When Beef 'O' Brady's acquired the rights to franchise The Brass Tap in June 2012, chief development officer James Walker had an idea: open The Brass Tap in airports. As the upscale craft beer bar takes flight, the company has also announced plans to open its first corporate location in Tampa and introduce a new food menu as well. 

Slated to open in May, the Tampa restaurant will serve as a test site for adding specialty food items, expected to include a mix of panini sandwiches, pretzels, pizzas, and gourmet stuffed burgers. 

The Brass Tap, known for its more than 300 craft beers, premium wines, live music, and cigars, has also launched a new venue prototype exclusively for airports. New to The Brass Tap airport locations will be a food menu including such items as goat cheese and prosciutto salad, marinated olives and Spanish manchego cheese, stout chili, and much more.To introduce the new airport-specific franchise opportunity to prospective entrepreneurs, executives from The Brass Tap will exhibit at the ARN Revenue Conference and Exhibition in booth 131 in Las Vegas from February 24 to 26, 2013.

Founded in Tampa, Fla., The Brass Tap is best known for highlighting local breweries through ongoing promotions and tasting events, rotating its taps regularly, and making hundreds of unique bottled beers available for carry out. 

"The Brass Tap has an incredibly unique position in the marketplace at airports, and its business model and unit-level economics make the franchise opportunity attractive and practical for investors who want to operate their own business," says James Walker, chief development officer of The Brass Tap. "We are fully committed to opening several airport locations across the country in 2013 and beyond."

With five open locations, The Brass Tap will open 14 additional units by 2014.