Minding Your Business- Town Cove Tap House

Town Cove Tap House in Orleans opened just over a year ago and has been an amazing addition to the destination spots on the Lower Cape for craft beer, wine and family and friends gathering. The beer and wine garden is conveniently located in the greenhouse nursery area at Snow’s Home and Garden on Main Street. 

The Tap House was the brain child of father and son duo James and Harrison Snow. James heads up the storefront operation at Snow’s and Harrison manages the fuel side. It was their common enthusiasm for craft beer that got their wheels turning.

“My dad and I both love craft beer and we saw that our greenhouse could make a really unique experience,” Harrison said. “We have the old nursery yard outside with some firepits and adirondack chairs, thinking it might bring a little different demographic for us. One spouse could be shopping and the other one could grab a drink. Now we’ve just celebrated our one-year anniversary. We had our first summer and really learned a lot.”

Town Cove Tap House has a diverse selection of about 20 beers on tap and switches out the choices often so visitors always have something new and different to try. General Manager Grant Soboleski works closely with the distributors to curate the offerings on a weekly basis. And it’s not just craft beer Town Cove offers. The menu also features a diverse selection of hard seltzer, hard coconut seltzer, different ciders, nonalcoholic beer and a curated wine list. Most of the choices on tap hail from the New England area, but the crew also mixes in different varieties from far away.

“We might have one or two beers from California,” Harrison said. “We recently had one from Idaho! We try to bring a wide variety in. A lot of people associate a beer garden with just having one thing, like IPAs, but I wanted to make sure we had something for everyone. We try to keep it really balanced amongst the style of beer. And if something goes really well, we will bring it back. We always look for customer feedback.”

Town Cove Tap House works with many local vendors to create a welcoming experience for visitors, families and everyone in between. The space is dynamic and can accommodate private parties and events. Local vendors like Ice Cream Cafe, Devil’s Purse and Truro Vineyard have made appearances at the Tap House with great success. Other New England-based breweries will also do tap-takeovers and give guests a taste of what they have to offer with samples and giveaways. 

“Tap takeovers offer great exposure to other local brands,” Harrison said. “Having access to the Cape Cod market for them in the summer is really beneficial for our reps.”

Town Cove Tap House strives to be a community partner. Recently they welcomed the folks from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to give a talk, and they also partnered this fall with the Orleans Recreation Department and Snow Library to host a movie night.

“This fall we showed the movie ‘Point Break’ and it was free and open to the public,” Harrison said. “We like that this is a great community space. It’s a great space that people can stop in to grab a beer or wine or your favorite nonalcoholic drink. ”

Coming up next for Town Cove is a pre-holiday vendor market on Nov. 15 which will feature different local breweries, local food options and artisans. Be sure to check their website for holiday and winter hours, and be sure to stop in and try something new!

Town Cove Tap House

22A Main St., Orleans MA, 02653

774-207-9386

sites.google.com/towncovetaps.com/taphouse/