There's a friendly new spot for food and drink that just opened at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth: Called Tap In Grill & Pub, it's actually a spinoff of a longtime bar with the same name in Grapevine, known for its pub fare with a slight Southern twist.
Owner Will Chaisson, a food & beverage industry veteran who previously worked at similar spots such as Frankie's Underground, bought Tap In from the original founders with an eye towards improving and expanding the concept.
He opened this new spinoff in the former Rock Wood Fire Pizza building at 3351 Texas Sage Trail, at the corner of Heritage Trace Parkway and North Riverside Drive in mid-July, and says he's been thrilled with the unbelievable support from the neighborhood.
"After our first night, which was meant to be a soft opening, the turnout was so strong that we had to stop to replenish our ingredients," Chaisson says.
The original in Grapevine has a loyal following, and while that location will continue to fill its role as a community hangout, with an emphasis on the bar and live music, the Alliance location gave Chaisson a fresh start.
"Alliance is definitely more family-focused," he says. "We're also one of the only independent concepts in the area, everything else is chains."
Remodeling the old Rock Wood Fire Pizza building, which was a franchise of a corporate chain that closed in 2017, was quite the adventure. "It was very gothic, with Ozzy Osbourne purple curtains," Chaisson says. "We brightened it to give it more of a farmhouse modern style."
They have 14 beers on tap with a local emphasis such as Wild Acre Brewing in Fort Worth, and they're partnering with local suppliers for things like coffee. And they've created a menu of cocktails such as a cool purple drink featuring honeydew bourbon, amaro rose, and a purple gin with a distinctive signature: a rose-shaped ice cube, which they create using a rose-shaped ice cube mold.
For Alliance, he's also expanded the food menu from the Grapevine original.
"Fish & chips is still our best seller, but we added a few higher-end items like steak and pork chops to fit the Alliance area," he says. "We still come in under competitors like Longhorn and Outback, and we've kept our small-town pub feeling."
And Alliance customers also love them some tacos. "Since we opened, we've sold a lot of tacos which I think reflects the fact that the area is younger," he says.
Fish & chips are their best-seller.
