The Place

Navigator Taproom is a self-pour taproom serving craft beer, wine, and ciders in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

The Challenge

Being a self-pour taproom, Navigator relied on customers drinking beer and spending money on-site at its taproom. That worked until the extraordinary events of COVID-19 forced all non-essential businesses to shut down – including taprooms like Navigator.

“Due to the pandemic, we were not able to be open to the public and we had a full cooler full of beer and wine that would age and we couldn’t sell,” said Tim Enarson, the owner of Navigator Taproom.

For Navigator to continue operations, they needed to diversify how they sold beer to its customers – specifically through offering online ordering for to-go orders.

Luckily, Navigator had previously worked with 2ndKitchen for pop-up food events in its taproom – and 2ndKitchen 2Go was exactly what the taproom was looking for.

The Solution

2Go provided Navigator Taproom an e-commerce portal for its customers to place online orders and offer those customers pickup or delivery fulfillment.

“Before COVID-19 we did not have any to-go orders or even an online ordering system, we only did dine-in orders,” said Enarson. “2ndKitchen went above and beyond the call to provide a to-go solution and simple ordering experience for our customers to order beer online”

In a matter of days, Navigator went from not offering call ahead or online orders, to offering its customers a robust online ordering menu with both to-go and delivery options.

The Result

From the moment Navigator Taproom’s new to-go menu went live the taproom drove online orders, helping to make up for the loss of on-site revenue.

Navigator Taproom also relied on the 2ndKitchen tech team for some unforeseen problems with its website – and the team was able to help solve those problems and add call-to-action buttons to place an online order across the Navigator website.

“We saw immediate sales from day one. The word has spread about us offering to-go and delivery, and orders are growing to this day,” said Enarson. “It’s gone so well that we have decided to continue to-go orders even after we reopen our taproom.”