Tabbedout is making it even easier to pay a restaurant or bar tap. The app, which lets restaurant and bar patrons open and pay their tabs with their phones, is now offering PayPal as a payment option. The option will be available at locations around the company's headquarters in Austin, Texas – just in time for the smartphone-carrying hordes set to descend upon the city during the annual SXSW Interactive festival later this week. A larger rollout to TabbedOut's other restaurant partners will happen later.

"PayPal has been a major force in advancing mobile commerce by making it simple for its 106 million active users to pay on any device, anytime," said TabbedOut CEO Paul Fiore in the announcement. "We’re thrilled to bring Tabbedout users another easy way to settle their tabs."

In a blog post on the company's site, Scott Dunlap, VP of emerging opportunities for PayPal, said this is the first time PayPal will be available at bars and restaurants, and another example of how PayPal is pushing into the offline space.

"This is just another way PayPal is working to give our 106 million active users the ability to make payments any time, anywhere and in almost any way they want," Dunlap said. "We are always looking for new and innovative ways to bring the simplicity and security of the PayPal experience to customers and merchant partners worldwide, and we’re thrilled to partner with Tabbedout on this exciting new initiative."

Dunlap said Tabbedout isn't just a benefit to consumers, it also gives merchants the ability to offer patrons some payment flexibility. Dunlap said it's also easy for merchants to integrate into their POS systems.

According to the company, Tabbedout has integrated with most of the POS system vendors in the restaurant space giving it access to more than 70 percent of the restaurant market. That means restaurants and bars using equipment from vendors like MICROS, Focus POS, Future POS, POS, Jumpware, Dinerware and Agilysys can add TabbedOut and PayPal without purchasing additional hardware. 

Both PayPal and TabbedOut have put out videos touting their new partnership. PayPal's video is a bit more straightforward. TabbedOut went a different route. See for yourself:

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