Best New Technology: Draft Picks Perfect Pour, Honda Center (Excellence In Concessions 2026)

As part of the ongoing, multibillion-dollar OCVibe development in Anaheim, Honda Center has served as somewhat of a test pilot for the Perfect Pour at Draft Picks beer station, which looks to combine the best of self-serve efficiency and convenience, meaning fans can get a quick drink and get back to the action.

Although self-serve food and beverage stations are becoming more common at grocery stores and airports as well as concert and sports venues, guests can still feel intimidated entering a new space unsure how to navigate the new tech. Honda Center Encore, the official name of the arena following its $1 billion renovation set for completion in time for the LA28 Olympic Games, from the start looked to alleviate any fear factor.
“We doubled down on the humanistic approach to the service of the experience,” says Anthony Olheiser, senior vice president of hospitality at OCVibe, overseeing food and beverage for the whole project, which includes the arena, two new hotels and retail and restaurants, among other destinations.

“Being greeted by somebody as you walk in who explains to you how the process works takes a lot of that sort of fear, if you will, out of the transaction. Once you get a couple of those pours under your belt, you’ll be feeling like a pro.”

The Perfect Pour beer walls were installed as part of the first phase of renovations in time for this NHL season for the home team Anaheim Ducks, with
two installations on the 400 level – occupied by Brewery X and Golden Road breweries – with plans for a third beer wall on the 200 level concourse that is set to open for the next season.

“It’s been a tremendous success,” says Olheiser, who recently joined OCVibe after 25 years of hospitality experience mostly in Las Vegas, including a senior role at the new Fontainebleau Resort.

“Revenue increased by about 60%, flow-through was huge, with about 40% more people getting through,” he said. “Equally if not more importantly, it’s really about the guest experience. There’s a finite amount of time to get hundreds of people through these lines.”

Fans entering the concessions space provide ID to a manned counter and are instructed how to complete the perfect pour on their own – 20 ounces automated to leave out any guesswork and eliminate mistakes – given two pours and a reusable souvenir cup to start, which means a faster second time at the station for the guest.

The technology is provided in a partnership between Validfill, behind the Smart Cup RFID technology, and Micromatic, the company behind the Perfect Pour technology.

“We’re pouring beers between six to eight seconds with this beer wall,” says Olheiser. “It’s a fine line because new technology is fantastic and we want to adopt it and absorb it, but it can’t be in lieu of hospitality.”