For many, Beef O'Brady's is the quintessential sports bar. Brass rails. Beer taps. TV screens, and lots of them.
Tampa-based Beef's, as it's commonly known, plays host to youth sports teams now and then but it's not, first and foremost, a family restaurant.
Now, executives with the chain are opening a prototype eatery in Tampa that's far more family-friendly. It will make the spot a test-bed for new ideas for the rest of the chain.
The move comes as Beef's opens up in new markets, tries out locations in airports and signs up franchise agreements for locations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan and Lebanon.
For this newest prototype, Beef's will look much different than a sports bar.
Unlike Beef's that wrap seating around a central bar, the new, 4,000-square-foot location on 56th Street in Temple Terrace will have separate sections for families away from the bar.
Also planned are perks many parents crave: small TVs at each table for kid shows, pizza and a game room with X-Box consoles — 50 cents for five minutes.
"For a lot of families, the hardest part of going out is keeping the kids occupied so they can relax," said Chris Elliott, chief executive officer of the chain.
For drinks, there will be a special Coke fountain in the back kitchen that can dispense hundreds of varieties of soda, and though Beef's is known for burgers and chicken wings, this location will test out pizzas.
Beef's has 213 locations now, nearly all franchisees, and the test site's new ideas could end up at any of them, Elliott said.
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