Adam Breeden on Creating the Ultimate Social Entertainment Venues

For many restaurants, millennials make up almost one-third of their revenue. This generation chooses restaurants that can offer “a new experience.” They look for experience-based environments, like live entertainment, game night, unique ambiance, and unusual food. They’re looking for the ultimate social entertainment venue.

Adam Breeden, the creator of some of the top social entertainment venues in the UK and the U.S., is delivering. The co-founder of Puttshack, Flight Club, Bounce, All Star Lanes, Hijingo, and Kindred Concepts has made entertaining diners his mission, combining sports with technology to create unsurpassed innovative concepts.

The Beginning of Fun & Food Breeden’s first business was The Lonsdale cocktail bar in London, winner of Time Out Bar of the Year and an overnight success. Then, in 2006, the beginning of his establishments that combined food and fun emerged with All Star Lanes, a concept that brought glamour, good food, and cocktails to bowling. He handed off the successful enterprise when inspired to create the first social ping pong club known as Bounce.

He told EMERGING, “I think the real tipping point was when I created an entertainment concept with ping pong. At that point, no one had really fused an activity that had previously been just for fun with food and beverage.”

Like his first endeavor, Bounce was a huge success, with a second one opening just three years later, in 2015. It opened in Chicago under the name AceBounce and prompted other founders in the entertainment space to wonder what other activities could work. According to Breeden, it was at that point that a lot of entertainment concepts came quickly to the UK. “I think that is why the UK is so ahead of the rest of the world in terms of the variety of concepts that exist there and the competitive socializing space compared to other markets in the U.S.” He was quick to point out that it will soon be everywhere on a global scale.

Competitive Socializing Continues to Advance

Since then, he created a flurry of additional concepts, including Flight Club.

Flight Club won the Best New Venue in London award within five months of opening. A second one opened just two years later, in 2017. From there, they headed to the U.S., opening the first one in Chicago, with plans to roll out across the nation. It offers a twist on the classic social darts game at British pubs, combining state-of-the-art technology with one of the oldest established English pub games, including instant video replay.

Of course, the enterprising entrepreneur didn’t stop there. His thoughts turned to other sports that could fit into this concept, and the world’s finest mini golf experience was born. The Jolliffe brothers, founders of Topgolf, helped bring their golf technology to mini golf. “The two guys that invented Topgolf came to me with a technology that is effectively a computer in a golf ball, which enables you to automatically score mini golf.”

Called Puttshack, it combines the best food and beverage, transforming miniature golf into a social entertainment concept. It’s launched in the UK and the U.S. Breeden shared that they’re looking to open 10-15 units a year in the U.S. and follow in the footsteps of Topgolf in terms of target valuations.

The next social entertainment concept to open was Hijingo, bringing a bingo concept to a younger audience. This bingo has transformed into a “very high-tech focused game with great lighting and sound, making it like a theater production.” Again, it’s been a huge success in London.

On to Formula 1 Racing

Not one to rest on his laurels, he then headed into the world of racing. “I think this is the biggest thing I’ve done yet. Formula 1 follows the same playbook, which is taking an activity, combining it with phenomenal food and beverage, and great design, and then forensically going through how to gamify the activity such that it can appeal to everybody. It’s racing for all standards, all backgrounds, and ages.” In February, Breeden and

Motorsport Games announced a global agreement with Formula1 to create the next-level competitive socializing experience. Breeden’s most ambitious project yet is an immersive state-ofthe-art F1 racing simulation experience introduced to a mass audience. Formula 1’s commitment is apparent as the global brand has taken a meaningful equity position. Up to 30 venues will roll out worldwide in the next five years. Like Breeden’s other concepts, it will cater to families, corporate events, social gatherings, and everything in between.

Technology Makes the Difference

According to Breeden, “I can certainly vouch for the fact that bringing technology into these businesses is the game changer. One of the things that we’re doing in the new F1 business is the systems architecture. We’re building in the back end of the business, which is critical in terms of our ability to upgrade and control the business. The data we can capture and analyze and what that means regarding property acquisition, procurement and supply chains, and loyalty, leverages and enhances our opportunities.”

AceBounce is part of a ground-breaking social entertainment brand founded by Adam Breeden, entrepreneur and co-founder of Flight Club and All Star Lanes, and also Dov Penzik, also a successful entrepreneur and former competitive table tennis player.

Bounce was born out of a gap identified in the market to cater to groups looking for an amazing party experience, without compromising on quality of food and beverage offering.

Since its launch in London, England in 2012, the Bounce concept has been widely regarded by the industry as a game-changer in social entertainment venues, which combines three elements of hospitality: bar, restaurant and entertainment activity – all set against stunning design and the highest standard of finishes.

AceBounce is an immense ping pong playground with award winning chefs and mixologists, creating an unprecedented party experience.

Since 2014, digital ordering and delivery have grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic. And according to Lightspeed, 60% of U.S. consumers order takeout or delivery once a week. To keep up with the ever-changing technology and demand, restaurants start with one delivery app, then add another. Before they know it, they’re dealing with five or more aggregators’ tablets and a staff member that only handles takeout and delivery.

But what about the many restaurants that are entering the virtual arena?

Every brand needs a tablet for every delivery platform, a mind-boggling scenario. So, what are restaurants doing to reduce this significant pain point? Technology to the rescue.

Managing Digital Orders and the Advent of Technology

As anyone in the restaurant industry knows, managing digital orders from multiple delivery platforms can be overwhelming. From tracking orders to reconciling costs and commissions, it’s error-prone, time-consuming, and the cause of many a headache.

The good news? Along with delivery, technology in the restaurant industry has risen at an incredible rate. Some of the top contenders are the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital ordering and payment systems. Technomic recently revealed that 56% of consumers prefer using a restaurant’s app or website to place their order, and 47% are more likely to place an order at a restaurant that offers mobile ordering.

While all that may not sound like good news to those who stay out of the technical fray, it does translate to companies that have designed incredible systems to take the pain away from digital orders.

One of those is Chowly.

Streamlining Operations

With ordering systems like Chowly, there’s no more labor-intensive manual order taking and mistakes on customers’ orders due to human error caused by stress and overload. The many tablets have turned into one restaurant management platform. Now, whether guests order online or through a delivery app, all your orders from every platform are found in one central hub.

This all-in-one digital ordering platform consolidates customer touchpoints while integrating menus, smart pricing, and your POS system. The order comes in, goes directly to the digital ordering platform, and on to the POS system and the kitchen.

Customization is the Key

As with most businesses, customization is key—the element that makes you stand out from your competitors. Chowly creates a customized brand experience across a restaurant’s website, app, and third-party delivery services.

This customization turns more website visitors into customers, enabling enterprise-grade features and enhancing the customer experience no matter the size of your restaurant. Thanks to AI, the most popular paired items pop up when a customer makes an online order. This upsell feature makes it easy for customers to see additional products they may not have considered to enhance the meal.

Their smart pricing feature considers the busiest days, slow periods, weather, holidays, and the surrounding areas’ volume, optimizing the pricing strategy to boost profits, not just revenue. Their menu optimization creates an online and third-party menu that increases orders and size. The result is often a 7x higher conversion rate.

Data at Your Fingertips

Your restaurant management platform consolidates the data across all your locations and all delivery platforms. Effortlessly access all delivery and takeout orders and view the total sales at a glance. Check the basket size, view cancellations, and monitor sales trends.

Now, you can identify your top-selling items and the delivery platforms that outperform the others. You can easily pause delivery platforms when the kitchen gets backed up, and you’re concerned the massive delivery orders will start to affect the experience your in-house guests receive.

Integrations

The system handles over 150 customer touchpoints, from Google ordering to online ordering and marketplaces like DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub, and more. It integrates with over 50 restaurant POS systems, like Toast, Square, and Clover.

It’s easy to see why over 12,000 restaurants turn to Chowly to simplify and enhance their digital ordering system. Some well-known brands that have jumped on board include Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, The Halal Guys, Pizza Ranch, and Sweet Charlie’s. One of the best features of Chowly is its 30-day riskfree trial, enabling you to see if the system is right for your restaurant before making a commitment.

As you can tell, we’re excited about what this brand offers our partners and those in the restaurant industry. To say it’s been a long time coming would be an understatement.