Bar Crawl USA

---

April 2026

By Emily Slepsky

Photos courtesy of Bar Crawl USA

More than a decade ago, as twenty-somethings looking for a fun Saturday plan, a group of friends organized a casual Midtown Atlanta bar crawl. Drawing on his hospitality background, Andy Zirger called each bar ahead of time to give them a heads-up. As the group moved from stop to stop, several managers began asking who had organized the event. They weren’t a company — yet.

By the end of the afternoon, Andy and his wife, Caroline Zirger, were on their phones purchasing a domain name. Their first ticketed event followed shortly after, and Atlanta Bar Crawls was born. As demand grew outside the city, the name eventually evolved into Bar Crawl USA™.

Today, the company hosts roughly 70 events per year across 15 to 18 cities, a number they intentionally cap to keep each experience personalized. The calendar spans traditional holiday crawls like St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, alongside themed concepts such as Tequila & Tacos, their most popular event. Designed as a food-and-drink experience, the crawl brings attendees through seven or more walkable bars in a single destination, with participating restaurants putting their own spin on the taco theme. “That’s why we aren’t in 125 cities, because at that point you’re just throwing a cookie-cutter event out there and hoping people buy tickets,” Andy said.

CLOSE TO HOME 

Despite their national footprint, Atlanta, particularly the Upper Westside, remains personal. The couple moved into Liberty Park in 2017 before purchasing their Riverside home in 2019. What first attracted them was the neighborhood’s growth potential and proximity to the city. What kept them was the community itself. “On any given night, we’ve got five to 10 bike riders and scooters and kids on walks, and it’s, you know, it’s great to see your kids, kind of have the childhood that we did,” Andy said. 

The Chattahoochee Food Works was already woven into the family’s routine. Saturday afternoons often meant time at The Camp with the kids, followed by food from the stalls. When it came time to build something of their own, the location was never really in question. “We were like, let’s try it out first, and make it smaller and more intimate, and kind of see how it goes,” Caroline said. “Because ‘the experience’ is what we want out of the whole thing.”

That experiment became their annual Westside Food, Booze & Brews Fest, which recently returned for its fourth year in February 2026. Set across the lively food stalls and outdoor turf, the festival created a space to savor and celebrate — inviting attendees to experience curated bites alongside local beer and spirit tastings that spotlighted Westside favorites like Fire Maker, RoundTrip Brewing, and Scofflaw Brewing Co., along with Atlanta distilleries including ASW and Old Fourth.

“I think it’s so important to focus on local businesses, because we don’t want them to close, and we want the Upper Westside to (continue to) be what it is now, which is amazing restaurants and local businesses, and we want to be able to support that,” Caroline said.

BY DESIGN

Bar Crawl USA™. works because it reflects the people behind it. “We are the demographic,” Andy said. “Where would we want to go to have a fun afternoon without having to, be out late, and get babysitters?” The Zirgers build their events around that reality, creating experiences for people who want something social yet manageable and not stretching late into the night.

“Many work hard Monday through Friday,” Andy said. “Let us take the thought and the planning out of it. Buy a ticket, show up. We take care of it for you from there.” Now parents of two young children, the Zirgers have grown the company alongside their family, scaling nationally while staying closely involved in the day-to-day details that built the brand. They still answer their own emails and build relationships with venue owners directly, without layers of management in between. 

“You grow up and you talk about the ‘American Dream,’ and for us, being from hospitality and having strong mentors, we always wanted to build our own business, and not work for someone,” Caroline said.

GIVING BACK MATTERS

Beyond building their business, the couple has made supporting the local elementary school and broader community initiatives a clear priority. For the past four years, one cause especially meaningful to them has been SOFi’s Night, The Soaring Owls Foundation’s spring gala benefiting Bolton Academy. The Zirgers donate to the annual event and also sponsor items at the foundation’s fall golf tournament.

Until the next crawl, learn more about the Bar Crawl USA™., at www.barcrawlusa.com or better yet, check out their famed Taco and Tequila Crawls.//