With the anticipated opening of King State on Tuesday December 12th, the historic Harlan Hotel building at 15 8th Street North now has not one but two new tenants. COhatch, an Ohio-based co-working company, opened for business in late October at the Harlan. 

King State is a coffee roaster, beer maker, and restaurant that was founded in 2019 by Nate Young and his brother-in-law Tim McTague. Young is the drummer for Anberlin, a Winter-Haven based rock band, and McTague is the lead guitarist of Underoath, another rock band with local roots.

Tuesday’s opening will conclude a two and a half year journey of planning for King State.

“We signed the lease during quarantine,” laughed McTague during a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “Our original plan was to replicate King State Tampa with a few add-ons, but the St. Pete location has taken on a life of its own and has turned into something really special.”

King State’s St. Pete location has a much larger kitchen compared to its Tampa counterpart, so it will offer a more robust food menu developed by Chef Brett Wright.

“The kitchen in St. Pete is about six times the size of our Tampa kitchen,” McTague said. “We’re offering a completely new menu in St. Pete. It’s not fine dining and it’s not a cafe. It’s somewhere in between.”

Specific menu items are being kept under wraps for now, but a handful of social media posts reveal what diners can expect when King State opens to the public next Tuesday.

In addition to food, King State St. Pete will feature a coffee bar serving all of your favorite espresso-based beverages and a full bar, including in-house brewed beer.

Beer varieties include Buds Light lager; Tropunk IPA; Odd State brown ale; Leaves, an Octoberfest marzen; Green Dart pilsner; and Florida Showers, a non-alcoholic IPA.

Brian Sanders, COhatch’s Tampa Bay market leader, said his company’s team-up with King State is “a marriage made in heaven,” adding, “whenever possible, we like to have a food and beverage partner on site, and COhatch wants each location to have a hyperlocal feel. King State is such a cool brand, but it’s also a community, with its own tribe, its own people. Of course, they want to make great coffee, great beer, great food, but they have this special intangible thing that only comes when you create a place where people feel they belong.”

Follow King State on Instagram at @k1ngst8 and COhatch at @COhatchCommunity.