Delco Wawa to offer beer sales, restaurant-style seating

CONCORD TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- Wawa opened its first Pennsylvania store to offer beer sales and restaurant-style seating on Thursday morning.

The store on the 700 block of Naamans Creek Road in Concord Twp. reopened with a special celebration, which included a ribbon-cutting, beer tasting with local breweries, and tours of the store.

The Wawa has a single serve and six pack section, as well as a walk-in beer cooler.

The company has no plans right now to sell beer at other stores, but might do so in the future, depending on what happens at this store.

"This new offering of restaurant-style seating and the addition of beer sales in Chadds Ford enables us to enhance the customer experience and add additional products and conveniences to our offer," Wawa said in a statement.

Wondering what goes well with a Shorti Turkey Hoagie? The brewers will suggest the best pairings for "Wawa favorites."

Why this store?

In part because of Pennsylvania's evolving, but at times arcane, licensing that requires a separate beer sales area with 400 square feet of table seating for 30.

This 7,000 ft store big enough to meet the law.

"We don't have any other stores like this, so as long as that table seating requirement exists for a restaurant license, it would be challenging for us to do in existing stores," said Rich Wood of Wawa.

Wawa currently sells beer in its stores in Florida and Virginia.