Apt 34, a new beer and wine bar, is bringing NYC house-party vibes to downtown St. Pete

For nearly a decade, a dinky sixth-ground stroll-up in Hell’s Kitchen changed into one thing noteworthy bigger than an house.

From 2015 to 2024, St. Pete native Nico Leeper lived with roommates in Home 34 at 312 West 48th Avenue in Manhattan, where a rooftop overlooking Midtown step by step changed into a gathering set for chums, neighbors, and masses of people that they had never met sooner than.

They called it the 312 Roof Membership.

On any given night, the rooftop would possibly possibly per chance host a barbecue, piano concert, political rally, Derby Day derive together, charity fundraiser, inflatable pool derive together, wedding reception, or ethical a bunch of chums striking out over drinks.

Now Leeper is bringing that same vitality home.

True 34, a fresh beer and wine bar impressed by Leeper’s extinct house and the team that grew around it, is coming soon to 554 1st Avenue North in downtown St. Pete, subsequent to St. Pete Brewing Company.

“It would possibly possibly per chance per chance ought to also soundless in actuality feel corresponding to you’re coming to a rental derive together in a Hell’s Kitchen house,” Leeper acknowledged in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Company will enter by a minute “lobby,” total with a classic house mailbox, sooner than emerging onto the “roof,” an space with soaring ceilings, patio-vogue furnishings, bistro lights, and lights intended to mimic stars overhead.

From there, company will enter the “kitchen,” where the foremost bar will resemble a kitchen island, sooner than coming into into a lounge equipped with couches and a mantle. A non-public booth will wait on because the “bedroom,” total with a daybed.

“We didn’t derive a bar,” Leeper recalled his derive team telling him. “We designed an house.”

For Leeper, the theorem that is deeply inside most.

He was once born at Bayfront, grew up in Crescent Heights, and attended Canterbury College sooner than leaving St. Pete to again Columbia College in Original York City.

After college, he joined equity crowdfunding startup SeedInvest, where he labored from 2014 unless 2021.

Nonetheless arguably the more most necessary thing that took set for the length of his time in Original York got right here in 2015, when he moved into Home 34.

The house wasn’t exactly glamorous.

The sixth-ground stroll-up had no elevator or central air, nonetheless a sliding glass door from Leeper’s bedroom opened onto the roof, which Leeper and his chums step by step changed into into their hold yard in the center of Manhattan.

Over time, Leeper and his chums added couches, chaise lounges, planters, trees, astroturf, and at last a neon “312 Roof Membership” set.

At one level, chums occupied 12 of the constructing’s 36 residences.

All the device by the summer season, people were repeatedly upstairs grilling and striking out. Various nights changed into beefy-blown occasions.

There were Derby Day parties, movie nights, pool parties interesting a nine-by-ten-foot inflatable pool stuffed with a hose snaked up the aspect of the constructing, and an annual sad-tie Christmas derive together that will per chance per chance device 250 to 300 people.

“It was once a magical set,” Leeper acknowledged.

Items of the fashioned house will now acquire a 2nd lifestyles in St. Pete. The 312 Roof Membership neon set is coming to True 34, along with the right door from Leeper’s extinct bedroom.

Leeper’s direction from enterprise capital to hospitality began for the length of the pandemic, when SeedInvest went far-off and he realized how noteworthy he missed interacting with people.

Regardless of never having bartended sooner than, Leeper put in his watch and spent nearly two years bartending at his favorite neighborhood “Cheers” bar.

“I completely cherished it,” Leeper acknowledged.

It wasn’t primarily making drinks that crooked him. It was once interacting with people and turning into section of a neighborhood gathering set.

Leeper at last determined he wished to birth a gaggle of his hold and returned home to St. Pete in 2024.

He spent time getting reacquainted with a hospitality scene that had changed dramatically since he left for faculty.

What stunned him most was once how noteworthy St. Pete’s bars reminded him of his favorite neighborhood spots in Original York.

“The hospitality scene right here, it felt very homegrown,” Leeper acknowledged. “My favorite bars in Original York were these where you sat down and it felt corresponding to probabilities are you’ll per chance per chance most definitely strike up a conversation with any one. You walked in and you ethical felt treasure it was once a gaggle that you simply belonged.”

In preference to correct away birth a bar, he spent time working around the local hospitality scene, including stints at Are attempting Wine and Tampa Bay Drinkery sooner than becoming a member of Bar Chinchilla, where he has labored since December 2024.

Now he’s placing these experiences into True 34.

The fresh bar will procedure 16 faucets, destroy up evenly between beer and wine.

Leeper plans to give a mixture of local and craft beer, whereas a variety of the wine would possibly possibly even be served on draft.

Beer will be poured into reusable purple Solo-vogue cups, any other nod to the house-derive together experience.

The bartenders would possibly possibly even be anticipated to behave more treasure derive together hosts than ragged bartenders.

“The bartender’s role is host first, bartender 2nd,” Leeper acknowledged.

Music will open quieter earlier in the evening and transform more full of life because the night progresses, with bartenders finding out the room and controlling the playlist.

There received’t be a DJ booth, and the lone tv will typically remain off. There also received’t be USB chargers at the bar.

“Here’s a gaggle to connect with people,” Leeper acknowledged.

Food received’t be obtainable when True 34 first opens, nonetheless Leeper at last hopes to introduce cicchetti, minute Venetian-vogue bites typically served with wine. He is also thinking about collaborations that will per chance per chance allow local chefs to set their hold lumber on the structure.

True 34 will host occasional occasions impressed by the fashioned 312 Roof Membership, including Derby Day and Christmas parties, along with ability trivialities, bingo, reside tune, and random theme nights.

The buildout at 554 1st Avenue North is being designed by St. Pete-based fully mostly Storyn Studio, with Leeper working closely with Evan Vander Ploeg, regarded as one of his oldest chums.

The 2 have identified every other since they were two years passe, and Vander Ploeg visited Leeper in Original York and attended parties at the fashioned Home 34.

“He understands what we’re attempting to compose,” Leeper acknowledged.

Leeper hopes to have True 34 birth in dull 2026, ideally in time for the holidays, even when the outlet would possibly possibly per chance breeze into early 2027.

Within the crash, he hopes True 34 recreates one thing he cherished about both Hell’s Kitchen and St. Pete: bars where people of diversified ages and backgrounds can stroll in, strike up a conversation, and in actuality feel treasure they belong.

“Come as probabilities are you’ll per chance per chance most definitely successfully be,” Leeper acknowledged.

Or, as True 34 puts it more merely: Welcome to the most provocative home derive together in St. Pete.