But best of all, soccer-loving Maldonado and his father welcomed Mexican footballer Héctor Herrera and others to film a video at their restaurant highlighting small businesses as part of Mastercard’s sponsorship of the CONMEBOL Copa América football tournament, and where, Maldonado joked, Herrera was made an honorary busboy for life.
Tapping into a hometown business
When Dan Morano and his wife moved back to Great Falls, Montana, in 2021, he discovered with a shock that there were few craft beer options in town. He quickly set about starting a brewery and taproom alongside his brother and brother-in-law.
Besides his passion for craft beer, Morano had worked on the agricultural side of the brewing industry and understood how it operated. But the trio found themselves hamstrung by Montana’s strict licensing rules.
Simplifying their plan, a year later they opened Annie’s Tap House, which mainly sells beers from other breweries, and funded it through a mix of seller financing, a line of bank credit and their own savings.
Now the high-tech systems they use to measure the beers they pull helps cut waste. And digital payments, including a contactless-enabled point-of-sale system, crunches sales data so they can better target their core market: artisanal beer lovers like Morano.