How One Bar Uses Surreal CMS To Manage Their Menu

By Cory LaViska on February 19, 2015

Here's a great story about a bar in Buffalo that uses Surreal CMS in a unique way — to power their digital beer menu!

A couple of beers, cheers!I recently had the opportunity to work with Kevin McCarthy of McCarthy Entertainment in New York. His client needed an easy solution for updating their ever-changing beer menu, which is how Kevin came across my service. His story is an awesome example of yet another way that Surreal CMS can be used for more than just websites.

One of my clients is a very busy college party bar called Mr. Goodbar in Buffalo, NY. I’ve been booking bands there for about 15 years now. Some time ago they asked if I knew anyone who did websites, so I put one together for them and it worked great. Then they asked me if there was a way to edit a webpage on their own, and that's when I found Surreal.

Because web design isn't my primary service, I needed help to come up with a solution for the bar. They wanted to update a webpage that displays their draft and bottle menu on all their digital displays in the bar.

They have almost 60 different options that change constantly, so they wanted something that the staff and owner could edit quickly.

Digital Beer Menu
The digital beer menu at Mr. Goodbar, powered by Surreal CMS

Surreal CMS was the perfect solution. It worked great from the start. Then they asked for another change. They wanted to expand the information on the menu to include pricing.

While Surreal is easy to use and setup, I wanted to do some very specific things with the board they wanted. I contacted support and was very impressed with their help. They quickly returned my emails and helped me set up the menu to make it look professional and everyone at Mr. Goodbar — especially the owner — was thrilled.

From the first day the updates were made they sold more product and had more people trying different varieties of beer.

It was very rewarding to see Kevin's idea come to fruition. It was also exciting to see Surreal CMS being used for more than just websites.

So next time you're in Buffalo, stop by for a beer at Mr. Goodbar and be sure to check out their Surreal CMS-powered digital menu. Better yet, snap a photo of it while you’re there and show me!