#zzaam

“If anyone knows how to take a simple concept and make it a thing, it’s Derek Cha.

The Richmond-area entrepreneur opened the first Sweet Frog frozen yogurt shop in Short Pump in 2009; by the time he sold the chain to Boxwood Partners in 2015, it had grown to roughly 350 stores in three countries.

Now Cha is taking his savvy for spotting concepts ripe for tweaking to the Richmond beer scene with the opening of RVA Draft Room...

RVA Draft Room works like this: Customers 21 and older are ID’d at a station at the entrance and issued an RFID-chipped card tied to their credit card. In the draft room, they insert the card into any one of the 50 self-serve taps and select their pour — priced by the ounce for a vast selection of beers and a handful of ciders and wine on tap.

“We’re trying to create a gourmet food court,” Cha said. “A really cool, high-end food court.

In order to fit the new concepts into the existing ZZaam! space, Cha enclosed part of the patio last year, then took part of the existing parking lot and made that a patio (don’t worry, dog-lovers, there’s still a separate dog-friendly patio). The new vendors in the works will operate out of the patio space, and Cha said there are plans to bring in live music and outdoor games ”