Tap Society — Restaurant in Minneapolis

TL;DR - Decent burger but the "pour your own beer" feature is overrated. It's a neat experience once, but you're paying full-service prices for a no-service experience. If you aren't good at pouring beer from tap, (and beer is what you're wanting), then this is not your place. There are dozens of full-service places with better food and larger selections of beer for similar or cheaper prices.

Food: Burger was... fine. It tasted good but the patty was overdone and the pretzel bun I got with the Pub Burger was nothing special; reminded me of the generic Pretzel Buns you can get at any grocery store. Really the stand out here was the garlic pepper fries as they were the best part of the meal, and I appreciated that there were multiple side options without an up-charge.

Service: There isn't any, really. You walk in, you get a drink card from the one person managing the floor and you go up to a kiosk and order your food from there and someone brings it out to you eventually. On the plus side, the food arrived pretty quickly (though it was dead on prime lunch time on a Saturday) and I didn't actually have to make the food myself so... win I guess.

Experience overall: Here's the thing, nothing about my experience "went wrong", and that's the problem. Tap Society has a really interesting concept that just isn't executed very well. "Pour your own beer" sounds really neat until you see how expensive it is; even their "happy hour" prices are at least as expensive of going to a full service bar! To make matters worse, if you aren't an experienced barkeep or really comfortable working a standard bar tap (and I image there are many who visit here that don't fall into either category), chances are you're going to get beer with a lot of head that goes to waste. Even if everything goes well, there's still going to be wasted product that you pay for by the ounce, which doesn't happy at a regular bar.

And this is where the "pour it yourself" concept really comes apart: your average person probably doesn't like watching their bill go up as their beer goes down the drain. Tap Society could at least OFFER assistance in pouring beer but that would mean a higher labor cost. At a normal bar, the cost of the drink takes into consideration labor, the cost of product, and the cost of LOST product, because not every beer is going to be poured perfectly. So when Tap Society charges the same price (when it's on sale at that), but you get less product and you have to pour it yourself, then it's just an expensive gimmick.

Tap Society, even if everything goes perfect, offers nothing of substance to the experience of going out to eat and getting a drink. The food is fine but literally every other part of experience is worse than a full-service bar or restaurant once you get past the novelty of pouring...

Update: This place has been a great experience. The staff is always friendly and helpful. They have updated their ordering screens so that users have more details and fewer menu screens to navigate through, making it more convenient to get your food.

I have definitely enjoyed their selection of rotating taps and wines. They have a good range of local and national beers of all varieties.

Tap Society has become a staple of the local neighborhood!

Original Post: Went to the official opening of the brand new Tap Society this afternoon. Initial thoughts: The place looked cool and the new space was organized much better than the last place using the building. This is a bit of a new experience. If planning on having beer, you give them your ID and a card and they give you a swipe card, which you use at any tap. You can fill a glass with as much or as little beer as you want. When you're done, you take your swipe card back to the front and they give you your tab. If you're having food, you just walk up to a kiosk, put in your order and take a number.

One thing they could improve on is the description and details of their menu items (example: the Impossible Burger is a vegetarian patty, but you have no way of knowing that without asking someone). Another thing to note is that none of the burgers come with lettuce or tomato. You cannot even order them in the toppings menu.

Despite a few minor items related to the ordering experience, I enjoyed the visit and thought the beer/wine selection was very good and the food was pretty decent too. I will definitely come back any time I am looking for a quick bite and a beer and place to sit outside with...

The ordering online/from kiosk is different. Nice that a regular-size tip is not necessary since all the staff does to interact with you is bring out any food you order and give you a drink card. They don’t bring napkins to you with the food which is unfortunate.

For drinks, it’s pour your own, charged by the ounce. The tap selection is good and varied. They have mostly beer in a good variety but also have a seltzer, a couple ciders, and wines. Seems like they try for at least a couple reds and a couple whites. Rotating through has a downside. On a return visit I was hoping to find something I liked before but they go so fast that it wasn’t there. I had a cider last time and it wasn’t cool enough. Should be well chilled. It’s a little difficult to read the whole tap menu (across three screens) when the back of the place is empty and I can imagine it would be a pain to read if the area back there is full of people.

Burgers are overall good. 1/4 pound though so a little on the small side for the price. My favorite is the goat cheese and fig jam one. They nailed it there. Burgers come with fries which are good and crispy. The garlic pepper seasoning on them is great. Their bacon burgers come with the bacon all chopped up which is weird. My preference is to have a few strips like every other place I know of.

Overall a good place for a burger and a beer with mostly...