Taps Wine & Beer

Located in the Winter Park Village, directly across from the Regal Movie theater, this craft beer and wine bar offers a nice dining and drinking option in the Winter Park Village. We enjoyed dinner and beers here with friends, the menu offers Tapas, entree salads, sandwiches and other casual food. Good craft beer selection, wines and a full bar is also available. There are rotating happy hour specials and Hubby noticed they had the NFL Ticket and $3 select draft specials on Sundays.

Hubby devoured a chicken pesto sandwich and I enjoyed the Far East salad, topped with a beautiful and tasty Ahi tuna rose. The salad was very filling. Friends ordered the quesadilla and the Bacon Turkey Salad. The salad was again, huge, nice ingredients and very filling. Quesadilla was deemed bland and would be skipped the next time. Service was great, out server kept a good eye on the beers and made some nice recommendations. We were finished in plenty of time to make our movie time and will be back!

On Saturday night I went on a date (which isn't the point of this post) and was looking for somewhere "in the middle" that we could meet. I asked some friends for a couple suggestions in the Winter Park area (I mentioned that my date was a beer guy). A friend suggested Taps. She said it was half beer place and half wine bar. It sounded like the perfect place, so we made plans to meet there.

Taps is located in Winter Park Village where a Barney's Coffee (or was it a Starbucks?) used to be. The whole place is glass which makes it feel a lot bigger than it really was. I arrived a few minutes before my date (parking was a MESS that night and it was raining) so I peeked inside. It really WAS half beer place and half wine bar. The beer side was where the actual bar was and was full of high top tables. The wall behind the bar was filled with hundreds of beer bottles - it was pretty cool. The wine side was a little more lounge like. There were regular tables and plenty of couches. Oh, and they had those nifty do it yourself wine machines. You know what I'm talking about right? All the trendy wine bars have them these days.

When my date arrived we decided to sit on the beer side. They have an INSANE beer/wine/drink list along with a food menu. They have about 20 or so beers on tap at any given time plus a ton of bottled beer, wine, and of course any sort of liquor you could want. I felt pretty spiffy when I was actually able to suggest a beer to my date (Orange Blossom Pilsner) and he actually liked it. I think the story about the OBP Scion XB with a tap coming out the side sold him on it.  I was happy because they had a few "Meghan friendly" beers on tap and didn't have to be a girl and order wine.

This is where I'm supposed to tell you about this killer popcorn that we ordered. Yup, popcorn. But of course I didn't take a picture of the popcorn or the description on the menu. And the menu I find online doesn't even mention the popcorn. Let's just say there was cheese involved and it was totally worth the slightly high price tag. I think they should have given us twice the amount for that price, but it was delicious regardless.

One of my favorite things about Taps was that even though it was a Saturday night and it was pretty crowded, it wasn't super loud. I always worry about going to bars when I actually want to carry on a conversation with someone, but Taps worked out perfectly.

An awesome selection of beers, wines, and cocktails (although they use Stoli which I am surprised for the prices they charge.  Stoli--yuck!) and the waiters were awesome.  They also seem to be the only joint in snooty WPV that has decent outdoor pub seating.  The decor inside was warm and inviting.  The food was decent but be forewarned--the tapas is teensy tiny.  The mac and cheese is a mere mouthful for a whopping $8.  I can find much better at a few tasty eateries in NYC!   (Poco has an awesome to die for lobster mac & cheese tapas that is more than enough for one)  It's pricey but for a night out, why not?