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Want Beer And Snacks? They'll Be Right There

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

John Matrisciano of Wesley Chapel, one of 6 co-owners of Beer Runners, Inc. loads a keg into the business's delivery vehicle en route to a wedding in a local subdivision.

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By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: February 5, 2009

Updated: 02/05/2009 04:57 pm

WESLEY CHAPEL - James Matrisciano's muscles strained as he hefted 80 pounds of beer into the rear of his hatchback.

After his friend and business partner Wilson Palacios tossed several bags of ice into a large plastic bucket, Matrisciano was off with the keg of Bud Light to a wedding reception in a clubhouse at the Seven Oaks community.

Beer Runners Inc., in the Freedom Plaza strip mall on State Road 54, just east of Saddlebrook Resort, opened about a month before Super Bowl XLIII.

The company is run by three couples, Jon and Kim Fox, Wilson and Polly Palacios and Matrisciano and Rhoda Hamilton, who were neighbors in the Pinehurst subdivision off Cross Creek Boulevard. Each has a job besides Beer Runners, which is open seven days a week, and all seem to agree the business idea was Hamilton's.

"I really don't like to leave once I get home," Hamilton said. "I'm like, 'Can't someone just bring me a six-pack of Icehouse and some cigarettes?'

Besides an array of beer in six-packs, 12-packs, 18-packs, cases and kegs, the business delivers cigarettes, chips, beef jerky, soda and other snack or party items. People can call in their orders, stop in and order or simply pick up beer on their way home.

Polly Palacios said business was brisk all day Sunday as people prepared to watch Super Bowl XLIII.

"Kegs were a really big seller that day," she said. "We're all exhausted after Sunday, but it was worth it."

Some would-be underage drinkers have tried to have beer delivered.

"A guy called and ordered a couple of six-packs," Wilson Palacios said. "He's like, 'Just leave it near the mailbox, and I'll leave the cash under a rock.'

"I told him that we don't accept cash for deliveries, and I'd need to see his credit card and ID when I got there."

That ended the conversation.

Wilson Palacios said word of the business has spread quickly, and not just around Wesley Chapel, where signs advertising Beer Runners can be seen on S.R. 54 and some nearby neighborhoods.

Most delivery orders have been within a 5- to 7-mile radius of the store, although Matrisciano and Wilson Palacios delivered three 18-packs of beer on New Year's Eve to an address off Van Dyke Road in Hillsborough County, about 45 minutes away.

"State Road 54 is a nightmare," Polly Palacios said. "Nobody wants to drive on it, so let us drive for you."

They say their service also can help keep drunken drivers off the road.

They eventually would like to offer franchise opportunities.

"We've gotten calls from all over," Matrisciano said. "I've talked to people in Anchorage, Alaska."

Hamilton said keg orders have gotten really popular, probably because only a handful of places in the area offer kegs.

"Plus," Matrisciano said, "we also pick up the kegs, so you don't have to drop them back off."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.

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