{"id":193493,"date":"2026-03-16T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193493\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:05:08","slug":"owner-of-the-bends-and-wild-child-to-open-easy-tiger-a-hi-fi-listening-lounge-and-cocktail-bar-in-the-edge-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193493\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of The Bends and Wild Child to open Easy Tiger, a hi-fi listening lounge and cocktail bar in the EDGE District"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">More than a decade after opening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/the_bends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Bends<\/a> in what was then a quiet corner of St. Pete\u2019s EDGE District, local hospitality operator Matt Kaye is preparing to debut his most personal project yet just a few feet away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/easytigerhifi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Easy Tiger<\/a>, a hi-fi listening lounge and cocktail bar opening next month at 915 1st Avenue North, will pair vinyl DJ sets and high-fidelity sound with a globally inspired cocktail program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The roughly 1,600-square-foot space sits along the same block as The Bends and represents the latest concept from Kaye, his wife Victoria Kaye, and partners Chris Stone and Craig Dragoonis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Kaye is also behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wildchild_stpete\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wild Child<\/a>, a neighborhood bistro and cocktail bar, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/slim_charmer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Slim Charmer<\/a>, a martini bar with Mediterranean small plates, both located in the Grand Central District. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Inside, Easy Tiger was designed to function less like a traditional bar and more like a listening lounge, where music plays a central role in shaping the experience. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The space features a carefully tuned hi-fi audio system built around Klipsch Heritage speakers paired with McIntosh amplification, allowing vinyl DJ sets to fill the room with warm, immersive sound without overpowering conversation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cYou can still talk to the person next to you, but the music sounds incredible,\u201d Kaye said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. \u201cIt\u2019s about creating an atmosphere where everything works together \u2014 the sound, the drinks, the design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a decade after opening The Bends in what was then a quiet corner of St. Pete\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-193493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}