EASY TIGER INDUSTRY FEATURE
PICS: MOONCHEESE STUDIO
What initially kicked off with a boutique 48-seat cinema just under a year ago has now transformed into a full-scale hospitality and tourism showpiece for the picturesque East Coast town of St Helens, providing a hub of activity for the region. Co-owner Jason Unwin, part of a seven-strong ownership group of the business, chats with the THA’s Hospitality Review about the rise of Easy Tiger.
used to be a roller-skating rink and a cinema among other things that was previously known as the Forum Complex. After successfully negotiating the purchase of this property we finalised a design concept and set about prepping the building for development. The final concept included a high-class, brand-new boutique cinema with 48 seats, a long modern bar, beer garden and cafe with large opening sliders to bring the zones together as one. A brewery and two eateries were added to the design using outside expertise to make sure the kitchens would be capable of producing amazing food. We were lucky to bring a friend in on the project who is an experienced commercial brewer who recently moved to the area and was keen to get involved and run the brewery within the venture. The beauty of this concept is that the new complex “Easy Tiger” will leverage off each element to complement the rest of the offerings and provide a new hospitality business that opens seven days a week, 8am to late. This works as the building will fire up each day with a café focus and have movies starting from mid to late mornings and running to late at night, with all other facets kicking in during the day.
THE CONCEPT
The Easy Tiger project came about after a few of us visited a great business in Christchurch called “Little High Eatery” in 2019, which is a modern take on a food hall that has been designed to better replicate a street food scene with a great vibe. We knew that St Helens would hit its groove with the new Mountain Bike trails set to open and that this would create opportunities for new hospitality businesses in the area. Obviously Covid hit the world in early 2020 and everything was put on hold, but fast forward to late 2021 and we felt the time was right to revisit the concept in the St Helens area. We quickly identified a mostly vacant building in the heart of St Helens that
20 Tasmanian Hospitality Review April/May Edition
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