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MAY Nº 42
DISHING OUT THE CULTURE
WORLD CLASS
4
Column
The science of culture can be extremely elusive — if you can call it a science at all. And what I can remember of sixth-grade attempts at biology in no way helps. Perhaps there are gaps in my memory, but what I remember is this: Aim: To grow your very own culture. Materials: One Petri dish lined with transparent jelly. One needle full of transparent juice. Method: Innoculate transparent jelly with seemingly sterile transparent juice, shelve it and come back next class. Results: What on earth! A colourful culture just appeared out of nowhere in my perfectly average Petri dish. Magic? Further careful study of the culture through the 25x, then 250x lens of a microscope gave no more clues as to how a simple injection of mystery substance ‘X’ could produce such a wildly colourful result without even feeding it anything, or slipping in a little drink on the side. If anything, sixth grade biology dictates you don’t have to do anything to build culture. And if you’d believe the hype around Melbourne you’d think it was true. The equivalent experiment might go something like this: toss a half-sipped latté glass into a dumpster down a laneway, come back three weeks later, and hey presto, you’d find a vibrant gaggle of socialites sloshing back bottles of imported brew, making themselves entirely ‘at home’ in the pre-aged lived-in vibe of the lane, and gyrating compulsively to a mash-up of post-apocalyptic trance and Haitian hip hop. It’s bananas. The truth is: culture has to be manufactured somewhere — that innocuous looking fluid is actually laced with it. Want more proof? The experiment is taking place before our very eyes in Sydney, where we can watch a small bar culture begin to coalesce. The floodgates are open… well as open as a government approval process ever is, and we’re starting to see more small bars pop up all over the city. The culture had to come from somewhere, the change of liquor
legislation obviously, but less widely reported has been a few incentives handed out by local council to help rejuvenate the CBD. Perhaps that’s why Melbournians are so amused by Sydney’s small bar culture. For once Melbourne gets to play the older, more-knowing sibling — it may not have been the first fleet’s destination, or lay claim to being the largest city, but while Sydney is still in a small bar teething process, Melbourne is well into its twenties. And while every square metre of laneway is like pure gold in Melbourne, operators are getting paid to put out a couple of chairs and tables on Sydney CBD footpaths. It’s like watching a younger sister get canteen money, when you had to make your own Vegemite sangers every day. This issue, venue delves deep into the idea of laneways, small bars and manufacturing culture. As well as catching up with a few Sydney small bar operators two years on, we also take a retrospective look at Melbourne’s early years with Craig Allchin of Six Degrees, and find a Melbourne developer who’s decided to build his own laneway, managing to assemble a supergroup of operators in the process. Mark Davie is editor of venue magazine. Drop him a line at mark@venuemag.com
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MAY Nº 42
Contents
“Kill five birds with one stone… there’s no rules as long as you can get it to work” Mark Healy, Six Degrees — pg36
WHAT’S HOT Heating Special
Lowenbrau pg54 Cullen Hotel pg54 Elms Family Hotel pg55 Hot Stuff pg56 The Tower pg58 Sea La Vie pg59 Hotel Charles pg60 Pittwater RSL pg60 Bungalow 8 pg62 Nikos Quality Cakes pg63
CONTENTS CONTACTS: Advertising Office: (02) 9986 1188 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 Editorial Office: (03) 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353 Editor: Mark Davie (mark@venuemag.com) Publication Manager: Stewart Woodhill (stewart@venuemag.com) Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@venuemag.com) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@venuemag.com) Art Direction & Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Additional Design: Leigh Ericksen (leigh@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Jen Temm (subscriptions@alchemedia.com.au) Accounts: Jen Temm (accounts@alchemedia.com.au)
alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright © 2010 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title Venue is a registered Trademark. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy.
New Smooth Operator Design Brief Sit Kit Lit Lost Pizza Dunbar House The Ranch Malvern Hotel Commodore Hotel Mercure Sydney Potts Point Siana Valley Action Men Laneway Culture Sydney’s Little Options 20 Questions, Kirsten Stanisich What’s Hot, Heating Special Commercial Edge You Wish
pg11 pg15 pg17 pg18 pg20 pg22 pg25 pg27 pg29 pg30 pg31 pg32 pg35 pg36 pg40 pg46 pg50 pg53 pg65 pg66
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The 2011 Interior Design Awards have been announced, and Bates Smart has taken top honours in the Hospitality Design category for Crown Metropol. Other highly commended entrants include Chada for the Westin Hyderabad in Andrha Pradesh, Coop Creative for Spicers Balfour hotel in Queensland, Hecker Guthrie for The Millswyn in Victoria, Mim design with Cornwell for Capital Kitchen in Victoria, and Pascale Gomes-McNabb in collaboration with McNabb Gomes Architects for Stokehouse, the first time in a long time that Wayne Finschi hasn’t presided over the venerable restaurant’s design. The ‘Lavazza A Modo Mio Lounge’ became a hotspot for celebs and models needing a caffeine fix at L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival before the runway shows. Lavazza’s expert baristas whisked up some delicious Lavazza Italian Mocha cocktails, and Richard Nylon even created a hat made out of espresso capsules to celebrate Lavazza’s partnership with LMFF. The Lounge itself is made up of a giant espresso machine on wheels, and will be travelling to plenty of major events in Melbourne and Sydney this year.
Clear Mountain Lodge, Spa and Vineyard, nestled between the mountains of the D’Aguilar and Taylor Ranges in the heart of Brisbane’s hinterland, has been re-launched following a $6.5m refurbishment. Now under Accor’s 4-star Mercure brand the property offers panoramic views of Moreton Bay and the granite spires of the Glasshouse Mountains. General Managers Greg Pengelly and Teresa Aitken reckon the combination of the lodge, Stephanies Mountain Spa and vineyard will give the property broad appeal any time of the week. Clear Mountain Lodge: (07) 3298 5100 or www.clearmountainlodge.com.au
VIDEO WATCH Rebecca Black, Friday
YouTube is a strange, otherworldly environment. It’s like some kinda quantum universe for weirdos and goofballs, where the normal laws of, well, everything don’t appear to apply. Here are some very salient stats about YouTube: YouTube is big… real big; lots of new videos are uploaded all the time; many, many, many people use it daily; YouTube is making someone a lot of money; and there’s no accounting for taste. I guess it should come as no surprise to anyone in particular that videos of real value — I dunno, maybe someone in a labcoat telling you how to cure cancer by slurping on a pickled ginger/spirulina milkshake — languish unnoticed in a dark, corner of YouTube that smells vaguely of mothballs; while any video of cute kittens has the world transfixed. If you just climbed out of your cryogenic chest freezer, emerging from a 10-year-long kip, you’ll be fascinated to hear that uploading a video of your cat snoring with its paws in the air and in the armpit of its best pal the dachshund (to universal acclaim), costs absolutely nothing. Naturally, anyone with a video cam-
Four Seasons Hotel Sydney has completed the final phase of a two-year hotel refurbishment, unveiling its ‘pièce de résistance’ — four newly refurbished signature suites up in the pointy end of the building. The $1.6m upgrade includes a complete revamp of the exquisite Presidential Suite, Deluxe Royal Suite and two Royal Suites. Perfectly positioned on the hotel’s 34th floor, the suites offer nose-bleed panoramas of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Designed by Bates Smart, the suites were transformed to take on a New York-style apartment circa 1930, evoking a feeling of warmth, elegance and refinement. Four Seasons Sydney: www.fourseasons.com/sydney
era (and even lost Amazonian tribes appear out of the jungle with a Handycam these days), are uploading any old trash, many believing it could lead to fame, riches, or at the very least a guest spot on Leno. My point? Being ‘popular’ these days doesn’t mean being ‘good’. Which brings us to a precocious 13-year-old called Rebecca Black and her ditty, Friday. Egregious? Execrable? Baloney, even? Au contraire. I’m a fan. If, like me, and you’re one of the 2.4 gazillion people who have viewed the clip then your reaction will firstly be bewilderment (“Is this for real, or a Saturday Night Live parody?”), then it’ll be hilarity (“we we we so excited”) and then by the end of the clip it could well be pride (“good onya Rebecca Black, you’ve done something pretty special”). Hang on, isn’t Friday simply a substandard ditty foisted on us by a music industry too arrogant to care? Not in the slightest. It’s a
tween getting her middle-class parents to front the cash for an “off the peg” video clip, which has gone viral.
The golden rule of songwriting is to tap into what you know. That being the case, the unkind spectator might suggest that Rebecca knows nothing. Ouch. Untrue. Rebecca honestly and courageously tackles the issues that most impact her world: which seat of the party-pointing car to hop into, remembering that Thursday comes before Friday to ensure she doesn’t miss the weekend, and of course, partyin’ and fun.
And sure, Rebecca’s voice has been ‘autotuned’ to within an inch of its life — sounds like a gazoo has been forcibly stuck down her gullet like she’s some foie gras gosling — and there is a spurious rap interlude that’s as incomprehensible as it is bloody annoying… but that’s not Rebecca’s fault. So, get off her back, world. It’s time to ‘Like’ Rebecca. — CH.
11
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THE MELBOURNE BARS STORY: MEYERS PLACE Craig Allchin of Six Degrees Architecture was one of the founders of the laneways movement in Melbourne and advised Sydney City Council on their laneways plan. Allchin looks back with venue on how it all started in Melbourne: “In the early ’90s recession the Melbourne CBD had very high vacancy, which translated into plenty of cheap space being available. We had established our architectural office, Six Degrees, a couple of years before and many of us were living in the Melbourne CBD in old office buildings. “The city centre had a few old pubs and some shiny nightclubs, but nothing like the bars we’d seen in Paris and New York on obligatory architectural study tours. So a group of our friends put up some money and we designed and built a little European/New York Speakeasy-style bar in Meyers Place.
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“A very low budget called for an innovative approach, so we recycled a lot of the materials from various demolition and refurbishment projects around Melbourne at the time. With a palette of materials, we put together a small bar in an ex-hairdressing salon, down a lane under the Italian Waiters Club. “It was designed as a place to meet people and talk, which is what we loved about the classic Paris/New York bars and some of the great cafés including Pellegrini’s in Melbourne. This was also in contrast to the shiny, stainless steel clubs around town at the time, which were designed to stare and be stared at, rather than intimate spaces for conversations and the bringing together of lots of people in complex ways. “We thought of the entry area as a terrace house party, where the compression of the front hallway always made it the best place in the party because you were forced to talk to people. Materials were chosen, including shag pile carpet for the walls to reduce noise so you could have a real conversation with enough music to create a good atmosphere. “It became popular very quickly, despite, and possibly in part because it had no name, no sign, just a roller door off a laneway that you had to hear about by word of mouth —the best advertising. “Since then laneways have become popular in Melbourne because they are generally back of house, service spaces which have been co-opted for other uses and also provide low-cost, interesting venues for people to discover. This is in contrast to regular shops or bars/restaurants on main streets. The laneway bars have a little more excitement, built up by the social aspect of having to find the place and then enjoying the difference from regular spaces.”— Heather Barton
Strawberry Hills Hotel in Sydney has recently emerged from a $6m renovation. It’s a classic pub with art deco windows, ’20s-style pub tiles and a State Theatre carpet but there is nothing old-school about the sophisticated audiovisual system designed and installed by the Constant Group, headed up by Con Constantinou. A range of JBL speakers have been discreetly integrated into the walls and cabinetry making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Twenty-two JBL-8124 in-ceiling speakers provide background music in the toilets and hallways, along with the TAB area. BSS London signal processing has been installed including BLU-10 and BLU-8 wall controllers that give staff control of the audio system from behind each bar. From there they can conveniently choose input sources, zones, adjust volume, etc. The wall controllers are programmed to meet council requirements with regards to noise restrictions and are also programmed with a maximum dB in order to eliminate the possibility of staff turning the system up too loud thus causing damage to speakers. The Hotel has been divided into seven audio zones, each capable of having its own audio source and volume level. Each bar also has iPod integration and it’s just a matter of plug and play, making it user-friendly for all staff. (Photo: Jonathon Miller) Strawberry Hills Hotel: www.strawberryhillshotel.com.au Jands (JBL, Crown, BSS): (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au
Cockle Bay Wharf has extended a peace pipe to urban artists with its latest initiative. Project 5 is a collaboration with well-known street artists that contributes to the long-term welfare of the local arts community. The Project takes place every few months during the year, and this time round well-known street artists Ghostpatrol, Kid Zoom, James Jirat Patradoon and Melbourne’s Deb all painted large scale canvases to be put up for auction. The piece created by Kid Zoom — dubbed Australia’s Rembrandt [by his Mum, among others — Ed] — fetched the highest price at $8000. Guests attending the auction included Triple J’s Tom Tilley, ‘Fuzzy’ from Video Hits, and Andrew Johnstone — founder of the SemiPermanent design conference — delivered a keynote address. In all, the total raised by Project 5 is now $39,800. The owners behind Gotham Bar weren’t fussed about buying in to the idea of laneways. They figured, ‘why hide down a laneway when you can set up shop on one of the most famous streets in the city?’ — Oxford Street. They’ve dubbed it a ‘street bar’. Which really isn’t a novel concept at all. What is novel is the design by Squillace Nicholas. The old-1930s building has been given a Gotham City makeover, with a black and white clock silhouette behind the bar of superhero proportions. Pressed metal ceilings, chesterfields, red leather bar and vintage fireplaces all combine to complete the super transformation. Squillace Nicholas has also been busy putting more touches on Hugo’s Pizza Bar, with a new private dining room. It’s a seamless addition, with a slightly more intimate dining experience — dark timber wall panelling, vintage leather banquettes, and brass table bases. There’s room for a DJ, and with the sweep of a plush curtain can bring even more privacy to 40 guests. With the new dining room comes a new food direction from Pete Evans and executive chef Massimo Mele, with a focus on regional cuisine with a contemporary take on Italian street food. www.gotham.net.au & www.hugos.com.au
13 The Atlantic restaurant at Crown has arrived, unveiling chef Donovan Cooke’s seafood-heavy menu. Donovan’s talents, singled out by Michael Roux and Marco Pierre White, have taken him around the world including a highly acclaimed stint as the chef de cuisine at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and have been awarded some fancy French awards venue can’t pronounce. Suffice it to say, he’s a bloody good chef. Atlantic will hold 300 diners, and gets a little sexy in The Den, the Atlantic’s basement club. It’s designed by Blackmilk Interior Design, which has had a hand in the Atlantic Group’s function venues on Central Pier in Melbourne’s Docklands. More to follow next issue. www.theatlantic.com.au
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SMOOTH OPERATOR Don’t let Grand Designs be your undoing Matt Mullins, partner in Sand Hill Road hospitality group
At Sand Hill Road we’ve been renovating pubs, clubs and bars for a decade. And there’re only two things we know for sure: you’ll always be over budget and you’ll always be over time. I’m a big fan of Grand Designs. I’ve seen every episode. While tough blokes sit at home watching DVD box sets of Top Gear, arty blokes watch box sets of Mad Men and gay blokes watch Glee, I’m watching Grand Designs. I’ve even forced myself to endure series one, which provides ample evidence that we’ll never look back with nostalgia at an architectural era known wistfully as ‘late ’90s’. In each of those hundred or so episodes, ordinary people struggle to renovate or build their own grand design. In only one did the project come in on time and on budget. And in that case the effort required of the couple involved was so exhausting, they split up half way through and the grand design was flogged off to pay for the divorce lawyers. But you don’t need a TV show to demonstrate the challenges of getting something built on time and on budget. Listen to the stories of anyone who’s renovated their own house. “The architect went crazy.” “Planning took forever.” “The neighbour objected.” “VCAT threw us out.” “It took months to find a builder.” “The engineer over-designed.” “The variations killed me.” “The plumber went broke.” Think I’m exaggerating? All these things have happened to us, some of them many times over. This is building. Anyone who thinks their job is the one in a hundred that’ll go to plan is dreaming. We have two ways of dealing with these inevitabilities. We either a) bang our heads against a brick wall until a state of unconsciousness finally takes us away from the horror of the renovation, or b) we accept it and get on with life. Either way you choose to go, here are some ideas to help mitigate the disaster.
able to come back and fix the things we got wrong at the start, as well as doing the second stage, knowing exactly what would work. Finalise your plans before you start building. Get every single detail on the plan, even if you have to scratch it on yourself. If it’s on the plan, it’s easier to price, easier to change, and — as any builder will tell you — a lot easier to build! Don’t get me wrong, I change my mind constantly. When a job’s running, we get a new idea every hour. The worst moment of my builder’s day is when I arrive onsite — they know something’s about to change. But if you want the freedom to change your mind, everyone needs to know exactly what you’re changing. It has to be on a plan. Prioritise the areas of your venue that generate profit. Ask yourself which parts of the venue absolutely must be renovated to make more money. This will differ from venue to venue. At our newest hotel in Richmond, the previous owners spent half a mil ripping out perfectly good bars, to build beautiful sparkling new ones in their place. Only one problem: there was no money left to build a beer garden. Now, rule No. 1 for beginners: every pub needs a beer garden! We’ve just recently finished a renovation at Holliava. Holliava’s 10 years old, and the crowd still comes despite the fact it hasn’t changed in all that time. We spent a few months trying to find out why. Turns out they keep coming because it hasn’t changed. So the last thing we wanted to do was alter its look or feel. But the bar and back of house was old and inefficient, and seriously limited our ability to serve customers quickly. So we focused our budget there, because that’s where we identified the most capacity to generate greater profit.
“We used to play with lego, we’ll build it ourselves”
SAVE FOR A RAINY DAY First, budget every single item you’ll need to launch your venue. The construction contract will be the big item, but it’s just one of many. Don’t forget design fees, AV, engineering, building surveyor, planning consultant, loose furniture, wall décor, alarms, security cameras, signage, tills, float and stock. These aren’t necessarily part of your renovation budget, but if you haven’t budgeted them somewhere, it’ll be your reno budget that has to be cut to pay for them. Budget a contingency. If you only have a finite sum of money available, you’ve gotta leave about 10% of it in contingency. You won’t know what, but something will go wrong and you’ll have to stump up more money. Without a contingency, you’ll have to take money from something else, which is agonisingly painful, if not downright impossible. We’ve never failed to spend a contingency, and every time we do, we feel bloody lucky we had it up our sleeves. Budgeting not only controls costs, it also places a discipline on the design process, which invariably produces a more informed design. So even if you have an unlimited budget, budget anyway. STAGED PERFORMANCE Don’t be afraid to renovate in stages. I know you want to do it all right now. So do I. But sometimes we simply can’t. Come back and finish it later. Retrofitting can be expensive, but not as expensive as overcapitalising and going broke. The second pub we renovated we got wrong. We designed it for the wrong market. Thankfully, we hadn’t tried to do the whole venue at once, otherwise the scale of our mistake would have been even greater. After a few months running the business, we were
WHY DIY? There’s another thing that happens in every episode of Grand Designs: when the budget gets tight, the first thing you ditch is the architect. “We know what we want, we’ll design it ourselves.” The second is the project manager. “We’re pretty organized, we’ll project manage it ourselves.” The third is the builder. “We used to play with lego, we’ll build it ourselves.” Now, it can be done. We renovated our first pub entirely on our own. No designers. No tradies. No building permit. No clues whatsoever. The four of us worked 20 hours a day, seven days a week, for a month. The whole job cost us 30 grand and in the end, the pub looked like… well, it looked like it cost 30 grand and was renovated by a bunch of kids. Because the truth is you get what you pay for. You only save money if you know how to pay less for the same thing. And that’s not as easy as it sounds. Labouring yourself is fine, but its back-breaking work, and all those hours have a cost. Bargain-hunting is fine too. But it takes hours and hours of second-hand shop-hopping, auction-bidding, or pricebashing. And those hours have a cost as well. Ultimately, the best way to save money is to become good at being a client. Do your research. Understand the process back to front. Know as much about the design, the schedule and the budget as the builder does. Direct your architect to design precisely what you want, with a clear brief, never indulging in design you either don’t want, or can’t afford. Ruthlessly supervise your builder and your budget. Don’t allow variations, or if you do, balance each upward variation with a downward one. This is hard, hard work. It means you’ll spend long days and nights with your head in a spreadsheet. But the detail is where you’ll save money. I’ve painted a pretty dire picture, I know. But I’ve come to believe that the hardest thing about renovating, is not knowing how hard it is. Once you know that, it’s easy!
15
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DESIGN BRIEF Warmth: give your venue a sporting chance of feeling comfortable Story: Russell Lee
Doha is the warmest place I have ever been and by warm, I mean hot. This capital city in Qatar can reach over 50 degrees Celsius in summer, 90 percent plus humidity and you can’t find a real drink anywhere. I recently stayed in the newly built W Hotel in Doha. Its bars and restaurants were crammed with the young, beautiful and upwardly mobile from early evening. By midnight, the pace picked up with loud music emanating from the podium level. The scene seemed almost art-directed with the Lagerfeld, Armani and Stella McCartneyclad on parade. Retreating to the sanctuary of my hotel room, I was captivated by the hip branding everywhere reinforcing the ‘W’ motif, right down to the complimentary water bottles labelled ‘Wet Your Whistle’. The bathroom vanity bore three stones inscribed with ‘Wish’, ‘Warm’ and ‘Wet’. The wishing stone made sense, the wet stone is sort of understandable, but ‘Warm’ stone is more like ‘Hot Rock’ in Doha. The stone medium was perhaps a stretch but the message, reinforcing warm feelings in such an extreme place, was comforting I admit.
and tasteful, nothing is out of place and — if the owner is alert to how speaking to the buyer’s senses is likely to impact on the price offered — there may even be the alluring smell of freshly baked bread wafting through every room. There is a range of strategies that can be corralled to create warmth. Colour is one of the most obvious. Colours in the red spectrum evoke heat, passion and energy. They reduce scale and create coziness and intimacy. Materials, lighting and comfortable conditions can be used to the same effect. Natural materials have an appeal or warmth, although a mix of natural materials and synthetics can actually be more enhancing. Lighting is important in setting any mood and natural daylight provides the warmest impression, particularly for spaces like indoor pools where people are only partly clothed. This effect was reinforced by the AIS when we were designing the performance aquatic training facility in Canberra. They related how the swimmers naturally trained harder and longer in open pools in Queensland, than the darker indoor conditions in Canberra.
LEFT COLD So how does one create warmth, in the broader sense beyond mere temperature, in a particular space? We talk about warm relations, a sense of comfort, fondness or affection. But how can you actually design a project to make your client, occupants and public feel warm towards it? My university tutor, Russell Jack had his own unique way of phrasing it. In a review of a student presentation of a cinema complex, Russell cut straight to the chase and asked where the ‘joy’ was in the project. He was right of course, this scheme looked more like a factory building in an industrial area than a joyous approach to a space that would screen celluloid dreams and tinsel town magic. This point was also brought home to me following the completion of the Sydney Football Stadium. Having worked on the project from concept to completion, I was particularly proud of what we had achieved. A few months later, I was working through lunch and received a call in the office from a disgruntled spectator. He advised me that the experience of attending the stadium had left him totally cold.
SNAPPING THE CHILL In terms of temperature, warm comfortable conditions make a significant impact. Research has shown that cosy conditions affect our attitude in relationships and our attention to our environment and activities. We are more positive and constructive if we feel comfortable. The challenge for our firm has been to take this information and incorporate it into our approach to projects. On the recent AAMI Park project, the spectator experience was paramount in our considerations. On this largely engineering type structure, we developed the design to provide a sense of enclosure and warmth. Here undulating forms encapsulate the seating and concourse areas to keep out rain and cold winds. Natural lighting reaches deep into the stands and public spaces. Activities are spread around to energise all areas of the facility. The result is spectacular. On opening last year, even the cold Melbourne rain couldn’t dampen the excitement and fondness for this new icon amongst all attending the first event. It proves that even in the most ‘unpredictable’ parts of Australia, good design can bring warmth.
SENSES FIRING Perceptions are subjective but are everything in determining how we feel about our environment. Feelings are generated by various stimulants to the senses, whether sight, touch, smell, hearing or that all-important sixth sense [tasting your environment is no longer recommended post Dumb & Dumber, though Heston Blumenthal is bringing it back — Ed]. When you go to an open house inspection the decor is co-ordinated
Russell Lee, Director at Cox Richardson Architects and Planners, the Sydney branch of Cox Architecture Pty Ltd and draws on his knowledge and expertise as an international expert on leisure and sport design in writing our column on Venue Warmth. He has been responsible for many innovative sports and resort facilities in the UAE, Qatar, Taiwan, China, Iran, New Zealand and Australia including Sydney Cricket Ground’s Victor Trumper Stand, Rooty Hill Gymnasium and Aquatic Centre, plus assisting the FFA’s bid for the FIFA 2018-2022 World Cup.
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111 Navy Chair
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The Coca-Cola Company and Emeco put their heads together and came up with the 111 Navy Chair, which brings together the companies’ two most iconic products — the Coca-Cola bottle and the original 1006 Navy Chair, designed in 1944 for the U.S. Navy. Unlike Coke, there are no secret ingredients here: each 111 Navy Chair is made with content from more than 100 x 600ml recycled plastic bottles. It is estimated that approximately five million plastic bottles will be recycled globally each year for production of the chairs. Price: $335.
Bonaldo Icosi
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Icosi is a totally-wired modern table designed by A.Gilles for Bonaldo — side table, coffee table… slot it in where it fits. Icosi comes standard in white, black, red and grey painted finish and sits at 400mm high. Price: from $356+GST. Chairbiz: (03) 9429 3388 or www.chairbiz.com
Sasha Pull-Apart
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Sasha is a multi-functional seating ‘element’, that can be adjusted to transform into five seating items. Designed by Menel Ybarguengoitia for Concepta Spain, Sasha is a versatile, high quality item with an internal steel and wooden frame. The Sasha sofa is available in a range of fabrics and leathers. Contempo Collection: (08) 9443 5439 or www.contempocollection.com.au
Corporate Culture: (02) 9690 0077 or www.corporateculture.com.au
Bindi Eye For Glass
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Bindi Furniture recently released a new range of furniture at the Australian International Furniture Fair, including this contemporary coffee table comprising a glass top and stylishly interlocking timber base. Bindi Furniture: (02) 9773 4042 or www.bindifurniture.com.au
Mundo: Mucho Scando-lous
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The newest edition at Great Dane from Fredericia is the elegant Mundo chair created by Danish designer Susanne Grønlund. The chair is the result of a unique design, where Grønlund has used the wood’s natural properties to the fullest in geometry that at once provides both strength, lightness, flexibility and comfort. Mundo is available in oak, walnut and makassar, and in lime and white glossy laminate. Great Dane Furniture: 0417 279 548 (Sarah Rupley) or www.greatdanefurniture.com
Pebble Sticks Out
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The Pebble table from Bonaldo is durable, suitable for outdoor applications and 100% recyclable. Pebble is 900mm in diameter and 300mm high and ships in a whole variety of colour combos: white/red, white/powder blue, white/white, white/grey, red/white, power blue white and grey/white. Price: $772+GST. Cafe Culture: (02) 9699 8577 or www.cafeculture.com.au
www.diemme.com.au
Head Office p. 61 2 9550 0811 ext 1 Vic, Tas or SA p. 0403 254 200
Delta Range
Delta Brown
Delta Creme Brulee pronounced
profilestone panels www.stonini.com.au
Head Office p. 61 2 9550 0811 ext 1 Vic, Tas or SA p. 0403 254 200
Delta Creme Brulee subtle
INTRODUCING THE RED-1F FLUSHMOUNT REMOTE CONTROL 1
THE ONLY THING THAT STANDS OUT IS ITS PERFORMANCE Flexible capacitive touch control for Audia and Nexia on an easy to read OLED screen. Offers a simple, intuitive interface for end users tailored to fit the unique needs of a particular application.
AUDIO CONTROL OPTIONS
AUDIO CONTROL OPTIONS
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Nice Hang
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JBL Control Contractor 60 Series Pendant loudspeakers are designed for venues with open architecture or high-ceilings, while providing superior voice and musical clarity for rooms with difficult acoustics. The range is suitable for a wide variety of applications and decors, from convention and exhibit spaces to atriums, restaurants and retail stores. The included easy-to-install hanging hardware features redundant suspension cables and UL listed adjustable-height hangers. Price: from $180. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or www.jands.com.au
Ahead Of The J Curve
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J Professional Audio’s SV Series is an installer-friendly range of speakers ideal for the demands of bars, clubs, and conference/function venues. The mainstays of the series are the SV8i (eight-inch) and the SV10i (10-inch) two-way cabs. Both pack titanium HF compression drivers, 90° x 50° coverage pattern, black or white birch timber cabs and smart proprietary rigging to ensure they slot comfortably into a multitude of projects. Very competitively priced, the SV Series looks to provide a high-quality workhorse option for all types of venues. J Distribution: (07) 5599 1551 or www.jdistribution.net
FOR YOUR NEAREST DEALER: Australia: Call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.biamp.com.au New Zealand: Call 0800 111 450 or visit www.audioproducts.co.nz
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Nexo: Simply Marblous
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Sydney’s Marble Bar — a staggering piece of marbleicious neo-rennaissance beneath the Hilton — has a new sound system and the room has “never sounded better”. Bump Productions, led by Keith Eisenhuth, installed and commissioned 2 x Nexo PS15s, 2 x Nexo PS10s, 2 x Nexo RS15s and 2 x Quest MS601 speakers. To complement the system, state-of-the-art Camco QPower10 and DPower4 amplifiers were chosen.
Burswood Marquee Keeps Noise Down
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Burswood’s poolside Summer Marquee was originally erected to solve an overflow problem but soon became a function favourite. Unfortunately it fell victim to some noise complaints from nearby high-rise apartments. Michael Altieri, Director of Conventions and Events at Burswood Entertainment Complex, turned to Jbn’s Sound Ceiling for the answer. Mega Vision Sound and Lighting installed the speaker system comprising of 144 tiles (1296 speakers) hung four metres off the ground from a truss. The result was that noise levels at the apartments are down to around 39dB which is incredibly low, and the marquee has become compliant with the local council requirements. Jbn: (03) 9379 0899 or www.jbn.com.au
Group Technologies: (03) 9354 9133 or www.grouptechnologies.com.au
Hi-Fi Sound Outdoors
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Canton believes there should be no reason to do without great sound. Even in difficult situations Canton’s Pro Series provides a whole range of sophisticated specialities that are as durable as they are subtle. These outdoor speakers are moisture protected, include a safety cord and mounting bracket. Canohm: 1800 636 026 or www.canohm.com.au
EAW: Snow Doubt About it
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Not Just Another Black Box
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The latest addition to the international Supperclub group recently opened in Hollywood. The venue features a flown, custom, five-way EAW line array system that covers the dancefloor and a smaller EAW system installed in the bar area. In addition, four EAW MicroWedges provide monitoring for DJs and guest music artists. Four EAW UX8800 four-channel digital signal processors manage the speaker systems, which are powered by Lab.gruppen amplification.
d&b, best known for no-expense-spared, primo touring PA systems, has released two series of install speakers. Under the umbrella label of The White Range, the xS-Series and xA-Series both include very compact indoor/outdoor, standalone and arrayable loudspeakers and matching subwoofers. Acoustically they produce a consistent neutral sound and, coupled with physically discreet mounting hardware, they’re likely to begin popping up in venues very shortly.
Production Audio (EAW): (03) 9264 8000 or www.productionaudio.com.au
National Audio: (03) 9761 5577 or www.nationalaudio.com.au
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A Light Picture
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Belvedere, a new wall lamp from Rotaliana, is set to be unveiled at the Milan Furniture Fair. Its die-cast aluminium body with polished chrome or painted finish contains a halogen bulb that projects a soft even glow downwards and upwards. Hung like a horizontal picture frame, the body extends 15cm from the wall, is 28cm wide and only 4.5cm high. Pricing starts at $423 including GST. Mondo Luce: (03) 9826 2232 or www.mondoluce.com
Cabra-Vale: In LED we Truss
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Cabra-Vale Diggers Club has a new-look auditorium. Haron Robson was commissioned by James Clifford Constructions to enhance the ambience and improve the audiovisual systems. The stage lighting system (supplied by Saltec) is designed to support live entertainment, stage shows and presentations. Three 3m motorised circular aluminium trusses can tilt, raise and lower for effect. They feature: eight Martin SmartMAC fittings, eight Martin MAC250 Entour fittings and 24 DMX controlled Pro Shop Tri-colour LED MultiPAR fittings. More LED MultiPARs and SmartMACs are mounted on the side walls to provide effect washes. A grandMA ultra-light console controls all 72 intelligent light fittings with 720 DMX channels. The switch to LED amounts to a 68% reduction in equivalent energy costs. Show Technology (Martin, Pro Shop): (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au
Sydney Town Hall Swings
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For four nights only, the Sydney Festival transformed Sydney Town Hall into swing-dancing heaven called the Trocadero Dance Palace, featuring a huge dancefloor, a fabulous floorshow and sizzling swing music. Sydney’s original Trocadero had its heyday in the 1940s and ’50s. It was demolished in the ’70s but clearly its spirit jives on. The lighting in the venue, designed by Matthew Marshall and including around 50 moving lights and a collection of LED fixtures along with generic theatrical lights, was programmed and operated by Peter Rubie who opted to use a Vista T4 running the Byron Beta software for control. Jands: (02) 9582 0909 or info@jands.com.au
Robe: Amway Calling
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Sydney recently played host to the mother of all corporate events — the 2011 Amway Gala Dinner, produced by Triumph Leisure Solutions (TLS). TLS engaged Clifton Productions to supply all the rigging, lighting and staging. Over 8000 Amway delegates from China travelled to the Dome in Homebush, which was transformed into an undersea wonderland with high-impact special effects and large-scale imagery. Clifton Productions supplied over 200 Robe moving lights including 80 of the new Robin LEDWash 600s. Travis Cilia from Clifton Productions: “We are impressed with the Robin’s ‘proper’ white and the wide range of high quality, subtle pastel colours, together with the massive zoom range.” ULA: 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com
Sharpy Cuts In
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The new Clay Paky Sharpy is a 189W moving beam light with an amazing brightness usually achievable only with far greater wattages. Weighing just 16kg, Sharpy produces a parallel, laser-like beam with an incredible output of 60,000lx at 20m. Sharpy is also groundbreaking for the purity of its beam, which is sharply defined and free of any halo or discolouration around the edges. It offers 14 different colours and 17 gobos, allowing you to change the shape of the beam and create an array of spectacular mid-air effects. With its light weight and modest footprint, Sharpy is small enough to be fitted anywhere. Show Technology: (02) 9748 1122 or www.showtech.com.au
Volker’s Fruit Salad Days
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The Volker Haug team like it firm ‘n’ fruity, creating ‘Artificial Fantasy’, a one-off lighting collection for the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. There are seven ‘supermodels’ in the collection including Carmen Banana — a wearable lighting piece that is a tip of the hat to fashion and the lady who made wearing plastic fruit cool. The one-off lights are available directly from the Volker site. Volker Haug: www.volkerhaug.com
At LAst! Venue dispLAy technoLogy thAt fits the biLL. Let’s face it. To survive, every venue needs patrons that keep coming back. That means immersing customers in an engaging experience. Well, you can do just that with new breed digital signage.
AV Media Systems’ digital signage makes a stylish and powerful addition to any venue. The dynamic, appealing display motivates and informs consumers with detail like: • Today’s menu specials direct from the kitchen • Next week’s entertainment with ticket availability • Virtual venue tours, including conference directions • Short video sequences, TV or in-house gaming results • Sponsored messages that generate revenue • Important notices and emergency announcements
Connecting People with Technology ■
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Communication innovation Imagine a system that broadcasts real time information across unlimited screens, with capacity to display location unique content. AV Media Systems’ digital signage offers this and so much more. Create your own branded multimedia display, including static content, live action or news and RSS media feeds. Enable handy features like time, weather or traffic conditions. Control and update the content yourself through a secure web interface supporting multiple users. That makes local or remote updates easy. Extending equipment life You choose whether to publish content with instant or schedule planned broadcasting, right down to an individual screen. A single digital signage unit connects your whole business, from one site to global presences. Best of all, this technology adapts to any screen. So you can make the most of your existing equipment.
To book a free demonstration or learn more about the latest in digital signage technology and its many hospitality venue benefits, phone AV Media Systems on 1300 302 884 or email info@avsystems.com.au
Amplifier & Speakers
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CCTV Surveillance Systems
MELBOURNE - SYDNEY - BRISBANE - PERTH
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CONTACTS Wayne Finschi Concept Design: (03) 9525 1895 or www.wfcd.com.au Offbite Projects (Building Contractor): 0418 325 058 or joe@offbite.net.au Camatic (Upholstered Armchairs): (03) 9837 7777 or www.camatic.com.au Café Culture (Feature Dining Table): (02) 9699 8577 or www.cafeculture.com.au PGR Furniture (Dining Tables): (03) 9326 6555 or www.pgrfurniture.com.au Thonet (Furniture): 1800 800 777 or www.thonet.com.au Bolon (Woven Vinyl): (03) 9827 1311 or www.theandrewsgroup.com.au 2
Signorino (Terrazzo): (03) 9427 9100 or www.signorino.com.au Academy Tiles (Mosaic Table Tops): (02) 9436 3566 or www.academytiles.com.au Stemporium (Vertical Planting Panels): (02) 9968 2138 or www.stemporium.com.au
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Ampelite (Ceiling Panels): (03) 9794 0977 or www.ampelite.com.au Masson For Light (Light Fittings): (03) 9437 0001 or www.massonforlight.com.au
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Great Dane Furniture (Cork ‘Float’ Pendant): (03) 9510 6111 or www.greatdanefurniture.com
Justin Fairweather and his brother Dylan are born and bred country boys from the Barossa Valley. Somehow they’ve ended up just off Chapel Street in Melbourne — home to bogans doing ‘chap laps’ in Commodores and rangy fashionistas — eager to launch their hospitality credentials and wine collection. Lost Pizza sits on the ground floor of a new apartment development called ‘Society’. The design by Wayne Finschi Concept Designs (WFCD) completely opens up the wide facade to the street, features interior garden walls and industrial market elements like large terracotta pipes on the back wall and a rough sawn oak timber bar.
got people like Paul Warden on board, ex-marketing managing director of 42 Below and ‘the guy that took the New Zealand vodka to the world’. And the brothers have their own international wine distribution company called Glasscase Wines. It means they can dig a little deeper than the average operator when it comes to filling up the glass. “We’ve had our own wineries in the past, so we’re lucky enough to have a lot of stock,” says Justin. “Eden Valley Riesling, which is what we pour for $7-8 a glass — vintages from ’98 all the way up to this vintage. And our house Shiraz is a 2002 Barossa Valley Shiraz. Wines that aren’t that easy to get.”
‘Society’ is a lifestyle concept, and Lost is intended to cater to both residents and locals. WFCD had to design for both a relaxed youthful demographic and an upmarket aesthetic, resulting in a mixed layout of casual communal spaces, ‘people watching’ nooks, intimate dining and an indoor/outdoor atmosphere. WFCD also created a food theatre concept that showcases the talents of not just one but both Lost’s chefs. The long space stops head chef Nathan Scarfo and pizza maestro Lou Maio getting in each other’s way — with Scarfo behind the main counter and Maio hawking his pizzas from a walk-up window at the far end.
It’s actually a big part of why they got into hospitality to get great wines out there at the ‘proper’ price. And talking of proper, they’ve got local coffee aficionados St Ali onside to provide quality coffee and conduct regular training sessions, so everyone can pull a proper cup of joe. They’re not stopping there either, they’ve just opened East Village in Sydney with chef Adam Spencer; are looking at a couple more Lost development sites with the developers of Society in Abbotsford and St Kilda; have their eyes on a Melbourne site they’re snapping up because it “would be sad not to do something with”, according to Justin; and are tossing around the idea of cut-down Lost pizza spin-offs. The Lost Boys are only gearing up.
Having two chefs may look like they’re laying it on, but the Fairweather boys don’t do things by halves. It helps when you’ve
TOUCH NOT LOST Lost Pizza: 30-34 Bray St, South Yarra VIC (03) 9915 8100 or www.lostpizza.com.au
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Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? With the addition of six new products (available in passive or powered VNET variants) the expanded VQ Series offers unrivalled performance in a compact, modular and versatile range of enclosures giving you the freedom to configure and build point-source systems for a wide variety of venue applications at any scale. It’s time to simplify your toolbox. • • • •
Ef-fi-cien-cy n. 1. The ratio of useful output to total input in any system. 2. The ratio of energy delivered by a machine to energy supplied for its operation. 3. The ratio of performance return based on financial investment. 4. Defining characteristic of Tannoy VQ Series.
series
Unit 1, 24 Vore Street Silverwater NSW 2128 Serving you with 20 years of LED experience
Class leading directivity characteristics Extremely high sensitivity and efficiency Exceptional transient response Perfect time alignment and phase coherence
To learn more about Tannoy call 1300 13 44 00 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au
CONTACTS Tanner Architects (Exterior Architects): (02) 9281 4399 or www.tannerarchitects.com.au Spangenberg + Park (Interior Design): (02) 9698 4938 or www.spangenbergpark.com.au 1
Niche Modern (Pendant Lights): www.nichemodern.com
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Preciosa (Chandelier & Wall Sconces): www.preciosa.com Mondo Luce (Ceiling Lights): (02) 9690 2667 or www.mondoluce.com Dedece (Step & Ceiling Lights): (02) 9360 2722 or www.dedece.com JSB Lighting (Wall & Ceiling Lights): (02) 9571 8800 or www.jsblighting.com.au
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Koda lighting (Wall Lights): (02) 9699 6007 or www.kodalighting.com.au Pierlite (Wall Lights): (02) 9360 2722 or www.pierlite.com.au 2
Prolight (Strip Light): (02) 9966 4444 or www.pro-light.com.au Skheme (Tiles): (02) 8755 2300 or www.skheme.com Cunneen Signs Group (Plaques and signage): (02) 9637 9400 or www.cunneensigns.com.au Custom Weave (Carpet): (03) 9376 6622 or www.customweave.com.au Deemah Stone (Marble tiles): (02) 9758 9299 or www.deemahstone.com.au Signature Prints (Wallpaper): (02) 8338 8400 or www.signatureprints.com.au Karisma (Joinery and Floor Lamps): (02) 9624 7733 or www.karisma.com.au Elite Food Service Equipment (Kitchen): (02) 9799 7211 or www.elitefoodserviceequip.com Unique Fabrics (Upholstery): (02) 9331 3086 or www.uniquefabrics.com.au Westbury Textiles (Fabric): (08) 9244 8222 or www.westburytextiles.com.au NSW Leather Co (Leather): (02) 93192900 or www.nswleather.com.au Tait Furniture (Cocktail Tables): (03) 9419 7484 or www.tait.biz IDC Colourfield (Silver Leafing): 0417 474 948 or www.idccolourfield.com Catherine Martin (Carpet): (02) 9334 1555 or www.catherinemartin.com
Guests of Dunbar House are living the dream
Manuel Spinola, Director of the Tea Room Group, has been quietly coveting Dunbar House for years. “I dreamt about Dunbar House… We’d go down to Watsons Bay for a swim and I’d look over at the dilapidated, mustard coloured house on the hill and think ‘what an amazing opportunity for a beautiful venue’.” When he saw that the 1830s Dunbar House on Watsons Bay was up for tender last year, his secret desire could finally become a reality. After a multi-million dollar refurbishment, the mustard is gone and Dunbar House has been returned to its former glory, albeit with a bold, contemporary edge. And with Head Chef, Keith Murray given the reins to be as creative as he wants with the menu, Spinola says the emphasis is on creating a special dining experience that will please brides and CEOs alike.
Tanner Architects has a long tradition of working in hospitality and is well known for transforming historic buildings. Even quirky finds like Dunbar House, which has had its share of strange guises including as a pseudo Austrian hunting lodge. Howard Tanner says the building now oozes “quiet luxury”, with a marble entrance, wood panelling, an elegant colour palette of greys and silvers, hand-crafted crystal chandeliers from the Czech Republic and original marble fireplaces. The extended balcony and large windows throughout, allow guests to catch glittering glimpses of Sydney Harbour from anywhere in the building. “Watsons Bay is beautiful, with a real residential, intimate feeling that you don’t get anywhere else on the harbour. It helps make Dunbar house so special,” says Spinola.
DREAM HOUSE Dunbar House: 9 Marine Parade, Watsons Bay NSW (02) 9337 1226 or info@dunbarhouse.com.au Story: Jeanavive McGregor
High performance meets high refinement JBL Control Contractor 60 Series Pendant loudspeakers bring renowned JBL sound and outstanding coverage to rooms and venues with open architecture or high-ceilings, while providing superior voice and musical clarity for rooms with difficult acoustics. The diverse line-up, coupled with stylish design, is suitable for a wide variety of applications and decors, from convention and exhibit spaces to atriums, restaurants and retail stores. Included, easy-to-install hanging hardware features redundant suspension cables and UL listed adjustable-height hangers.
Control 62 P
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CONTACTS At Qubed Design: 0406 101 707 or www.atqubeddesign.com Chairbiz (Furniture): 1300 888 434 or www.chairbiz.com Café Culture (Furniture): (02) 9699 8577 or www.cafeculture.com.au Hughes Commercial Furniture: 1800 242 479 or sales@hughescf.com.au InterfaceFlor (Carpet): 1800 008 101 or www.interfaceflor.com.au JSB Lighting: (02) 9571 8800 or www.jsblighting.com.au Pro-Light: (02) 9966 4444 or www.pro-light.com.au Kvadrat Maharam (Upholstery): (02) 9212 4277 or www.kvadratmaharam.com Mokum Textiles (Upholstery): (03) 9811 4100 or www.mokumtextiles.com Radford Furnishings (Upholstery): (03) 9818 7799 or www.radfordfurnishings.com.au Nightlife: 1800 679 748 or www.nightlife.com.au
BACK AT THE RANCH The Ranch: Corner Herring & Epping Road, Eastwood NSW (02) 9887 2411 or www.theranch.com.au Story: Joanna Lowry Photos: Anthony Habashy
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The Ranch has gone a bit darker, just don't mention brown
A few years ago the ALH group rounded up The Ranch, adding the suburban bar and bistro to its sizeable herd of 158 licensed venues. When ALH first took the reins the fitout was barn-like. “It used to be all brown-on-brown,” Steve Howarth, NSW State Manager for the ALH group, says. “It was just one big room filled with nothing but tables and chairs. There were no personalised sections. There was no real atmosphere.” To make the space more inviting for the local families, Macquarie University students and corporate groups from the nearby Macquarie Park, ALH enlisted the help of At Qubed Design. Custom-made laser-cut metallic screens were incorporated to break up the void; booth seating added to afford diners privacy; and two long marble tables, each seating up to 14 people, were used to create a corporate function space. Howarth was particularly pleased with the Chairbiz ‘Kaleidos’ chairs, “we’ve scratched them, we’ve rubbed food into them, we’ve spilt drinks on them and whatever it is that they’re made of, it’s super industrial. When lights hit them, they have a really nice, shiny, reflective appearance, and they’re perfect for reclining in and enjoying a leisurely meal with friends.”
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The colour scheme takes cues from the bistro’s menu — steak and wine — and includes black, charcoal, burgundy reds, champagne and gold. “[At Qubed Design] showed us both lighter options and darker options,” Howarth says. “We opted for a darker colour scheme because it makes the large space look more intimate.”
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CONTACTS Herniman+ Group (Interior Design): (03) 9419 7500 or www.herniman.com.au 1
Hub Furniture (Flow Dining Chairs): (03) 9652 1222 or www.hubfurniture.com.au
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Jardan (Kiku Sofa): (03) 9548 8866 or www.jardan.com.au Contemporary Leathers (Leather Upholstery): (03) 9427 9055 or www.contemporaryleathers.com.au
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Eco Outdoor (Jan Juc Tables): 1300 131 413 or www.ecooutdoor.com.au
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Globe West (Arm Chairs): (03) 9518 1600 or www.globewest.com.au Supertuft (Carpet): (03) 9427 8600 or www.supertuft.com.au Prestige Carpets (Sun Room Berwick Tweed Carpet): (03) 9708 6913 or www.prestigecarpets.com.au Loop Textiles (Banquette Upholstery): (03) 9811 4100 or www.mokumtextiles.com
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Radford (Wallpaper & Armchair Fabric): (03) 9818 7799 or www.radfordfurnishings.com.au
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Dulux: 132 525 or www.dulux.com.au 5
Cromwell Lighting (Herniman Designed Pendants): (03) 9510 5294 Inlite (Discoco Pendant & La Cage): (03) 9429 9828 or www.inlite.com.au
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Astoria Floors (Floor Treatment): 1300 724 777 or www.astoriafloors.com.au
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2 Herniman's mega pendants are a surefire way to attract traffic
PRICE IS RIGHT Malvern Hotel: Cnr Glenferrie & Malvern Roads, Toorak VIC (03) 9822 3582 or www.themalvern.com
It’s a bad sign if patrons consistently ask not to sit somewhere in your venue. But that’s what was happening at the Malvern Hotel’s Sun Room, when new owners Ken Price and Michael and Susan Burke came on board. “They called it the Terrace,” says Price. “It was like a veranda that had been boxed in, with tables put there just for the sake of it, and people would always say, ‘I don’t want to be down there’.” “It was a shame,” said Ryun Johnston, interior designer for the Herniman+ Group. But rather than covering up the embarrassment, with main road traffic whizzing by the windows, Johnston turned it into a billboard for the hotel. “One way to give it presence was to hang large pendants, which would be a visual representation that something was going on in there.” And the set of Earl Pinto striped pendants, combined with tidy Chinoiserie joinery, sturdy modern furniture from Hub, new Tweed
carpet from Prestige and custom banquettes have transformed the Sun Room into a space people are actually booking into. The fresh aesthetic is carried into the 1950s gardenstyle of the lounge area, with more Chinoiserie joinery, green ‘grass’ rug, tree stump stools, and black japanned Globe West armchairs covered in floral motif fabric. Price, former GM of a catering company whose phone never stopped ringing, relishes ownership. It shows when he walks in the door at 11 in the morning and immediately dons a bar apron. “Actually getting on the floor and looking after your own customers, because they are your own customers. It’s about doing what you believe in.” Price is firm about how the fitout has changed business at the Malvern, and reckons it was well worth it. “You pay the right price to do things right the first time, it’s just like plumbing or gas.”
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CONTACTS SJB Interiors: (02) 9380 9911 or www.sjb.com.au Euroluce (Downlights): (03) 9657 9657 or www.euroluce.com.au
AUDIO Be Productions integrated existing audiovisual equipment with new equipment to bring the Commodore system back to life again. A Cloud zone control system keeps it simple for bar staff, allowing them to control all five zones via remotes behind the bar. Ivory coloured HK Audio IL8.1 speakers were selected for the main bar area, the boxes were ceiling mounted and tucked neatly into corners rendering them almost invisible against the bookshelf wallpaper. For outdoors, Be Productions decided to use a relatively new speaker in Australia, The One System 106IM and 108IM. The installation required a durable speaker for the courtyard — wind, rain, dust and appearance were all factored into the speaker selection. “One System provides spectacular sound quality with an IP56 rating which we found was unparalleled in this market,” said Be Productions director Marc McAvoy. The Commodore installation was finished with a DSPPA 100V line system piping music through the toilet, gaming and restaurant areas. “We are pleased to say we have provided a fantastic system for the Commodore and believe it or not came in under budget!” Said McAvoy.
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Ke-zu (Hive Geisha Bamboo Lamp): (02) 9699 6600 or www.kezu.com.au Jetmaster (Heat & Glo Indoor Gas Fireplace): 1300 538 627 or www.jetmaster.com.au Celmec (Heated Shade Umbrellas): (02) 8436 7200 or www.celmec-international.com
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Empire Vintage (Deborah Bowness Wallpaper): (03) 9682 6677 or www.empirevintage.com.au Arte Domus (Barfront Tile): (02) 9557 5060 or www.artedomus.com Zepel Fabrics (Upholstery): 1800 651 510 or www.zepelfabrics.com.au South Pacific Fabrics (Perennial Pattern Cushion): (03) 9521 3044 or www.southpacificfabrics.com JR Weave (External Cushion): (02) 9310 7155 or www.jamesrichardson.com.au
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Indigo Pop (Tables & Frankenstool): (02) 9699 7700 or www.indigopop.com.au Tait Outdoor (Custom Stripe Table): (03) 9416 0909 or www.tait.biz
CMI (HK Audio, One Systems & DSPPA): (03) 9315 2244 or www.cmi.com.au
Jardan (Cuban Chair):
National Audio (Cloud Zone Control): 1300 966 690 or www.nationalaudio.com.au
The Commodore is still about the outdoor courtyard and terrace. In fact, says Richards, there has never been much else to the hotel other than its
Premier Carpets (Icon Axminster Carpet): (02) 9310 4455
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BE Productions: (02) 9698 0567 or www.beproductions.com.au
When the advertising crowd left North Sydney, so did the Commodore’s clientele. What had once been a vibrant Sydney hotel with an outdoor courtyard to die for had been forgotten. Enter SJB Interiors, which has been working with the Commodore for a while to help reposition the hotel. Working on the project over a long period had its benefits according to Jonathan Richards, SJB Director, “It had a big curved kidney-shaped bar, and the first thing we said was, ‘you’ve got to get rid of that stupid-shaped bar and put in a nice bar’. But times changed and I started to like it. One thing the pub had going for it was the bar, no one would do that nowadays. So we just redid it.”
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(03) 9548 8866 or www.jardan.com.au
outdoor areas. “It’s a funny pub. Most of the floor area is outside, with only a little bit of internal seating. In the summer it’s a no-brainer, but in the winter its fails because nobody wants to sit outside. It never had an internal lounge area. So what we did was create a cosy, intimate lounge space next bar and wrapped bookshelf wallpapers from London around the walls, reupholstered the seating, put in some fixed banquette seating, and low level lights. Now it has a loungier internal wintery side to it.” And to make sure passing clientele remembered the old girl was still there, SJB hung up some Kezu bamboo lanterns on the overhanging courtyard trees, and painted the façade a vivid green. It’s a simple reminder said Richards, “that there’s life going on.”
COURTYARD APPEAL Commodore Hotel: 206 Blues Point Road, North Sydney NSW (02) 9922 5098 or www.commodorehotel.com.au
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CONTACTS Marchese Partners (Public Areas): (02) 9922 4375 or www.marchesepartners.com.au Marques Interior Services (FF&E Procurement): (02) 9517 3112 or www.marquesinteriors.com.au Chernway (Upholstery): (02) 9564 1622 or www.chernway.com Sleepyhead (Beds): (07) 3902 8888 or www.sleepyhead.com.au
07 5599 1551 www.jdistribution.net
Northern Territory - Queensland / New South Wales - Victoria sam@jdistribution.net mick@jdistribution.net
Harvey Norman Commercial (Electrical Appliances): (02) 9710 4155 or www.harveynormancommercial.com.au
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There’s been a lot of change at the Mercure Sydney Potts Point. It recently went under the knife, with Marchese Partners overhauling the public areas, and owners Australand taking care of the guest rooms. Not only that, the hotel only recently entered the Accor stable under the banner of Mercure. So, with a fresh look, a new name, and a whole new management team, Mercure Sydney Potts Point is raring to kick some goals. The hotel splits the concierge and reception over two levels. While the ground floor entrance features a solitary concierge desk and elevators, pink and grey hues, and mood lighting, the first floor opens up to a wide timber-clad reception desk, comfortable ottoman lounges and a bright, modern look. The point being that if you waltz in late in the evening, you can skip the brighter lights of reception and head straight to your room. The hotel has 227 guestrooms that feature a wealth of space, and plenty of window space to enjoy the views. There are also five function rooms on the first floor that connect to an outdoor terrace, with its own bar for private functions. And for the nonfunction guests, the Cursa restaurant and Delta Bar are open every day around lunch and dinner.
MERCURE POINTS THE WAY Mercure Sydney Potts Point: 226 Victoria St, Potts Point NSW (02) 9397 1777 or reservations@mercuresydneypottspoint.com.au
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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Siana Valley is exactly the kind of open venue you would expect to see more of in Queensland. Designed by Insyde Restaurant Group Managing Director Grant Johnston, Siana Valley spans two levels with a floor-to-ceiling glass façade. Johnston wanted Siana Valley to be a “spacious contemporary venue with sensational décor.” And with over 790sqm of floor space spread over four zones and flowing over two levels, it sure is spacious. Johnston’s contemporary leaning is obvious, with the geometric interior, clean palette of colours, fluorescent Spunlight pendants from Euroluce and a VIP area with minimalist clear pool table. The multi-level venue has plenty of intimate corners, an upstairs restaurant, a main bar, a lounge and the VIP area. Event Sound’s Greg Calvert installed the audio and Moonlighting lit up the large spaces. The restaurant at Siana Valley is an Asian experience. Not just settling for one style of cuisine, there’s a tandoor spitting out naan and roti breads, as well as plenty of succulent Indian flavours. There’s also dim sum and other Chinese cuisine available from the open kitchen. Eurofurn supplied all the furniture, creating a comfortable environment to take in all the action of the Valley.
WIDE OPEN VALLEY Siana Valley: 512 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley QLD (07) 3252 9960 or info@sianavalley.com.au
CONTACTS: Eurofurn (Furniture): 1300 387 638 or www.eurofurn.com.au Euroluce (Spun Lights): (07) 3831 0999 or www.euroluce.com.au Moonlighting (Lighting): (07) 3621 9275 or www.moonlighting.com.au
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ACTION MEN
Feature
How a Melbourne trio has been turning around potential bad buys into local heroes. Story: Mark Davie Portraits: Corey Sleap
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f you’re struggling to find a suitable title for your establishment, just take your pick from the Commercial, the Bridge or Newmarket hotel. They’re the Springfield of pub names, rotating across pub shingles from Byron to Bunbury, with 10-dollar parmas on a Tuesday, bingo on a Friday. The Newmarket in St Kilda was no different. In fact, it was much worse — a hovel of a joint that opened at seven in the morning in time for St Kilda’s ladies of the night to have knockoff drinks. An industrious lot, they eventually started augmenting their trade to include topless barmaid work and public entertainment. While the prostitutes were trying their hand at an honest day’s work, the owners let the kitchen out to a bunch of Hungarians — their spread of schnitzels, goulash and dumplings drawing a devout flock of Hungarian Jews. And thereafter the freakshow combination of St Kilda’s prostitutes and Jews (shrinking beneath their yarmulkes insisting they were there ‘for the food’) became known as ‘Schnitz ‘n’ Tits’. Now the only thing left of the old Newmarket is the façade. Seriously, the 1860s Federation-style freestanding brick façade is the sole remaining vestige of the original hotel. Everything else — the roof, the walls, everything — has been completely torn down to house a new building designed by Six Degrees; the schnitz has been left off the menu and replaced by Paul Wilson’s South American sharing plates; and Julian Gerner has cleared out the topless barmaids and steered the hotel away from a laissezfaire booze-up. The Newmarket is on top of its game, for perhaps the first time in decades. It’s the third act in a recurring rags-toriches story presided over by the same group of talent. It’s a plot that’s not uncommon — a pub on its last legs is brought back to life with a new dining and bar concept, a complete redesign, and top nosh that turns it from a ‘pub with gastro’ to a ‘gastro pub’.
THREE’S COMPANY Every successful hospitality venture needs the triumvirate of skills that is: an eye for design, a chef with taste, and a smooth operator to tie everything together. And this group has got it down pat. The eyes are covered by Six Degrees architects, whose style has developed out of the innovative ‘waste not want not’ recession busting efforts of the ’90s. The mouth is in the safe hands of Wilson, who over the last few years has been taking advantage of his consistent success with venues like The Botanical to spread his wings even further, and consult over a number of restaurants. And operations come instinctively to Julian Gerner of the Melbourne Pub Group
(co-owned by Tom Walker) who spent years in the cutthroat world of nightclub marketing before transitioning to pubs, and is a natural face for operations. The first act was the Albert Park Hotel, a grand old dame built in 1883, transformed in 2007. The bayside hotel still has a touch of the ancient mariner about it, with art deco portholes left intact, timber battens arranged like overhead decking, and the new Oyster Bar & Grill with lobster pot lamp shades and timber tables recycled from the docks of Princes Pier. “They want a bayside eating experience,” says chef Paul Wilson of the Albert Park locals. “We thought seafood would go really well because they’re health conscious, they’re international, and they want to eat fish because they’ve moved to the bay for a reason.” Specifically Mediterranean seafood, says Wilson, because it’s a destination the locals love. The triumvirate struck again in the second act: Middle Park Hotel. This time the hotel was left sporting some of its old world charm — MPH insignias emblazoned across the plush pile, wood panelling imported from the MCC’s Long Room, a 70m-long bar with 45 beer taps — all with a touch of the New York boutique hotel, with antique luggage trunks in the foyer a giveaway of the 25 rooms with a view. “The initial style for the Middle Park was old world sport, circa 1950s,” says Paul. “Which was really good, because you don’t usually get all that background information when you’re developing a concept. Straight away I knew where he was coming from. It had to be meat focused because it’s sport, it’s men… that masculine feel. Obviously Middle Park is quite a mature area, it’s million dollar houses and everyone’s in that plus 40s and 50s bracket. They want to eat mature, robust food, and want a sense of comfort too, which suited the venue and the décor.” The third act, Newmarket, builds on the strong performances of the equally dramatic turnarounds at the Albert Park Hotel and Middle Park Hotel and draws to a climax. For Gerner, who got his start earning a dollar on the door as a nightclub promoter, it’s a final-mile marker in a marathon that has taken him from entertainment to great food. Whereas Albert Park has a dining area separated from the public bar, and the 70m-long bar is the central focus of the Middle Park Hotel, food is everywhere at the Newmarket, with its South American-inspired menu designed for sharing. “I guess I’ve evolved,” says Julian. “The older I’ve got and the more I’ve gone from one end of the spectrum, 100% entertainment to nearly 100% food. Entertainment is a lot more trend-based
“If you want to hang your salamander from the roof for good luck, then God bless you…They can curse themselves when they set their hair on fire!” and it’s a lot harder to maintain that trend. Food is a staple by definition. People have to eat and if you’re doing a good food product and you can combine it with what we think are exciting and interesting spaces, and have a unique offer, that is the key — not doing the same thing as everyone else. Hence the reason we try and re-invent ourselves continuously with the stock, the style of food, the product offer, the wine deals.” THE BIG TIME Everything at the Newmarket is oversized. The tables have an extra 100mm on each length, the dining chairs are like armchairs and the dry bar stools would satisfy the most committed pokies player. The deliberate supersizing is part of the Newmarket’s food bent because of their restriction on numbers. And it’s made it one of the most comfortable and spacious venues in town. “Originally it was to be four storeys with a members’ club, swimming pool, and decks,” said Julian. “But we ended up with quite a restrictive license in terms of numbers, mainly driven by the car parking in the area. So we refined our product and came up with what’s essentially a dining hall. It’s still a pub, but the food became the key focus. We take reservations and that allows us to control our numbers. “If you wanted to run this like a semiclub you could fit 500 people in here chock-a-block. We try and cater for around 220, that’s a really comfortable number. In that situation nearly everyone’s got a seat and that’s the way we want it. We don’t want it packed shoulder-to-shoulder, we don’t want a ‘scene’ per se, for it to become a free-for-all, laissez-faire, boozer atmosphere. So it’s all around the food — eating and drinking, laughing and joking.” A GLASSY ESTABLISHMENT The façade of the new building is almost entirely glass. “It’s a bit of a Six Degrees trait that we love,” said Julian. “Having the open-air indoor/outdoor
areas where the spaces become seamless, whether you’re in or out.” Inside, there has also been an emphasis on reclaimed materials with recycled bricks that came off building sites used for the bar face. Recycled timber from Princes Pier left over from Albert Park was used for the chef’s table — costing around $7000 just for the tabletop — and took eight strong lads to heave it into place. And, with perhaps less environmental merit, a strip of lurid wallpaper uncovered during demolishing has been digitally replicated complete with smoke stains and years of water-damage. Hanging vegies around the chef’s table was an idea ripped from ‘Rocky’s Fruit Shop’, a talisman of how serious they are about food, and to give it a new market feel. “We don’t really know what heritage the name Newmarket refers to, whether there were market gardens out this way,” said Julian. “East St. Kilda was all farming land back in the day, so perhaps it refers to something along those lines.” The Newmarket is full of little surprises. Run your hand over the dry bars and you might have a bit of a chuckle at the kitschy woodgrain laminate. “It suited it,” says Healy with a wicked smile. “We had to hunt really far and wide to get stuff this bad! But this is real old St. Kilda, like the old Prince of Wales. It was appropriate here. It took a little bit of convincing but I like it — it’s a bit daggy.” And the carpet is like standing on the flanno of a lumberjack. “You need patterns for food trading areas, block colours won’t last three weeks — drop one carafe of red and a pizza on it and it’s game over!” That’s exactly Six Degrees’s motivation. Innovation with a little twinkle in the eye. “The innovation side of Six Degrees is what we layer into every project because it’s what we’re good at. Other people can more finely craft and detail stuff better than us. But I think that’s the word that best describes what we’re interested in. Not innovation for innovation’s sake, we like problem solving… how you really
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get stuff to work. You don’t want stuff to just be weird for the sake of it, like a green, squashed, glass doughnutshaped building. That’s not us. Kill five birds with one stone… there’s no rules as long as you can get it to work.”
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RELATIONSHIP BY DESIGN Julian has been working with Six Degrees for much longer than just these three venues. “We’ve been at it now since Pelican with Paul Olynyk in around 2000-2001. Even though Pelican is not my business we’ve been collaborating with Six Degrees for over 10 years — and constantly. Every project we learn something new about each other and get tighter in our vision. We both see the same things and work off each other, occasionally we’ll disagree and that’s healthy and there’s now areas that I take on exclusively and areas that they take on exclusively.” That long-term working relationship has meant the roles have found a natural equilibrium. “For example,” continues Julian. “Now the kitchen designs have been completely taken away from the architects and handed over to Paul Wilson. And we will design the bars. Not the counter-tops and the façade, but the efficiencies and systems that we’ve learnt along the way really have a direct influence on the ability to turnover money and staff-to-wage productivity.” And though Mark Healy has kitted out his fair share of kitchens, he’s more than happy to hand over the reins. “I’m over kitchens. I don’t care what operators do in kitchens. Life’s too short to fight with chefs! If you want to hang your salamander from the roof for good luck, then God bless you. Better that whoever’s got to use it live with their mistakes. They can curse themselves when they set their hair on fire!” CHEF DE MISSION ‘Kitchen Designer’ is just another role Paul Wilson takes on in his ever-expanding career as a chef that has also seen him turn consultant, market analyst and employment office, among other things. And he’s had experience in the pub revival industry before. Not long ago, Wilson was head chef of The Botanical, and — just like the Albert Park, Middle Park and Newmarket — was part of a team that turned the flagging hotel into a top-class eatery. He’s since turned his hand to a number of venues, so many it’s hard to keep up. He’s Australia’s answer to Gordon Ramsay, without the obvious profiteering and lengthening list of failures to his name. But Paul Wilson takes the concept of ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and actually does it for real, consulting with venue owners, crafting a new concept, menu, training and employing staff — a bottomto-top reworking of a venue’s entire food offering to deliver what’s right for the area.
“It’s been an ambition of mine to open many venues,” says Paul. “I’m a very enthusiastic cook, and I love all genres of food. I wanted to do something that would really push my creativity. Having an opportunity to consult and create new concepts, and also take a failing business or ailing business and give it new life or energy. Being a professional chef that’s essentially what you do every day of your life, you motivate chefs around you, customers, and suppliers. It’s part of being a successful chef anyway. But it’s taking all of that into a freelance role — still being a figurehead, but to many venues, and being as creative as you are with your own menu, but to numerous venues.” “The initial growth in my consulting business came from working with great people who have worked with me for a long time, and trying to create growth for them as well. The most frustrating thing for young chefs is there’s no room to move. They want to learn new cuisines, they want to work in new venues, but they don’t want to leave that culture of good management. If they can find a good culture where there are professional, modern kitchens, a good work ethic, sound management practises, and great produce, they can translate that to different venues.” SEX DEGREES Even though Julian, Paul and Six Degrees have turned the tables at Newmarket, Schnitz ‘n’ Tits hasn’t entirely left the building. Julian has plans for a cellar bar with burlesque entertainment, and Paul Wilson and Six Degrees have jumped on board again. “The cellar bar is a completely separate entity that just inhabits the same piece of earth — separate name, staffing, kitchen, offer, access, business model, everything is separate,” says Julian. “The idea is you’ll access the cellar bar from the laneway, you’ll be met by a doorperson at the top in an elevator, you’ll go down the elevator, the doors will open and you’ll be in a completely different world. Start off in a car park and end up in a playground. It will be high quality dining with Fringe-style entertainment, which is something unique and we hope will add to the dining and entertainment landscape. The show will be like Spiegeltent, and it will be highend food, a throwback to the old days of a cabaret club where it’s not food just as sustenance. There’s no polished concrete, a lot more velvet, a lot more carpet, a lot more brass, and perhaps gold leaf. Who knows what Six Degrees will turn up with? They can be very creative.” And when venue questioned Mark Healy over Six Degrees getting a little sexy, he had this to say: “We used velvet on the first job, the whole back wall of Meyer’s Place Bar was a big blue velvet curtain. Velvet? No problem.”
CONTACTS Six Degrees: (03) 9635 6000 or www.sixdegrees.com.au Mr Wilson: www.mrwilson.com.au Tate Construction (Builder): 0410 645 564 or www.richardtateconstruction.com.au Mr Carpet: (02) 9417 8800 or www.mrcarpet.com.au Kendall (Furniture): (03) 9569 8119 or www.kendallfurniture.com.au Drew Fey (Communal Table): 0409 242 549 Caroma (Bathroomware): 13 14 16 or www.caroma.com.au Paddy’s Bricks: (03) 9687 1986 or www.paddysbricks.com.au Big River Timbers (Plywood): (03) 9586 6900 or www.bigrivertimbers.com.au Jetmaster (Fireplace): 1300 538 627 or www.jetmaster.com.au Classic Ceramics (Tiles): (02) 9560 6555 or www.classicceramics.com.au I Love My Garden (Landscaping): 0423 058 993
Newmarket's dining chairs — perfect for those especially 'long' lunches
Julian pilfered Rocky's hanging vegies, and his flanno too
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[l-r] Albert Park Hotel Oyster Bar & Grill, Six Degrees adds some old St Kilda touches to the new Newmarket, a section of Middle Park Hotel's 70m-long bar
WINE ON TAP For all of Newmarket’s focus on food you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d forgotten about the booze. And with wine on tap, from the outset, it seems they might. But Julian Gerner takes the time to explain the idea and what it’s doing for the Newmarket: “This particular bar is unique in that it has no packaged product, it’s all delivered via tap. There are some soft drinks, but no bottled beer and limited bottled wines and champagnes — the majority of it is delivered via tap. There are two wine stations both with a burgundy and white tap — they deliver the majority of our wine. And there are two beer stations at the front corners here. The idea is you can create little pods that are self-contained and deliver the whole product offering without having to move between ends of the bar. “It’s something that has been done before, but is not very common. We did it at the Royal Saxon, Guiseppe Arnaldo & Sons do it, Innocent Bystander has done it with their Moscato. So it’s not something that’s completely foreign, but I think we’re the first to do it on the scale whereby it becomes the core offering, rather than an ancillary house wine offer. “There are 10 different wines on tap — rosé, four whites, and
four or five reds. There are some lighter styles in the reds and the food is quite spicy so there’s always going to be a pinot. There’s plenty of wine to play around with. “It’s our complete offer and we’ve had to battle the misconception that it’s cheap — it’s not, it’s just pre-bottle. It comes straight from the barrel into our canisters. The labels are actually well-known wine labels they’d pay a lot more for if they’ve gone through the marketing process, the bottling process and the distribution channels. In other words, all the layers that add to the cost of a bottle of wine — corking, boxing, packaging, shipping — get cut out. “We get good quality wine, shipped straight in the barrel to us, and we tap it up into a decanter. We’re trying to shake up the perception that it’s cheap wine. It’s not cheap wine, it’s good quality wine, just cheaper delivery at a cheaper price because of the efficiencies in the way we do it. “We do have a premium selection, a cellar bar list with super high-end Californian wines and French wines. We feel that there’s certainly enough on offer from our mini-list delivered straight from the barrel to satisfy most people and if you have a premium palate then go for your life.”
LANEWAY CULTURE Melbourne loves its laneways, so much so that developer Michael Yates decided to build his own, and managed to land a few big fish along the Yarra. Story: Mark Davie 40
Feature
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hat do you do when a city famous for its laneway culture runs out of rat-runs? Simple: build more. That’s precisely what developer Michael Yates has done. He’s built Yarra Lane right in the middle of his latest South Yarra development, and, in the process, filled it with a population of thousands and a who’s who of operators. Yates bought the old South Yarra yeast factory about seven years ago, and spent another two years getting the 10,000sqm of land recategorised from medium to high density. It wasn’t hard getting the Stonnington council behind the regeneration of the rundown site into 16 storeys of offices, and 22 storeys of residential. Once the development kicked off, he managed to buy up a few more parcels of land in the area, and now has a formidable slice of fresh buildings in South Yarra. Estimates project that 8000–9000 new residents will be calling the area home in the next three years. “It’s virtually a little city in itself, the new South Yarra,” says Yates.
WHO’S WHO The development is going gangbusters, according to Yates. “All the apartments and offices are virtually sold, all the shops are leased and interestingly enough it’s become a foodie’s Mecca of sorts.” First cab off the rank was coffee impresario and the man behind St Ali, Salvatore Malatesta. He has already opened three outlets, the cheekily-named Asian restaurant MoPho, Deba Sushi Bar, and extended his presence at the Outpost café with a dining room extension. Davis Yu, the young gun who only just opened his first venue The Millswyn, has already laid claim to a large corner frontage and plans to open an organic food store aligned with the principles of the Daylesford Organic Farm in the UK. “Food wise it will be leaning towards Asian fusion,” says Yu. “But with a really big focus on fine produce sourced from specific farms — a focus on where everything’s coming from. We don’t want to buy it from big outlets, but direct from farmers where possible. We’re still working with the interior designers [Hecker Guthrie] now. It will be open in June, July, August.” Dominic Gentile who ran alpine venues The White Room and Snow Pony, as well as a stint as GM of EQ Restaurant has taken over the Velocé Café
Yarra Lane Originals (L to R): George Calombaris and Vasilios Donoudis (Mama Baba), Ben Cooper and Salvatore Malatesta (MoPho), Dominic Gentile (Veloce Restaurant Bar) and Davis Yu (Claremont Tonic Co.).
adjoining the Dutton’s Sporting Cars showroom floor. Gentile has renamed it Velocé Restaurant Bar, increased its capacity dramatically, and brought a bit of fun back to the long-serving tenancy. The biggest coup has been getting George Calombaris on board. He is set to open his latest ‘Greco Roman extravaganza’ Mama Baba in September. “The highlight will be when George Calombaris opens his restaurant,” says Yates. “It’s 400sqm and a very substantial capital outlay.” FIRST BITE Yates is a self-confessed foodie, which goes a long way to explaining the resulting tenants. “Personally I have an interest in anything related to food and fashion and that to me is integrally wrapped up with property development. I keep a very close eye on what younger people are doing.” And getting the right people just took a bit of hard work and nailing his biggest fish first. Yates likens it to the George’s apartments he had on Little Collins Street years ago. At the time Café Cucina was almost a household name, and looking to stretch into local fashion areas beyond Chapel Street. “Café Cucina became a trademark name and they took some shops on the ground floor of this apartment building. The minute it was announced, all the other shopfronts filled up. It’s a drawcard with a major occupant — it’s like Myer or David Jones locked into a shopping centre and all the others follow.” Nowadays it’s not without its incentives. “We give them substantial help in terms of contributions to the fitout and we soften the rent for the first year or two because we were very fussy about who went in — the make-up, the calibre of the occupants. We didn’t want to put just anybody in to fill the shops up only to find they go broke six months later. We’ve been very patient and fortunately we’ve now got to the stage where every occupant is of the highest calibre.” As with all the great laneways in Melbourne’s CBD, they’re only as notable as the traffic that passes through. And that’s where Yates has really hit his mark. Yarra Lane isn’t just a developer’s desire to look hip, it will serve as a bona-fide pedestrian link from the South Yarra station right through to Chapel Street. Somehow Yates has managed to funnel a whole market right through the middle of his development. That’s the real coup.
Outpost Dining Room
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Outpost was the first new kid on the Yarra Lane block — a testing of the waters for Salvatore Malatesta, before committing to what has become a trifecta of eateries, including MoPho and Deba Sushi. A brilliant design by Hecker Guthrie brought a homely colonial edge to Brit chef Paul Jewson’s cooking, complete with French Lacanche oven that looks straight out of a period film. The glass triangle shopfront is tiny though, and almost immediately — even with chairs and tables ballooning out onto the concourse — Outpost’s popularity outgrew its space. In came Hassell to complete the second stage, a dining room appended to the kitchen that let Outpost spread its wings. “In the morning it’s packed here,” said Scott Walker, Hassell Principal. “It was part of the urgency of getting this really going. All of a sudden the apartments are getting built and there’s a population that is able to sustain these cafés — there’s an appetite to avoid Chapel Street, and stick to the back lanes.” Picking up from where another designer has left off is not an easy task, and Hassell decided to focus on keeping the level of authenticity rather than just transplanting the original design. “When you try and replicate something it’s a recipe for disaster,” said Walker. “It needs to be an enjoyable space in its own right where people actually hang out. It’s just different.” Hassell spent a lot of time trawling the outskirts of Victoria looking for authentic pieces, the recycled shopfront is from Daylesford with some of its glass replaced with pink panels, the electrical conduit has been worked into the design, and has a recycled carpentry floor. Walker says, “It’s not overly decorated but there’s a sense of dressing to it. It’s supposed to be pretty utilitarian and robust. And as it gets marked, scuffed and worn down a bit more, hopefully it will look even better. Salvatore is a great operator because he really understands about the life of a café and how to set up something new that’s actually got a sense of life and age.”
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CONTACTS Hassell (Design): (03) 8102 3000 or www.hassell.com.au Exhibit (Metal Chair): (03) 9663 6333 or www.exhibit.net.au Pomp (Orbit Stool & Table Bases): (03) 9696 9669 or www.pomp.com.au Inlite (Downlights): (03) 9429 9828 or www.inlite.com.au Euroluce (Jielde Wall Lights): (03) 9657 9657 or www.euroluce.com.au
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Corporate Culture (Porcelight Pendant): (03) 9654 8522 or www.corporateculture.com.au Contemporary Leathers (Dining Chair Seat Pads): (03) 9427 9055 or www.contemporaryleathers.com.au Oz Awnings: (03) 8685 8800 or www.ozawnings.com.au Viridian (Windows & Doors): 1800 810 403 or www.viridianglass.com
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Bronzeworks (Metal): (03) 9427 7157 or www.bronzeworks.com.au Dulux: 132 525 or www.dulux.com.au Signorino (Table Tiles): (03) 9427 9100 or www.signorino.com.au Pacific Floors (Timber Flooring): (03) 8825 6780 or www.pacificfloors.net.au Australian Recycled Timber: (03) 9359 0300 or www.australianrecycledtimber.com.au Nicholas & Astair: (03) 9486 9595 or www.nicholasandastair.com Izzi & Poppo (Basin & Planters): (03) 9696 1771 or info@izziandpopo.com.au
MoPho
CONTACTS Hassell (Design): (03) 8102 3000 or www.hassell.com.au
MoPho, though one of three Salvatore Malatesta venues in the precinct, is securely the realm of head chef Benjamin Cooper (ex-Nobu, Ezard and Longrain). Cooper has been with Malatesta for a while now, delivering a raw food menu at Sensory Lab, among others, but given his Asian experience, this has the look of a Cooper initiative. And Cooper has taken to his new station like a duck to water, even tempting locals’ tastebuds with one of his personal favourites, fish heads. Hassell has crafted a hawker-style fitout to complement the food, replacing the pre-installed, expensive glass shopfront in the process — a move that demonstrates Michael Yates’ commitment to the project. “As the whole arcade gets built upon and people rip up shopfronts and build layer upon layer it will actually look a bit more connected,” said Hassell Principal Scott Walker. “We kept a lot of the same timber frames and overall building heights so the doors reflect existing doors and there’s a sense of continuity of proportions. But the existing glass shopfronts were a little bit visually cold so we put in the experience of being out as a hawker — night-time, lights, a canopy overhead — it’s visually dynamic, and hopefully it reflects Ben’s food. “It’s certainly not fine dining, the nature of the food has got a looseness to it and the dining experience reflects that. It’ll be interesting as the arcade changes to see how the nature of the dining experience changes. Maybe a finer dining restaurant will appear down the track. Already people are starting to lounge and linger here more than they were a few months ago and that’s largely because there are more food venues to eat at and a design for it. Previously it was very much a thoroughfare.”
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Dedece (Tom Dixon Glass Pendants): (03) 9650 9600 or www.dedece.com
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Space Furniture (Academia Velina Stool & Chair): (03) 9426 3000 or www.spacefurniture.com.au Jardan (Custom Tables): (03) 9548 8866 or www.jardan.com.au Macro Solutions (POS): 1300 667 575 or www.macrosolutions.com.au Dean Phillips (Darkon Track Lights & LED): (03) 9419 4195 or www.deanphillips.com
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South Pacific Fabrics (Banquette & Bolsters): (03) 9521 3044 or www.southpacificfabrics.com Viridian (Glass & Mirrors): 1800 810 403 or www.viridianglass.com Bronzeworks (Metal Finishes): (03) 9427 7157 or www.bronzeworks.com.au Kvadrat Maharam (Ceiling Fabric): (02) 9212 4277 or www.kvadratmaharam.com Aeria (Kitchen Porcelain Tiles): (03) 9690 9292 or www.aeria.com.au Leto Bamboo: (03) 9885 6522 or letobamboo@live.com.au Australian Recycled Timber (White Cypress): (03) 9359 0300 or www.australianrecycledtimber.com.au Vapor Apparel (Ceiling Fabric Digital Print): (03) 9336 4646 or www.vaporapparel.com.au Dulux: 132 525 or www.dulux.com.au
Deba Sushi Bar CONTACTS Hassell (Design): (03) 8102 3000 or www.hassell.com.au 1
Koskela (Wicker Pendants): (02) 9280 0999 or www.koskela.com.au Pelle Leathers: (02) 9460 9222 or www.pelleleathers.com.au Grant Dorman (Curtain Fabric): (03) 8525 8825 or grant@grantdorman.com.au Tint Design (Window Mirror Film): (03) 9724 5100 or www.tintdesign.com.au
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De Fazio (Tiles): (03) 9387 2300 or www.defazio.com.au Australian Recycled Timber (White Cypress): (03) 9359 0300 or www.australianrecycledtimber.com.au Melbourne Refrigeration & Catering (Fridges): (03) 9794 8627 or www.melbournerefrigeration.com.au Sushi Machines (Maki Robot): 0411 116 868 or www.sushimachines.com.au Anibou (Baby Rocket Stool): (03) 9654 5222 or www.anibou.com.au Dulux: 132 525 or www.dulux.com.au
Deba Sushi Bar is another Hassell design job, but a different team to the one that handled MoPho. The idea, according to Hassell Principal Scott Walker, was to give each space its own identity and save Malatesta’s outlets from homogenisation. “It was important, from our perspective, we had different teams working on the different cafés, so there was a sense of different authorship,” said Walker. “It’s really easy for the one person do it all, but it’s too easy to produce the same thing at that doorhandle level, or to use the same timber.” Deba is the lightest option of the three, with fresh topclass sushi providing more of a takeaway option for the lane. Along with MoPho, Deba stretches Malatesta’s reach beyond his coffee roots to cuisine that doesn’t necessarily go so well with coffee. MoPho for one isn’t even open for breakfast… yet. “I wasn’t sure if there was a market for noodles, but I would like to do Malaysian breakfast — noodle soups, omelettes and sticky rices,” said MoPho head chef Benjamin Cooper. “But I don’t know if fish-heads will take off for breakfast.”
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NOISE COMPLAINTS? Subscribe Now & Save! Save a packet on a yearly subscription by acting now
issue forty two
2011 Sydney's Small Bars H e at i n g S p e c i a l
Gilligans - Cairns Burswood Casino - Perth Dust Till Dawn – Hong Kong PJ O’ Briens - Cairns Envy – Surfers Paradise Felix Bar – Melbourne Sky City Casino - Darwin Stamford Grand Hotel - Adelaide Cypress Lakes – NSW Boracay Regency - Manilla The Doutta Gala Hotel - Melbourne African Club - Tokyo Curly’s Bar - Tasmania The Queenslander Hotel - Bundaberg A Bar Called Barry – Balcony Bar O Malleys Irish Tavern - Mildura The Australian Hotel - Canberra The Loft - Melbourne Court House Hotel – Port Douglas Station 59 - Melbourne Pastoral Hotel - Dubbo The George Hotel - Ballarat Bullion Bar – Outdoor Nightclub Lamana – Port Moresby Moorebank Sports - NSW Campbelltown RSL - NSW Felix Bar - St Kilda
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problem solved
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www.jbn.com.au 0409 931 704 sales@jbn.com.au
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The Intelligent Sound System
subscribe online: www.venuemag.com
Velocé Restaurant Bar Dominic Gentile has taken over the Café Velocé tenancy, and is the perfect man for the job. Coming from the Café Cucina stable after successfully running The White Room and Snow Pony up on the slopes, Gentile fits right in amongst the Ferraris and Bentleys of the Duttons Sporting Cars showroom floor. Youthful and experienced, Gentile brings glamorous food that suits the show ponies on display, but keeps the party going. “At about four o’clock in the afternoon we start getting everyone coming in for our happy hour,” says Gentile. “Everyone deserves a cheap drink after work, especially at the end of the week. It’s the type of crowd who want to go and have a look at the cars. A couple of weeks ago we had water fights happening and the buckets of ice being tipped on people’s heads at the end of the night. I like that vibe.” Gentile redesigned the venue himself, which can now seat 75 (up from 30), with an outdoor lounge area that spreads into the lane. On being away from the main drags of Chapel Street and Toorak Road, Gentile seems almost relieved by the separation. “I live on Chapel Street and the change on Chapel over the last two years has been massive. I think the food and beverage is ridiculous. There’s just no quality down there. It’s ‘burn and churn’. But we’ve got a good product and team. We wanted to come back off the main road and create a destination. Having the cars is a massive drawcard. In between courses, people go out and look at the cars, and James Dutton is out there talking to them.”
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LITTLE OPTIONS IN SYDNEY venue samples some of Sydney’s hole-in-the-wall bars. Story: Heather Barton
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Feature
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aneway and little hole-in-the-wall bars are all about finding that secluded spot to salute the night with well- or ill-chosen company. Sydney’s planned attempt to enliven its laneways and back allies with such spaces is of course blatant larceny. Melbourne has been doing it organically and of its own free will for 20 years. As one of the founders of the laneways movement in Melbourne, who has been advising Sydney City Council on their laneways plan, Craig Allchin of Six Degrees Architecture, said, “Sydney has a very different urban structure with less than 20 percent of Melbourne’s laneways but it still has lots of interesting spaces in the city centre and adjacent inner suburbs and villages, from the cracks of which, interesting new venues will sprout.” While the licensing laws have recently changed in Sydney, Allchin said, “It will take some time to deliver the range of small bars and restaurants that Melbourne has — more than 300 in the city area.” He believes Sydney will develop its own unique bar style, which is already starting to emerge. Part of the reason for that style is because many bars in Sydney are part of restaurants. This wasn’t the case when Melbourne’s laneway bars were developing over a decade ago. This may be a reflection of a number of things, including a shift towards a tapas-style of drinking and eating, according to Allchin. He said, as far as dealing with the City of Sydney is concerned in advising on the plan, “(They) have been great and are very committed to delivering change in the bar scene in Sydney.”
The Council are also looking more broadly at improving the ‘Fine Grain’ of the inner city and city centre, according to Allchin. The Fine Grain being small-scale shops, restaurants, markets and bars that make the inner city diverse and vibrant. Allchin has worked with the City and (Lord Mayor) Clover Moore for the past few years, delivering two reports, which look broadly at the issues and recommends what the city can do to best facilitate the laneways project. But it’s a complicated process. He said, “Clover Moore and her team are pushing to create the right atmosphere for change but the licensing laws in NSW haven’t changed as much as everyone thinks. It is still much easier to get a restaurant license than a bar license, so that’s why most places are opening up as restaurants. “The laws should change further, in my view, so that small bars are considered much the same as cafes and restaurants and can get a license until 11pm or midnight pretty much anywhere.” Most developed cities in the world, he asserts, have good cafes and bars in or near the city for breakfast, lunch or dinner as well as coffee or a drink and a bite to eat. Allchin claims higher density lifestyles make these places very important as alternatives to the living room and big hotels. “In central Paris, Berlin, Barelona and many other places,” he said, “the cafés on the ground floor of six-storey apartment buildings serve as the social glue for the neighbourhood. They serve breakfast and lunch, coffee all day, and then dinner with
wine or beer. They then become bars later in the night, as most people don’t drink coffee after about 4pm. Most close about midnight.” “If all of our cafés could just switch from cafés to bars as the day progresses we would have the diversity of venues that a good quality, medium and high density city needs. These places are effectively part of the public realm, and are very different places to the large pubs and clubs.” While such a thing might raise concerns about increases in alcohol consumption, Allchin said, “When the number of bars in Victoria rose significantly in the ‘90s and early 2000s, despite the number of licensed premises going up by hundreds, total alcohol consumption went down. “The hotel association still has significant power here, through their lobbying and mates network, and I hope this will change with the new state government in NSW. “They (the Hotel Association) manage to put pressure on new operators and have kept up the pressure on government to make it hard to get new licenses by focusing on the potential for alcohol-related violence in and around bars.” Allchin said, “Big pubs are completely different places to small bars. I would be very interested to know how many problems have occurred in bars with less than 150 or 200 people capacity in the last five years, compared to the large pubs and nightclubs. I don’t know of any small bars that have had problems. Therefore, they should be treated differently...so that bars can become cafés of the night.”
Grandma’s Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney (02) 9264 5004 or www.grandmasbarsydney.com
Many would suggest that it’s pointless to compare Sydney and Melbourne’s bar culture. The two are poles apart — like Aussie Rules versus League, or Mac versus PC. Saying that, Grandma’s will have any visiting Melburnian instantly at ease. Grandma’s may not be fashionably located at the end of a rubbish-strewn alleyway but it’s still somewhat of a challenge to find — the signage is minimal and from the street there’s little to suggest there’s a basement hideaway within reach. Cool. Grandma’s homespun, opp shop chic aesthetic could hardly be more relaxed. Nice. And it’s clearly evident that what Grandma’s lacks in startup capital it makes up for in its charm and attention to detail for the things that matter: the cocktails, the music, and the service. Grandma’s partners, James Bradey and Warren Burns, approached the job of opening a small bar with all the verve and optimism you’d expect from ‘first timers’. They resigned from their respective hospitality positions and figured they’d be pouring first drinks in their own gaff within months. Let’s just say it was somewhat tougher than that. James Bradey: “With small bars, you’re not building from scratch, you’re fixing old problems in existing spaces. And any time you touch something you obviously have to build it in a way that conforms to the code. Take our stairs, as an example: they were uneven and narrow. We had to get a fire engineer to come and write a report saying the space permits the stairs to be only so wide. So rebuilding the stairs cost us X amount and then getting the report cost us twice that. That’s just one example. It felt like every hurdle we jumped there was another confronting us. It was very frustrating at times.” And how’s Grandma’s faring in the CBD? James again: “We only need 50 people a night to be doing well. We’re not taking a huge risk of trying to draw hundreds of people into our massive venue. And once people find us, they’re coming back.” — CH
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Who needs designer fabric when you've got the local quilting club onboard
Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney (02) 9279 0782 or www.smallbar.net.au
The legislation changed and licensees Chris Lane and Luke Heard pounced. By late 2008 Small Bar opened in Erskine Street, downtown Sydney — the first ‘small bar’ in Sydney [more than one of these places have claimed to be the first — Ed]. Truth is, Small Bar is no hole in the wall. It’s a three-level terrace with a genuine restaurant offering, a smaller downstairs bar/function are along with a laneway space. Small Bar’s specialty is a high-quality selection of wine by the glass. Its atmosphere is relaxed, with a home-away-from-home feel. Bar Manager, Philip Jensen, explains: “We don’t have any security and we don’t have any cameras. The majority of our clientele are women — groups of two, three or four ladies — who don’t want to have a drink in a beer barn. We have men who have cottoned onto this, but we’ve created a homely feel and we get a lot of repeat business as a result.” Small Bar is growing. A Crows Nest outlet has been operating for 12 months now and the owners are scoping out other suburban possibilities. — CH
Pocketbar & Stitch Bar Pocketbar: 13 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 7002 or www.pocketsydney.com.au Stitch Bar: 61 York St, Sydney info@stitchbar.com
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Karl Schlothauer and his business partner were working together at a nightclub in the Cross when they first heard about Sydney’s new small bar license a couple of years ago. They were among the first 150 or so applicants who jumped on the plan early, which created a backlog even the government should be ashamed of. “Nine months to get the liquor license through,” said Schlothauer of Pocketbar, all the while paying money on a dead space. “[The government] told us they were still learning how to deal with it, so they couldn’t keep up with the workload. So we just waited our turn. They didn’t even ring us to tell us we were approved, we just found out by chance when we looked at the application board on the internet and it said ‘approved’.” Though things are a lot better now, he says, their latest bar, Stitch, only took a couple of months to pass the application process. Stitch Bar just opened in the city. “It’s a basement bar, more of a New York-style place. It’s pretty dark, and we played with the theme of Stitch, with old Singer sewing machines and an old alteration store — you have to walk through the cupboards to go down to the bar.” It seems things have changed a little from the early days with Pocketbar. “We started formulating our plan as soon as we found out the laws were changing,” said Schlothauer. “We had no money, so 80% of the stuff we bought off Ebay or picked up off the street. Sometimes you go out and get stuck, a bit bored with the people you’re with, we just wanted to create a space where there was a lot going on and would keep your mind amused, like little army men on the rafters.” “When we first came here, we were the only ones in the area. Now there’s probably 12 bars in a 300m diameter, it’s become a little precinct. At the moment it’s not too hard, because there’s only a handful of quality establishments, but give it three or four years and you’re going to have to really pull your finger out.” — MD
Bored? Even the wallpaper will point you in the right direction
LL: Lankelly Place 42 Llankelly Place, Potts Point (02) 9356 8393 or www.llwineanddine.com.au
Lankelly Place in Kings Cross was to be avoided after dark unless you were looking for an illegal casino, adult bookstore or swingers club, in which case it was exactly the right place to be. In fact you could find all three at different times on the site now occupied by LLs. A mural depicting vintage porn on the feature wall pays tribute to the venue’s past, which now hosts a Hong Kong feeling bar and restaurant run by three young Chinese brothers, Matt, Chris and Tim Barge. The décor exudes a dimly lit China-red glow with the interior pavillioned into intimate but connected spaces that seem to open up and down and out like Chinese boxes. It’s steamy, loud, happy and busy and so is the food. There’s lots of it, it comes quickly and keeps coming. So do the drinks which are all slings of some sort and dragon’s eyes of another. This sort of thing encourages similarly loud, steamy, happy and busy behaviour, with patrons spilling out into the Lankelly place unable to be contained by the cordoned outdoor area. Of course its too loud to hear whatever music is playing but the scenario sings anyway. — HB
Eau de Vie 229 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 2470 or www.eaudevie.com.au
Ching-a-lings 133 Oxford St, Darlinghurst www.chingalings.com
A number of the laneway and hole-in-the-wall bars in Sydney are right up the alley of the Melbournians who seem to be running many of them. Ching-a-lings for instance is owned and run by Melbourne laneway veterans Cameron Reid and Jack Brown. Found up an anonymous staircase through an unmarked door off Oxford street, Chinga-lings was one of the first of the genre in Sydney and is a kind of barman’s bar. It’s one of the few places where drinking with the barman is to be hoped for. You imagine people who work in other bars knock off and head here. It has a low key and gimmick-free feel. A kind of Anti-Ivy. The bar is the top floor of a terrace, with a window at the front that opens onto an awning over Oxford St and another at the back that opens the bar onto the outdoor deck. The fitout is a work in progress with artist friends of the owners and staff painting artworks directly onto the walls, making a feature of stripped plaster and creating lighting fixtures out of crates of bulbs. The music is of course interesting as are the drinks although deceptively dangerous. Was there food? Can’t remember. Don’t care. — HB
Eau de Vie is a contemporary take on the speakeasy tucked away at the back of the Kirketon boutique hotel. This backroom has had many incarnations in its lifetime and is well known to Sydneysiders, long since old enough to be out after dark. The Kirketon, along with the Medusa on Sydney’s Darlinghurst Rd, was perhaps originally this city’s response to Melbourne’s DCM-designed boutique Adelphi back in the day. The Kirketon’s Burton Katon Halliday-designed bar and restaurant (originally Fix and Salt respectively) were ambitious and well-received. Eau de Vie is perhaps aimed more at walk-in and local patrons and dare I say backpackers — albeit well-heeled ones — than Fix bar was. Fix it must be said had the advantage of valet parking as one long-time local tells me and so attracted and was pitched to a different demographic. The hotel lost the parking and so repositioned itself over the ensuing period. Eau de Vie is the latest of these, having opened in January with a highly themed approach it describes as ‘heavy on the booze’ and ‘looking and feeling like a private cigar lounge that harks back to prohibition days.’ In keeping with this approach guests are greeted and seated by a host. The music is old school jazz, the drinks strong and the food not what’s important. — HB
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I’d been working maybe four years before arriving in Sydney [to head up SJB’s interiors side of the practise]. It’s like fashion – there’s a real thing about youth and that edge that helps you get there. As you get older you can do a couple of things: You can try and keep the youngsters in your office or move with the work that suits where you are. I think what’s happening in small bars in Sydney was what was happening 20 years ago in Melbourne. I found the big Aussie pub in Sydney really great. [The pokies] essentially paid for all those fitouts and it’s kept the pub industry going. Sydney is going to go back to the gastro pub, because gaming and the whole pub industry has been hit and it’s going to have to reinvent itself. You’ve still got all those amazing ‘bar tzar’ operators in Sydney who do a fantastic job. I thought it was the coolest thing to see no signage and shared toilets when I was 18, and now it’s, “Oh my, they’re still doing that?!” If you were designing for an older demographic you’d have a nicely designed sign, lovely toilets and somewhere to put makeup on. Whereas a younger demographic doesn’t need all that, in fact you don’t want it because you want to push everyone together a bit more. The design fees [of small bars] need to be really lean to get the operation to work. Smaller or younger firms are more likely to do them, which is good for our industry because it really kicks us along — they can experiment a bit more. I get a little bit tired of the quirky and eclectic, I find it a bit forced sometimes. But that’s a phase people are exploring and everyone seems to enjoy except for me, so that’s fine. I actually like the idea that people aren’t afraid to have a space look new when they do it. People always have a problem with letting spaces date. I think it’s a really wasteful mindset. They say, “Let’s make it look like it’s been here forever,” because they don’t want it to go through that ‘too-coolfor-school’ then really ‘uncoolfor-school’ period shortly after.
Q
20 uestions with
Kirsten Stanisich Director of SJB Interiors in Sydney Kirsten Stanisich is also the National Director and NSW Representative of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA); has just directed a film called Six Chairs, which is not at all about chairs; and has designed some of Sydney’s most notable hospitality venues.
That’s what I loved when I came to Sydney. That designers and operators had balls and did these really ‘hard’ spaces. The DIA represents commercial interiors. It’s about lifting the profile of design and impacting the accreditation of designers. I studied as an architect so I’ve always been in the AIA rather than DIA. About five years ago I had to face the fact that I’m really an interior designer and not an architect these days. It happened to me by accident when I started at SJB. I was a graduate and I got seconded to work on the casino interiors for about 18 months. It’s faster, there’s more flexibility with budgets and it’s a bit more emotional. When I see a great architecture job I think, “Oh my, what have I done? I should be doing architecture.” But architects don’t come into their own until their late 40s and 50s, which is a long time to wait. I was a judge on one of the awards for Women in Construction, which was quite difficult to judge. This is an industry where you have to network and, this is a generalisation but, guys get brought up that it is okay to network, “I’ll do this for you and then one day you’ll do this and it’s all fine.” Whereas I think females feel you’ve got to have a real relationship with that person, otherwise you’re taking the piss. It’s a bit of a turn in your psyche when you don’t have to be embarrassed about ringing someone out of the blue. Groups like Women in Construction, and the DIA help. They’re really good for women to help that networking come a bit more naturally. It’s also that lots of women are having children. I’m sure if I had children there’s no way I’d be a Director. For our film, Six Chairs, we got six designers together: two graphics guys, an animator, two architects and a fashion designer. It was about exploring the idea of collaboration and design being something that goes across all the different disciplines.
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What’s Hot Story: Joanna Lowry
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he colder months are just about upon us and ensuring customers are warm and comfortable is a critical factor in sustaining patronage. With as many as 5.3 million Australians heading outside for a nicotine fix, there’s never been a bigger market for alfresco heaters — no self respecting venue owner wants smoking patrons to freeze their… ahem, butts off. Thankfully, with a whole bunch of heating products available catering to a variety of needs, there’s no need to work up a sweat every time there’s a chill in the air. Deciding which heater is the most attractive, adaptable, durable and above all, the most cost-effective, can be tough. While mushroom gas heaters were favoured in the years following the smoking ban, they’ve left many venue owners hot under the collar. They’re cumbersome, require a lot of upkeep (a 9kg bottle of propane gas will need replacing after about 10 hours of use) and are bad for the environment (they release carbon monoxide), not to mention a slew of heath and safety concerns. Many venues have turned instead to energy-efficient electric systems that utilise the latest in infrared radiant technology. Radiant thermal heating, as opposed to convectional heating, gives the same natural heat effect as the sun, warming people and objects rather than air. Radiant heaters produce a soft, ambient light and are safe to mount under shade sails, umbrellas and timber awnings. Many radiant heaters also contain a quartz element, which means that heat can be controlled by movement sensors, eliminating the need for staff to constantly turn them on and off. Given Australia’s coastal climate, it’s imperative that outdoor radiant heaters are wind and water resistant — anti-corrosive aluminum or steel seems to be the medium of choice. Then, of course, there’s the question of ‘does it look good?’ There’s nothing quite like an open fire to up the cosy factor of a room. We’re not talking fake logs and tacky hearths, either — the gas fire we’ve featured is super modern and wouldn’t look out of place in an art gallery. As for the radiant heaters, there are plenty of styles to choose from, most with wall and ceiling mounting options. Forget the wire coil monstrosity at your grandparents’ house and try some sleek, customised finishes for size.
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Lowenbrau Cnr Playfair & Argyle Streets, The Rocks NSW (02) 9247 7785 or www.lowenbrau.com.au
Bringing Deutschland down under, Lowenbrau is heavy on the buxom wenches (waitresses sport pigtails and milk maid outfits), bratwurst, and schooners of quality, imported whit bier. The fitout is essentially Bavarian — sandstone walls and long, communal tables — though not all wanton kitsch. Rienhard Wurtz, Lowenbrau’s owner, was pressed to think about practical outdoor heating options when indoor smoking was banned in 2007. He’s since learnt that there’s nothing like a little heat to help a cold beer go down. Wurtz made the switch to Alfresco Spaces’ radiant outdoor heater after a stint with mushroom gas heaters. “They [mushroom heaters] are big and bulky and if you leave them on all night you’ve got a massive bill at the end of the year. There’s also the hassle of having to change gas bottles.” Alternatively, the Alfresco Spaces outdoor heating system is electric, making it easy to switch on and off and safe to mount from timber awnings. In addition, the Alfresco Spaces heaters incorporate a specially designed quartz heating element that produces safe infrared radiant energy. Radiant energy is only absorbed by solid objects and is not wasted heating empty space, making it a cost-effective solution for Lowenbrau’s beer garden — it amounts to 44 cents per hour for 4000 Watts. Made from 304-grade stainless steel and with a lifetime guarantee on the main unit, you can be sure that the heaters are durable. “They don’t require any maintenance, they’re efficient, they look neat, there’s no hassle for the staff and they meet OH&S standards,” Wurtz says. “In short, they’re fantastic.” Alfresco Spaces: 1800 076 071 or www.alfrescospaces.com.au
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The Cullen Hotel Terrace Bar & Bistro 161 Commercial Road, Prahran VIC (03) 9098 1155 or www.terracebistro.com.au
When culture vultures flock to Melbourne, The Cullen Hotel is their nest of choice. Though they’re not the only arty animals to call it home; gracing the five-star hotel’s front foyer are two divine bovine sculptures, and the venue boasts a veritable herd (over 450) of original works by Archibald Prize winner Adam Cullen. Lime green and orange walls make a fitting canvas for Cullen’s bold and often controversial paintings. The first in a series of Art Hotels, The Cullen is effectively a gallery, complete with an in-house curator who runs daily tours. The fitout of one of The Cullen’s dining options — The Terrace Bar and Bistro — is just as inspired. It features recycled timber floors, screenprinted lampshades and a glass façade offering a full view of the open kitchen. It’s also got an alfresco area, which is why operator George Rizk enlisted the help of Pureheat. With over 40 years experience in manufacturing and distributing electric heaters, Pureheat specialises in wall mounted and thermostat-controlled products. Rizk opted to replace several LPG heaters with the Pureheat Girosole. Without a glass covering, the Girosole provides 15% more heat output. It also has a long element life (5000 hours), the choice of pendant or pole mounting and an anti-corrosive finish. “It’s designed for more discreet outdoor areas like cafe and beer gardens, so it’s perfect for the The Cullen,” says Tony Carey from Pureheat. “As well as being energy efficient, the Girosole has a very modern look about it, which suits The Cullen’s arty aesthetic.” Pureheat (03) 5428 1502 or www. pureheat.com.au
Elms Family Hotel 269 Spring Street, Melbourne VIC (03) 9663 5078 or www.elmshotel.com.au
The Elms Family Hotel is a rural gem in an urban setting. Established in 1850 and run by the same family for the past 20 years, it’s retained a quaint country charm with a ‘no pokie’ policy and an emphasis on good old-fashioned service with a smile. Recently The Elms refurbished its first floor, applying more than a lick of fresh paint to four ensuite rooms, and bagging a Club Victoria ‘Golden Pot’ Award in the process. The Elms Family Hotel pub, which is an appendage to the hotel, is a watering hole to both hotel guests and loyal locals. To make its covered beer garden more inviting for smokers, Rod Callieter, Licensee of The Elms, opted for Keverton Outdoors’ Infratech heaters. Manufactured in California, the Infratech uses electric radiant heating that focuses energy on ‘biomass’ (bodies, to you and me) rather than open air. Quartz technology also means that heat is instantaneous and can be controlled by movement sensors, resulting in savings in running costs (the Infratech heats an area of 3.5m x 3.5m at approximately 52 cents per hour). The heater is also constructed from Marine Grade stainless steel and special composite alloy, providing resistance against corrosion. Having had two heaters mounted on the courtyard’s brick walls for over three years, Callieter is more than pleased with the results and is vying for a third. “When they were first installed I noticed that smokers were staying longer, along with a generally unprecedented use of the beer garden,” he says. “They turn winter into summer out there.” Keverton Outdoor: (03) 9889 6542 or www.kevertonoutdoor.com.au
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Tower
26.25 pw*
from $
requires no plumbing or flue 1.4m high fuelled by denatured ethanol black or white powder-coated steel easily adjustable flame height stainless steel burner toughened glass surround functional and elegant Ready now. Lease or buy.
*$26.25 per week includes GST and is indicative weekly pricing for an operating lease over 60 months based on a purchase price of $3,490 on 31 March 2011. Other lease terms available. This lease price is from a third party provider and is subject to their approval, and terms and conditions. Purchase price of $3,490 inc GST is fixed until 15 May 2011. Delivery is extra.
p 0400 025 471 e sales@squireone.com w www.squireone.com/tower better business solutions
Hot Stuff * All electrical operating costs calculated using 14c/kWh
Alfresco Spaces Radiant Outdoor Heater POWER: 8kW
Operating Cost: RANGE: 16m²
$1.12/hr*
(8kW model) PRICE: $795—$1195
• Highly efficient with over 90% of electric energy being converted into safe radiant heat (no UV rays are emitted) • No open flame • 304 Grade stainless steel is great for coastal areas • Suitable for indoor and outdoor use • Quartz Elements provide instant heat • Can be controlled by movement sensors Alfresco Spaces: 1800 076 071 or www.alfrescospaces.com.au
Infratech Heaters
POWER: 8kW
Operating Cost: RANGE: 16m²
$1.12/hr*
(8kW model)
PRICE: $1000 — $1400/unit
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• Designed for large outdoor areas • Electric quartz heating element produces safe infrared energy. • Over 90% of the input energy is converted directly to radiant heat • Marine Grade stainless steel and special composite alloy provide outstanding resistance against corrosion • Ceiling, wall or flush mount • Parabolic reflector made from corrosive resistant alloy • Silent operation • Fixed install — no moving parts and low maintenance • 5000 hours Quartz element Keverton Outdoor: (03) 9999 5548 or www.kevertonoutdoor.com.au
EcoSmart Fire Tower Heat Output:
RANGE: 35m²
14MJ
• Freestanding heater that makes an attractive focal point at night • Powder-coated steel base and toughened glass panels, making it durable and weather resistant • Fuelled by environmentally-friendly liquid bio ethanol • No installation required, ready to use within an hour of delivery • Visible from over 100m at night • Thermal efficiency over 90% • Fuel consumption: 0.28L/h (min) — 0.64L/h (max) Squire One: 0400 025 471 or www.squireone.com
U-tube Tube Radiant Heater
RANGE: 180m²
PRICE: Unit varies according to customisation
• Designed for large open spaces with high to very high roof lines • Available in eight sizes • Non-glowing and low in intensity, resulting in pleasant radiant warmth • Wall or ceiling mounted at heights of 3.5m — 6.5m • Natural or LP Gas • Rapid rise in temperature when switched on • Aluminised steel tubes for long life • Automatic safeguard system • Intake and discharge ducting • Suspension chain Celmec International: (03) 9555 3667 or www.celmec-international.com
Double Vision Gas Fireplace • Safety devices including flame failure and oxygen depletion systems comply with OH&S • Customisable styles ranging from classic to contemporary in highest quality materials • Adds a high level of warmth and ambience to a venue • Millivolt ignition turns on at the flick of a switch • Thermostat technology regulates flow of heat to maintain the correct temperature • Power flue can be flued up to 13.5m horizontally • Double-sided fireplace can be placed in the centre of a room as a focal point • Highly decorative: a choice of pebbles, coals and logs, with glass back or sides optional
PRICE: Unit varies according to customisation
RANGE: 3m² – 45m²
Real Flame: (03) 8706 2000 or www.realflame.com.au
Platinum Smart Heat Gas • Tinted ceramic element emits soft red glow • Aesthetically appealing ‘plasma TV’ appearance • Wall mounted, minimum 2500mm from ground • Effective utilisation of gas, heats large areas quickly and efficiently • Available in LPG or Natural Gas • Electronic ignition at the touch of a button • Directional heating with easy pivot arm
Heat Output:
42MJ RANGE: 20m²
Operating Cost:
$0.50/hr* PRICE: $1799 (3-burner) $2299 (5-burner)
Bromic: 1300 276 642 or www.bromicheating.com
Girosole Infra-red Heater • IP65 waterproof rating • Radiant heating technology • Pendant or pole mounting • Anti-corrosive housing • Lightweight • No glass cover, which provides 15% more output • Long element life averaging 5000 hours • 2 year warranty
POWER: 3600W
RANGE: 18m²
Operating Cost:
$0.50/hr* PRICE: $1300/unit
Pureheat: (03) 5428 1502 or www.pureheat.com.au
Comfortline Panel • Packed with rock wool insulation to minimise upward heat loss • Radiant surfaces in naturally anodised aluminum, set in a galvanised steel case for strength • Panels are plastic powder-coated in white (other colours available) with attractive modern design • Suitable for use in approved wet areas • Ceiling mounted with supplied brackets or suspended using a fitting rail, jack chain or suspension wire assembly • Panels can be separately switched providing flexible control of heating • Option of electronic air sensing thermostats • 2 year warranty
Operating Cost:
$0.17/hr*
POWER: 1200W
Devex Systems: 1800 636 091 or www.devexsystems.com.au
Solamagic 1400 Compact Patio Heater • Energy efficient, 92% of electricity used converted to heat • 90% of heating capacity delivered in one second • Hard wired, wall or ceiling mounted with a 30° tilt range • Presence detectors • IP24 water splash protected • Powder coated finish with custom colours available on request Solamagic: 1300 765 262 or www.solamagic-australia.com.au
POWER: 1400W
RANGE: 12m²
Operating Cost:
$0.20/hr* PRICE: $525/unit
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The Tower The Tower was inspired by the ‘Padella Romana’ — a lighting feature used at the entrances of wealthy Patrician family residences to symbolise status in the Roman Empire. Featuring a flame set atop a solid plinth, the design is the combined effort of award-winning Milan-based architect Celeste Dell-Anna and Simona Righi from Italian creative studio Intentions. “The primary reason a venue would buy this product is that it looks beautiful,” Peter Squire from Squire One says. Standing 1.4m high, The Tower is an attractive focal point, visible from over 100m at night (potentially 7800sqm). “It draws patrons to the venue and makes them stay longer. It adds an element of romance and charm.” But it’s not all good looks, The Tower is also functional. “It’s a very robust product. The base is made of stainless steel and the glass burner can be cleaned in a dishwasher.” Heat temperature is easily adjustable. “There’s a shutter over the flame. It’s a manual process — if the shutter is open it will be at maximum heat; if there’s a small opening, which only allows a small amount of air or oxygen to get in, there will a smaller flame and less heat.” The Tower is a freestanding product, meaning it can be placed anywhere, within reason. “Obviously you have to comply with safety standards but it doesn’t require a flue to be created and it doesn’t require plumbing. It’s not permanently fixed, so you can move it around.” Part of The Fire Company’s EcoSmart range, The Tower is also one of the few products on the market that can claim to be green. Heat is fuelled by liquid bio ethanol, a renewable energy source. “Ethanol is grown,” Squire says. “It’s not mined, it’s not taken from reserves deep in the ground. It’s something that was literally a seed only a few years before. The heat emitted isn’t going to harm the environment.” Squire One: 0400 025 471 or www.squireone.com
Energy Efficient Outdoor Heaters The Heatray range includes; electric heating opitions, gas heating options and heated & lit shade umbrellas. All units employ radiant heat technology.
1800 245 346 www.heatray.com
• • • • •
Energy efficient Low running costs Commercial grade Directly warms objects & people, not the air Specifically designed for hospitality settings
Contact Celmec International for a free heating design
Sea La Vie Shop 4, 3-6 The Strand, Dee Why Beach NSW (02) 9984 8644 or www.sealavie.com.au
If you couldn’t tell by the name, Sea La Vie is a playful restaurant with a menu of seriously fresh seafood and a seaside alfresco dining area with views over Dee Why beach on Syndey’s North Shore. The area has two permanent umbrellas and to increase comfort during winter Adrian Meredith, owner of Sea La Vie, installed heaters on their inner arms. Solamagic’s 1400 compact patio heater fit the bill for a number of reasons, not least because Meredith liked the way it looked. “They’re smart and they’re compact,” Meredith says. “To me, a lot of the heaters on the market look like the kind of heater you find in a high school hall. These ones look sharp.” Meredith was also able to customise the heater so it matched the venue’s colour scheme. “The standard model is a bland white but we had ours done in a bluey, teal colour,” he says. “It’s often very hard to have outdoor areas and indoor areas that meet each other and are congruent. The Solamagic heaters help bridge that gap.” A radiant heater option, Solamagic heaters are hard wired and suspended, they don’t take up floor space and have none of the OH&S issues that you get with freestanding heaters. Meredith explains some of its other benefits: “We don’t have the hassle of wheeling heaters inside and outside because they’re fixed, they’re permanently there. We had some parties outside last year and they were great for that use as well. They add a nice ambience to the place.” Solamagic: 1300 765 262 or www.solamagic-australia.com.au
WE ARE OUTDOOR HEATING SPECIALISTS
Alfresco Electric Radiant Outdoor Heaters • • • • • • • •
Low initial cost and maintenance free. No open flame, energy efficient with low operating cost. 304 Grade stainless steel, great for coastal areas. Suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Quartz Elements provide instant heat which can be controlled by movement sensors. Models range from 2 Kw to dual element 8 Kw capacity. One heater will cover a 4 x 4 meter area. Now Manufactured in Australasia for Australian & New Zealand conditions
Makes outdoor living easy... every day of the year!
E m ail : wa r r en@alfr e sc ospaces. com
Tel: + 61 1 8 0 0 0 7 6 0 7 1
M o b: +6 1 4 2 0 2 1 2 3 4 5
o r v i s i t: w w w.a lf r e s c os pa c e s .c om
Hotel Charles 287 Charles Street, Launceston TAS (03) 6337 4100 or www.hotelcharles.com.au
Real Flame’s Simplicity gas fireplace is super cosy. So cosy, in fact, that Skye Brean, Sales and Marketing Director of Hotel Charles, is prone to ducking out of her office and parking herself in front of it. “It’s in our lobby area and has quite a large mantle so you can sit directly in front of it,” Brean says. “It’s guaranteed to make you feel warm and snug.” Hotel Charles offers luxurious rooms with panoramic views of the Tamar valley. Its art deco fitout was conceived by Josef Chromy and his JAC Group and implemented by Tasmanian architects Artas. Real Flame’s fireplace fits in perfectly with the overall aesthetic. “It’s very sleek and suits the contemporary feel of the hotel,” Brean says. “It opens up on both sides and has pebbles at the bottom, which you can see through a glass panel. The wall above it is made up of bits of quartz and rocks layered on top of each other and looks great. The flames match our red leather couches. It’s a fantastic focal point and we receive many compliments.” The fireplace also throws out a lot of warmth. “It’s great to have a fireplace, particularly because here in Tasmania we have a colder climate,” Brean says. While it doesn’t have a huge range, it utilises millivolt thermostat technology, which means the flow of heat is regulated to maintain the correct temperature. “It certainly contributes to the heating in that local area, but to expect it to heat our entire lobby and the attached dining area is a bit much,” says Brean. “We’re very pleased with how easy it is to operate and of course its aesthetic appeal.” Real Flame: (03) 8706 2000 or www.realflame.com.au Artas: (03) 6331 2731 or www.artas.com.au
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Pittwater RSL 82 Mona Vale Road, Mona Vale NSW (02) 9997 3833 or www.pittwaterrsl.com.au
The Bromic Platinum Smart Heat Gas could easily be mistaken for a plasma TV. It’s slim, streamlined and has a brushed stainless steel finish. While it might look as though it belongs in a lounge room, the install at Pittwater RSL on Sydney’s northern beaches proves that it looks just at home in an outdoor terrace dining area. Burners are protected behind high-temperature translucent ceramic, which not only shields flames from ocean winds, but also transforms the obtrusive red glare emitted by traditional natural gas heating burners into a warm red blur. “They look very modern and there’s a comfort factor. They definitely improve the overall aesthetic,” says Pittwater RSL’s owner Bruce Smith. The Platinum Smart Heat Gas’ softened glow doesn’t compromise heat output, either. The 3-burner Smart Heat Gas (Platinum 300) has a range of up to 12sqm and a heat output of 25MJ, and the five-burner Platinum 500 has a range of up to 20sqm and a heat output of 42MJ. For patrons who arrive rugged up in winter woollies the heaters have a pivot arm to direct heating away and save them from sweating it out. “The supports can be easily moved and adjusted,” Vescio explains. “We can angle them towards and away from certain tables at a customer’s request.” What’s more, despite being gas heaters, they have electric ignition. One or multiple units can be switched on and off simultaneously from a single remote-located switch. “They’re well designed, no hassle for staff to use and have improved things substantially on our terrace,” Vescio says. Bromic (02) 9748 3900 or www.bromic.com.au
Bungalow 8 King Street Wharf, 22 The Promenade, Darling Harbour NSW (02) 9299 4660 or www.bungalow8sydney.com
If you’re thinking Bungalow 8 is any semblance of a modest Californian bungalow in the ‘burbs, think again. Sporting a very desirable Sydney postcode, it’s located on one of the city’s most stylish waterfronts — King Street wharf. A seafood bistro by day and a swanky bar by night, the venue features a large alfresco area that overlooks Darling Harbour. But with the scenic view comes chilly winds. As Bungalow 8’s General Manager Simon Bartato says, “being a waterfront venue susceptible to adverse weather conditions, heating is a large concern for us.” As well as being exposed to the elements, Bungalow 8 is big — it caters for up to 1200 people. Come winter, that’s 1200 people to warm. Which is why Bartato opted for Celmec’s Gas-Fired TRH (Tube Radiant Heater). It’s ideal for venues with large open areas, high rooflines and ventilation because it uses radiant heat, warming people, the floor and surrounding objects — not air that will blow away. In other words, it’s efficient (it’s got an 82-88% conversation rate), only heating areas that require heating, resulting in lower running costs. “They heat up a large space fast. You don’t have to sit directly under them to feel the heat,” Bartato says. “They would be too hot in a small, enclosed space, but for a venue of our size and location, they’re highly effective.” Australian architect Dale Jones-Evans is responsible for Bungalow 8’s fitout, which includes hanging lamps made of paper and reed and a ceiling of black-lacquered bamboo. Made from aluminised steel tubes, the Celmec heaters don’t look out of place amidst the awnings. “There’s a lot of steel and timber in the structure so they fit in quite well,” Bartato says. “A lot of regulars didn’t even notice the heaters to begin with. They are large but given the bulk and scale of the venue they don’t really jump out at you. They’re quite inconspicuous.” Celmec International: (02) 9438 2999 or www.celmec.com.au
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Dale Jones-Evans Architecture: (02) 9211 0626 or www.dje.com.au
Nikos Quality Cakes 25-27 Portman Street, Oakleigh VIC (03) 9569 6338 or www.oakleighqualitycakes.com.au
A sweet tooth doesn’t stop the bite of the cold. This is something that Tass Poupouza, owner of Nikos, a Melbourne cake shop, knows only too well. Tass wanted an unobtrusive and efficient heat source to ensure the comfort of customers in her alfresco area. She opted for Devex Systems’ Comfortline Panels and is more than pleased with the results. “They have impacted our business in a very positive way,” Poupouza says. “Everyone loves them and wants to sit under them.” Made from naturally anodised aluminium and set in a galvanised steel case for strength, the heaters have aesthetic value. “We’ve had lot of feedback about how beautiful they are. They’re sleek, modern and a great feature. Everyday people ask us where they’re from.” There are practical benefits as well. The Comfortline Panels are ceiling mounted, so they don’t take up valuable floor space. Unlike other electric radiant heaters, they minimise heat loss through a special ‘silicating treatment’ on the surfaces. Simply put, the surfaces are roughened, which increases their surface area and thus their capacity to radiate heat. The high level of insulation increases efficiency and aids in eliminating vibrations. The heaters can be wired up to have a number of settings. “You can adjust the temperature and turn them up and down when you need to,” Poupouza says. “They do a very good job.” Devex Systems: (02) 9997 7840 or www.comfortline.biz
Comfortline ceiling mounted panels produce efficient and effective radiant heat specifically designed for outdoor and hard to heat areas. QUICK, COMFORTABLE, ECONOMICAL To learn more about the number of different panel designs offered, please contact us at:
1800 636 091
info@devexsystems.com.au www.devexsystems.com.au
sound . light . vision Audio Technology
Display Technology
Digital Signage
Lighting & Staging
30th AUGUST1st SEPTEMBER
2011 Hordern Pavilion &
Royal Hall of Industries
Moore Park, Sydney Unified Communications
www.integrate-expo.com 2011
Education Technology
in association with
Mega Tiles
Pounding The Pavement
Laminam is a new tile technology that produces a 1m by 3m, 3mm-thick porcelain tile that has many applications for both interior, exterior, new build and refurbishments. Laminam is perfect for commercial walls and floors, kitchen and bathroom countertops, partitioning, false ceilings, surface finishing and restoration, facades, insulating panelling and tunnels.
The Pavement range from Designer Rugs focuses on loosely structured organic repetition. There are 14 designs in all, with a colour palette based on industrial hues, perfect for urban fitouts. Designs include ‘Kazakhstan’ and ‘Spindle’ that are reminiscent of mosaic tiling, ‘Tower’ is more about what you see when you look up at skyscrapers from the pavement, while ‘Leon’ replicates precast concrete blocks used in 1920s architecture. Each rug is handmade, comes in standard sizes of 170cm x 240cm ($1999) or 200cm x 300cm ($2940), and can be custom-made in any size.
The Laminam range includes six different finishes in a variety of colours. The product ranges from a Z—W wet pendulum rating and due to its size is an ideal wall and floor surface. Again, due to its size, Laminam requires minimal grout and therefore minimal maintenance. Laminam weighs only 7.5kg/m2 and can be laid onto most existing surfaces including tiles.
Designer Rugs: (02) 9550 9933 or www.designerrugs.com.au
Living Tiles has a fixing division that has worked with the Laminam product and therefore can offer a supply and installation service. RRP: $160/sqm Living Tiles: (02) 9818 8699 or www.livingtiles.com.au
commercial 65 edge
Shine On
RBA NEW Self Closing Tapware
Shine your shoes in less than 10 seconds — hands free!
RBA is proud to introduce its new environmentally friendly, self-closing tapware. RBA is proud of its association with Docol, a multi award-winning manufacturing partner, which has focused on sustainable design and growth for nearly 20 years. Excellence in technology, design, quality, and the environment is integral to the making of these self-closing taps.
New to Australia is a unique shoe-shine system guaranteed to give your shoes instant visible shine in a few seconds without the mess associated with manual system. That’s right — there’s no need to touch your dirty shoes, open the polish or even use physical force. It’s a complete system that will give you, your staff or even your customer’s shoes an instant shine hygienically, in seconds. And being designed and manufactured in Germany, it’s solid and provides years of long lasting reliability. In fact each unit is built to commercial quality and comes with a three-year warranty. Perfect for hotels and any location where you and your customer want to look your best in seconds. The Cosmo range starts from $1150 plus GST. Shoe Shine: 1300 628 104 or www.shoe-shine.com.au
The manufacturing facility is a modern, sophisticated campus-style operation with a state-of-the-art hydraulic research laboratory. All the water used in the production process is re-used within the plant. Adding to the environmentally friendly nature of these taps is a 6 Star WELS rating. The vandal resistant body makes for a low maintenance, long lasting tap, not to mention RBA’s two-year warranty. If you are interested in water saving or looking for environmentally friendly tapware to augment your Green Star Building process, then visit the website now. RBA: www.rba.com.au
Royal Academy of Arts
London
66
You Wish
The Royal Academy of Arts has had a long and illustrious history shaping Britain’s brightest creative talent; bright lights like Turner — credited with giving hack painters everywhere the faint hope that producing smudgy oils of sunsets will bring them fame and fortune. Now another artist known for bright lights, Tom Dixon, has moved in on the academy to design the interior for Oliver Peyton’s new restaurant. Along with his Etch pendant lights Dixon debuted Scoop, his latest ‘injection-moulded foam seating invention’ (okay, it’s a chair) at the Academy. Of course, you can’t design something for the Academy without getting right-royal arty farty. Dixon figured the frescos lining the restaurant walls weren’t quite elevating the arte quotient to Turner-esque proportions, so Dixon rummaged through the Academy’s permanent collection and managed to dig up the old guy himself. Along with Turner, Dixon dusted off a number of other busts and sculptures of famous alumni and put them on display in the middle of the restaurant. Now when young artistes slope in to slack off for a bite to eat, Turner and all his mates will be staring them in the face from behind a glass case. Creepy? Maybe, just a little bit.