Family-focused activities in unlikely places.
Babies in a bar? Sounds like a no-no. But the times they are a-changing, and business owners are taking notice. Many local bars and breweries are not just opening their doors to families, but actually catering to the children in the crowd. From pizza-making classes to table games, there are enough offerings that you don’t have to choose between an outing with friends or quality family time anymore.
Music and Mead
The owners of Black Rabbit Mead Co. in Reno stumbled onto family-friendly programming after having their own children. Under Nevada state law, the establishment can welcome minors anytime (since it serves food), but it’s upping the ante with a once-a-month event called Folksy Folks meant for those with or without children.
One Sunday a month, the events team brings in a folk music act and sets up space for young people to color and play with toys. The bar serves juice boxes and child-friendly snacks alongside its lineup of meads. “There are a lot of all-ages experiences that you can find across the community, but it’s a bit different to be kid friendly,” says co-owner Will Truce, adding that he may not see an “all-ages” event as appropriate for his own toddler, depending on its marketing.
Folksy Folks is different, he says, because there is a space created away from the stage for children to hang out and be themselves without being front and center of the event. And plenty of people without their own children come, too.
“This is a comfortable and fun place to bring kids as young as a few months,” he says.
He and his team strike a delicate balance through marketing.
“We want people to know there’s going to be potentially a lot of toddlers at this thing or a lot of kids at this thing,” he says. “It’s a kid-friendly event, but it’s not a kid-only event.”
On other days of the month, families are welcome to bring children into Black Rabbit for food and drink, but on those days, the experience is a bit different. When it starts to get later (around 7 or 8 p.m.), the atmosphere becomes more adult, and the meadery staff is careful not to alienate that crowd either, creating space between child-friendly hours and adults-only time. If you show up later in the night with your brood, you may be politely asked to return during daylight hours.
Pizza and Parties
Noble Pie Parlor is another Reno restaurant catering to families through special events. Like Black Rabbit, it welcomes people of all ages to hang out and eat pizza during its regular business hours, but you’ll likely notice that late at night, the vibe changes.
The shape of the bar has a lot to do with why the child-friendly approach works. According to Ryan Goldhammer, who owns Noble Pie, it’s easy to seat children and families away from the bar itself and create space for two kinds of clientele to co-exist there.
“The bar area is small … It’s pushed into the corner,” he says. “There’s just a lot of room for you to pick and choose your own adventure.”
Plus, let’s be honest: Pizza is a crowd pleaser regardless of how old you are.
Taking the same approach as Truce, Goldhammer has started offering events geared toward youths, usually aligning them with major holidays. It began with a Santa’s Pizza Workshop, then snowballing from there, with Valentine’s Day-, Easter-, and Fourth of July-themed pizza-making parties for adults with children.
For the events, Goldhammer partners with others in the community to add theatrical elements to each event, but the main attraction is pizza making.
“[Kids] get to be super wacky with how they make their pies,” he says. “It’s pretty fun.”
While the activities themselves cater best to toddlers up to age 10, Goldhammer also routinely sees groups of teenagers or even the occasional adult without children.
In addition to pizza making, there are holiday-themed crafts and complimentary French fries that young people can munch while they wait for their pizzas to bake. Each ticket is for one adult and one child with add-on options for additional adults or children, and everyone gets a free, age-appropriate drink with the experience. The music is carefully selected, and the open space is used for moving and dancing.
Suds and Space
Sometimes addressing families’ needs is less about events and more about a space that always caters to family experiences. At Shoe Tree Brewing Co. in Carson City, the Rec Room is an overflow space featuring televisions, board games, and more. It’s a separate building from the main bar and opens onto the expansive lawn. When the bar is busy, or during winter months, the Shoe Tree staff opens the Rec Room for anyone to enjoy.
For families, an extra benefit is in having a space where children can move around without worrying about bumping into tables or servers carrying beers. And just as they are in the rest of the bar, those drinking beers in the Rec Room are welcome to grab food from nearby restaurants or have delivery services bring it in.
Paul Young, a co-owner of Shoe Tree (which has a second location in Minden), says the family-friendly atmosphere was more by accident than design. Both of its locations have outdoor spaces, and the Minden location is close to a movie theater and dance studio, so parents often stop in for sips while waiting for their broods.
Beverages and Bocce
We know one thing for sure about children: They need space to roam and play, which makes The Hangar, a taproom and bottle shop in South Lake Tahoe, a solid option for children and adults to play together.
The Hangar is, first and foremost, a bar serving beers and other beverages from breweries near and far. The outside space is what really draws families to the establishment; an expansive lawn is the perfect place to picnic with grub from the on-site food trucks, and lawn games are enticing for those of all ages.
While The Hangar welcomes families, it doesn’t cater specifically to them. The outdoor space has an adults-only area so you can enjoy your game of cornhole or bocce ball without interruption. For those adults looking to avoid the younger crowd, they may easily sequester themselves.
Taps and Toys
Also in Reno, Schüssboom Brewing Co. can legally be considered child-friendly because it serves food. And despite its main product being beer, it offers a children’s menu to satisfy smaller appetites, with dishes such as crispy chicken tenders and small pizzas.
An outdoor patio gives energetic young people space to play without worries about being too loud, but Schüssboom’s interior also is sectioned into two spaces: the bar area, with its collection of small tables surrounding it, and a larger dining room filled with picnic tables that can suit large groups. The dining room comes equipped with a children’s corner filled with toys. This addition sets Schüssboom apart from some other breweries in the area, as it not only allows families but also welcomes them.
Snacks and Sports
Last but not least, South 40 in South Reno makes this list for a variety of reasons. We’re not sure if it’s more restaurant, bar, or arcade, but the combination of all three certainly creates a space for adults and children to happily coexist.
For those with children, especially older ones, it’s easy to set them free while you enjoy food and drinks in the main restaurant or in the Backyard, its backyard-themed, indoor bar and recreation area. Ping-pong tables and miniature bowling are perfectly acceptable for adults, even those without children, who want to enjoy after-work beers or watch sports on one of the many available televisions. In addition to a satellite bar, where you can order from a full menu, there’s a small play area dedicated to the youngest patrons with a TV running children’s programming.
Thanks to its location, right next to Swift Sportsdome, an indoor sports complex, South 40 attracts plenty of families on a daily basis. And the front of the space features both a long bar (for adults) and plenty of tables for a more traditional restaurant experience.
RESOURCES
Black Rabbit Mead Co.
401 E. Fourth St., Reno
775-410-6198 · Blackrabbitmeads.com
Noble Pie Parlor
777 S. Center St., Ste. 100, Reno
775-323-1494 · Noblepieparlor.com
Schüssboom Brewing Co.
12245 S. Virginia St., Reno
775-900-3930 · Schussboombrewing.com
Shoe Tree Brewing Co.
1496 Old Hot Springs Road, Carson City
775-222-0108 · Shoetreebrewing.com
South 40
1445 S. Meadows Pkwy., Reno
775-800-9070 · South-40-reno.com
The Hangar
2401 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Ste. B, South Lake Tahoe
530-578-0089 · Thehangarlaketahoe.com
