Easy Tiger St Helens lodges DA for massive expansion including brewery, two restaurants
“Big town look and feel”: The owners of a boutique cinema have unveiled plans for a beer garden, two restaurants, a brewery and coffee hutch that will take their venue capacity to nearly 240.
Tasmania
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The owners of a 48-seat boutique cinema on Tasmania’s East Coast have unveiled plans for a beer garden, two restaurants, a brewery and coffee hutch that will take their venue capacity to just under 240.
Easy Tiger, located at 7 Pendrigh Place, St Helens, was opened in June by a collection of friends including Jason Unwin, his sister Raechel Roberts, former senior Liberal adviser and PR consultant Brad Nowland, and PR consultant Emma Hope, a former Mercury journalist.
Easy Tiger has now forged ahead on Stage 2 of its redevelopment, with a development application lodged with Break O’Day Council to install two restaurants, a coffee hutch and a microbrewery on-site. An external beer garden, which was the subject of a separate DA, is in the process of being constructed.
“The cinema was never designed operate by itself, it needed to be part of a bigger complex. We understood we needed to hit the accelerator,” Mr Unwin said.
Mr Unwin said a centrepiece of the new development would be a new 13m-long bar servicing the new brewery.
The brewery’s beer would be known as Thirsty Tiger and be produced by Timothy Bishop, a former senior brewer at Boag’s, who is also a co-owner of Easy Tiger.
“He’s one of the most experienced brewers in the country,” Mr Unwin said.
Mr Unwin said Easy Tiger has engaged an external consultant to design two “state-of-the-art” commercial kitchens, with interviews ongoing with interested parties to operate the restaurants.
Mr Unwin nominated Vietnamese, Mediterranean, seafood and traditional proteins as cuisines he thought would add a je ne sais quoi to Easy Tiger.
“We’re hoping to bring something slightly different to St Helens. We’ll be open from 8am–11pm, longer trading hours than anyone else in town, seven days a week. It will bring a big town look and feel to the place,” he said.
Mr Unwin said Easy Tiger was working towards unveiling Stage 2, which would take the venue’s total capacity to just shy of 240, in late January or early February next year.
By the time Stage 2 is complete, Mr Unwin estimated more than $3m will have been invested in transforming the former roller skate rink.
“It will be good to go for another 40 to 50 years,” he said.
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