Oak & Stone isn’t changing who it is. The fast-growing polished-casual brand believes it’s finally finding a better way to explain it.
After Artistry Restaurants acquired Oak & Stone in 2022, leadership spent the next several years focused on understanding the concept, strengthening operations, and preparing the business for expansion. As the brand began moving beyond its established Florida footprint and into new markets such as Texas, executives realized there was a gap between what guests thought Oak & Stone was and what it had become.
The discovery emerged through guest surveys and conversations tied to the company’s growth plans.
“People were asking, are we a brewery?” says Stacy Erickson, marketing brand manager. “Or with artisan pizza in the tagline, people wondered if we were just a pizza place.”
The feedback prompted a deeper evaluation of the brand’s identity.
“What we took from that survey was that we really weren’t getting a lot of credit for our scratch kitchen, but then also the expanded offerings we were bringing to the tap wall, knowing that from the time we started in 2016, that craft beer kind of was in a boom,” Erickson says.
Those insights ultimately led to a refresh built around a new tagline: “Craft Kitchen, Loaded Taps.”
The phrase was carefully chosen to communicate the two pillars leadership believes set Oak & Stone apart.
“For Craft Kitchen, we did really want to bring emphasis to the fact that our items are made in-house,” Erickson says. “We offer a lot of items that you’ll find on a regular bar menu or sports bar, that type of thing. But our Philly cheesesteak egg rolls, [president Sam Aguilar’s] team rolls those every single day. They are made from scratch. Our wings are brined in an extensive brining process. Our pizza dough is made in hand. It takes 72 hours. They really pull and press all the dough by hand.”
The second half of the tagline reflects how dramatically the beverage program has evolved since Oak & Stone opened its first location in Sarasota, Florida, in 2016.
While self-pour craft beer helped define the concept in its early years, guests now have access to wine, cocktails, spirits, ciders, meads, mocktails, and nonalcoholic offerings through what the company now calls its “tap wall.”
“As tastes are evolving, the beverage industry trends are evolving, we want to be that place where everybody can come and explore and try and sample and sip and find new favorites,” Aguilar says.
The concept’s newest restaurant in McKinney, Texas, even features root beer taps that allow children to participate in the self-pour experience alongside their parents.
“We want everybody to be able to experience that,” Aguilar says. “If you’re a wine drinker, if you’re a bourbon spirits drinker, as we’ve worked hard with our beverage program to get highly allocated items, we put those in the cabinet on the wall where guests can explore, and they can try a sample sip of something they might never get to try elsewhere. If it’s non-alcoholic, we don’t want you excluded.”
The company also introduced a new position known as a “tap guide,” which makes the experience more approachable for first-time guests.
Aguilar compares the role to a museum tour guide.
“Think about it as a tour guide,” he says. “If you go to a museum, you can look at the art and it is magnificent, and you can enjoy it. But when you have a guided tour of someone who’s a professional who knows all about the history of that piece of sculpture that’s a thousand years old, or that piece of art that’s 400 years old, how much better is your experience?”
The tap guide helps guests navigate the wall, offers recommendations, and creates a more social environment around the self-pour experience.
“We realized that tap wall could be intimidating to someone who’s never used it before,” Aguilar says. “… But when you’ve got that person there who makes you feel comfortable, come on with me, let me show you how we do this, let me tell you all about this, it becomes fun.”
The refresh extends beyond messaging. Oak & Stone unveiled an updated logo, expanded color palette, brand badges, and visual elements intended to create greater consistency as the chain enters new markets. The redesigned ampersand now contains the silhouette of a tap handle hidden within the negative space, a subtle nod to the concept’s beverage roots.
Growth remains a major driver behind the changes.
The company currently has four locations under construction, including restaurants in The Villages and Winter Park, Florida; Addison, Texas; and Leander, Texas, near Austin. Combined with recent openings in McKinney and Cape Coral, Florida, the expansion will nearly double the brand’s footprint in an 18-month span.
Leadership believes Oak & Stone’s appeal extends across a variety of markets, from urban centers to suburban communities. A key factor in site selection is identifying what the company calls the “social leader”—the person who organizes gatherings, starts the group text, and brings friends together.
That philosophy also influenced the company’s decision to open in The Villages.
“People don’t go retire in The Villages to go hide out in their home,” says Melissa Elders, vice president of marketing for Artistry Restaurants. “They want to get out. They want to hear live entertainment. They want to socialize with their friends and make new friends and be really active in their community and get to live their best retirement life.”
The brand is also experimenting with new formats. In Wellen Park, Florida, Oak & Stone plans to launch a pair of permanent food-and-beverage containers that will bring elements of the concept into a highly trafficked outdoor gathering space. One unit will feature a tap wall, while the other will serve guest favorites such as wings, Philly cheesesteak egg rolls, and pizzas.
The timing of the refresh coincides with another milestone. Oak & Stone is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, marking a decade since the first restaurant opened in Sarasota.
The anniversary celebration won’t be limited to a single day. Oak & Stone plans to commemorate the milestone with a systemwide promotion that encourages guests to visit as many locations as possible in one day. Guests will be rewarded based on how many restaurants they visit, with increasingly valuable prizes available along the way.
For Aguilar, the rebrand is less about changing the business and more about preparing it for the next chapter.
“We’re very excited at Oak & Stone that this is our 10-year anniversary from when we opened our first restaurant in Sarasota in July of 2016,” he says. “Part of that is the rebranding. That aligns with our 10-year anniversary and how we look forward to the next 10 years.”
