FOOD | OPENING
Happy Camper The tiny pop-up beer bar Camp Taps debuts in the North Monroe Business District BY CHEY SCOTT
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with beer and this big deck and a yurt out here for all-year use that was heated, but we went to the city and they listened to our idea, and it ended up being unfeasible,” Barshaw says. While Camp Taps is theoretically mobile, the couple plan to operate it seasonally at its current spot from April through mid-fall. When the trailer’s front end is filled with kegs, it can’t easily be moved anyway, and due to the restrictions of their operating licenses, it also can’t travel around like a food truck can.
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hen Camp Taps is operating most afternoons and evenings, drivers along North Monroe may notice Barshaw’s hand-painted sandwich board signs out on the sidewalk with a red stop sign symbol and the word BEER in the center. He also designed the trailer’s logo, which is featured on screen-printed T-shirts for sale in Camp Taps’ tiny “gift shop,” along with 16-ounce, cup-sized koozies, stickers and postcards to “send from camp,” Greenberg says.
hen Blaise Barshaw and Laurie Ann Greenberg approached local and state government agencies with the proposal for their seasonal beer trailer, Camp Taps, they were mostly met with skepticism and hesitation. It took months to get clearance for the idea at various phases of construction and implementation, but Camp Taps in the North Monroe Business District finally got the nod of approval from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, and opened last week. “I called Liquor Control, and talked for like an hour explaining what I wanted to do with the beer trailer, and they were having a hard time wrapping their brain around it,” Barshaw says. “No one had ever done this before.” Located in the back corner of the parking lot for local vintage and Laurie Ann Greenberg and Blaise Barshaw in the beer trailer. LAUREN REY PHOTO antique shop 1889 Salvage Co., Camp Taps is a cozy, intimate bar, with capacity Each of the trailer’s tap handles is made from for only 12 people in its tiny enclosure, which is repurposed finds from some of the many antique open to ages 21 and over. shops along Monroe Street, including a 1920s The bar itself is a 1969 camp trailer the flashlight, and badminton and croquet racket couple completely gutted and retrofitted, with a handles. The seating area around the beer trailer space in the front end to cool and store kegs for is mostly covered and walled off to create a shady its eight tap handles. hangout, with bar stools that pull right up to the All of those taps showcase regional craft trailer’s two windows. beers, and everything is $6 a pint. Upon its Customers can bring in their own food, but opening, featured breweries included nearby must follow the camp rules to “pack it in, pack it Bellwether, plus Mountain Lakes, Lumberbeard, out,” as well as to be kind, make friends and not YaYa, Humble Abode and the Golden Handle smoke. Project, and a regional guest tap with Coin Toss Since the trailer is too small to hold a Brewing in Oregon. dishwasher for pint glasses, beer is served in “All the microbreweries around here, compostable single-use cups, which the couple everyone has been so nice to us and so helpare currently trying to figure out how to recycle ful,” Greenberg says. “That is what is really locally, since they can’t go into the city-issued nice about the beer community and craft beer. yard waste bins. Camp Taps’ owners hope next Everyone is on each other’s side.” year to offer some version of a mug club, perhaps Barshaw and Greenberg, both professional by selling reusable aluminum vessels that customartists, say their initial plan was to open a permaers can bring back to use and get a discount on nent venue that paired craft beer with arts and beer in return. served as more of a community creative center. “There is something for everyone,” GreenBut finding a location that didn’t need extensive berg says. “It’s kind of fun. It’s different and and expensive renovations proved difficult. After unique and is like coming around the campfire. both lost their part-time jobs in retail and the serYou can’t get lost here.” n vice industry when the pandemic hit last spring, they had more time to focus on retooling their Camp Taps • 2824 N. Monroe St. • Open vision into the beer trailer concept. Wed-Sat 3-8 pm, Sun 3-7 pm • facebook.com/ “We originally thought of having the trailer CampTaps
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AUGUST 5, 2021 INLANDER 31
