RFC President Answers "Should Your Fast Casual Restaurant Serve Alcohol?"

RealFood Consulting’s President, Ed Doyle, sat down with a reporter from NCR Silver to discuss the four tips for restaurant operators in their decision-making of whether or not to sell alcohol at their fast casual restaurants. These four tip-offs included: consider the benefits, think about your brand, know your local laws, and execute with care.

Ed was quoted extensively throughout the article, but here are some of his notable quotes:

"In addition to helping fast casual restaurants compete with full-service restaurants in the dinner date market, Doyle said alcohol also helps businesses grab the ‘to vote.’ ‘If we’re going to dinner and I don t care about beer but you do, it's really easy for us to find a place that sells beer,’ Doyle said. ‘If a place doesn’t serve beer though, it s immediately off the list. Catering to the veto vote drives more frequency.’"

"Doyle said he believes adding booze is most often a good choice for quick service restaurants, but that it depends on who the customers are and why they re going to eat there. If your restaurant caters to families and has a wholesome vibe, alcohol may be a deterrent. If the majority of your business is done at lunch, when fewer people drink, Doyle said getting an expensive beer and wine license won’t help your bottom line because sales increases will be minimal."