Unless you’re subscribing to sober summer, a glass of champagne can be a crucial party component. The only thing better: a whole keg of the bubbly stuff delivered directly to your party destination.
Enter the Bubble Tap Trailer, a mobile bar that serves champagne and wine on tap out of a perfectly Instagrammable, vintage camper trailer. Run locally by Dawn McKee (there are other licensed Bubble Tap Trailers serving up sips around the U.S.), the mobile business is the Dallas native’s happy second act.
After 20 years in the dental industry, McKee, a Dallas native, quit her job and began looking for her next inspiration. The mother of two had always been one for celebrating, frequently hosting Christmas parties, graduation events, and backyard functions. When she heard Lance Bass (that Lance Bass) promoting his new partnership with Tap Trailer Co. on a podcast, she jumped on the opportunity. “I googled it and I thought, ‘this is completely my jam,’” McKee says.
In mid-August of last year, she sent an email to the company. “I just told them that I think I could blow this out of the water here in Dallas,” she says. By November, McKee had been chosen as the licensed owner of Dallas’s new Bubble Tap Trailer, and by March of this year, she was off to the races. “I just hook the trailer to my car and off I go.”
McKee works to accommodate guests at each event, sometimes going to the ends of the earth to find a client’s requested keg of wine. For themed events, McKee might even create a brand-new bubbly concoction. Blueberry prosecco cocktails, an ice cream and cake champagne cocktail, and a cotton candy champagne cocktail are among her most creative inventions.
We may even get to see the Bubble Tap Trailer in action during the upcoming season of The Real Housewives of Dallas. “I am an avid Bravo TV watcher,” says Mckee. “Knowing LeeAnne Locken was getting married in the spring, I reached out to some people who knew her and I asked them if they thought this was something she’d be interested in in having at the reception.” The answer was yes. McKee hopes her trailer can make the final cut, though she admits her eyes will be glued to the screen regardless.
Though the work can be exhausting (imagine loading up a trailer full of kegs for every event), McKee believes she finally found her niche. “It’s such a cliché, but when you do something you love, you never work a day in your life,” she says. “I had always heard that, but it really is true. I can’t get enough of it.”
