Bar Automation, Explained by a Master Sommelier | Will Costello, SmartBar USA

Speaker A: Behind the Tab is a Gotab produced podcast that dives into the evolving world of hospitality through the lens of technology, creativity and community. Each episode spotlights the game changing innovations, real world operator stories and Gotab's own team members who are redefining what it means to serve and scale in modern food and beverage. Today we welcome Will Costello of Smart Bar to the show to talk about his role in beverage technology, hospitality and all around guest experience. All right, welcome back to behind the Tab. Um, I'm your host for today's episode, Adam Howe, and I am very, very happy to be joined today by Will Costello. Uh, so many titles that I can put, uh, associated with your name. We are going to focus on two of them today. Uh, Will, of course the national sales director for Smart Bar, uh, and also master sommelier. You put that actually in your email thing so I couldn't not tell that it was true. And we had a great conversation right before hitting the record button, which I will find a way to squeeze into the episode as well. So that'll be uh, how we structure the episode for those who have found us that are interested in knowing a lot more about what Smart Bar brings to the table and then also how that intersected with, with your history as, you know, a, uh, wine connoisseur, uh, sommelier. Uh, that's what we'll get into. But uh, Will, thanks for uh, thanks for joining us.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's so nice to be here. Thanks so much for having me. And you know, the, the interesting part, and I'm sure we'll talk about it today, is you. I'm sure many people are saying, oh, I'm, you know, I want to hear his best recommendation for wine and this. But you know, careers are interesting and travel in so many different directions. I bet some people are saying, how the hell is a master sommelier selling automation for the cocktail space. And uh, hopefully we'll get into that and some other juicy things too. Thanks, Adam.

Speaker A: Well, that is, that is one of the first two questions. But let's, let's, let's kick it off first with what exactly is Smart Bar? Uh, tell me and tell everybody else listening. What does Smart Bar do?

Speaker B: So you know how when you go out with friends or family to restaurant, event space, entertainment and you order a drink and you're having a great time and you're talking to everybody and you turn around and you look at your watch and you go, where the hell's my drink? I think that has happened to everybody at some point and we, we solve that Problem. Uh, specifically by, uh, making cocktails in about four seconds to the point that it is perfectly crafted in the exact recipe that the designer for this product, this cocktail imagined. And it is repeatable over and over and over again hundreds or thousands of times a night.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's a. The way I envision it is like, you people go to certain restaurants and certain bars, not only based on what they can order, but also based on who's working. Um, everybody has their favorite bartender. Everybody has. And a lot of the times their favorite bartender revolves around the fact that they know how to make my drink. Uh, they know.

Speaker B: Or they pour heavy.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, true. But they. But they don't know what to expect out of somebody who just showed up yesterday or is still in training or they just have never worked, you know, they never ordered a drink from them before. So the fact that you just said this is repeatable, um, it makes things a lot more consistent and, uh, expect, like, you know, to expect from a customer. So you, as I mentioned, are a master sommelier. Uh, and now you're a leading sales for. And for lack of a better way of putting an automated bartending company. Um, correct me if that terminology is not the best way that you would purdue it. But also, how did that happen?

Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I wouldn't say that we're an automated bartending company. I would leave that more for the robotic bartender kind of things. Uh, what we are is a tool. The same way that a shaker can be a tool. The same way that in a. Adam, I know you like beer, so that, you know, a beer rinser, uh, a glass rinser. Excuse me, can be a tool. We are a tool. So that a bartender, a great bartender or a novice bartender can repeat the same cocktails over and over and over again at speed. Right. The average bartender, uh, and I only say average because there are some incredible bartenders out there. The average bartender will take about 30 seconds to make a cocktail. I'm not saying you're one and one your vodka sodas. Right. Most of us could do that in our sleep, quickly, in about 10 seconds. But when you stack those back to back, right. The reality is that, uh, you have a vodka soda, and then you have a Manhattan order, and then you have a last word, and then you have somebody ordering a cosmo, and then you have a martini, and, you know, all of those things back to back over and over again. Get, uh, very difficult when you're keeping your bar clean and making sure that you're making it accurately. So I Wouldn't say that we're, um, automated bartender more the best way to put it is, uh, an automated cocktail dispenser that supports the team. And you know, to get back to your question, how, how did I end up here? I think it's the reality that hospitality is about taking care of guests. It's about designing an experience that gives your strengths as a operator and allows your team to shine. That could be from the kitchen, that could be from your service staff, it could be from the valet up front. Everybody has their job to do, and it's a dance and a ballet and, and any breakdown in that actual dance, your guests will know. And I recognize that from working in multiple, you know, five star Michelin environments. And the reality comes that you, you have to pay attention to everything. And thankfully I have the experience to lend that kind of 10,000 foot view focusing right now on the bar instead.

Speaker A: Yeah, I, I mean, the, the fact that you, you've used this term a bunch of times really resonates with me, especially with my operating experience as well, is. It's about the experience. The experience isn't always about the product. It isn't always about the people. It's not always about any, you know, the band that's playing that on that Thursday night. It's literally about everything that's involved. And sometimes that does focus more on the actual product itself. M. Um, the consistency, things of that nature. And so the fact that you're able to kind of identify that as from like, location to location, I think is, is really important, um, in the fact that you're, you just, you alluded to it. So I want to get a little bit more into it, uh, that because of your background in hospitality, you're able to, you know, identify those things a little bit. So talk to me a little bit more about that background in hospitality. What, what got you interested in being in hospitality in the first place and what kept you in it, even though you're now on like, the technology side and not, uh, operating or managing or bartending per se, maybe you are bartending on the side, I don't know. Um, but like you, you're continuously in this realm. Um, that obviously has some kind of connection for you.

Speaker B: Adam, I have two young kids at home. I have no time for almost anything except for work and taking, uh, care of the family. So no bartending for me currently. I got into hospitality because of the idea that, um, I needed to make money. Right. It is a stop for. We've heard the stories, you know, uh, actors who Are broke in Hollywood and college students and all of this. I was somebody who got out of college and needed to make money to fly planes, as I wanted to be a pilot and fell in love with hospitality. Realizing that flying, flying planes is very boring. And even though I worked in environments where the expectation was service should be the exact same every night you meet new people, you have new challenges. And it was exciting every day coming to work. And you know, it goes back to I, I have friends now who I met it as colleagues 20 years ago working in restaurants. I have guests who I've gone to their weddings and been to their children's, um, you know, christenings and uh, it's amazing. And the hospitality side that keeps me interested and entertained. And part of it is that we are taking care of people. Right? At the end of the day, it is people taking care of people. And we will never be a tool that takes away from taking care of guests. Right. And that probably is one of the, the biggest pushbacks that there is. But at the same time, it's probably one of the greatest strengths because we allow guests to be taken care of by the people who are best adept for that. Right. We're creating the space for hospitality to happen.

Speaker A: Yeah, I like that we, uh, say that a lot with, uh, with the technology that GOTAB provides with through self ordering and things of that nature. I, in my, in my demonstrations that I do on a daily basis, I usually say something along the lines of it allows your bartenders to be bartenders and not, uh, cashiers. Um, and so allowing something to take the place of the actual production of the actual, you know, not mundane, but like the things that can be repeatable, the things that just need to get done that don't go into the fact they don't apply to the experience that a human being can provide. Right. Um, allows. Allows the human to actually lean into the uh, the things that only humans can do. Um, to your point, um, you, you decided in this timeline, um, to become a master sommelier. You spent some time, you spent time with Michelin, uh, starred chefs and restaurants. What have you, uh, talked very briefly. What did that entail? I, I think everybody who's listening has heard the term master Sommelier. Um, I come from beer World, so I have some, some cicerone, uh, certification in that, that wrote. It's kind of like the somewhat equivalent, um, program. Ah, there. But, um, sommelier has been around a lot longer. Uh, it's a lot more of a known title. What did that take out of you?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I. I describe being a master sommelier as knowing more about alcohol than anybody you know, in the world. It's not just a wine exam. It's a, you know, cocktail and sake. And, you know, we even at one point had tobacco, uh, in there, although we don't anymore. The reason that I did it is because I also am a mountain climber and a mountaineer. And you know, what any great mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary, or the people who climbed all the seven summits would say is, why did you do it? Because it was there, right? I wanted to get to the top. The master sommelier has been described as the most difficult exam in the world, with about a 3% pass rate. Uh, the European chapter just had their exams about three weeks ago, and seven people passed, which is great. That's a huge, huge number. Honestly, I had a CL. My class in 2015 with seven people, but we've had zero pass in a year, and we've had, you know, one person. And the reason I did it is because if you look at it, uh, objectively, I will never know everything that there is to know about this industry, Right? Even if I just focus on the beverage side of things. And that desire to keep learning is something, I think that's innate in me. But because I chose to pass this exam that has so much rigor and so much depth of knowledge, I know that I will never know everything and the humility that comes with that. But the desire to keep learning is the real reason why I wanted to pass this exam. And it took a lot out of me. I mean, I was studying at least two hours a day. I was going to multiple tasting groups. When I was in San Diego, I was going to a Friday night midnight tasting group. After the restaurant closed, I. I gave up a lot of weekends out. And at one point, I honestly made the choice. Am I going to try to pursue this exam and pass it, or am I going to pursue a relationship with my now wife? Uh, because sometimes the two are not copacetic, right? If I was telling her on the weekends, when we got to see each other for Monday evening and all day on Sunday, hey, honey, I have to go to the library for four or five hours on a Sunday, uh, she might not have stuck around. Uh, thankfully, I passed the test in 2015. We met in 2014, and I was successful, but it would have been a decision point, right? Why? I think love is a greater, um, thing than a title. Uh, luckily I got both, but there you go. Probably would have chosen Love. Uh, for sure.

Speaker A: That's the right answer. So you know, if your wife is listening, that is the smart way of putting, uh, it, uh, luckily you got both. Um, so you got your sommelier, you're now working with Smart Bar. Uh, is there any, like, why make that, like why take that experience and your hospitality experience and move it into what ultimately is restaurant tech sales?

Speaker B: Sure. So you, you know, we talked about it a little before the podcast started. But you know, the, the thing is value is sort of in the eye of the beholder. Right. If you pay $385 per person to go to a Michelin star restaurant, uh, three Michelin star restaurant, and you have an amazing time and it was worth every bit of $385, the value was there for you. Right. If you go get an in and out burger, which uh, is six bucks, some people would say that is the best six bucks you could ever spend. Right. So the value is there for them. Uh, moving from uh, working in operations to selling a value based product is really what energizes me. Right. I know that our product can help, uh, operators bring more to their business than the cost of the smart bar system itself. And that is a huge, you know, you can walk away knowing I didn't just sell you a bottle that cost X, but I brought value to your business beyond just the cost of the system. And it's hard to say that sometimes with a steak or with a, you know, bottle of wine, which I sold wine for a long time,

Speaker A: that uh, I'm going to jump around in our outline here because I think you really hit the nail on the head for one of these other questions is that I really want to focus on is the value is in the eye of the beholder. But you've got to be going into different concepts where they're just the value is not, they're not seeing the value. And there's nothing you can say that's going to create the value, at least in their eyes. Uh, so what, what kind of pushback are you, do you get most of the time for locations? Is there a certain concept, is there certain mentalities? There's certain, uh, like how long they've been in the industry type of thing. Like I know going in, you know, from my operating days and being in Tech sale, being in, you know, restaurants like now there's just a certain type of restaurant tour. There's a certain type of operator that either fears change or has a harder time adopting, you know, that kind of tech, any kind of technology because it's just not what They've grown to know. So what kind of, you know, what kind of pushback do you get? Particularly from introducing. Even though you know the value that it can be and you can, you can talk to people until you're blue in the face, but what kind of pushback do you get?

Speaker B: Well, everybody fears change. So it's, uh, it's something we all come to the table with, you know, uh, so we just have to get over that. Changes. The change is the only constant, they say. Right. But it's one of the biggest things, you know, I'm sure, uh, everybody who listens to this podcast, if you're in and around hospitality, you've probably seen that Tick Tock or Instagram of that Japanese bartender who slices the, you know, ice to order with his katana blade. He spins it in the glass, he shoots fire across the bar. He, you know, makes a show. Absolutely. A show of every single drink that is made. I would never, ever walk into that bar and explain Smart Bar to that operator. That is what those guests came for. However, if you're talking about, you know, Friday night BJ's, I'll just throw that out there. I love BJ's. I think it's one of the greatest values that they have. They're super creative behind the bar. The food is always good. 85 to 90% of their tables are away from the bar. And those people who come in on a Friday night want to sit down with their friends for happy hour. At the end of the week, they want to sit down with their family and they want to experience not working. I guess I'd say on a Friday, those operators, I think, push back with the saying, you know, our guests like to see our bartenders make our drinks. And you know, I, I could not disagree with their perspective on the, the industry, but I would ask them to ask to, to think about the last time they went out on a Saturday night. Right when they themselves, um, didn't have to work. I worked in operations for a long time and I remember that very first Saturday night that I went out with my wife, not having to work till 2 o' clock in the morning. And I was looking all around the restaurant. I was watching the door swinging in and out from the kitchen. I saw, you know, the, the food runners carrying the food. That is an operator centric perspective. Now when I go out to dinner with my family, I just want the food to arrive hot. I want my drinks to get on the table, I want my daughter not to throw macaroni and cheese on the Ground. And I want us all to leave with a good night out as a family. And so the pushback that the guests want to see a bartender make a drink is applicable? Yes, in some spaces. But I would ask them to um, put themselves in the seat of the guest and recognize that most people want the experience that I just described, which is the harmony in that dance of hospitality, feeling taken care of, the food arriving, the steak tasting. Right. The burger being medium, the fries being crispy, and the cocktail being executed well as the main point of the restaurant. Not watching a bartender pour a drink.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I think this is a good place to clarify. Um, because you know, with gotab, we partner with a lot of beverage pouring platforms. Yeah, A lot of them are self pouring where you go up to the tap, you pour your own beer, you pour your own glass of wine, shots of whiskey, whatever. Um, your smart bar is not self core. It is the ability to automate the production of the drink itself as well. Clarify. If I'm, I'm getting this right, you

Speaker B: know, it can be self poor for those operators who want to have that experience. You know, uh, if there's a tapped wall of, you know, 20 different great beers and they can use uh, something to go tap and pour their own beer, we can do that same execution across 200 different cocktails if they have the ingredients to be able to do that. Um, and instead of, you know, having, and I've seen them, they're great. Like four different cocktails on that same tap wall. Right. Well, instead of just having those four pre batch or kegged cocktails, you give the flexibility for anybody to make a drink. They, one person wants a Long island, one person wants a Manhattan, an Old Fashioned, a vodka soda, you know, etc. Each of those people can pour that. But the reality and the question you're asking is that we are mostly a tool for a great bartender. And you know, one of our, one of our mutual customers called Atomic Golf in Las Vegas, uh, I have a great video if anybody is interested. Um, this is the only time I'll shout out going to our website, but go to Smart Bar USA and go to our uh, products page for our 18, 34 and 50 liquor. At Atomic Golf they sometimes will have four to 500 drinks come in per hour. They will, they have four floors with five different smart bar systems in there. They will make two to three thousand drinks sometime an hour when they are full. And almost, they, I would say not almost. No bartender could keep up with the volume that they have there in effectively putting out the expectation for drinks. And this is a specific customer, right. They're an all you can, uh, experience. You can golf for two hours, you can drink for two hours, you can eat for two hours. And the expectation for those guests is give me my drink. Now. I paid you up front. I want my experience immediately. Imagine if you waited 20 minutes for a drink when you were paying for all you can. You would not be happy. Right. And that execution is what allows what Smart Bar allows. Right. It allows you to put out a consistent product over and over and over again to give your guests the experience that they aim for.

Speaker A: Right? Yeah. And I think, uh, you have the added, uh, a nuance of it being in Vegas. Right. As well. It's just like not only do you have a specific customer going to Atomic Golf, which is an amazing venue, um, but you have this idea of getting a drink anywhere in Vegas. You're going to be able to get a drink. You're going to be able to get a drink if you're staying at the blackjack table. You're going to be able to get a drink if you're in, um, in a bar downtown in downtown Vegas.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: You're, you want, that's what you're there. There's so much experience, there's so much to experience. Sometimes for some it's an overload of experience. And so that one particular thing, the person making the drink is not necessarily the focal point, the center point of the experience that you're looking for. To your point earlier, um, you just want the drink and you want, you want it well, you want it done, made well, you want it to, you know, taste good and you want it to be what you expect a old fashioned to taste like a Manhattan that tastes like a, whatever drink that you're ordering, um, to taste like. Not to mention that I must, uh, uh, the other side of the value coin that I'm assuming is in play here that we haven't really talked about is the operational efficiencies, um, in recipe control of these drinks. Um, every bartender that you go into has a different, has a different. The bottle weighs a little bit differently for every single bartender. Uh, right. Um, and so I would assume that being able to program the recipe of something as simple as a Jack and Coke all the way up to, you know, your long islands and your ones that you have multiple, um, ingredients in helps tremendously from a cost control. Not cost savings, but cost control, uh, um, and efficiency standpoint as well. Um, which one do you, I mean, do you find that you're end up, you know, you're signing up new concepts to utilize a smart bro program. More so due to the efficiency on the experience side or more so on the efficiency of the cut on the cost savings side.

Speaker B: You know, it is. Everything starts off with an ROI and numbers, right? People have to justify any purchase and oftentimes those and it depends on which environment, right? In a stadium or arena where they are charging 16 for a single drink and a line is a concessions tax, right? If you are watching Bruno Mars and you have, you want another drink and it takes you 14 minutes to go get a drink and you miss three of your favorite songs, Tongues. That is a tax that the guest is paying. And so that's a customer service, customer experience, reason to put in one of our systems. But at the same time, you know, everybody's had this voice in the back of my head, that bartender poor enough, right? And we, we want to democratize that in some way, right? That, you know, you don't have to know who's working that day, whether that bartender is going to pour you extra, whether that two dollar tip that you gave them or five dollar tip is going to get you a big, you know, the. We've been trained almost like the Pavlovian response to hope that if we pay, you know, like $2 extra, you're gonna get a little more booze. In beer, it's already brewed. If it's 6.5% alcohol, you're getting 6.5% alcohol per volume. Although we know that if, you know, in some environments, if you tip the bartender a little extra, you're going to get more. As an operator, that should terrify you, right? That you are giving the control to your bartenders to, uh, sort of make this, I wouldn't say life and death decision, right? That's too hyperbolic. But this P and L decision to pour some people more, pour some people less, you know, just do what you feel. At the end of the day, the reality is that you can't build a great restaurant P and L without forecasting, without the ability to control, you know, the cost of a steak. A ribeye costs more or less than in New York. A bottle of cruisin rum costs more or costs less than, you know, top shelf, uh, El Dorado rum. And you need to be able to control all of these. And at the end of the day, we're not taking away from that guest's experience by pouring the perfect amount. We are, uh, allow taking away from potentially that bartender's, you know, ability to make a little bit more money. And we sell to operators, we don't sell the bartenders. So I'm okay with that.

Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough. You, you hit on something that's always top of mind for me. And like, especially like stadiums or literally anywhere that keeps a line. Right. Um, you know, there is some truth to the first episode of, uh, Always Sunny in Philadelphia where he's like, always keep a line. Um, but at a concession or you're trying to play at a bar, like a line is detrimental to your sales, to your customer experience, to everything. Um, you know, Gotab does a good job of being able to put the ordering in in place of having to wait in line and order from the bartender, who should be spending more time making the drinks or pouring the beers or conversing with the people sitting at the bar. Anyway. Um, and how then we're able to send that order from the guest's phone if they're placing an order on their phone directly to the smart bar system. Um, I've always found to be just like game changing as far as the ability to again, get what they want and get it to them as soon as possible and get them as efficiently as possible without having to wait in line. Like, I don't want to wait in line. If I'm the only person at my table that needs a drink. I'm not going to get up and wait in line by myself just so I can order another drink. I'm going to wait until the next person is ready to. Maybe I'll wait in line with somebody else. Um, or maybe I don't end up waiting in line at all. And I don't spend that extra 5, 7, $10 or $16 from your example on another drink.

Speaker B: Well, here's, here's a generational shift that I think you know, is going to happen. And, and you know, I'm no futurist. I'm, I'm no Michio Kaku who is, uh, describing what's going to happen with the, uh, future. But I've been in, I can tell you, people who use their phone and have the convenience of ordering a taco and having doordash delivered to their home are going to set those expectations. And those same, uh, generations who grew up with at your fingertip responsiveness, right. Amazon and doordash and all of that are going to be the next generation of operators. And they know, because they experience it themselves, that some guests absolutely love talking to the waiter or waitress, talking to the bartender, getting that experience. And they absolutely know there are some who do not want that at all. And recognizing that forcing your version of a hospitality experience down someone's throat is only going to lose you customers. Right. So being as flexible as you can, giving those options to your, you know, customers, allowing them to order with Gotab and sending it directly to the bar, and having something like Smart Bar produce that cocktail consistently and have it out quickly is going to support some of your guests and it's going to support your team when the other people are not necessarily interested. Right. When, when, when you just want to talk to the bartender, Smart Bar is still going to be there. Gotab is still going to be there. It's just where and how you deploy that is to your benefit as an operator.

Speaker A: Right. I, I love the fact that you brought up the fact it's like, it's there to support and it's there to take, take, uh, the burden off of when you do run into the customers that don't want to use it, um, it's there for you in that other way. Um, because if you do keep that line, there's always somebody in front, you know, it always works out. If I wait in line, the person in front of me is the one that wants to ask all the questions. They want to, you know, talk, ah, the ear off their bartender. They want, they want to see the wine list because they couldn't find it themselves or whatever the case may be. And I'm like, ah, uh, now that bartender is spending all of their time on this one person, and me right behind them is doing with that. Um, and maybe I'm the person, I'm like, fine, I also want to talk to the bartender. But more than likely I already am annoyed because I have to stand in line. And now if I have to be even more annoyed that I have to stand in line because of the person in front of me, um, I'm gonna blame that on the restaurant. I'm not gonna blame that on the person in front of me.

Speaker B: Exactly right. And remember, you know, uh, I've, all of us have wanted to choose the, the beautiful or handsome bartender to go talk to too. And sometimes it's not even about ordering the, uh, the drink. Sometimes you just want that, you know, connection. Right. And I would, I would argue that, you know, Smart Bar actually supports that flirtiness because if, if you wanted to flirt with the bartender and, and the beer or the cocktail is just the excuse, hey, they can make that cocktail in four seconds and get it back to you. And I would also argue that if you're that bartender that does not want to be flirted with, uh, you can get that drink to them in four seconds and get them to move on. Right. Oh, sorry, I gotta go help somebody else.

Speaker A: There it is. Listen, I, I'm here to be your bartender, not your therapist. Um, I'm sorry, I gotta make up the drinks. Um, let's uh, let's close this out. I'm curious, um, about. You said you're not a futurist. I get it, that's fine. But I'm going to put you on the spot here. And if you had to assume changes were going to be made in this space, in hospitality in general, um, especially as it revolves around automated beverage services, how guests interact with their ordering experience, with their bartenders, with their servers, um, as a general rule, what kind of changes do you expect to see on a grander scale? Not incremental, but like, hey, in 10 years, vast majority of hospitality operators are going to think in a certain way. Um, maybe you've already answered this question, but go ahead and elaborate on that a little bit.

Speaker B: I would certainly say that over the next 10 years the ability to control the pace of the experience and the experience from the customer's journey is going to be profound. Right. Making sure that you have uh, your menus updated online, that you have an ability to make an order, if you prefer, from the table, if you uh, prefer to have self serve or some optionality for takeaway. Right. Operators have been doing this for a long time. They know that, you know, a really. We went to a restaurant during NRA called uh, Memento. They have a sit down, great Mexican authentic experience, but they also have a taco window right up at the front so that the guests who want to be able to sit down and enjoy their drinks and eat or take it to go have their choice. And in beverage automation it's very much going to be, um, how are you supporting the ability for your customers to have it their way? Ah, you know, I can't remember which uh, is it Burger King, have it your way or you know, whichever.

Speaker A: But yeah, that sounds right.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, um, that creating those experiences for the guests to have it their way. Not everybody's going to want to stand up and go pour their beer from a self poor beer wall, but some will. And creating those experiences to allow the flexibility is what I see for the future. We're already seeing it in stadiums and arenas, we're already seeing it in entertainment environments. And I think those are the operators who are leading the charge. Will it ever go to sit down restaurants, maybe, maybe not. Um, and that's totally fine with us. Right? Sometimes you sit down and have an experience at a restaurant to have that experience of being taken care of in entertainment venues. And otherwise I don't think that's ever going to be the case that you went for date night to be taken care of at Atomic Golf. Uh, not playing golf. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah, um, yeah, I went, I took my, my youngest, uh, out to a arcade, uh, style entertainment, which I'll leave the name out. But we ended up, you know, playing some games, doing some stuff and then, you know, we realized, oh, it's dinner time, all right, we're gonna go sit down and, and we, and sit down. But they have a full service restaurant portion of it. Um, I also used to operate in a venue just like this out, uh, in Oakland, California. There's a very separate concept within the space that is full service dining environment. But then there's also a bowling alley and there's also an arcade section and there's also an outdoor beer garden. And so the idea that you can pick and choose the environment in which you are actually having your experience, um, and then also dictating what that experience is based on the environment based on the zone in which you are ordering from and sitting in or standing in or moving about in. Um, I think you have to have the ability to provide that experience that matches the area, the zone, the revenue center, if you will, um, to match what the expectation is. Um, what, uh, last question. And then also I'm going to have you lead into, you know, where people can learn a little bit more about Smart Bar in general. But you, um, talked a lot about, you gave a shout out to Atomic Golf, um, and the entertainment venues, the entertainment venues that you do work really well in. Um, I led off asking about kind of pushback that you get from different concepts. But I want you to tell me and tell everybody what is the most surprising venue that you have installed and continue to operate? Uh, a Smart Tender or Smart bar system in that you, you know, you walked in and you're like, oh, there's no way I'm going to be able to get through to them. Like, oh no, they love it, they're using it. And it would be, if you live in this area, you should definitely go check it out because it's a good use case. That was a little bit surprising.

Speaker B: The, the one that sticks out the most is called Bad to the Bone. It's uh, in Buckner, Missouri. Buckner, Missouri is about an hour and a half outside of Kansas City on your way to St. Louis. It is a small, I wouldn't say like one stoplight town, but it's not a very big place and you would not to expect to see a smart tender in this environment. It is a counter service restaurant that you can, uh, everything is done through essentially one person at the front and a couple people in the back for the kitchen. It's a sports bar. And they built that experience around the smart tender. Uh, they have told us they would probably never have another business without a smart tender because of just how simple it is to deliver the experience to their guests. Now I don't know how many of you I will tell to get on a plane to go to Buckner, Missouri, but the reality is that, you know, they built the experience for their guests. They want to come and watch a game, they want to get some fried chicken fingers and a cocktail or a beer and sit down. And they removed all of the friction from that experience and they are doing well because of it.

Speaker A: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Um, well, where can, I mean you mentioned you go to the website earlier on in the show, but is there any other specific, uh, call outs that you can make that anybody that's uh, listening all the way to the end can utilize? And we'll put some links in the show notes and what have you. So anybody wants to just click on that, they'll have the ability to as well.

Speaker B: Well, the, the first thing I would say is that many of you who have been to Las Vegas and gambled in a casino have probably had a drink made by a smart tender. We're in the majority of the casinos here in Las Vegas. So you probably have had our experience. And if you didn't go, man, this is, ah, you know, perfect cocktail. Um, I don't know because we make it the same every time. But somebody should go to smartbarusa.com uh, feel free to educate yourself. We have a fantastic automation buying guide on there that'll allow you to make a decision if this is right for yourself. And if it does seem like the right choice for you. Just click on the contact us or book a meeting with me and I'm happy to uh, listen to how you think you'd implement this. And as long as you're not that, um, Japanese style craft cocktail bar that's lighting their bar, uh, top on fire, I think it might be worth it.

Speaker A: A good fit. Yeah. Um, yeah, well, there's something to consider. So I think we just lost the one listener, uh, who operates that kind of a bar that's fine. Um and you you know what to your to your point the restaurant you went to during the National Restaurant association, the NRA show, uh they could all that that same bar could create a pickup window or a different experience um that is not revolving around that as well. So there are ways in which you can adapt and then bring in uh these deficiencies as well even if it doesn't seem like it fits uh at this very moment. Um but I think that's going to do it. Uh I appreciate the time and the ah energy you put forth here um and I look forward to seeing more mutual locations utilizing not only Smart Bar but GOTAB along with Smart Bar or just seeing how how far you can you can take this automation to um different bars across the country.

Speaker B: Thanks so much Adam. Likewise.

Speaker A: Thanks Will. Cheers.

Speaker B: Thank mhm.

Speaker A: You.