More Than Just the Pour

At local bars, breweries and taprooms, regular and special events are a mainstay of drawing customers. The PubScout did a little scouting to find out what it takes to make it in the bar business these days.

As a food and beverage writer, I receive many notices from various establishments announcing events designed to increase the number of fannies in the seats. Some places, quite frankly, are doing yeoman’s work to attract customers, with something going on seemingly every minute of every day of the week.

I wanted to know various things about that process — who is in charge of it, how many hours per week it requires of someone’s time and the success rates of whatever activities are offered. For example, does beer yoga typically draw more women than men? Do the paint-and-sip events produce what the organizer expects them to? Which food trucks seem to be the most popular? And do certain performers regularly pack your place?

I put out a letter with those questions and others and sent it to some of the more well-known watering holes in Brunswick County. Not every business I contacted sent a response — they’re probably too busy to bother with email. But the ones that did respond shed some interesting light on what it takes to make a prosperous business these days.

Keep reading to learn how four of Brunswick County’s most successful watering holes handle the scheduling of recurring and special events.

OUTER DUNES BREWING, Wilmington

The recently upgraded Outer Dunes Brewing in Porters Neck, owned and operated by Phil and Ellie Mabe, is a tap room, brewing and outdoor beer garden tucked away under beautiful live oaks. They frequently host events, from trivia to music bingo to a Walk & Run Club and live music and more.

Who is the person in charge of your social events calendar? Ellie

How much time do you spend on setting up the schedule? 1 to 2 hours a week

Do you rotate events and other attractions? Are they scheduled regularly or on an as-available basis? Some are regular weekly events such as bingo and trivia and others like yoga or art are as available.

What’s your approach to special events? We always try to focus on improving the guest’s experience through communication, expectations and delivering a fun event.

Do you schedule your various food trucks on a regular schedule or on an as-available basis? Some of both

Which food trucks seem to be the most popular at your business? All the trucks do really well.

How do you schedule your performers? We have live music on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 9 and we rotate through a ton of great local artists.

Which performers seem to attract the largest crowds for you? Larger bands have larger turnouts typically but we do have some solo musicians who have a great following as well.

Do these events greatly or marginally improve the attendance at your business? It depends on the event

What other unique attractions are you considering in the future to bring people out to your business? We are always looking for new ideas! We had our special Oktoberfest on October 13.

Outer Dunes Brewing
7976 Market Street, Wilmington
outerdunesbrewing.com

THE SCAPEGOAT TAPROOM, Leland

The Scapegoat is a popular locally owned taproom serving beer, wine and ciders made locally, regionally and beyond. They host regular events from music bingo to trivia to live music to comedy and more. Jody Walker, who owns The Scapegoat Taproom in Leland with her husband, Chris, sent in her responses. Can you tell she’s a teacher?

Who is the person in charge of your social events calendar? For most of this past year, I (Jody) booked all of our social events. However, our daughter, Lydia, is working with us now and has taken on the responsibilities of booking events and food trucks.

How much time do you spend on setting up the schedule? We book our weekly events like musicians, music bingo and trivia yearly, so once we get this set up initially it is minimal work throughout the year. We are currently booking musicians for 2025, which takes about four to six hours weekly until we get the schedule complete.

Do you rotate events and other attractions? Are they scheduled regularly or on an as-available basis? Outside of our weekly events we try to schedule karaoke and comedy nights every six to eight weeks.

What’s your approach to special events? There is a lot of planning that goes into special events. We try to incorporate special events with music and food trucks that we already have scheduled. Another approach is to plan these events out separately but well in advance.

How do you schedule your various food trucks? Is that done on a regular schedule or on an as-available basis? We currently have a food truck every Wednesday and Saturday because these are the nights that we host trivia and live music. We try to schedule food trucks six months out; however, if the food truck wants to schedule for a year out we will do this as well. We typically send out coordinated dates to the food trucks and work around their schedule to have them at the taproom. For the 2025 year we are being a little more strategic on food truck scheduling so we are asking them to sign up for one Wednesday per month and the next month sign up for one Saturday. This will allow us to offer a greater variation of food trucks for our customers.

Which food trucks seem to be the most popular at your business? We view all the food trucks that come to the taproom as partners. We work together to market and advertise so that it is a win-win for everyone.

Which performers seem to attract the largest crowds for you? We have several performers who live in the community that we are closest to. They always bring in the largest crowds.

Do these events greatly or marginally improve the attendance at your business? Typically we see a spike in attendance if we have a specific event going on, but there are times that we don’t see this.

What other unique attractions are you considering in the future to bring people out to your business? We are constantly brainstorming new ideas for events that we can offer here at the taproom to bring people out. We don’t have anything that we would like to share at this time, but keep an eye on our social media.

The Scapegoat Taproom
2789 Compass Point South Wynd NE #4, Leland
thescapegoattaproom.com

BRUNSWICK BEER & CIDER, Leland

Brunswick Beer & Cider is a popular brewery in Leland. With a community-minded spirit, they host fundraisers alongside fun events like wine dinners. Ian Phillips, manager of Brunswick Beer & Cider in Leland, sent these responses to my questions.

Who is the person in charge of your social events calendar? Typically, it’s a group decision.

How much time does that person spend on setting up the schedule? About five to ten hours a week.

Do you rotate events and other attractions? Are they scheduled regularly or on an as-available basis? Our events are not on a regular basis when it comes to outside vendors. But when we do see something new and exciting that we think our clientele would enjoy, we try and get it scheduled around our monthly/quarterly in-house events (wine dinners, Night with the Brewers etc.)

What’s your approach to special events? Being newer, we test the waters the first time around. We went small scale on our first Applearchy (Ciderfest), whereas in 2025 it will be much larger.

Do you schedule your performers on a regular rotating basis or an as-available schedule? We book music a year out; 2025’s calendar is about 95% completed

Which performers seem to attract the largest crowds for you? That’s a tough one. We do music two to three times a week, and I feel that who’s playing is as much a determining factor as the weather

What other unique attractions are you considering in the future to bring people out to your business? Well, that would be letting the cat out of the bag.

Brunswick Beer & Cider
1313 Dickinson Drive, Leland
brunswickbeerandcider.com

TAP TIME, Ocean Isle Beach

Tap Time is a very well-known and popular craft beer bar in Ocean Isle Beach, and they offer occasional live music and events like Beer Skool and art classes. It has recently been under new ownership, and the owners also own the equally popular and adjacent Amelia’s Backstreet Cafe. The bar now offers custom cocktails and food as well as beer. Manager Brittany Bowers answered my questions.

Who is the person in charge of your social events calendar? Brittany

How much time do you spend on setting up the schedule? It really depends on the event. Beer Skools, for example, require several hours of planning, while live music events or art classes only require a couple of hours.

Do you rotate events and other attractions? Are they scheduled regularly or on an as-available basis? Certain events are scheduled regularly; other events are scheduled on an as-available basis.

What’s your approach to special events? We love any reason to host an event!

How much of an advantage is it for your bar to be joined by a restaurant right next door? Amelia’s makes great food and has a lot of variety. And not having to worry about scheduling food trucks is a huge advantage for me.

Do you schedule your performers on a regular rotating basis or an as-available schedule? As available.

Do these events greatly or marginally improve the attendance at your business? – Live music definitely draws a crowd, so I would say it greatly improves the attendance.

What other unique attractions are you considering in the future to bring people out to your business? I would like to work more with local breweries to bring fun and educational events to Tap Time.

Tap Time
1564 Market Place Boulevard, Suite 900, Ocean Isle Beach
taptimeoib.com