Mother and daughter bring 48 self-pour taps to Patchogue

A sip before you commit. That’s the idea behind Tapster, the new self-pour tasting room on Patchogue’s Main Street.

Owned by Allison Dee and her daughter, Megan, the business opened this weekend at 48 W. Main St., bringing the Chicago-based concept’s first New York location to Long Island.

Inside the former Long Island Pinball space, 48 taps dispense beer, wine, hard cider, hard seltzer, cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks. A separate seven-bottle dispenser offers liquor.

Customers control their pours using a Tapster card, giving them the option to try a splash of something new before filling a glass.

“We encourage tasting, so we have a lot of tasters here,” Dee said during a walk-through. “The idea is you want to just have a sip. Know what you pour. Don’t pour yourself a whole drink and then decide you don’t like it.”

How it works

Guests check in with a host, have their identification verified and provide a credit card for preauthorization. They then receive a card that activates the taps and tracks their pours.

Screens above each selection show the beverage’s name, alcohol by volume and price per ounce, allowing customers to keep tabs on what they’re drinking and spending.

Some offerings will remain consistent, while others will rotate as kegs run out.

“There is something for everybody,” Dee said.

Tapster founder Roman Malifzewski said that opportunity to explore is central to the concept.

“The whole purpose is it’s not pouring your drinks, it’s sampling,” he said. “That’s really the fun.”

There’s also plenty to do between pours. Customers can borrow games, use the photo booth or play darts, with a pool table expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

A multipurpose space in the back is available for private parties. The owners also plan to host comedy shows, paint-and-sip gatherings and dance classes.

“We’re open to whatever you want to do,” Dee said. “We want people to come and enjoy the experience.”

From accounting to Main St.

For Dee, opening Tapster meant stepping away from a 35-year career as a corporate accountant.

“I don’t want to sit behind a desk anymore,” she said. “I wanted to be social.”

Feeling burned out, she began researching franchise opportunities. Tapster appealed to her for its self-pour model and the chance to create a place where she would enjoy spending her workdays.

The mother-daughter team wanted a spot in a walkable downtown, where customers could stop in before or after visiting nearby restaurants and bars. Dee also wanted to stay within about a half-hour drive of her Ronkonkoma home.

Getting there took more than two years.

Dee signed with Tapster on Valentine’s Day in 2024, then worked through finding a location and securing financing. She signed the Patchogue lease in September 2025, and construction took about four and a half months.

“It’s been a long road,” she said.

Malifzewski founded Tapster in Chicago in 2017, operating several locations himself before expanding through franchising. Patchogue is the brand’s eighth location.

The atmosphere is intended to be comfortable, whether guests are dropping in casually or making Tapster part of a bigger night out.

“You could get dressed up, or you can come in sweatpants,” he said. “That’s really the vibe.”

If you go

Hours are noon to 10 p.m. Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m. Monday, 4 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and noon to 2 a.m. Saturday. Hours may change as the business settles in.

The photo tour

Photos by Julianne Mosher