We caught up with the elusive Tap Cat for a quick five-minute interview before he hosted his Friday social hour at UI headquarters.

Q: How long have you been working at Urban Influence?

A: I’ve been curating the Friday social hour for about four months now.

 

Q: When you say, “curating” what does that mean exactly?

A: I set the tone for the party.

 

Q: I see. So what’s your official title?

A: Host and mixologist.

 

Q: That seems sorta lofty. I mean you don’t really mix drinks.

A: Well, I decant the beer.

 

Q: So you’re a bartender?

A: I like to think I’m more than that.

 

Q: Right, but I mean…OK, so what’s typically on tap here at UI?

A: I select a new keg every few weeks. I like to watch the room throughout the course of the week so I can get a feel for the perfect brew to fit the mood. Last month after an extremely busy week, I chose ale brewed with malted barley and wheat malts with hints of sweet orange blossom honey and the spice of rye to lift the spirits of the team.

 

Q: That sounds like bullshit.

A: Roger’s Pilsner is our current selection.

Q: So this might be a sensitive question: How did you lose your eye?

A: Well, I was backpacking through Italy several years ago, sipping wine and really finding myself in Tuscany – doing a lot of journaling and sketching. I happened to come upon a delightful café on the central plaza in Monticchiello one morning. I sipped the most perfect cappuccino I’d ever had – at least to that point, I later enjoyed one in Montefollonico that would rival and perhaps top it – and pondered just what I wanted to do next. It was then that I decided I would look striking with a patch covering my eye.

 

Q: Wait a minute…so you didn’t lose an eye? This is a fashion accessory?

A: It’s hardly a fashion accessory. It was the missing part of me. I simply didn’t know it until that experience.

 

Q: What experience? The experience of you thinking you’d look cool with a patch eye?

A: Precisely. It was a transformative moment.

 

Q: So, Tap Cat, somebody reading this might think you’re just a pretentious cat who’s somehow talked his way into a made up position at a creative firm. How would you respond to that?

A: Great artists will always have critics.

 

Q: Great artists? How much are we paying you?

A: I am not at liberty to discuss my compensation. Let’s just say I live very comfortably.