Don’t let the dark glass in the windows facing Plymouth Mall’s interior corridor fool you; the inside of Rappourt Brew & Chew is warm, friendly, and bright. Opened in February, the bar/restaurant provides a wide variety of craft beverages and food choices. The new space is co-owned by brothers Swetang Patel and Hardik Patel, who previously operated the Wine Seller there; the nearby Om Market is owned by their father.
The beer bar constantly updates its list of available drafts by using an app called BeerMenus. “It’s not uncommon for places to have a long tap list that they are not able to update when they are about to lose a keg,” Swetang says. With the app, “I can hop on my phone and within a minute update the tap list. This means that our digital board is accurate almost all the time.” The updated list then appears on Rappourt’s Facebook page and website. Customers can also download the app, which has information about the beers.
There are forty-two beer taps plus six wine taps. On a recent Friday night, the board changed a couple of times, leaning towards beers with higher alcohol content. Bottles of wine are sold to take home or drink on-site ($12 corkage fee, and leftovers can be recorked and taken home). Patel says that bottled beers and growler service are in Rappourt’s future. “We are rolling things out incrementally. We will have happy hour specials, and we are already open for lunch.”
Rappourt features three kinds of gourmet chicken wings, but this isn’t your father’s bar food: the menu also includes fried risotto balls, watermelon caprese salad, a fried tomatillo BLT, braised beef short ribs, and a moussaka “lasagnette”–plus a kids’ menu.
The change seems to be a hit. A recent weekend visit found the place so packed that Swetang was running food to tables crowded with customers, as people waited in lines up to four or five deep to place their beer orders or cash out. Tables were packed, and folks waited near the bar to nab a seat as soon as it opened up. Swetang says they “still have a few key employee spots to get filled and trained” before the official grand opening, tentatively scheduled for late March.
So what about that name? “We’ve been here since 2005 beginning with the Wine Seller,” Swetang says. “Over the years, we’ve built up a great rapport with our community and customers.” After several brainstorming sessions, “We decided to make a pun of it by including the word ‘pour’ to signify that we have a large draft selection.” Given the large crowds, it appears that a rapport is real–however they spell it.
Rappourt Brew & Chew, 2721 Plymouth Rd., Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri. & Sat., 11 a.m.-midnight, Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
