Why a Taphouse?
The Pacific Northwest is seen as an outdoor, social enviroment. A place you can go sit in a park, walk trails, relax, have a good meal and enjoy a cold glass of beer amongst friends. What brought all these social aspects together was the introduction of breweries in Bellingham that offered ‘tasting rooms’. The first brewery (in modern time) was established in 1995 - Boundary Bay Brewery. As of November 2019, there are 16 breweries in the Whatcom County area. With Breweries popping up, a new trend that started was the “taphouse”. A pub style establishment that caters to serving only beer, cider and wine and may offer in-house or truck-catered food. In Whatcom County as of 2019 there are 4 cideries and 13 taphouses.
But north of Bellingham along the I-5 there is only two that caters to all these services (in Ferndale) but none in Blaine. With Blaine being a vibrant community of social residents, it is also the gateway to the south for our northern canadian friends. If you want to get a beer in Blaine, currently there are only 9 businesses that serve beer, but 7 of them are classed as restaurants. What a taphouse offers is a ‘drop-in’ social atmosphere where you can sample various brewery beers, ciders or wine. As breweries and taphouses have become more popular over restaurants, we felt Blaine has been long over due for this type of business.
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Our location is perfect for all the above! We are a short stroll away from the Blaine Marina and park, the Peace Arch park and amazing views of the water from not only on our patio and beer garden that will open in the spring, but from all our large clear windows on the North and West side of our building. We have a warm social decor on our main floor. We are also the first building as you come through the Peace Arch border via the Blaine exit.