Fat Tony’s Launches Unique Beer & Food Pairing Website
Release Date: Wednesday, February 16th 2011
Two-location local eatery with big ideas again creates a first with FindTheFlavor.com.
Fat Tony's Italian Pub today launched a new website that facilitates interactive pairings of food and beer. The site, FindTheFlavor.com, is part of the Company’s 25-point initiative to increase awareness of its restaurants’ craft beer acumen through the teaming of craft beer with a wide variety of menu items.
The site guides the visitor through a journey to match a beer with menu items. Choose a category, such as salads, or sandwiches, then choose an item, such as steak sandwich, and follow the descriptive advice of why the flavors of the food pair well with the flavors of different beers. Visitors discover, for example, that hoppy ales such as Lagunitas IPA, from tiny Petaluma, California, pair well with the meaty and tangy steak sandwich.
The pairings were completed by Eric Rylander, Fat Tony’s owner, who last year obtained an industry certification of “Certified Cicerone®”, or beer sommelier. Rylander was the first in North Carolina to obtain the certification, which involves rigorous testing in the styles, serving, brewing, storage, and pairing of beer.
“Craft beer is rapidly taking market share from the mass-produced American beers that use rice to lower costs of fermenting,” said Rylander. “The public is finding complexity in the flavors of these smaller-batch beers, and is willing to pay a little more to experience it. Our website is designed to help guide you through the wide variety of flavor profiles now available at Fat Tony’s.”
Development of the site was an evolving effort with Brett Neville, site developer and President of Cape Fear Design. Mr. Neville’s company developed the complex site with many unique features, including a “Flavor Feed” that is a Twitter-like scrolling message board which displays recent pairing suggestions, selected by website visitors.
“I must say, it was my first ‘Flavor Feed,’” remarked Neville. “With the excellent reputation of Fat Tony's providing high quality dishes combined with the area's most unique draft beer selection, FindTheFlavor.com is an additional benefit that will allow customers to have an outstanding dining experience above and beyond your typical restaurant.”
About Fat Tony’s Italian Pub
Fat Tony’s Italian Pub is a Wilmington, NC unit of Marzini Restaurants, LLC, with two locations and a focus on homemade Italian food and craft beer in a fun pub atmosphere. In its 8th year, Fat Tony’s is a local leader in the independent restaurant industry. More information is available at www.fatpub.com.
About Cape Fear Design
Cape Fear Design is a Wilmington based full service web design and development firm specializing in creating the most effective solutions to help businesses achieve their goals.
Contact: Jill Newton, Marzini Restaurants jill@marzini.com or 910-343-8744