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    • Self-service bars are on the rise in Metro Detroit
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    Self-service bars are on the rise in Metro Detroit

    Harry Posted on

    Customers like the variety, but bar owners say the self-pour concept doesn’t suit every business.

    The latest trend in DIY is self-pour toilets. Consumers are used to foraging for their own food and ordering fast food through apps and kiosks, and there are now plenty of bars where you can also pour your own beer, cider or sparkling water.

    In the summer of 2022, Michigan passed a law allowing such businesses where customers check in, receive a high-tech wristband or some other nonsense, and are allowed to pour themselves alcoholic beverages from the tap. By the summer of 2023, Royal Oak had two businesses using self-serve tap walls, and today there are at least four more concepts in Southeast Michigan.

    Using software and digital displays added to traditional draft systems, bars can offer guests autonomy and variety while streamlining service. Beverages are sold by the ounce, allowing the consumer to buy small samples and try products they might not normally order.

    “I like that you can try different types of drinks. I’m not a huge beer drinker, so I don’t know what’s going to be safe for me… so I like to take a sip of everything and then commit.” “I think there were four that caught my eye because they were fruitier,” said Kailyn Delonis of Novi, who decided to pick up a sour guava beer from Eastern Market Brewing Co. during a recent visit to EMBC’s Royal Oak taproom, Elephant & Co. “

    Delonis was comparing flavor notes to Royal Oak’s Matt Bergdolt, who considers himself a “big beer guy.”

    “I think it’s really cool. Like Kailyn said, you can try all the different beers and figure out what you like,” he said.

    “I think you’ll continue to see these places open quickly,” said Jon Stoia, who opened North End Taproom in downtown Royal Oak in 2023 with his wife, Kathryn Stoia. MPs to help introduce legislation allowing self-service pubs. “A lot of people even came and asked us for advice and counsel. We talked to a lot of places that opened.”

    While Stoia doesn’t think the concept will replace traditional bars, he said it could be a good idea under the right circumstances.

    “Overall, I think it depends on where you’re doing it and what you’re trying to use self-pouring for as a tool,” he said. “If you’re putting it in just to let someone pour their own beer without thinking about why, it might not really work. Where we find it very useful is in more of a social type environment. You get up and walk around.”

    While North End aims to keep relationships between customers social, other craft beer businesses want to keep relationships between staff and customers social.

    “I don’t think our owner would ever consider going to a model where we don’t have front-facing reps,” said Ryan Rager, bar manager at Farmington Brewing Co., which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. He says he thinks the self-service model is great, but it doesn’t suit their style of business. “We really pride ourselves on the way our staff engages with the community.”

    North End Tap Room has one of the largest number of self-pour taps, with 40. This allows them to offer “more fun” products, such as pickle beer, where a bar might not want to take up the entire tap behind the bar, Stoia said. But their customers can try an ounce or two; That’s a much easier sell and probably an easier sell than someone ordering the full 16 ounces at a traditional bar.

    There is a misperception in homes with self-pour taps that this is some kind of beer bar. Just because you can pour yours doesn’t mean you can drink as much as you want.

    In fact, with technology tracking how many ounces have been poured, it may be a more accurate system to tell if someone has had too much alcohol than the traditional method of having a bartender cut them off.

    Customers can track how many ounces of what type of beverage they drank and how much it cost per ounce as they leave, and the bar can see those numbers. Some self-pouring taprooms require the customer to contact an employee for every 32 ounces they pour to reactivate their wristband.

    “It’s a flow meter that records how much is being poured, a solenoid that stops or starts the beer remotely, and the rest is all software,” Stoia said, adding that it’s kind of like a beer pump at a gas station. “The underlying technology is not overly crazy.”

    The cost to the operator varies depending on how far the kegs are from the taps. There is the base cost of installing taps, as with any traditional bar, but then the added technology can cost a business in the ballpark $1,000 to $1,500 per tap for the self-serve model.

    “It depends on how many screens they need, but it also depends on how far the cooler is from where they’re pouring the taps. If it’s a long draw, it’s going to be more,” Ron Moore said. Last month, he opened the 76-tap Corktown Taphouse, the area’s largest bar, with his wife Michelle and son Mitchell. They went further and ran a glycol bath to keep the lines from the cooler to the faucet cold.

    “We want the customer experience to be the best possible,” Moore said. “If there’s 6 or 8 inches between the cooler and where the tap exits, that 6 to 8 inches will be exposed to a higher temperature, which will cause the beer to be a little foamy. We’ve gone the extra mile to avoid that.”

    The cost of having diversity and technology also comes at a slightly higher price to the customer. At Elephant & Co. in Royal Oak, for example, all of the beers are from Eastern Market Brewing Co. It is produced by and costs around 50 to 70 cents per ounce, while wines are closer to $1 per ounce.

    If you poured yourself some of EMBC’s hazy IPA Elephant Juice during a self-pouring, it would cost you 69 cents per ounce, or $11.04 for a 16-ounce pint. Head to HopCat brewpub and restaurant down the street; a bartender will pour you a pint for $8. You’ll see a tip line when you withdraw your money at both places, even where you pour your own beer.

    However, tipping is not available in every self-service bar. At the North End in Royal Oak, Stoia’s pays its employees a living wage and customers don’t tip.

    “I doubt labor costs are better… after all, we have maybe two servers instead of five, but they are paid more,” Stoia said. “It’s probably about equal in terms of labor costs, but a little bit less staff up front. But our kitchen is the same as anywhere you go.”

    Rager, of Farmington Brewing Co., a traditional taproom with bartenders, said his gut reaction when he heard about the expansion of the self-service model was that it might ease the struggle to find staff.

    “Not a lot of people are still applying for jobs as servers. It’s been hard to retain staff,” he said, adding that FBC is doing well because they’re downtown and established, but other bars and restaurants are having trouble. “The hiring struggle hasn’t really returned since 2020.”

    At the new Corktown Taphouse, which opened in October, customers can use express checkout by dropping their wristbands into one of three outlets upon departure in exchange for a 15%, 20% or 25% tip. Staff are paid higher wages than tipped workers, and on top of that, they all share tips, Moore says.

    “People like to learn how to do it,” Moore says of the self-pour faucet model. “We’re seeing customers expand their palates, drinking beers they’ve never wanted to drink before, even expanding their palate to different types of wine. They’re having a lot of fun with it. The technology is pretty simple.”

    Melody Baetens is restaurant critic for The Detroit News.

    [email protected]

    Elephant & Co.

    456 Charlotte, Detroit. (313) 989-4454. filand.com

    Beverages: Beer, hard seltzer, wine, cider and non-alcoholic beer from Eastern Market Brewing Co.

    Food: Detroit-style pizza, wings and soft pretzels

    Hour: 10:30-22:30 Monday-Saturday. and 10:30-21:00 Sunday.

    Corktown Tavern

    1611 Michigan, Detroit. (313) 362-8184. corktowntaphouse.com

    Beverages: A full bar with over 70 self-serve taps including beer, wine, seltzer, ciders and more, plus a bartender for cocktails

    Food: Comfort bar food from 1834 cuisine or Mexican cuisine from Agave Lime

    Other: There’s duckpin bowling, AR dartboards, trivia nights and a children’s playground

    Hour: 11:00-22:00 Sunday-Wed., 11:00-23:00 Thursday. and 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

    Elephant & Co. – Royal Oak

    330 E. Lincoln, Royal Oak. (313) 989-4454. filand.com

    Beverages: Beer, hard seltzer, wine, cider and non-alcoholic beer from Eastern Market Brewing Co.

    Food: Detroit-style pizza, wings and soft pretzels

    Hour: 16:30-22:30 Monday-Friday, 10:30-22:30 Saturday. and 10:30-21:00 Sunday.

    North Side Taphouse

    111 S. Main, Royal Oak. (248) 221-1925. northendtaproom.com

    Beverages: 40 taps featuring craft beer, wine, cider, seltzer, coffee and more

    Food: In-house menu featuring family-friendly pub fare like burgers, wings and appetizers

    Other: There’s a “no tip” service model here

    Hour: 16.00-23.00 Monday-Wed., 11.30-23.00 Thursday, 11:30-midnight Friday-Saturday. and 11:30-21:00 Sunday.

    Wolverine Pickleball

    235 Metty, Ann Arbor. (734) 489-1723. wolverinepickleball.com

    Beverages: Craft beer, wine, cider and kombucha

    Food: Rotating array of food trucks

    Other: Pickleball courts, curling, bocce ball and other attractions

    Hour: Every day 7:00-23:00

    Brighton Pickleball Club

    8125 Movie, Brighton. (810) 206-8004. brightonpickleballclub.com

    Beverages: There are a dozen self-pour taps in the player lounge

    Food: Some snacks and other drinks

    Other: This is a new, nine-court, state-of-the-art pickleball facility

    Hour: See match schedule

    Social Beers (coming soon)

    211 W. Fort, Detroit. thesocialbrews.com

    Beverages: 45 self-service beer taps, plus coffee, tea and juices

    Food: Rotating chef staff to serve baked goods and breakfast items and dinner early in the day

    Other: Social Brews plans to host live events like stand-up comedy, live music and more

    Hour: It will open on November 22

    Harry
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