july2017

76 77 OLD CHICAGO PIZZA AND TAP ROOM AT A GLANCE OLD CHICAGO PIZZA AND TAP ROOM WHAT: A chain of restaurants in the CraftWorks Restau- rants & Breweries Group WHERE: Headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee WEBSITE: www.craftworks restaurants.com ous things such as credit towards a bill on future visits,merchandise, or exclusive parties. “When you think about it, in 1976, to get 110 beers, either in a bottle or on tap, in a restaurant–that, in itself was quite a feat,” says Belanger. “It helped start the craft beer craze in America.And many breweries have thanked us, profusely, for being a provider of great craft beer over the years.We’ve helped brands like NewBelgian Ale,O’Dell’s Brew- ing–we’ve been partners with them since the very beginning.Also Boston Beer Works,with SamAdams, is another great partner. In 1976, craft beer really didn’t exist in America and the beer that did exist was very light–there wasn’t a lot of complexity to it. Fast forward to today, the marketplace in craft beer has exploded.About every twelve hours, there’s a new taproom or brewery opening up somewhere in America.” “We consider ourselves to be the craft beer authority,”Belanger continues.“We’re the best local and regional craft beer, hand-crafted-pizza destination, tap-room in America.You can come into our restaurants and enjoy great food, paired with great regional and local beers, and, in some cases, we even have hyper-local,where you can see, from our patios, the brewery that you’re enjoying the fine beer from. Every Old Chi- cago has between 36 and 40 taps and out of that,we have eight to twelve dedicated taps that are local and regional beer.The other differentiator with Old Chicago is that we do lots of collaborations with different breweries,where you can only get that beer in our restaurants. So, for the folks who are beer enthusiasts, that’s really a benefit for them to come in and taste a beer that they can only get at an Old Chicago.” Today, there are 110 Old Chicago Restau- rants in 22 states -77 are company-owned and the rest are franchises.The chain is part of the CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries Group,which has several distinct brands, including the Gordon Biersch Restaurant and Brewery, the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, the Chop House Restaurant and Brewery, and several other, smaller op- erations.“Old Chicago was the first brand; the other companies were acquired and/or developed over time,”says Belanger.“Today, we have 209 restaurants and 71 breweries throughoutAmerica.So,the CraftWorks orga-