succeed. Overpriced, pretentious places asking Lowell and the surrounding communities to pay a premium have NO CHANCE at survival in this city. I reiterate: there are not enough of you willing to pay $8 a beer or $4 for a half glass to allow a place to survive.
Now you might ask what's the harm in stocking at least one or two of these expensive brews? The harm is refrigeration and storage place. Small business people face many challenges and stocking something for that "special" customer is very low on the priorities list, especially when they can use it for something that's guaranteed to move. I know its hard for you to believe, but those of us with pedestrian tastes far outnumber the trained pallets of ale connoiseurs.
Of course, if you're willing to prove your theory, how about taking your life savings and throwing another mortgage on your downtown condo and putting your money where your mouth is. Open up a joint with your preferred business model. Throw in the "quality accoustics" for these room packing live bands you enjoy so much, too.
Guaranteed money maker, right? You should go for it and prove every other business owner in town wrong. After all, what do they know?
The tests are Fuse and Ward 8 and the Back Page aren't they. Did you go to that tent party with the "Hole" utter BS? It was awful. No pedestrian or anyone else would drink it.
Refrigeration? Check out The Worthen's approach. Is that a fair enough "blue collar" example. They have decent beer. They find a way to do it. Why is that so hard for others?
Again, we are talking $5 not $8. Ward 8 goes further than I am suggesting, but check out the folks drinking there. It is not a condo crowd. its crowd is the same as it was when it was the courtyard.
In most any other country but this one the people who work for a living do not put up with crap beer. Only here in America do we find people like you who can make a class war out of a glass of good beer. It's still cheap by alcohol standards when it's not cheap beer. $5. That's it. (and less, buy we can talk about $5). Any mixed drink in any dive costs that much. What is so offensive about a Guinness?
Go to Ireland some time and check out the people who drink it.
As originally noted on a previous comment, wake me up when Fuse and Ward 8 have survived 5 years.
The Worthen has the right formula for Lowell. Reasonably priced products in an unpretentious atmosphere. And if you ask Penny, I'll guarantee you it's not the "quality beer" crowd, but the hundreds who chug down what you consider "swill" who ultimately pay the mortgage and taxes for her.
Great example and I will ask her. It seems pretty clear the harpoon bottles and Guinness taps must yield good profitability if she's offering them consistently and using up fridge space to do it, but best to ask the expert if she will share. Old court count in your book too? That's another solid business running decent beer and full all the time. And you can play the game in the other direction--name a bar doing consistently well without good beer compared to those two.
All depends on what you consider good beer. For decades, the best selling brands are Bud and Bud Light. I'm guessing you don't consider them quality beers. The vast majority will disagree with you. All bars will poor a higher priced, higher quality item. Maybe not folk festival when space and time is at a premium, but the rest of the year they will. However, that is not what draws a crowd. You might be the only person I've ever heard specify quality of beer as a reason for frequenting and establishment.
Know anything about this? Craft Beer Cellar's immediate goal is to open three stores by the end of 2013, with the initial focus being on Lowell, Swampscott, Chelsea, and Needham, Massachusetts. Thereafter, they plan to concentrate on the remainder of New England.
No, I don't think bud makes a quality product anymore, though they were better at one time. Their present popularity is based on a coercive distribution model where bars are penalized for giving space to competitors and people drink it like they eat mcd's cheeseburgers. It's there. I used to prefer Shaefer before that disappeared and Naragansett after that before other real fresh beer started to appear in bars. Harpoon makes a great fresh local product as does Wachusett out west of here. Red Hook is another good local product, ironically bought out by Budweiser, and still good though disappointingly scarce.
I know a large number of people who choose bars based on beer. Ever try to find a seat at the British Brewing Company down in Westford? (yeah I know not a blue collar town even though I'll tell you I know a lot of Lowell blue collar types who drive there). The amount of small production brewing is increasing rapidly in this country, as buds acquisition of red hook attests. People of all collars are figuring it out like they never forgot in other blue collar countries. (my cousins in Canada who work cattle and never went to college have made fun of it my entire life).
Like I said, the US is the only place I know where people put up with bland stale mass-produced mediocrity.
I absolutely hate to use this example because Centro has lousy beer options AND they obstruct the sidewalk making it difficult for my elderly neighbors of limited mobility to reach the post office, but as long as five years was offered as a meaningful timeframe with which to judge the vitality of any particular watering hole... Centro just had their fifth year anniversary there on the end of Market Street catering to anything and everything BUT "blue collar" townie types.
So Furey's demise is not to be accepted as any evidence of the perils of serving lousy beer, and, I'm guessing, Centro's continuing existence is not to be construed as proof that anything other than "blue collar" can survive here downtown, lousy beer notwithstanding. I'm off to Fuse for some good $5 beer and a burger to ponder why all the broke kids I know are organizing another trip to Ward 8 for the open mic on Thursday...
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