Business Insider: Buffalo Wild Wings is Getting a Makeover
April 12, 2019
Buffalo Wild Wings is rolling out its restaurant of the future, with cocktails, self-service beer taps, and Xbox gaming consoles
Buffalo Wild Wings is getting a makeover. The chain—which was acquired by Arby’s parent company Inspire Brands in 2018—recently unveiled a new store design. The revamped layout is intended to bring the chain “back to its roots as a great American sports bar,” the company said in a press release.
With Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as well as new cocktails and self-service beer on tap, the new design hints at what the sports bar of the future could look like. Instead of the old-school wings and beer, Buffalo Wild Wings looks toward a future where esports is on the rise and watching games is an interactive experience.
Buffalo Wild Wings is rolling out a number of changes to better appeal to younger customers, Inspire Brands CEO Paul Brown recently told Business Insider.
The target customer is “someone who really values that time with his friends,” Brown said. “And as he’s getting older, and life gets more complicated, those moments that you can just go hang out with your friends get fewer and fewer, right? Farther and farther away.”
“Sports is, as much as anything, an excuse to get together and hang out with your friends,” Brown added. So far, Buffalo Wild Wings has opened two restaurants with the new design, in Texas and Kentucky, with plans to open two more in 2019.
Here is what that 21st-century incarnation of the sports bar might look like.
