BrewDog has secured a unit for its first airport bar and has a second in the pipeline.
In a wide-ranging update on its blog, the Scottish brewer and pub operator updated on its pipeline for 2018 and revealed it is looking at integrating pay-at-table technology as part of its upcoming BrewDog app.
On the plan to expand into airports, the group said: “Our bars team are a travel-hardened bunch, used to life on the road looking for new sites or checking up on existing ones. Airports are a second home to them, as they are for many of you guys. For years we have wondered why airport bars can’t be done better – we’ve all passed through them on the way to our gate and been greeted with old beer, strange carpets and stale atmospheres.
“So, in 2018 we are going to do something about it. We have our first airport location agreed and ready to get to work at, with a second in the pipeline too. We hope more will follow after that. We love the fact that many US airports have small-scale brewery taps from local breweries for those who love craft beer – this coming year is when we give UK travellers a taste of what beer on the go should be like.”
The pipeline for 2018 includes a promise to open in Seven Dials next month – MCA revealed earlier this month that the group is to take on the former Polpo Ape & Bird site. The update said:
“- Edinburgh Lothian Road – Scotland’s capital will very soon be a two-dog town. Our latest UK Bar is scheduled to open in Edinburgh on January 26th.
- Seven Dials – The London craft beer scene continues to go from strength to strength and we are psyched to be opening in Seven Dials at the end of February.
- Reading – We have located and started work on a site bang in the middle of Reading town centre and are hiring staff – we will be open in late February/early March!
- Tower Hill – The month after that we are going to be opening the doors to our first UK BrewPub, located a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge on the banks of the River Thames.
- Glasgow Hopworks – In May we’ll be opening our bar near the Barrowlands in Glasgow where you can take a pilot kit for a spin and unleash that brewing creativity.
- Sweden #5 – No country has taken us to heart quite like the Swedes so we have a location earmarked for the fifth BrewDog bar in that extremely thirsty country!
- Short North Columbus – The downtown entertainment area of our adopted US home city is ready for BrewDog, and we are ready for it. BrewDog Short North opens in March.
- Franklinton Columbus – And following closely behind it in April, an epic two-storey building just over the river in the equally cool Franklinton area of Columbus.
- Paris – Our trials and tribulations in the French capital have been worthy of a work of fiction but we have another site firmed up and no more fingers left to cross. BrewDog Paris will happen.
- BrewDog Seoul – The Korean capital is a mind-melting fusion of old and new; and from May we are going to plant our flag there too. And we’re coming with a BrewPub.
- BrewDog Overworks – Finally, closer to home, in the spring we are going to give the Overworks a chance to fully shine with its own bar at our Ellon HQ. Sour to the people!
Elsewhere across our bars we are still working on other cool projects – we had an incredible twelve months for food so in 2018 we are raising our game yet further, for instance we are installing a full kitchen at DogTap Ellon for burgers and wings! Plus we are working hard to bring back many more favourite beers from our catalogue as part of #ReBrewDog. We’ll also be rocking our increased pilot kit and Tower Hill BrewPub to get even more small-batch beers out there and have several other global cities in mind for International BrewDog bars and BrewPubs.”
