Music Bingo at Tap Yard Waukesha Attracts 34 Participants; Only 3 Achieve Bingo

WAUKESHA — Tap Yard Waukesha, the beer garden that opened at Minooka Park on May 1, held its first-ever music-bingo night Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m., drawing 34 participants across 12 picnic tables. Of those 34, three achieved bingo, a win rate venue management attributed to what it called the "competitive downtown beer-garden circuit crowd."

The format, licensed through a third-party music-bingo provider, plays 30-second clips of songs and has players mark album titles, artist names, or release years on a printed card instead of numbers. General manager Kyle Thooft said the low win count was not a reflection of the equipment. "The speakers worked fine," Thooft said. "People just aren't as good at this as they think they are walking in."

Phoenix Mobile Grill, the food truck parked along the beer garden's south fence line, served 87 orders during the two-hour window, according to a receipt tally the truck's owner shared with this newspaper. The most-ordered item was the bacon cheeseburger basket, at 31 orders, followed by the walking taco, at 19.

Three Winners, One Dispute

The first bingo of the night was called 41 minutes in, on a card marked in the pattern of a diagonal line, by a player who declined to give her name but confirmed she works "in insurance, downtown." The second and third bingos followed within 12 minutes of each other, both claimed at tables near the beer garden's north entrance, a detail Thooft said was "probably coincidence" but that he intended to "keep an eye on" during the Sept. 24 event.

A fourth potential bingo, called out around 7:50 p.m. by a table of four near the corn hole boards, was disqualified after a card review found the player had marked "Bohemian Rhapsody" under a clip that was, according to the DJ's playlist log, "Africa" by Toto.

"I know Toto when I hear it. I've heard Toto a hundred times. That was not the issue. The issue is the card had two boxes that both just said 'classic rock,' and I panicked."

— Dennis Yarbrough, 44, disqualified music-bingo participant

Dennis Yarbrough, 44, of Waukesha, the disqualified player, said he did not dispute the ruling but wanted it known that his musical knowledge was not in question. "I know Toto when I hear it. I've heard Toto a hundred times," Yarbrough said. "That was not the issue. The issue is the card had two boxes that both just said 'classic rock,' and I panicked."

A Rough Night For Casual Players

Thooft said Wednesday's low win rate was somewhat unusual compared to music-bingo nights he has run at other venues, where win counts typically run higher across a comparable crowd size. He attributed the gap to Tap Yard's early customer base skewing toward "people who already have opinions about the difference between yacht rock and soft rock," rather than the more casual crowd he said the beer garden hopes to eventually draw.

"We want the families. We want the people who just want a card and a cider and don't have a take on Fleetwood Mac lineup changes," Thooft said. "Tonight was mostly the second group."

Tap Yard is scheduled to repeat the music-bingo format Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, both from 6 to 8 p.m., weather permitting. Thooft said management is considering a beginner-friendly round for the October date but had not finalized a format as of Wednesday night.

Yarbrough said he plans to return Sept. 24. "I've got some things to prove now," he said. "Not to them. To myself, mostly. But also a little bit to them."