Omnivore - Three Taverns takes over SweetWater space at Hartsfield-Jackson

Oh hey, @Atlanta_Airport. pic.twitter.com/6Ro71l369h
— ThreeTaverns (@ThreeTaverns) July 1, 2015

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Last Wednesday, as drinkers all over the state were celebrating one small step for craft beer producers, Three Taverns Brewery casually dropped a Georgia beer news bomb: the Decatur brewery had taken over the SweetWater Brewing Company Draft House & Grill at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (South terminal, Concourse A).

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Three Taverns brewmaster and CEO Brian Purcell still sounded a little dumbfounded on Thursday, answering many of my questions with a grinning “I don’t know.” He wasn’t being coy, though. Chalk it up to the fact that an airport location is new ground for Three Taverns, and, indeed, any Georgia brewery that isn’t SweetWater.

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“This isn’t, like, some back room work that’s been going on for months,” he said as we watched patrons take home Three Taverns bombers, 4-packs, and growlers for the first time in Georgia history. In fact, he says, the entire negotiation process only took a couple months, and the space was rebranded from SweetWater to Three Taverns in a single night. “I have no freaking clue. It’s almost like I woke up one day and we have this bar in the airport.”

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Currently, the Three Taverns bar is pouring all six of the brewery’s year-round beers: Prince of Pilsen, A Night in Brussels IPA, Le Peche Mode Saison, A Night on Ponce IPA, White Hops IPA, and Single Intent. “We’ll see how it goes with our year-rounds first, then maybe we’ll switch off one of the taps to a rotating speciality beer like a Quasimodo or a Departed Spirit or Theophan the Recluse,” Purcell says.

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It all started with a tap at Varasano’s Pizzeria’s airport outpost a couple years back. Once Three Taverns started selling well at the local pizza spot’s Concourse A location, more opportunities came up. Purcell says Varasano’s is a top three draft account for Three Taverns, which bodes well for the new bar.

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“In the last few months, A Night in Brussels has consistently been the No. 3 selling beer at Varasano’s, and it goes back and forth between No. 3 and No. 2,” he says. “The two beers ahead of it are Bud Light and New Belgium’s Fat Tire. Sometimes it beats Fat Tire for No. 2. We have not yet surpassed Bud Light, but we came within six glasses one month.”

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Purcell says those sales worked as a launching pad to expand his company’s footprint at the airport. They have a presence at One Flew South in the international terminal now, one of Hartsfield-Jackson’s finest eateries, and one that’s poured the brewery’s seasonal Quasimodo Belgian Quadrupel.

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“I guess we got the attention of some important people down at the airport,” Purcell says. “They said they were going to do a new concept for this bar, and were we interested? We said yes, absolutely.”

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Purcell said he has “no idea” why SweetWater is no longer using the space. A SweetWater representative told Eater last week that “the Concourse A location was always meant to be temporary” and did not immediately respond to CL’s request for comment. SweetWater still has a location in Concourse B.

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As for the food, Purcell says it is similar to what was served in the SweetWater space, and that Three Taverns has control over that. Due to Department of Aviation regulations, the bar will include full liquor, though, as well as Yuengling and Bud Light on draft. Asked if he thought Three Taverns could avenge its Varasano’s battle and outsell Bud Light, he laughed, “I think we might, yes. I think we might.”

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Despite the fact that he thinks the Three Taverns airport bar will quickly become his top-selling draft account, causing potential production issues, Purcell says he couldn’t think of a single reason not to do it.

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“Are you kidding me? It’s surreal!” he says. “There was not an ounce of trepidation about that. It’s going to be a lot of beer, but it’s not something we can’t accommodate. My bigger concern is what A Night on Ponce has done in the last four months. It’s almost 50 percent of our sales. It’s just, like, through the roof. That’s our biggest challenge. Even at the airport, it’s the same thing, people come into the bar and go, ‘What’s your IPA?’”

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With Three Taverns’ second anniversary coming up, I asked Purcell why he thought it took so long for a new brewery to establish a presence at Hartsfield-Jackson, and why he thought Three Taverns was the one that finally did it. After all, there are plenty of bigger and older breweries in Georgia.

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“I don’t know,” he said. “Bigger’s not always better. I learned a long time ago that I’d rather be lucky than good. I don’t know how to answer that question, because, even with my business background, you can’t manufacture these things. You can’t make these things happen. I have to pinch myself.”

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Update: SweetWater publicist Tucker Berta Sarkisian emailed me after this story was published. “We were basically just helping out the Concourse A concessionaire—a temporary placeholder until they were ready to press go on their long-term deal for that space,” she writes. “Our long-term deal is with Global Concessions in Concourse B. SweetWater has no plans to open other airport locations.”