Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kay and Sean Bowser. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kay and Sean, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We began like any other small start-up, setting up accounts, outlining processes, mapping out goals and then going back -and-forth making changes and tweaks to each. While many of those items have changed over time, we really tried to hold fast to a desire to have our small company be an authentic representation of who we were…individually and as a family. With that in mind, we landed on three primary pillars: Have Fun. Build Community. Serve Well.

Have Fun. With four kids filling the halls of our home, there was no way this couldn’t be a primary pillar of what we wanted our business to be. While our trucks naturally lend themselves to “having fun”, this is definitely something we try to authentically and responsibly present to our clients.

Build Community. It’s no secret that the military lifestyle is one that is extremely transient. You’re planted in a specific area for a small period of time and then moved to another. Despite this, Kay and I recognized how important community was to the success and survival of our family and we believe that a great drink can help bring about great conventions, great relationships, and great community.

Serve Well. While this one is listed last, it’s certainly not the least of importance. In fact, we view it as the one pillar that bolsters the other two and, much like the others, is one that we try to extend into every other facet of our lives. Since we are in the “service industry” this one may seem incredibly obvious and somewhat cliche, but it’s certainly one that is easy to forget and, unfortunately, many get wrong.

While we may not get these right 100% of the time, our commitment to each is what we believe has helped us grow into what we are today!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Nash Taps started over a “What are we going to do next?” conversation in 2019. At that time, Kay and I (Sean) had four, young extremely active kids and I was nearing the end of a 20-year military career. While a corporate job seemed like the obvious next step, Kay and “the crew” had followed me all over the world supporting my military goals and endeavors so we wanted to try and do something together. We knew Nashville was an incredibly unique city and after many long discussions and plenty of great drinks, Nash Taps was born.

Founded in Nashville, Tennessee, Nash Taps is an event-focused, beverage catering company that takes classic vehicles (trucks, buses, vans, etc), taps them out, and pours (yes, pours) the area’s finest craft beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages at some of Nashville’s hottest events! We launched in March of 2020, two days before the COVID pandemic shut down the city (and the world around it). While we certainly faced some unique challenges and even contemplated folding, we committed to our new venture and were thrilled to find new and creative ways to keep our start-up afloat. Since then, we have served thousands of guests at over 370 local events, donated nearly $30,000 and over 80 hours of time and resources to local non-profits and charities, and have built phenomenal relationships with so many amazing Nashville faces!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Our business model is, of course, built around the Nashville event industry. Weddings, corporate functions, birthdays, private events, concerts, etc. When we started, we felt that our trucks were versatile enough to fit into nearly any great event and had built them to accommodate and pour just about any beverage (both alcoholic AND non-alcoholic). With there being no shortage of events in this amazing city, we thought we’d gain some immediate traction!

Our official launch date was March 14, 2020. On March 16, Nashville shut down. No public gatherings. No weddings. No festivals. No events. Period. At that time, no one could’ve predicted how extensive those restrictions would be. In fact, our initial assumption was that the closures would continue for a relatively short amount of time and then life would continue as normal. Obviously, we were wrong. As the days and weeks went on, we started to have some really hard discussions and even contemplated closing down. As easy as that would’ve been, we decided to try and get the trucks out around town as often as we could doing as much as we could.

Our first major event was after a tornado wreaked havoc on local, Nashville communities. Thousands of people were impacted and taking a “Use What Ya Got” mentality, we decided to try and help! Since the trucks could accommodate nearly any beverage, we drove around the local area helping clean debris and poured cold, non-alcoholic beverages for neighbors, friends, families, and emergency response personnel assisting in the same.

Shortly thereafter, the George Floyd riots tore through Broadway destroying property and creating an incredible amount of division throughout the city. Taking the same approach and leaning on a desire to “Build Community” and “Serve Well”, we launched a “Gatorade Over Hater-ade” campaign and drove through downtown pouring Gatorade to individuals on both sides of the issue. From our perspective, the only colors that mattered that day were “red” and “blue” (the best Gatorade flavors ever made).

From there, we tried to be as active as we could, cut costs where it made sense, and prayed for a swift return to “normal”.

Knowing how devastating that period of time was for so many local business (especially new start-ups), we’re, of course, incredibly blessed and proud to still be rolling through Nashville!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

While there are certainly many “business-specific” things that should be highlighted here, we believe that our reputation has been built around our commitment to authenticity and creating an experience that goes beyond a simple business transaction. Yes, we’re hired to provide a service. Yes, we charge for that service. But it’s been our ability to create relationships (at whatever level) with our respective clients that has provided us with so many amazing opportunities. As discussed before, we wanted our business to be an extension of who we were/are…who we were as individuals and who we were as a family. When you work with us, you’re more than an exchange of money and services. We do our best to present an experience that’s real, genuine, and authentic. We are who we are. We take our kids to business meetings, we’re real about good days and bad days, and we don’t try and pry our business away from who we are or who we believe we’ve been called to be.

Because of this, we’re proud to say that we may not have always gotten in perfectly right, but we have been able to create some outstanding experiences and relationships with so many great people and organizations throughout this great city!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nashtaps.com
• Instagram: @nash.taps
• Facebook: @nashvilletaptruck
• Other: TikTok: @nash.taps

Image Credits
Lyndsie Lord, Meagan Scharmahorn