Help Laurie Ann and Blaise open a Tiny Tap Room

We are Blaise and Laurie Ann, two artists and entrepreneurs living in Spokane, Washington. Our vision is to transform a musty, unused vintage trailer into the centerpiece for a new outdoor community gathering space: Camp Taps, the first beer trailer to open in Washington State.

In early 2020 we were in the process of pursuing our dream to open a neighborhood tap room, and then COVID hit. We both lost our day jobs, and the cruel reality of the pandemic forced us to get creative and adjust our plan. When a friend offered to sell us her vintage trailer we realized that instead of dumping our dream, we just needed to downsize it a bit–to 63.7 square feet (to be exact).

So far we’ve purchased the trailer, gutted in the inside, secured a business license from the city for our location in the North Monroe neighborhood, and drawn up the preliminary rehab plans with input from local brewers, carpenters and friends. The next step is to purchase a tent to cover the trailer while we work on the interior retrofit during the remaining winter months with an eye toward opening in the Spring of 2021.

RISKS & CHALLENGES

Like many of you, the onset of the pandemic has been just one more challenge on a list of setbacks for us that included Blaise surviving heart surgery in 2016, both of us pulling up our deeply embedded Portland, Oregon roots in 2017 to move to Spokane, Blaise beating throat cancer in 2019, and the two of us becoming unemployed last spring. As artists and entrepreneurs, we’ve learned to survive by reinventing ourselves and applying our creative skills to solve the next problem and move on. We have no shortage of vision, energy, or certitude that Camp Taps will open, but we are seeking additional financial support to help us purchase the remaining building supplies and equipment to complete the trailer.

Thank  you for helping us make a dream come true. 
Cheers 
Laurie Ann and Blaise!