Tap and Tail

Tap and Tail is a cocktail bar on Etz Chaim Street in the Mahane Yehuda Market district of Jerusalem, Israel. By day the market is a produce and spice bazaar; after the stalls close, the shuttered lanes fill with bars, and Tap and Tail is among the venues that give the neighbourhood its reputation as the city's most reliable evening destination. The bar is kosher and dairy, which means the kitchen serves no meat and the drinks programme is built around cocktails, beer and wine that fit those rules. The crowd skews towards Israelis in their twenties and thirties, students, young professionals and a steady flow of visitors who arrive after wandering the market. Dress is casual: jeans, trainers and light layers are the norm, and no door code is applied. The atmosphere is relaxed and conversational rather than club-like, with background music kept at a level that allows talk. The drinks list is centred on cocktails, with classic builds and a few house variations, alongside local Israeli beer and wine by the glass. Prices sit in the mid-range ($$ on the guide's scale), noticeably cheaper than the hotel bars in Mamilla or the American Colony. The bar generally opens in the evening from Sunday to Thursday and runs until late, closing for Shabbat, so Friday night and Saturday daytime are not options; visitors planning a weekend should check whether the venue reopens after sundown on Saturday. There is no cover charge. Reservations are not normally part of the routine for a bar of this kind, and seating is first come, first served, which is why arriving early in the evening is the standard advice, particularly on Thursday when the market quarter is at its busiest. Bottle service is not a feature. The surrounding alleys are pedestrian, which makes it simple to combine the bar with a street-food crawl through the market earlier in the evening and to move on to neighbouring bars afterwards. Light rail and buses serve the Mahane Yehuda stop, and taxis and ride apps are the usual way home late at night, since public transport thins out after midnight and does not run on Shabbat.