We recently connected with Ashley Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Our journey began with a handful of life happens moments! Myself and my business partner, David and I are both in the entertainment industry. I was a performer based out of New York City and David is an audio engineer mixing Broadway shows. At the end of 2019 I closed a Broadway Tour and moved back to New York to start auditions and book my next gig. David was touring the country with another Broadway show when ofcourse, the New Year came and with it the pandemic. This shut down our industry entirely, and we were both without options as far as work in our field. This made us realize that the reality of what is already inconsistent work in entertainment could be taken from us at any moment. Neither of us had alternative career goals in our minds. In addition to this, we were feeling the fear as everyone at that time was of “what do we do now”. I had worked on and off in hospitality since I was in high school, mostly as a bartender. Both myself and David had experience on some level of construction. My dad taught me, and his dad taught him. I had seen a mobile bar once before and thought it was incredibly clever and unique. With the desire for purpose, the need to create security outside the ebb and flow of our crazy industry, and the joy of working with people creatively to bring joy, we thought….I think we can do this. So I bought a car and drove across the country to Reno. David was born and raised in Reno, and we both felt the pull to be out West back in his hometown and start the dream of RinTinTaps! Reno felt like the perfect place with the support of the community and the ample opportunity for us to make weddings and events that flood the Reno Tahoe region special with our unique flare. Once I arrived, we began putting all of the pieces together, not knowing entirely how to begin but taking one step at a time. We found an old beat-up trailer and fell in love with it. We knew it was the right one. We got it home, completely gutted and rebuilt it from the inside out to create our unique mobile bar. What we were most excited about was how we could make our vision unique to us and who we are as creatives. We wanted our mobile bar to offer a different aesthetic than any others we knew and, hopefully, create something special that the community would love just as much as we do.

Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My first introduction into hospitality was at the age of 12. I grew up in a tiny town and my best friend’s grandpa owned the only restaurant we had. It was named after him, Charlie Bill’s! After school when we were young, we would run to the restaurant, make donuts in the back, and help serve customers. It felt very grown and responsible of us, and everyone loved having us running around being the helpers that we were. Since then, my first real job as a teen was working in a restaurant, and then from there, a bar through college, and on and off between gigs while living in New York City. I often took the role of managing special events within the bars and entertainment venues I worked. I loved the feeling of creating an experience for guests and watching it all come together. The creativity of taking individual clients’ needs and putting it all together with seamless success gave me a different sense of pride and accomplishment than when I was working as a performer. It felt like it was mine. People were counting on me, and I enjoyed being the one they counted on. With RinTinTaps we do exactly that. We create a space where clients can trust and rely on us to bring their vision to life. Each step is navigated with thoughtful care so the worry and stress of any event or wedding is alleviated, and clients can revel in the celebrations they are meant to enjoy. It is important to us that our clients feel as though we will go above and beyond to achieve their vision. Each event and venue is unique and brings different needs and challenges for us to meet and overcome. We take pride in being very personalized in our approach to make space for whatever their unique dream is. This ranges from cocktail curation and varying beverage services, engaging and qualified staffing, to a beautiful and clever aesthetic.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Pivoting is nothing new to us. We have had to do it many times over with starting our careers in entertainment. This company was another pivot that allowed us to utilize many more of our passions and skills. It was a risk, and it was scary, but I couldn’t be more proud of what we have built and will continue to build and one day expand. The mobile bar industry started out small and has since boomed and flooded the market. We are now having to pivot once again and find ways to reach a wider range of potential clients than ever before and show them who we are in the hopes that we are the right fit to make their celebration that much more special. I think it is easy to rely on initial success and get comfortable with the idea that you’ve done it, and you made it. However, things are constantly changing and evolving. People are being bombarded with new ideas, businesses and trends all day, everyday. In order to keep up and stay growing, we have had to pivot and restructure the company to utilize the resources we have available to us to expand on what we have created. This ranges from reaffirming our customer service and reliability, reaching out to the community and past clients, building social media platforms that are eye-grabbing and attention-seeking to gain the focus of those who do not yet know who we are, and to remind those we have worked with that we would love to continue to provide them with seamless and unique mobile bar catering!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Every season is a new learning experience! Every year, I think we must have come across all possible situations by now, and lo and behold, there are always new surprises to keep us on our toes! This year in particular, we had a last-minute meeting with a wedding planner, and her clients decided to add two more bar setups than we had initially discussed. This is absolutely no issue; we just received this info in the final four days leading up to the wedding. This may seem small, but it requires an entirely new timeline of when and how the bars will be set up. A brand new event detail sheet with all new calculations for additional equipment and additional staffing, and much more. We were, however, able to secure additional rock star staff. Restructured our plan and acquired the equipment needed for the multiple bar locations, and pulled it off seamlessly with raving reviews and lots of gratitude from our lovely clients. The lesson we learned is to put into our proposals and contracts the number of bar locations agreed upon and any adjustments are absolutely welcome with ample time to prepare!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rintintaps.com
• Instagram: @rintintapsmobilebar

Image Credits

Wade Sinder is responsible for the 2nd and 3rd images. He is also our recommendation for small business