Well-known pub in South Wedge to close after 14 years
The Tap & Mallet, a pioneering beer bar and gastropub in Rochester's South Wedge neighborhood, announced Monday it would close at the end of the month after 14 years of business.
News of the closure spread rapidly across social media.
The universal refrain rang out: People were gutted to hear of the decision but thankful for the memories made at the pub since it first opened in 2007 on Gregory Street.
At the heart of the business, co-owners Joe McBane and Casey Walpert formed an unexpected partnership. McBane, a native of Sheffield, England, is the jovial face of the business, the beer maestro who first came to Rochester more than 20 years ago to work at the Old Toad on Alexander Street.
Walpert, meanwhile, is always content to stay in the background. But he is really the backbone of the business, often responsible for fixing the ice machine or any number of important tasks that kept the operation running smoothly.
"It's crazy reading all the comments on Facebook," McBane said Tuesday morning. "It's a bit like reading comments on your own obituary. It's bittersweet. We had 12½ exceptionally successful years."
The beer has always been front and center at Tap & Mallet. Among its 30 draft lines, patrons would always be certain to encounter the best and most varied tap list in Rochester. McBane took great pride in curating lists to satiate both craft novices and the most advanced palates.
McBane said the business evolved as time passed. When it opened, there were just three breweries in Monroe County. That number has jumped to nearly 25, including 13 in the city of Rochester. Tap & Mallet became more of a restaurant as it faced increasing competition from brewery taprooms. Much of this evolution was a direct result in changes in state law, which both eased the process for opening and allowed breweries to serve beer by the pint in their own tasting rooms.
"We continued to do well in a different way, and then the pandemic just took the wind out of the sails, as it did for a lot of people," McBane said. He conceded Tap & Mallet's crowd also shifted, got older, and changed its habits. "It has become less of a drinking crowd and more of a dining crowd," he admitted.
Along the way, Tap & Mallet introduced Rochester to many iconic breweries such as Prison City, Other Half and Suarez, hosted incredible meet-and-greets with beer luminaries, and consistently served some of the best pub food in the region. (If you have never experienced the cauliflower wings, you have a few weeks left to remedy that.)
"I can't overstate how much the Tap has done for craft beer in Rochester," Swiftwater Brewing founder/brewer Andy Cook shared on Twitter. "Joe showed me that people would come to the Wedge for great beer. I did half of my planning for Swiftwater over a burger and beer there."
A taste for innovation
The crowler 32-ounce canned growler and Rochester Real Beer Week were among the innovations championed by McBane and Tap & Mallet. The pub was the first to offer crowlers in the Rochester region. McBane also co-founded Rochester's annual beer week and then curated its showcase Rochester Real Beer Expo, which was canceled last year during the ongoing pandemic.
The festival typically closed down Gregory Street in front of the pub and introduced thousands to breweries never before featured in this area. Since it is organized by the Business Association of the South Wedge Area (BASWA), the Expo could continue, albeit in a slightly different form, McBane said. Those discussions haven't taken place yetr.
The pub itself occupied the same Gregory Street building that was once home to the original MacGregor's Grill & Tap Room, which opened there in 1989 and closed in 2006. The building dates back to 1890 and has been home to many bars during that time, McBane said.
The McBane/Walpert partnership also opened Tap and Table in Corn Hill Landing in 2012. That became the Rochester Taproom in 2014 and closed shortly thereafter. Like many, the pandemic tested their resolve, but they managed to persist and opened The Sheffield, a neighborhood pub in Brighton's Twelve Corners neighborhood in September 2020 after announcing plans for the venture in July 2019.
McBane confirmed The Sheffield, 1776 Monroe Ave., will remain open.
He joked it wouldn't be possible to relaunch Tap & Mallet as a karaoke bar, noting that it was designed for a specific niche and it aimed to fill the role since it opened. "It was such an established institution as a beer bar, so we couldn't suddenly say we were going to do liquor and shots," McBane said. "It's a very firmly established thing. I felt like massive change wasn't feasible."
Trend towards breweries, not bars
Nationwide, beer bars have been closing as consumers continue to seek out fresh beer direct from breweries. In Rochester alone, breweries have seemingly replaced some bars as new neighborhood gathering spaces.
"When we originally opened that place, we opened what we thought was an incredibly cool, fairly cutting edge beer bar," McBane said. "We did good at that. We continued to do that. We didn't stray from that original thing. But we appealed to people who wanted to drink great beers. Back in 2007, we kind of had the market cornered."
But that market became increasingly populated with quality options. Consumers are sure to encounter quality beers at most bars.
"You've got this amazing local craft beer scene," McBane. "A lot of my crowd that would come in and drink the beers, it increasingly got diluted because there are a ton of options out there."
But at this chapter closes, there is no regret from McBane and Walpert. They realize they had a great run and said they look forward to building more memories at The Sheffield.
"You can't be upset about what happened," McBane said. "I love our craft brewing scene. You certainly can't fight the tide."
For now, McBane said they aren't sure what will come next or what might become of the Gregory Street property they own. He called the location "iconic" and noted it will present a great opportunity for the right person. "It needs to be something different," he said. "It's time to turn the page."
As McBane told the Democrat and Chronicle in a 2015 interview, there is "room for more good beer places" and "room for growth everywhere."
"Wouldn't it be cool if people came to Rochester as a beer destination? That should be the ultimate goal for this scene."
Mission accomplished.
Contact Will Cleveland at wcleveland@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @willcleveland13. Thanks to our subscribers for supporting quality local journalism. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider a digital subscription.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Tap & Mallet in Rochester NY to close
