BEER CADDY
To all partygoers, beer drinkers, and event hosts: a new business is hitting the Eastern Sierra called Tap Truck 395.
Wife and husband co-owners Kristen and Tim Noonan are ecstatic to bring their newly-restored 1958 Ford F-100 to the Eastern Sierra as a mobile bar service on wheels to cater beverages at outdoor events.
“My wife and I always look forward to special events every weekend; it’s definitely one of the best parts about living in this area. I’ve always been really into old trucks, and a good friend of mine recently stumbled upon the idea of Tap Truck and told me about it, saying that I should really consider it. I started looking into it and realized that it encompassed everything that I love: old cars, social gatherings, and local beer,” said co-owner Tim Noonan to The Sheet.
Originally from Southern California, Tim Noonan moved to the Eastern Sierra in 2007 after graduating from high school. Like many people in the area, Noonan was initially drawn to Mammoth Lakes due to a passion for skiing and snowboarding. He ended up attending Cerro Coso Community College before working at Mammoth Mountain and various ski shops in town. He eventually got married and started a family in Bishop.
After many hours of research – and once Tim and Kristen decided they were serious about pursuing the business – they didn’t waste any time making it happen. “I am the type of person that just jumps into things and does it. From the day that I decided I wanted to do this until the day we officially did it, it was probably only like 4 months,” said Tim.
The Tap Truck is a 1958 Ford F-100 panel delivery truck – a make and model that is quite rare to find these days. “At first, we were looking to 100% restore one from basically the ground up. But with my impatience and the lengthy timeline that that would’ve entailed, we decided to scour the web for like a month and ended up finding this truck down in San Bernardino that somebody had already done all the restoration work to get it to look the way that it does,” he said.
Since Tap Truck USA is a national brand, the Noonans then had to buy the licensing and branding to make the truck into an official “Tap Truck.” To do this, they took the truck to San Diego, where the tap systems were installed and decals were put on.
They have had the truck for about 3 and a half weeks now.
Their first catering event was the Sierra Light Gallery grand opening on March 26. “It was a really good place to start and get our name out there. There’s no better place to kick off a business than in Mammoth Lakes. Personally, it was a special place to open my business officially, since Mammoth was the first place I moved to on my own and my first true home after moving away from my parents’. It was a full-circle moment for me, really sentimental. And seeing everyone’s reaction to the truck was fun. The reception at that event was awesome because people were excited about our product,” said Tim Noonan.
Officially based out of Bishop, Tap Truck 395 will serve any area within Mono and Inyo County lines- and even some just outside of them.
Because they are considered a catering service, they will be able to serve any kind of beer, wine, and cocktails that event hosts request; however, Noonan’s goal is to keep it as local as possible. This includes promoting beer from all local breweries and eventually distilleries.
“Our goal is to keep everything local. Even our t-shirts and our hats are courtesy of local businesses,” said Noonan. “That’s a big thing to me- giving back and keeping our business local in order to keep our area going, from lumber purchases to working on the vehicle. Clients will always dictate what they want and we are in the business of keeping them happy, but yeah, if I can sway someone to get stuff from the local breweries I will.”
Noonan’s vision for the future is to eventually have a Tap Truck 395 truck at every special event held locally. He hopes to eventually expand the business and add more trucks to the operation that fit the specific needs of the area; this includes building the next one from the ground up to make sure it is a “100% Owens Valley rig”.
“We’ll see where we go,” said Noonan. “We’re just super excited. Our biggest thing is to get out there in the community and get involved in the events. That’s why we all moved here- we look forward to the events, look forward to what we have to offer on the weekends, and Tap Truck 395 looks forward to being there and being a part of that. The truck’s the centerpiece and I’m just along for the ride with that thing.”
The truck’s official name is Bandit, named by Tim and Kristen Noonan’s daughter.
Tap Truck 395’s next big event will be at the Mt. Whitney Golf Course for the Mike Mairs Memorial Tournament in Lone Pine on April 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
