Dining chain’s parent works to perfect its craft

BROOMFIELD — CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries is the biggest operator of craft-beer, casual-dining restaurants in the country, and its flagship brand, Colorado-based Old Chicago, posted its most successful year ever in 2015. This has the chain — founded in Boulder in 1976 — poised for its most aggressive expansion push yet, both in Colorado and across the nation, said Mark Belanger, Craftworks’ vice president for global franchise operations and development.

CraftWorks formed in 2010 when Broomfield-based Rock Bottom Restaurants merged with Chattanooga’s Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group. The move brought brands such as Old Chicago, Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom Brewery under the same umbrella; it also included Boulder staples such as the Chophouse and Walnut Brewery.

CraftWorks operates franchises in 22 states, as well as internationally in Taiwan. It has almost 200 individual restaurants nationwide, including 110 Old Chicago locations — 25 of which are in Colorado. Old Chicago employs 7,500 of CraftWorks’ 12,000 nationwide employees. Gordon Biersch has a single location in Colorado, and Rock Bottom Brewery has seven, but Old Chicago is the focus of their expansion efforts in Colorado and nationwide.

Old Chicago has become one of CraftWorks’ flagship brands as the chain — which was originally founded in Boulder — approaches its 40th anniversary. CraftWorks redesigned Old Chicago’s menu, logo and interior decorations when it took over, and every Old Chicago location will be up to date by the end of 2017. Thus far, it’s been a success. Old Chicago reported $254 million in revenue in 2015, up 13 percent from the previous year, and added restaurants in six new markets.

“We’re very optimistic in 2016,” Belanger said.

CraftWorks is looking to add 30 new Old Chicago locations by 2018, including in Denver, Texas, Wyoming, Missouri, North Carolina and throughout the Southeast. When CraftWorks looks for a new market to expand into, Belanger said that it considers more than 100 different factors.

“We always look at the population, the existing beer and pizza market and consider our guest responses,” Belanger said.

One of the newest Old Chicago franchises is in Pueblo, where CraftWorks is experimenting with a new prototype restaurant format — 5,000 square feet, with 1,200 square feet of patio space. It’s bigger than previous franchises and contains what Belanger called the “kitchen of the future,” which is designed to maximize efficiency at every step of the cooking process.

Like every expansion decision that CraftWorks makes, the new Old Chicago prototype is based off of extensive consumer research, particularly dining trends among millennials, who Belanger said make up a sizable portion of Old Chicago’s customer base. CraftWorks also solicited feedback from Old Chicago’s loyalty customers; it has one of the oldest customer loyalty programs in the country, according to Belanger.

Belanger attributes Old Chicago’s success to its combination of craft beer and pub food — “We’re built on craft beer authority,” he said — and to its customer loyalty program. The beer, though, is a primary factor. Every Old Chicago employee now is trained as a Cicerone, which is the beer equivalent of a sommelier. That way, Belanger said, anyone a customer approaches with a beer question in any Old Chicago will be an expert on the subject. Belanger himself is going through Cicerone training and said it’s opened his eyes.

“I thought that I knew beer before,” he said.

But this trains people not just on how to taste beer and identify flavors, but on the chemical makeup of it, on every step of the brewing process, on the history of beer and growing of hops and barley. Because Old Chicago features more than 110 beers, this training became a necessity.

And, as Old Chicago and CraftWorks continue to expand across the country, it’ll be refreshing for consumers to know that — as it should — the beer comes first.

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