This summer, the restaurant community around the intersection of Dr. M.L.K. Jr St North and 30th Avenue North in St. Petersburg—home to spots like Golden Isles Brewing Co and Sunset Grille—will welcome a new natural-wine-focused wine bar. Called 86 Wine Bar, it’s expecting a June/July opening, Kendra, who owns the bar together with her husband Shane, told What Now on Tuesday.
“It’s small space, and super cozy,” Kendra said. “It will fit about 35 people, in a kind of Japandi style—meaning, Japanese and Scandinavian style.”
Kendra and Shane have spent a long time in the hospitality biz, Kendra said, and it felt like time to strike out on their own with something new. That’s 86 Wine Bar, whose wine list will foreground a selection of natural wines. Pairing-style bites will include seasonal salads, crudos, and cold water oysters with served housemade hot sauces.
The name, like the restaurant itself, is a kind of ode the industry—particularly the hard work that goes into hospitality. To 86 something, if you’re not familiar, is to take it off the menu. And Kendra says the expression took on a life of its own. “We’d get home after a long week say, ‘Babe, I’m tired, I’m 86ing myself.”
St. Pete will soon have a great new place to relax, drink wine, and hang out—at 86 Wine Bar, you’ll be able to take yourself off the menu and see what’s on theirs.
