Century Square may be on its way toward becoming a popular College Station game day destination.
Century Square, a mixed-use destination across the street from Texas A&M’s campus, hosted its first pop-up biergarten this past weekend. Every game day weekend, guests at the event can get food and drinks from the various restaurants and bars at Century Square and relax at The Green. Guests can enjoy live music on Fridays or watch SEC games on TVs set up on The Green all day Saturday.
Century Square Marketing Strategist Amanda Barron said Century Square started brainstorming the event before the pandemic began. She said the main goal was to draw in visitors on game days.
“It all began with the idea to make Century Square a game day destination,” Barron said. “In the past, we’ve had some pretty good traffic because we’re right next to Kyle Field, but once the game started, everyone is either at the game or they’re in a bar watching it. So, we were like, ‘How can we get people here on game day?’”
The answer was the Century Square Biergarten. Even when COVID-19 began to sweep the nation, Century Square continued to plan out the event, though it originally was meant to simply be a watch party.
“Being on a patio was safer, [and the idea] kind of just morphed into this biergarten idea because all of our tenants around The Green have patios,” Barron said. “If we could…put picnic tables out, play the game [on TV] and then have our tenants come outside and sell beer: that was going to be the perfect combination for people to feel safe with social distancing.”
According to Century Square’s facebook, the event has security present to ensure that there are not too many people, and guests will be required to wear masks when they are ordering food and drinks or moving through the garden.
Barron said the event will help the various businesses in Century Square affected by the pandemic by bringing in more visitors.
“Obviously with COVID and everything…all our businesses took a hit,” Barron said. “We were really hoping this would help all of our tenants get back on their feet. They’re so excited because if Century Square does become a game day destination that just means more traffic for their stores and for their restaurants.”
One of the restaurants participating in the event is PORTERS: Dining + Butcher, an upscale woodfire steakhouse. General Manager David Cantu said PORTERS partnered with the Blackwater Draw brewery in Bryan for the event.
“We [served] two of my favorite [beers] they have over there called Border Town and Mulligan,” Cantu said. “In addition, we [served] smoked turkey legs, soft pretzels with beer cheese sauce and beer brat, boiled in beer and served with a hot spicy mustard and onion.”
While PORTERS’ sales were not significantly affected by COVID-19 due to the creation of to-go packages, Cantu said they accepted the opportunity to participate in the pop-up biergarten when Century Square invited them to.
“They sent us an email advertising [the event] and asking if we would like to participate,” Cantu said. “Our attitude here at PORTERS is ‘Yes, we’ll do anything.’ We don’t turn away business.”
For more details about the event and other events Century Square is hosting, click here.