Happy hour and wine go together like a horse and carriage, and when it comes to wine by the glass and upscale snacks, Taps Wine & Beer Merchants should be your first choice. Beer drinkers get equal opportunity here, with dozens of brews on tap and dozens of boutique bottle beers to quaff.

Perched in the ground floor of Downtown Tampa’s Skypoint condo tower, this hip lounge complete with couches, settees and chic contemporary lighting is all the rage as is the alfresco seating. Belly up to the bar or perch on an oversized black and white cow patterned footstool and peruse the trendy menu.

Should you share the artisan cheese plate or the prosciutto, basil and buffalo mozzarella bruschetta? Spice lovers gravitate to the smoky adobo guacamole, black and white bean dip trio or the chipotle apricot barbecue chicken sandwich with roasted garlic mayo on grilled sliced ciabatta.

At lunch, seafood aficiandos can lightly dine on the Far East Coast sesame ahi tuna salad, lemon roasted salmon salad, warm lump crab and artichoke dip, shrimp cocktail or Mediterranean tuna salad sandwich. Dinner ramps up the seaworthy plates, including the curried salmon tartare, ahi tuna summer roll and crab and ricotta tortelloni.

One of my favorite meals is the prosciutto-wrapped asparagus followed by the roast beef sliders au jus, topped off by the chocolate lava cake or skewered apple wedges with warm caramel and peanuts. Small plates are the catch of the day, so big eaters will want to graze.

Just want a nosh with your beer? Order up a hot pretzel slathered in spicy mustard. That’s easy, compared to deciding whether it will be a pilsner or IPA for round one. MY favorites on tap include Dogfish Head IPA, Spaten Octoberfest, Old Chub Scottish Ale, Ship Yard Pumpkin Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Full Sail Amber Ale and that’s just on draft. If you like a bottle beer, you can take a mixed case home and sample them along with Sunday’s Bucs game and your own barbecued burgers.

Groovy grapes beckon by the glass or bottle, even the pricey $950 Chateau Lafite Rothchild ’83. California’s best vineyards strut their stuff here, especially Franciscan Magnificat, Seina Ferrari Carano, Cakebread, Silver Oak, Duckhorn, Merryvale, Mollydooker Scooter, Layer Cake and other robust reds and succulent whites.

Taps is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to after midnight, noon Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.