Fat Tap: New brewery in Oakland Park opening two blocks from Funky Buddha
After years of stalled progress, downtown Oakland Park is gaining a rash of mid-rise apartments, restaurants – and a new brewery two blocks from the Funky Buddha.
Fat Tap Beer Bar, opening the first week of July at 3553-3555 N. Dixie Highway, will occupy two squat, side-by-side warehouses along the western spine of North Dixie Highway. One building, at 3555, will house a craft-beer taproom and kitchen from husband-and-wife owners Yvette and Robert Robayna. A 2,000-square-foot beer garden behind the warehouses will connect to Fat Tap’s brewhouse at 3553, a nanobrewery whose one-barrel system can pump out 31 gallons of suds per batch.
The quest for proper brewing space drove the Robaynas to pounce on the 4,000-square-foot complex. They’ve operated a gastropub called Fat Tap Beer Bar & Eatery in an aging strip mall on Oakland Park Boulevard since 2018. The Robaynas’ idea to lease a pair of warehouses – a beer can’s throw from competitor Funky Buddha, no less – is less an act of bravery than one of opportunity.
“If we didn’t make a move now, and that downtown area blew up without us, we’ll never see it again,” says Robert Robayna, who signed the lease in May. “We’re going to be right on the 50-yard line.”
The biggest motivator of all, Robayna says, was timing. He wasn’t keen on waiting for the long-promised luxury rental apartments now under construction at his old Fat Tap location (830 E. Oakland Park Blvd.), which will close in July.
Downtown Oakland Park, by contrast, recently added a craft spirits distillery, an indie coffeehouse named Cyth & Co. and butcher shop Butcher’s Barrel across the street. Within months of opening Fat Tap, Robayna will be joined by craft-beer bar and restaurant Monarch American Kitchen (3492 NE 12th Ave.) and another to-be-announced brewery.
Meanwhile the Sky Building (3700-3855 N. Dixie Highway), a new campus that will straddle the north and south sides of Northeast 38th Street next to Funky Buddha, will include mid-rise apartment complexes, a sky bridge and a sleek, new Oakland Park City Hall.
Which means setting up shop next to Funky Buddha is good for business, he says. “Being able to be close to another brewery will give people the chance to sample multiple beers and only park once,” Robayna says. “That’s why we want other breweries in this area.”
Robayna admittedly hasn’t brewed beer for long, but he and his wife sipped their first glass of Fat Tire on their honeymoon in 1994, long before the craft-beer renaissance. Yvette Robayna has an education background and Robert worked in technology sales until August 2017, when he worked as a brand ambassador for a local brewery.
Robayna, whose current Fat Tap location doesn’t have enough space for brewing tanks, is already busy brewing test batches of 1941, his hazy pale ale with tropical grapefruit and melon notes. The name is a reference to the year Jeeps were first manufactured, he says. “I’m a Jeep owner, we do a lot of Jeep events, and those people are just as devoted to their cars as craft-beer drinkers are to their beers.”
Fat Tap regulars won’t see significant changes to the restaurant-bar’s menu, Robayna says. The taproom will have 23 taps serving four house brews, although the majority will come from other local breweries, he says. The food menu, already available, includes charcuterie boards, sandwiches and flatbreads.
Fat Tap Beer Bar & Eatery will open its new location at 3553-3555 N. Dixie Highway, in Oakland Park, in early July. (The bar also will close its current location at 830 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Suite 101, in Oakland Park.) Hours of operation will be 4 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Sunday, closed Mondays. Go to FatTapBeerBar.com.
