Oxford's New All-Day Spot Serves Pizza, Pints, and Second Chances

Oxford's Tap Social Movement just opened its biggest venue yet, a sprawling new café, bar, and community space called Day Release. Because apparently, that's what happens when you combine award-winning brews with a mission to change lives.

This isn't just another trendy spot for sourdough pizza (though they have that, too). Day Release is Tap Social's fourth location and their first custom-built space, covering a rather impressive 3,563 square feet across two floors. Think of it as a culinary and social Swiss Army knife, all under one roof.

More Than Just a Pretty Place

For the first time, Tap Social's entire ecosystem is in one place: their bakery, pizza kitchen, café, bar, brewing school, and event spaces. It's designed to be a welcoming hub for everyone at Milton Park and the wider Oxfordshire community. And yes, it comes complete with eye-catching, hand-painted murals by local artist Lisa Made It.

Visitors can grab fresh pastries from Proof Social Bakehouse, devour hand-stretched sourdough pizzas, or opt for fresh salads and sandwiches. The bar boasts ten beers on tap, plus their own canned brews, and the coffee comes from another Oxford social enterprise, NewGround Coffee. For the truly ambitious, there's even a Brew School where you can concoct your own beer with the pros. Because why just drink beer when you can make it?

This new venue will employ about 16 staff, continuing Tap Social's core mission: creating meaningful jobs for people who have been involved with the criminal justice system. It's a rather brilliant way to prove that business success and social good aren't mutually exclusive.

Since its inception in 2016, Tap Social has clocked over 115,000 hours of paid work for people in prison and those leaving it. That's a satisfying number to let sink in. Tess Taylor, co-founder and director, calls Day Release the culmination of everything they've built, their most ambitious venue yet.

She points out that hospitality is a natural fit for bringing people together, and every coffee, meal, and shift at Day Release contributes to rebuilding lives. It's a simple, elegant equation: good food + good beer = good opportunities.

Day Release is the anchor tenant at Signal Yard, Milton Park's new £14 million social and retail development. The goal? To transform the area into a vibrant gathering place with 17 independent shops and restaurants, outdoor public spaces, and a mix of local businesses. Clare Fleet, asset manager for Milton Park, sums it up nicely: Tap Social is an exceptional organization, changing lives while making great food and drinks. An ideal partner, indeed.

So, if you're in Oxfordshire, you now know where to find your next pizza, pint, or perhaps, your next purpose.