What's on Tap
Ron's Corner Tavern brings craft beer to thirsty Mid-Cities drinkers
Ron's Corner Tavern has a commitment to beer.Photo courtesy of Peasant
Ron's does food as well as beer.Ron's Corner Tavern/Facebook
We have craft beer to the east, and craft beer to the west. But where does that leave the Mid-Cities? Parched, reaching for Bud and cursing its own geographic misfortune — but only for another week. Soft opening April 1 is Ron's Corner Tavern, a craft beer and specialty drink bar, opening on Highway 183 in Bedford, near the Harley Davidson store on the westbound frontage road.
Ron's comes from Mark Kelcher, whose current portfolio includes Delta Charlie's Bar and Grill, the city-owned restaurant that overlooks Dallas Executive Airport. Kelcher and his twin brother, Dirk, previously owned Metro Grill in Knox Village at Knox Street and US 75, whose disposition after it closed in 2008 was the subject of a lawsuit the Kelchers lost.
Kelcher also ran Big Shots Sports Cafe, a sports bar in Bedford, where he learned firsthand the power of the local craft beer scene.
"With all these craft beers brewing, we saw a 400 percent raise in purchases of craft beer since 2012," Kelcher says. "And there’s nowhere out there in Mid-Cities to get craft beer or any sort of specialty drink. So we decided to built one."
One big decorating motif is recycled beer cans. "My uncle Ron collected beer cans and beer bottles for the last 50 years and had a whole room dedicated to that collection in his house," Kelcher says. "So we created a whole area around that, with thousands of beer cans from all over the world."
Kelcher will offer 31 beers on tap — all craft. The only reason he stopped at 31 is because they ran out of room.
"You see this stuff in Dallas, but you don't see anything like that out in the Mid-Cities," Kelcher says. "We'll have a small menu with 10 items — calamari, cheese board, mussels, spinach-artichoke pizza. Things I like at a reasonable price point."
