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Pubs are back.
The 100-year-old Bassendean Hotel re-opened last week after a $7 million refit. It is a spectacular ‘new’ hotel and the latest in a raft of suburban hotel openings – think The Elford in Mount Lawley, the under-construction Victorian-era Claremont Hotel, the Vic Park Hotel in Victoria Park and The Royal in the CBD – filling the void left by the slow decline in traditional rubbity-dubs over the past 20 years.
The Elford is one of a number of well-done old is new again pubs.Credit: The Elford
Unlike the Royal and the Elford, a fair swag of the newbies are not recast from the bones of existing Victorian and Federation-era hotels. Many, like the big Pirate Life brewery in Murray Street, The Beaufort in Highgate, Dandelion at Karrinyup and Running With Thieves in South Fremantle, contain multiple venues within venues, while keeping a proper pub vibe.
CEO of the Australian Hotels Association in WA, Bradley Woods, says drinkers are coming back to pubs for a range of reasons.
“Locality is essentially driving the newer venues. These pub offerings are filling a gap in suburbs where the traditional pub has declined or disappeared. Savvy operators have recognised this and bought traditional pubs specifically to re-imagine them as modern venues with good food and service,” Woods said.
“The older venues are attractive to modern drinkers because of their traditional architecture and old bones”.
“Quality food is also a big component these days.”
The Beaufort in Mt Lawley.Credit: The Beaufort
According to Woods, the rise of the new pub is an antidote to the massive single-room beer barns built in the 1970s and 80s.
“Punters are coming back to so-called traditional pubs because, typically, they’re not one big room. The newly imagined older pubs in particular offer a range of spaces and rooms which cater to different needs and demographics.
“The people who are taking over these older venues are doing extremely well. They’re bringing modern hospitality service to older venues which have traditional layout and cater for different kinds of customers all in the one space.”
But why now?
“I think what’s happened is a consequence of the small bar laws (which came into effect 16 years ago) which elevated the drinking experience to the point that old pubs have had to compete with them to get their drinkers back,” Woods said.
“These new old pubs have intimate spaces where punters can find a quality experience that may not have been a part of the traditional drinking barn experience back in the day.”
The Bassendean Hotel is a case in point. It is anything but a big beer barn, offering a range of experiences from an upstairs bar with a small snacks menu to a downstairs restaurant that serves modern pub favourites.
Like many of these new venues, the Bassendean hasn’t forgotten its roots, offering pub favourites like chicken parmi, fish and chips, burgers and a range of pizzas.
Subiaco – a once popular drinking and dining destination, sent to sleep in recent years by a perfect storm of greedy landlords and a lacklustre local council – is bouncing back with a range of pub-style offerings at the vanguard of its rejuvenation as a hospitality hot spot.
Subi has a way to go to catch up with other dining precincts like Leederville, Northbridge and the city, but three venues, the Subiaco Hotel, Bar Loiter and the just-opened La Condesa on Hay Street are pumping new energy into the inner western suburb.
La Condesa owner Clint Nolan may bridle at the idea that his new mega Mexican is pub-like, but it subscribes to all the modern pub attributes: big venue, great drinks and food that is a destination in its own right. The same goes for Bar Loiter and the Subi Hotel, the most traditional pub offer of the three.
Patrick Ryan, co-owner and boss at Subiaco’s stylish Bar Loiter, says the rejuvenated pub culture in Perth is both customer and operator driven.
“The pub scene has been forgotten for years as small bars took over, but many people are after a local pub without having to go to Northbridge or the city,” Ryan said. “A local pub offers a kind of community, village-y feel that people want.
“I think the food offering is a huge part of the modern pub. People want to get a good meal in their pubs now, but in a casual setting. It’s a big thing now.
“When we were younger, there were lots of old school pubs where you could get a good feed and good drinks and people are coming back to that local vibe, combined with good (room) design and a demand for good food.”
Bar Loiter and its restaurant Dilly Dally has a capacity for 400 punters. Ryan says Bar Loiter, which has been open less than a year, attracts a diverse crowd.
“We get a really mixed crowd, everyone from 18-year-olds to early 20s, parents with young kids, older folks in their 50s and 60s. Diversity really adds to a venue.”
He believes the renaissance of local pubs is set to continue.
“There are some great older pubs out there ready to be snapped up by good operators. We’re looking to our next project now.”
The biggest pub opening of the past 12 months has been hospitality entrepreneur Andy Freeman’s Pirate Life brewery complex in Murray Street. It is a combination of public bar, high-end steakhouse restaurant, private dining rooms, a liquor and merch store, two small specialist bars and a cracking al fresco area.
“Aussies love a pub. It’s in our DNA,” Freeman said. “We started as a small bar business and as we’ve grown we have sought out larger venues with a leaning toward a modern pub experience.”
Freeman says the rush to pubs by serious hospitality operators has been customer-driven.
“Customers want the whole pub life aesthetic, but they also want a more curated offer. Food is important in that equation. Gone are the days when you’d go out for a night, smash CC and Dry all evening and not eat,” the pub boss said.
Freeman’s new basement bar in the Pirate Life complex, Honey, is a rum bar and a textbook example of creating “a wholly curated customer experience.”
“It’s not good enough these days to create a new bar experience without regard for food, tailor made to the individual venue,” he said.
But the rise and rise of pub culture has not come at the expense of Perth’s hugely successful small bar scene.
“We have nine venues in Perth (think Varnish on King, The Flour Factory, Hadiqa, Caballitos) and we remain very much engaged in the small bar culture at most of them,” Freeman said.
He too says the pub revolution is far from over.
“There are great opportunities out there with many traditional pubs on the market at good prices and ripe for the picking by the right operator.”
So, with lots of smart money in the WA hospitality sector now pivoting toward pub investments, get set for a roller coaster of new and exciting pub offers in the next few years.
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