Tapped, the region’s first self-pour beer and wine bar, opens in Maplewood

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Tapped, a veritable beer and wine buffet, is now open on Maplewood’s main drag; it’s a place where you’ll never complain about service, because the server is you. Forty taps for regional craft brew and hard cider span the main wall—plus cold-press coffee, should a reversal be warranted. Tucked in a corner are an additional eight taps dedicated to wine, such favorites as Liberty School cab, Mark West pinot noir, and Hope Family’s Troublemaker—the only troublemaker you’re apt to encounter, considering that a digital bracelet monitors your consumption (from ¹/₁₀-ounce tastes to 16-ounce pours for beer) and aims to prevent excessive self-service. Place orders for lager-marinated fried wings, shareable boards, and 10-inch Neapolitan pizzas in front of the wood-burning pizza oven, inherited from the previous tenant, A Pizza Story. While awaiting a “food’s ready” text message, check out the lithographs of pre-Prohibition St. Louis breweries (there were more than 200 of them) and the bar top covered in pennies ($150 worth), or download the iPourIt app to see the offerings change in real time. The self-pour aspect makes for a social atmosphere, says owner Ryan Reel, that the staff, acting as beer ambassadors, help nurture.