There’s lots going on at 2232 Fifth Ave. S. — and I mean, lots.
Right along the Pinellas Trail, the St. Petersburg property houses the artisan distillery that is American Freedom (which CL’s previous coverage focused on). But some updates have developed with the food and drink component, America Neat Grill & Whiskey House, which adds two watering holes and eclectic American cuisine driven by a wood-fired grill.
The two-level building itself, formerly occupied by GeniusCentral in the Warehouse Arts District, is huge. Like, 16,000 square feet huge. America Neat owner Meredith Koko is renting 10,000 of that from the distillery for her project, coexisting with the stills, a post-tour tasting bar and a retail area as a tenant. (Her father is American Freedom partner John Koko.)
Visually, the space will consist of dark leather, copper accents, wood, brick and a fireplace that evokes a setting far more mountainy than the Sunshine State.
“A big part of it is, if you know anything at all about St. Augustine’s distillery, this’ll be the only facility like it in the entire state of Florida,” said Rob Schaefer, co-founder of American Freedom. “And that’s why it’s a big deal, because it’s gonna have all this space.”
Let’s break down the highlights by floor. On the first, where the inner workings of American Freedom serve as the backdrop, the restaurant and a 30-foot bar can seat 80 or so guests — more once the outdoor patio opens. America Neat brought on rum nerd Ryan Pinés of Buya Ramen to build the specialty cocktail list, featuring as many craft and local spirits as possible alongside the house booze. The distillery’s award-winning Rekker Rum (simply made with sugar cane, water and yeast) is dedicated to tiki-inspired drinks, while a barrel-aged cocktail will incorporate its bourbon.
“He’ll come in every season and update the menu for us,” Meredith Koko said.
With a background in nightlife and hospitality public relations, Koko recently relocated from New York City, where she started seeing draft cocktails everywhere before moving to St. Pete. That’s why a couple of prebatched drinks, some locally made beers and most of the wines will be available on tap as well.
Like the cocktails, the food is in good hands. The name of America Neat’s seasoned chef hasn’t been made public yet, but we can tell you that his experience includes a stint at an Emeril Lagasse restaurant as well as Bay area establishments. He’ll do lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, preparing meals in a nice-sized kitchen enclosed by a glass wall that allows diners to catch the stunning grill in action.
While the restaurant isn’t a steakhouse, cuts of meat in a similar vein — including bone-in ribeye and double-cut pork chop — are anticipated, as are chargrilled oysters, pizzettas, a market Florida fish that rotates seasonally and duck wings, to name a few. Many of the dishes are designed to pair well with bourbon.
Koko took inspiration from the Big Apple for another menu item: the oft-underappreciated salad. One of her favorite New York joints, The Smith, offers a half portion as a starter or a full portion with a protein as a meal, and so will America Neat.
“I think it’s gonna be a destination,” she said. “It’ll be a little bit of trial and error to start, but we’re a couple minutes out of downtown. It’s gonna be more for people who have an hour.”
Upstairs is where a smaller bar, awesomely referred to as the “whiskey library” by Schaefer, awaits with about 10 seats and a focus on Scotch and other kinds of whiskey. Rarer and pricier, the offerings behind this bar — which will likely operate on Fridays and Saturdays, to start — are a collaboratively curated effort.
Private dining capabilities are found up top, too, along with an event space — unless the restaurant eventually turns it into additional seating.
Originally slated to open last year, American Freedom expects to debut with America Neat sometime in summer. The distillery founders, who’ve been planning their St. Pete headquarters for some time, had hoped to launch inside the new ArtsXchange. The timing didn’t work out, but the restaurant and distillery (which is opposite the Xchange on the Trail) should prove to be a big draw for the arts facility and for the Warehouse Arts District as a whole.
According to Schaefer, the plan is to create an open path of sorts to unite the neighboring projects.
“We’re also gonna support the community as much as we can,” Koko said. “Any place I can put art I will. If we can sell it in our retail store, if I can hang it and rotate it every so often — I mean, whatever we can do to support them.”
Trailgoers will be happy to learn that the distillery has dug a 240-foot well next to the beloved stretch of pavement to not only ensure nice, clear water is used for its stills, but to also provide the public with much-needed relief from the Florida heat.
“You’re not gonna get a better glass of water anywhere in the city than you’re gonna get from that aquifer,” said Schaefer.
What else is new with American Freedom? Tampa-based Anchor Glass used steel from Ground Zero, donated by the NYC Fire Department, to produce a mold for the crew’s new bottles. Their coming-soon flagship bourbon will probably roll out in a few months; it accompanies the special Horse Soldier editions released with 12 Strong, the film based on two of the six Green Berets involved with the distillery, that got them picked up by big retailers such as Publix and Winn-Dixie. And they’re set to start working on vodka and gin next.
“Business works much faster at the speed of trust, and it just works a lot better when you’ve got family,” Schaefer said of American Freedom’s partnership with Meredith Koko. “There’s a clear separation — we can’t have anything to do with her, she can’t have anything to do with us. However, we’re gonna take good care of each other and everything else. It’s gonna be a good business arrangement.”
