By Will Bryant
Staff Writer
If you’re thinking of hosting a party this holiday season, a new beer delivery service in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area has erased any good reason for you and your festive sweater to leave the houseguests thirsty.
Rosemary Mart Express, operating out of the student-owned Rosemary Mart at 505 W. Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill, has begun offering a beer delivery service in hopes of reducing the number of intoxicated drivers out on the streets and keeping local residents safe.
“It’s something we think is good for the community,†said co-founder Jared Polivka. “We don’t want people drinking and driving.â€
Orders can be placed at Rosemaryexpress.com, the store’s snazzy new website that offers customers every brand of suds they would find in a normal trip to the store.
With everything from Pabst Blue Ribbon cases to Samuel Adams seasonal six packs, Rosemary Mart Express has the perfect stocking stuffers for the holiday season.
However, don’t expect these sprits to arrive by reindeer. Instead, deliveries are made by a toy even Santa might envy: a silver BMW X-5.
“It’s not great on gas,†says Polivka, “but it makes deliveries fun.â€
Delivery service, between the hours of 1 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., is available to any location within 10 minutes of Franklin Street. There’s no delivery fee and the prices charged are exactly what customers would find in the store.
Co-founder Connor Warnock says the idea for the service began to brew after experiences he had in London while studying abroad.
Beer delivery services are common there, Warnock says. “We thought to ourselves, ‘Why couldn’t this happen in the United States?’â€
The two entrepreneurs found an answer in close friend and Rosemary Mart owner Deya Harb.
“He embraced our idea with open arms,†Warnock says with a smile.
Harb opened Rosemary Mart after working 90-hour weeks for six years to save up the money needed to start his own business.
Polivka and Warnock say that along with the desire to keep residents from drinking and driving, their motivation for starting the service was to help Harb’s business flourish.
“He’s earned it, and we hope that he’ll succeed,†Polivka says.