The Beltline’s First Self-Service Taproom Opens Soon for Beer and Wine

Asheville-based, self-service beer hangout Pour Taproom opens at the end of April next to pizzeria Nina & Rafi at SPX Alley on the Eastside Beltline. Pour-Old Fourth Ward features rows of tap stations with rotating selections of local, craft, and seasonal beers, ciders, wine, and nitro beverages.

Upon entering the taproom, drinkers show their ID and provide a form of payment to open a tab. They’re handed a card with a QR code loaded with a couple of pints and a pint glass. Drinkers then sample tap offerings by-the-ounce or pint. The card can be refilled with additional pints. When it’s time to leave, simply drop the card in a bucket, and the credit card provided is billed.

Pour includes a row of ten taps focused exclusively on local beer, another row of taps filled with IPAs, lagers, sours, dark beers, ciders, and nitros, and a back wall of taps featuring four red and four white wines.

Nina & Rafi partnered with Pour to provide pizzas for delivery to the taproom.

“By allowing our guests to pour what they want (between one-ounce and a pint), it opens the doors to trying several craft beers, wines and ciders that they otherwise may feel intimidated to purchase,” managing member Ray Ballester says in a prepared statement. “Plus, there’s no waiting in line since each guest is their own bartender.”

Two accordion front doors open up the space to the outside. There’s communal seating inside at bar tables that include charging ports, as well as a large projector screen and six TVs for watching sports, and a giant Scrabble board and shuffle board for playing games.

Pour Taproom opened five years ago in Asheville and now includes nine locations throughout the Southeast and in Santa Cruz, California. It joins margarita bar Guac y Margys, Nina & Rafi, cafe and cocktail bar the James Room, Butter and Cream ice cream parlor, and forthcoming locations of Bennett’s Market & Deli and Hawkers Asian Street Fare at SPX Alley.

Sunday - Thursday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.; Friday and Saturday 12 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

661 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta. pourtaproom.com.

• Pour Taproom Opening for Self-Serve Beer on the Beltline [EATL]
• The James Room Cafe Opens for Coffee and Lattes at SPX Alley [EATL]
• A Deli Joins the Restaurant Lineup at SPX Alley on the Beltline [EATL]