Looking for wines on tap? This interactive map can help
Bartender Eric Solis at Father’s Office in Culver City pulls a few glasses of wine on tap. The restaurant was the first to offer wine on tap in L.A.
The website Try Wine On Tap now includes an interactive map that shows more than 3,900 restaurants and bars nationwide where you can find wines on tap. That’s a movement right there and growing all the time.
In Southern California, the map pinpoints a dozen places, among them: StirMarket and Sadie Kitchen & Lounge in Los Angeles, Spin the Bottle Wine Studio in Toluca Lake, Story Tavern in Burbank, Public School 310 and Sage Vegan Bistro in Culver City, Rock & Brew Restaurant in El Segundo and Redondo Beach, and Simmzy’s in Long Beach.
Missing are most of the restaurants cited in our recent story on wines on tap, including Father’s Office, the first place in L.A. to dispense wine from kegs. Try Wine On Tap’s map is crowd-sourced, meaning you can add restaurants and bars you think belong on the map, so with time Southern California should become more populated with spots to try wine on tap.
It would be more useful, though, if entries gave a little more information, such as whether the place has four taps or 40 and what kinds of wines. Strictly California? Largely French? New World only? Cheap rotgut?
The site, it turns out, is not just for consumers looking for a well-priced, delicious glass of wine. It’s also a showcase for Free Flow Wines, a provider of wines in kegs, including some from prestigious estates in Napa Valley and Oregon. Click on “How?” and you’re confronted with links to installers, information on draft systems for your business and where to order wine for your kegs.
Going deeper into the site leads to a pep talk on the advantages of wines on tap. “Wine in keg stays fresh, from the first glass to last. There is no oxidation, no corkage, no spoilage.” And no more wasted wine either. Wines on tap programs also reduce the number of bottles that need to be recycled. All that’s spot on.
But while the “accounts map” on this site may be useful to consumers, its real function is to show how very well wine in kegs is selling for Free Flow Wines. Right now consumers can find only the address and contact information for a bar or restaurant on the map. But until somebody comes up with a more complete guide to wines on tap, this is the only one we’ve got.
Follow @sirenevirbila for more on food and wine.
SEE ALSO
Wine in kegs barrel into more restaurants
8 hot spots for wines by the glass around L.A.
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
