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If it’s eye-catching now, it was practically revolutionary then.
I have to pass the Maple Shade, New Jersey, branch of the Uno Pizzeria and Grill restaurant chain each time I drive to the Jersey turnpike (Exit 4, thanks for asking). A highly visible digital billboard out front, by the road, can announce anything that managers wish passersby to see – a lunch special, perhaps, or game-day discounts.
More often than not, this South Jersey sign brags about beer. I’ve come to take it for granted that this pizzeria chooses to use its visual real estate to advertise a tap takeover, usually, or a beer dinner. But back in the day, say five-to-seven years ago, I’d have to remind myself to mind the traffic as I widened my eyes reading about not just any old brewery night, but, if memory serves, ridiculously rare vertical releases of the likes of Founders Brewing Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Dogfish Head Brewery 120 Minute IPA.
In 2017, KBS and 120 still work beer geeks into a tizzy. In 2011, they represented some of the higher achievements in competitive beer collecting.
My point is this. At the time, before New Jersey and most other states had begun to catch up with hipster beer hotspots like Philadelphia, a little more than 10 miles east, a suburban outpost of a national chain was arguably one of the three best beer bars between here and the New York metro area, an hour to the north. At a time when casual chain restaurants were shedding customers and Uno's was unloading properties (it's lost 90 stores since its peak at 200), some Uno's were adding draught lines.
I learned while researching this post that I had Tom Bock to thank. The Philadelphia-based owner of nine regional Uno’s franchises came early out of the beer gate to dedicate his Bock Group properties to high-quality stuff. Though corporate execs have picked his brain over the years on how to improve beer programs nationwide, it’s only now that Uno’s as a whole is taking a page out of his beer menu.
“They’re a leader,” says Skip Weldon, chief marketing officer of the Boston pizza company, which boasts 110 company-owned and franchise stores in 22 states, Washington, D.C. and five countries. “We’ve learned a lot from them, like how to give our craft beer drinkers the freshest, newest, latest and trendiest offerings.”
Along with announcing new food initiatives Thursday -- two years since putting pizza back at the forefront of its menu after an unsuccessful attempt to rebrand as a more diverse and healthy Uno Chicago Grill instead of the familiar Pizzeria Uno -- Uno’s shared the news that it’s officially placing local and craft beer at the center of its beverage program. Though every manager has discretion to buy her own beer off a pre-approved list, all of the company’s 66 U.S. managers and franchisees have agreed to dedicate at least six of their more than 15 beer taps to a constantly rotating bevy of local, regional and sometimes national craft brews. To communicate the ever-changing list to customers, Uno’s has partnered with leading beer-menu programmer Untappd to keep every location’s beer list current, both online and within the Uno’s app.
“Craft beer drinkers want to be surprised when they walk in,” says Weldon. “We find our craft beer drinkers like to try something new and aren’t as interested in drinking the same old craft beer.”
Working off the adage that beer and pizza go together like, well, beer and pizza, Uno’s has generally stayed ahead of its corporate food-focused peers, with Buffalo Wild Wings (which sold to Arby’s this week) and, coincidentally, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom numbering among the exceptions. It was the first non-brewpub chain that I know of to own and operate its own mini-brewery (in Central Jersey, now closed), and Weldon says the original Pizzeria Uno’s, in Chicago, has served local suds for a good bit of its 74-year life. At least two managers and/or bartenders at each location go through a weeks-long online beer training course, with those courses to be eventually required by every front-of-house employee; and though the corporation admittedly lags on serving beers out of appropriately styled glassware, Weldon says central command is “certainly conscientious” about pouring everything at the proper temperature.
“It’s really important that staff have what we call that ‘pizza and beer swagger,’” he says. “Serving beer is so much more than putting a beer on tap.”
Now that managers and bartenders are starting to switch out sixtels on a regular basis, they learn to put a reasonable mix on tap so that, as Weldon says, “they don’t end up with three stouts or three IPAs” in addition to the approximately ten mandated handles that include premium and light domestics (think Bud and Coors Light) and more niche national brands like Blue Moon, Stella Artois, Goose Island and Founders All Day IPA.
That message may not have totally trickled down yet. While on Thursday night Maple Shade boasted a nice selection of New Jersey and Pennsylvania breweries, plus two vintages of Kane Brewing’s outstanding Morning Bell imperial porter and an upcoming limited Southern Tier Brewing 2X Oak'd IPA brewed with maple syrup and aged with oak chips, nine of 15 craft taps carried a pale ale or an IPA. It’s not atypical for a bar to fall into this habit but it is disheartening.
On the other end of the draught lines are pubs that haven’t quite caught on to craft. I checked on lists from a few random cities I guessed to be somewhat lacking in the beer education department and found much to be desired. Hagerstown, Maryland, listed just one local brand along with six regional and national craft or formerly craft breweries, despite the presence of neighboring Flying Dog Brewery and nationally award-winning Jailbreak Brewing. At New Mexico’s only Uno’s, in Las Cruces, Albuquerque’s Marble Brewery represented one tap while conglomerate-owned Dos Equis, Lagunitas and Goose Island comprised the rest of the “craft” allotment.
To be fair, the program has just started, and managers might color themselves more convinced as craft drinkers clamor for more. They might find fans like Frank Hiller, a member of my homebrew club who lives around the corner from Uno’s Maple Shade and calls himself grateful that its bar staff ingratiated itself into the community by inviting the public in for a night of beers made by club members who’ve opened commercial breweries.
He says of the bar: “One of my first big craft beer places, and it opened me up to more of the local scene. I think it's great that they support the newer and smaller NJ brewers. I will always favor them because they did a tap takeover with the Barley Legals who’ve gone pro.”
Though my homebrewing buddies are complaining that Maple Shade's beer selection has sagged since their favorite manager switched stores, Bock's regional director Jim Danay says his company's commitment to craft runs true. Back in 2005, he says, he and managers at the Langhorne, PA, store would come to his house to throw darts and swap beers. They added lines to their draught towers and planned beer-centric activities. When they opened new locations, like Maple Shade, they exported their ideas.
"Getting started with craft beer in our restaurants wasn’t as much a conscious decision of 'starting a program' as it was just a couple of guys having some fun and wanting to share it with our guests," he says. "Our GMs and managers are a very passionate group and see craft beer as a vehicle to show some of our individuality and diversity - that we are NOT just another chain."
Having hostessed at the Harvard Square Uno’s in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in college, I do have an affinity for the brand, though I’m skeptical that its new food lineup will improve its pre-packaged taste. I value its attempt to keep ahead of the curve by evolving its approach to beer, and I hope that its competitors will not only stop promoting a “craft” beer selection that almost invariably stumps the server and includes nothing more than a smattering of Shocktops and Sam Adams (I’m looking at you, Zinburger) but will also give their local managers the flexibility to stock beers made in their local communities. With the Brewers Association reporting that craft drinkers spend an average $86 per restaurant check compared with $73 for non-craft drinkers, not only might their attendance improve, their check totals should, too.
(NOTE: In response to complaints from Maple Shade patrons, Danay invites requests from all beer lovers and promises to stock suggestions as often as possible.)
