Bottoms up: Northeast Richland’s Random Tap

Random Tap is one of the homiest craft beer bars you will ever set foot in.

Owned by John and Kimberly Gagliardi, the cozy Northeast Richland space is minutes away from the Village at Sandhill and next to Ivy House, an antiques home decor store that used to be owned by the Gagliardis. Kimberly’s time spent cultivating the inventory of the store is palpable throughout Random Tap.

One of the flights is served in a box made from old pallet wood instead of on the standard paddles, for example. The bar is trimmed with tin from a 1930s barn roof. Side tables have chalkboard finishes, with chalk handy for kids at heart. Rusty golf baskets are hung upside-down and serve as light cradles. Old doors have been repurposed as tables, with vintage objects like dominos and Monopoly pieces placed beneath transparent surfaces. Even the bar stools are covered in paint cloth.

“We wanted to do things a little different here,” John Gagliardi said.

“We thought it’d be a fun thing to do,” Kimberly Gagliardi added, “to share with local people and people like my husband who love craft beer. So why not open something in this area? And it seemed like a good fit, because next door at the Ivy House, women will want to shop, and their husbands come down here and have a beer.”

“But it’s not always that way,” her husband added. “Last week, we had a woman come in and said that her husband was next door shopping and if we had anything a lady would like.”

After opening its doors the day before Thanksgiving, the 15-tap location kicked seven barrels of beer just in its first week. The plan is to continue to keep the taps random – hence the name – and double its current selection of 50 select bottles, which include beers on tap for those looking to take home a six-pack or two.

“We’ve had somebody say, ‘Do you have any domestics?’ and we joke and say, ‘They’re all domestics,’ ” John Gagliardi said. “But they mean Bud, Miller or Coors. So we wanted to have selections that were entry-level to craft people, like a pilsner and an amber so they could dip their feet in the water. Then, as they come back, we’ll introduce them to IPAs that are a bit hoppier, or scotch ales. We wanted a selection for not only the aficionados but somebody brand new to liking craft beer.”

They’ve even managed to satisfy liquor lovers. When a guy recently came in requesting a bourbon and Coke, John Gagliardi informed him they only carried beer and wine. The guy, who said he wasn’t a big beer drinker, took his advice and tried a few samples.

“He had a couple of our porters that were on tap and ended up leaving with a six-pack,” John Gagliardi said. “And he called three of his buddies while he was here, and they came and stayed for over two hours.

“From a bourbon and Coke to four new customers.”

Sounds like the Gagliardis’ luck isn’t as random as their taps. They know exactly what they’re doing.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Bottoms up: Northeast Richland’s Random Tap."