Drinking at Beer Belly, a craft beer bar in Koreatown, Los Angeles, you’ll see owner Jimmy Han looking down on his phone at times. No, he isn’t playing Angry Birds. Jimmy is connecting to a whole generation of customers that tweet, Facebook and check-in on Foursquare. Recently, Jimmy implanted a service that allows patrons to pay without having to even leave their seats.

Tech Round-Up

Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood has been using an iPhone app that gives you one click access to their beer list. Beachwood BBQ, at both of their Long Beach and Seal Beach locations, uses a webcam that takes a photo of the tap list and sends it to their website. Scoops Westside has been using Square, a lightweight device that attaches to your iPhone or iPad and allows merchants to accept credit cards on the go, for nearly seven months now.

Beer Belly 2.0

It seems customary for a restaurant or bar nowadays to have social media presence, but Jimmy takes the extra mile. Not only using both Twitter and Facebook to promote his brand, he also utilizes Tumblr, a free blogging platform, to show off new dishes on the menu or specials of the day.

The entire Beer Belly website was created with Central.ly, an online website building platform who boasts “Making a Central.ly website takes less than five minutes, with no design and no technical skills required. This is the web site maker made for you.”

“You have these cool apps and plugins (on Central.ly), so we could add our menu, tap list, Twitter feed, Facebook feed, email sign up list. It’s ridiculously easy,” Jimmy tells us. As for the emailing list, Jimmy uses MailChimp, an email marketing service that allows you to design, and track the emails you send out.

Another apparent feature at Beer Belly is the iTune DJ. It allows patrons to vote for the music they want to groove to. The more votes the song gets the sooner it’ll get played. It’s a free downloadable Apple app called “Remote” that is specifically made for controlling iTunes. “You’ll need to be on the same Wi-Fi and be using an iPhone,” Jimmy adds.

Jimmy believes using these technologies will expand the experiences of both the customer and the business. He tells us, “Technology seems to make things easier for people. Hopefully, if everything is put together correctly and everything is running smoothly, it can simplify things.” Jimmy says it’s about making it all more pleasurable, like the ability to choose your own music and having access to information before you decide to enter the establishment.

A New Way of Paying

Imagine waiting at a bar or restaurant with a long line to get your check, and you need to make a show or movie before it’s too late. This is the exact scenario Jimmy envisioned for his customers by utilizing a program called Tabbedout, available for both iPhone and Android. You would open a tap using your cellphone, order what you want at the bar. Your credit card information would already be stored in the phone, so there is no need to pull out a credit card. Once you’re ready to leave, click on the “Tab Out” button, the information gets encrypted and transferred into Beer Belly’s POS system. Within seconds you’ll be able to take off and not be late to see what Lady Gaga is wearing at her concert.

Jimmy Han Demoing Tabbedout

Dawn of a New Era?

Are we seeing the development of a new phenomenon? Wasn’t the presence of a phone once shunned during the dining experience? What’s happening now is almost a role reversal brought on by forward-thinking, tech savvy proprietors. Maybe, someday, your phone might not just be a benefit to your food outing, it might be a required!

Check it Out!

Beer Belly is throwing a “Crap for Craft” event on August 28, where Jimmy hopes to promote craft beer to newcomers of craft brew. All you have to do is bring a beer like Budweiser or Coors and he’ll trade you for one craft beer (limited to one per person).


Where?
Beer Belly
532 S. Western Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Additional Information
http://www.beerbellyla.com
http://beerbellyla.tumblr.com
https://twitter.com/#!/beerbelly_la

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