Village Tap Room

Yikes– My wife and I have tried eating here twice now… once about a month ago and again this weekend. Both times, no one waited on us and we didn’t even see anyone working there as we sat for 15 minutes. Finally someone came out and said they were out of fries. Still hadn’t been waited on so we left to go some where else.
The first time we visited, they told us that their cook didn’t make it into work and they only had a few items they could make.
Needless to say, i’m tired of trying. They did a nice job fixing it up from what used to be Chumleys, but if you can’t get a beer or food, then why even be open?

My wife and I came in shortly after the new ownership took over and while I was pleased at how much cleaner it looked, felt, and smelled… I was really bummed that they took out half the taps and made that remaining selection pretty lame. It didn’t help that the one beer I actually wanted they were out of. They also increased the prices of the ‘schooner’ fills (to the point where it wasn’t even a tiny bit of a deal) and reduced the options of what you could put in them. Service was fairly slow, but not as slow as many of these other reviews have indicated.
I’m a beer-​lover who strives to always try different things, so a diverse and changing selection is essential to me. I was already really taken aback by the significant reduction in choices, but then to rename the place as a Tap Room? What a slap in the face.
With HopCat across the street, The Pint Room just a hop over in Carmel, and TwentyTap a few blocks south in SoBro, I have literally no reason to ever go back. Additionally, The Sinking Ship only has 8 taps, but they are expertly managed and always have great things. Flat Water has a similarly small number of taps, but their food is anything but basic bar food.
I’m not really sure who the Village Tap Room is trying to appeal to, despite their claimed demographic of «an older crowd.»

Chumleys is still alive and well at this ‘new’ restaurant in BR. Service is the same; terrible. You’ll sit and wait for 10 – 15 minutes before anyone even approaches you. Beers are the same; broad selection but nothing you can’t find elsewhere with better ambiance and food. Food is actually worse, in my opinion. I’m willing to bet this place will regenerate into something else soon enough.

Food wasn’t great… they didnt have much of the menu.
Service was poor… and they weren’t super busy either.
They overcharged us for our beer and when we pointed it out, they acknowledged the error as a system error and fixed it. So make sure you check your check! Def not as good as Chumley’s. Probably not coming back.

While this won’t be my regular hang out, I’m not going to object if anyone wants to meet for a drink there.
Pro’s
— Solid craft beer selection.
— Good service.
— They often have live music.
Con’s
— The food is good but, not anything special.

Much improved over Chumley’s. Nice selection of local craft beer. Craft cocktails. Food was very good. Great staff. Come check it out.

Pleasantly surprised. This is NOT Chumleys. Excellent local craft beer selection. Hand crafted cocktails. Great food. Friendly staff. Check this place out!

We specifically came over to the Village Tap Room from a different bar/​restaurant to check out the new digs and get some food. We were sadly disappointed.
We ordered three things off the menu to share:
Mac and Cheese with Chorizo: It was ok at best and it did not look at all appealing.
Chicken Wings: They were small and really had no flavor (we ordered them hot) there are way too many places to go to have good wings (Keystone Sports Review or Fat Dan’s) to think about coming here again for wings
Potato Skins: These were good, but really, how hard is it to cut up a baked potato, put some cheese and crumbled bacon on top and stick it under the broiler a second to melt the cheese.
I was really excited about this place after I read the IBJ article but nothing that was in that article was real life when we went.
I will say, our server, when we could get her attention, was very nice.
Major improvements need to be made. The bar is higher than this in Broad Ripple

While you might be holding on to the nostalgia that comes along with Chumley’s you will be glad that you left that at the door. A new clean, smell free interior is just the start of a wonderful experience. The Village Tap is a great addition to the Broad Ripple Ave line up. While the tap lines have been reduced the beer is cold and definitely fresh. You are also getting a good selection of local craft options. Beer not your thing? The cocktails are super delicious. I would recommend stopping by and checking out the new Village Tap, especially if you liked Chumleys! There are still great times to be had there just with better options!

Really Village Tap? Your only five star reviews (2) from people whos only review is for your store ?? One of which is from someone who started Unilocaling coincidentally at the same time you opened ??
I was not impressed, with the exception of one employee who was terrific. I showed up for a «tap takeover»…which was anything but.
Grabbing a seat at the bar… the first thing to notice was nearly the entire staff gathered at the service station and yapping to each other… never mind the customers… lets stare at our phones, show each other FB posts, and generally do anything that doesn’t resemble «service».
Exactly 11 minutes and 15 seconds after sitting down, and finally a nice woman inquired as to whether I had been helped. Nope, not yet ! Don’t think my time banished to Irrelevant Island was wasted time… indeed…I was treated to a very entertaining display of the virtuosity of a tres cool bartender totally focusing his benevolent attention on two younger women who giggled and cooed in appreciation of his irreverent commentary and display of serious bartender mad magic skills… this man walked in front of me no less than 9 times… and I am grateful he failed to notice the guy with the red sweatshirt and giant phone… as this allowed the Flirt Show to continue unabated. Regrettably the two young women were probably a bit disappointed when he would leave to share what undoubtedly were insanely humorous anecdotes and impossibly beneficial life changing commentary to his coworkers at the opposite end of the bar.
This was followed by a man emerging from the bowels of the restaurant with a cash drawer… who could not muster a smile or a hello to customers that presumably might fill said cash drawer.
The beer selection was typical, and fine. But hardly earth shattering in terms of variety… fewer taps than the previous incarnation. The menu IMO, showed little imagination in terms of offerings, and what unfortunately passes as acceptable food in the Midwest. Basically nothing even remotely healthy… deep fried tacos «Puffy» as a signature dish in the middle of the menu ??? Maybe at a college dive bar… but for a place purportedly appealing to an «older» crowd… not so much. Their supposed commitment to «locally sourced», or whatever similar term they use, is dubious at best. Most items appeared to be the type that COULD be fresh off the Sysco truck and right out of the freezer.
I was afforded further entertainment opportunities watching what few customers were in the place… attempting to flag down their servers for things like water and napkins. Hint to all servers… if ya are bringing things like Philly cheese steaks, wings, nachos… bring extra napkins. Don’t make customers hold up their hands as if just after washing and just prior to surgery… in an attempt to keep well sauced fingers from soiling their clothing.
Nice tvs, and plenty of them, in… I believe the same locations as before… and as is fairly common across this great land of chain restaurants. The décor is an upgrade of the previous tenant… but the weird to me… sort of half-​barrel booths in the middle of floor may be sufficiently innovative to appeal to folks looking for a bit of privacy while still enjoying being part of the action. I however, prefer not to be ensconced, thereby not hindering my creepy ostentatious gazing of hot chicks.
Looking forward to a return visit… but…will wait for them to hopefully improve the service… and maybe some more interesting and healthier food items.

They just recently opened and things were a little rough.
Several long time friends of mine from the Broad Ripple area all told me to try this new place out.
1) You took over the Chumley’s location which used to have 50? taps. Now you have 24. You are a taproom in Broad Ripple and in the IBJ article you talk about how your selection of beers is going to be different. I saw maybe 2 beers that were slightly unique.
2) My dinner date and I ordered a Mule each. Very good!
3) She ordered your Chorizo Mac-​n-​cheese. Flavor was good. But honestly, it looked like hamburger helper.
4) I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. It was unevenly cooked. One end was dry and chewy. The other end I had to double check to make sure it wasn’t raw — it had that odd crunchy feel of undercooked chicken
5) the house fries are a sliced potato that is deep fried. just meh. some way overcooked and some chewy.
6) PLEASE get rid of the generic ketchup/​condiments. At a minimum go with Red Gold — a local company. Again, in the IBJ article you talk about how everything is freshly made and locally sourced.
7) LOVED our waitress.
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they say they are open for breakfast on the weekends. OK, does 10 a.m. really mean breakfast? Their IBJ article says they are going after an older crowd — to be honest an older crowd is already hours into their day at 10 a.m. Our breakfast group meets at 8:30 because most of us are small business owners and have things to get done.
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Thankfully the Chumley stench has been irradicated.

In one blink there was Chumley’s and in the next suddenly there was Village Tap Room. Don’t cry too hard about it, Chum Hums, because walking in, the ghost of Chumley’s past seemed to be floating around. Two weeks in, the setup is the same, the TVs are still in prime locations, and the local beer is all there in drafts, cans, and bottles.
However, there are changes in the several menus given to you, starting with the cocktail menu. Our server boasted that the head bartender studied the art of old timey cocktails intensely, reading for six months straight before ever picking up a bottle. It seems to be the new pride and joy of Village Tap Room. I apologize for not being about to tell you more about them, because I’m a beer gal through and through. I can say that I drank my 3 Floyd’s Yum Yum with great content, knowing that it was one of many, many beers and ciders to choose from.
And now my pride and joy: food hunting. Most of you know that I make it my mission to find something tasty everywhere I go. Smack dab in the center of the food menu was PUFFY TACOS in caps. I tried to steer away from it – it could be a ploy – but your standard steakburger and tenderloin pub fare were not calling my name. I chose shredded chipotle chicken as my protein (other options are chorizo, short rib, and pulled pork) and mango salsa (I wasn’t in a charred chipotle mood) to accompany it. Two puffy tacos and $ 7 later, I feel confident about my decision of inflated fried flour tortillas stuffed with tender, spiced shredded chicken, sprinkled cheddar cheese, diced tomato, crunchy iceberg lettuce, and mango salsa. I like knowing that I have a solid go-​to if someone wants to sit along the windows, people watch, and drink a pint.
It’s not fancy, but Village Tap Room will fit in juuussst fine on the Broad Ripple strip. Welcome to the neighborhood!