Brooklyn Bars Beer Wall Offers Self-Serve Suds

BROOKLYN, NY -- Williamsburg's Randolph Beer is now offering self-serve suds in what it calls the "beer ATM." The system gives customers a choice of 24 craft beers, including local brands, after they insert a custom debit card.

To use the beer ATM, a customer simply hands over their credit card to a bartender in exchange for a temporary-use debit card that tracks purchases. Drinkers can choose between a 1-fl.oz. "tasting" or a full 12-fl.oz. glass. Once they have had their fill, they hand back the beer card and their purchases are charged to their own credit card.

The self-serve feature does not entirely replace bartenders at the venue, but seems intended as an attraction. The venue is popular with millennials who are too young to remember the classic Automat eateries that were a New York City tradition for decades. Automats, however, predated debit cards and did not serve beer.