Terminus Hotel – New era for Shepparton icon

N E W E R A FO R S H E P PA R TO N I CO N

5821 2147 212-226 High Street, Shepparton

Greg and Brooke Brassil have a long history in hospitality.

Photo: Megan Fisher.

No strangers to customer service For the past 11 years, the Terminus Hotel’s new licensees Greg and Brooke Brassil have honed their skills in the hospitality industry.

Greg and Brooke, who were friends at Guthrie St Primary School and later at Shepparton High School, have operated several start-up businesses in Shepparton and Melbourne, taking lessons learned from each of those into their latest venture.

Their philosophy is simple; create a welcoming environment, offer excellent customer service and provide quality food and drinks"—"and the patrons will come.

“We plan to keep it as an original pub"—"no gambling at all. We’re really excited and we want to do the place proud"—"give it a new lease of life,”

Greg said.

The Brassils’ first foray into the business world was running a mobile coffee van at music festivals before establishing GB Coffee as a single shop front in High St, and eventually expanding to the Maude St site that they sold two years later.

In early 2012 the Brassils turned their attention to establishing Noble Monks, a boutique beer and wine bar, filling what they believed was a gap in the Shepparton market.

A stint in Melbourne with Addict Food and Coffee in Johnson St, Fitzroy and in Little Collins St with All Good

Coffee extended their knowledge and now they’ve returned to Shepparton to be close to family and friends.

“We were just about to start another café in Shepparton and for some reason we were holding off. That’s not like us at all, we normally jump right into things, and then this (the Terminus Hotel licence) came up,” Brooke said.

The couple"—"parents to Daisy, 9, and Sonny, 7"—"has dedicated the past few

months to refurbishing the iconic hotel and broadening its appeal.

Greg said they would apply their long-standing ethos to their latest venture; working hard and making personal connections with customers.

“When you work in hospitality usually the people that come in want to be here. Many of our best friends have come through hospitality, even in a big place like Melbourne,” Greg said.

Choose your brew Beer connoisseurs can choose from a tempting range of eight ice-cold beverages on tap at the Terminus Hotel.

A collection of beers from independent brewers sit alongside the enduring Melbourne Bitter, offering something for beer lovers of all persuasions.

Licensee Greg Brassil said his reasoning for having different beers on tap was twofold"—"to support small family-owned breweries and to offer customers an alternative taste.

If a customer comes in and has a preference for a particular mainstream beer, we can recommend one of our 2

options as an alternative.

“It’s also important to us to support the little guy, which is what these independent family-owned breweries are.”

Melbourne-based businesses KAIJU!, Venom Brewing and Hawkers Beer are represented, along with Queensland’s Balter Brewing Company, which is part-owned by retired pro-surfer Mick Fanning.

Little Creatures Brewery’s Furphy’s refreshing pale ale, named after the

Terminus Hotel Shepparton News Feature

OCTOBER 2018

Choose your brew from the range of beers on tap.

Photo: Nicole Williams Photography.

well-known Shepparton family, is on tap along with Melbourne Bitter and Carlton Dry to reflect the Terminus Hotel’s tenure as the longest running account holder with CUB in Australia.

The well-stocked bar also includes other varieties of beer in cans and stubbies, ciders, a full range of spirits

and an extensive wine and cocktail list.

Among the tantalising cocktails is Terminus Hotel’s signature The Berry Cheesecake, along with fresh takes on classics like the Espresso Martini and Clover Club cocktails — and many other options with the extensive and ever expanding spirit list.

The next chapter in a long story Shepparton’s iconic Terminus Hotel has re-opened with new licensees, an updated menu and a fresh, contemporary look.

For generations the iconic hotel has been a place for people to meet, offering a welcoming space for patrons to share a meal or enjoy a drink.

Licensees Greg and Brooke Brassil have every intention of continuing to operate The Termi as a traditional family pub, with a few tweaks to attract a broader demographic.

There will be no pokie machines; instead the focus will be on excellent

customer service, a comfortable and welcoming environment, quality food and, of course, ice-cold beer on tap.

The history of the building features stories of destructive fires, rebuilds and refurbishments, as well as a colourful collection of characters who made the place their ‘local’.

Originally built by the Coghlan family as a weatherboard structure, Coghlan’s Hotel burnt down in the early 1900s

and was rebuilt and rebranded with the Terminus name to reflect the nearby railway line.

In 1938 a Melbourne architect was engaged to overhaul the building, adding a second storey and the iconic art deco style façade that has become a Shepparton landmark.

For more than half of the hotel’s 140year history, the Stainsby family has presided over the beer taps with three generations of the family contributing 76 years of service.

Last November licensee Rob

Stainsby and his sisters Dianne and Karen ended their family’s connection with the hotel and handed over the reigns to Greg and Brooke.

Since then Greg and Brooke have overseen a major refurbishment of the entire building to create a contemporary and welcoming environment, while remaining sympathetic to the original character.

“We feel very privileged to be custodians of the building, and to have helped create the look for the next generation to enjoy,” Brooke said.

Terminus Hotel licensees and staff Michael Radevski, Madeline Fotia, Brooke Brassil, Greg Brassil, Nathan Collyer, Shania Toy and Lewis Coyle. Absent: India Jafer, Chandler Bush, Danae McPherson and Taylah Tucker. Photo: Megan Fisher

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The Termi offers space to spend time with family and friends.

The perfect space for any occasion Whether you’re planning a cocktail-style party, corporate dinner, after-work drinks or family gathering, the Terminus Hotel has the perfect space for your occasion.

With a number of refurbished areas available, and various catering and beverage packages to suit, new licensees Greg and Brooke Brassil are already taking bookings for the Christmas party season.

The main bar—with its reclaimed timber accents, massed potted plants and big-screen television—invites you to enjoy a cold beer and bar meal and strike up a conversation with the regulars.

It’s here that you can truly appreciate the owners’ efforts to retain The Termi’s traditional old-style pub status, free from pokie machines and welcoming to all.

The dining area has a seating capacity of 110, offering a mix of casual dining booths, outdoor-style benches with stools and traditional timbertopped tables with black Bentwood chairs.

So named for its collection of historical photos of the hotel, The

Gallery is a light-filled room that can be completely closed off from the remainder of the building.

The glass-fronted space is used for meetings, functions and corporate events and has a mobile bar, direct access to the kitchen and comfortably seats 50 people or accommodates 80 for cocktail-style events.

Once a popular wine bar in the 1980s, Pippins is a stand-alone function room.

With its own outdoor beer garden and private entrance off High St it can cater for functions of up to 150 people.

As the name suggests, the Boardroom is a private meeting space suitable for corporate dinners or meetings.

New paintwork, flooring and blinds will frame the long central table, double-glazed windows eliminate outside road noise and the hotel’s sound system doesn’t extend to the room, ensuring a private and quiet area.

An extensive list of cocktails is on the drinks menu to please any taste.

Photos: Nicole Williams Photography The second storey of the building is dedicated to comfortable accommodation rooms that are popular with visiting tradesmen and contractors.

Now being refurbished, the clean and inviting rooms will have fresh, white paintwork, new furniture and charcoal-coloured carpets.

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Renovation was a team effort The interior renovation project at the Terminus Hotel took longer than expected but the hard work was worth it, licensee Greg Brassil said.

Initially planned to take about four weeks, the makeover threw up its share of challenges, which were overcome to create the stylish new look.

Greg’s building background and wife Brooke’s passion for interior design saw them oversee the eight-week project, drawing on assistance from their network of family and friends.

“We took over the keys on June 25 and we were closed for the renovations a bit longer than we anticipated. It was like opening a can of worms, the more we uncovered the more we had to do,” Greg said.

Aside from one day off to celebrate their son Sonny’s seventh birthday, it was all hands on deck during the clearing out, demolition and construction phase.

“With the exception of the timber and upholstery work, which were done by friends from Melbourne, all local trades were used,” Greg said.

“That’s the benefit of growing up in Shepparton, many of our friends are tradies and they pretty much dropped everything to be involved.”

Six layers of flooring were pulled up in some sections and the plan to retain

the original floorboards was derailed when only one section, in front of the main bar, was deemed salvageable.

Those original boards have now been restored and polished and sit among the modern, dark grey, polished microtopping cement-finish floor, as a nod to the past.

The existing tables were re-purposed by close friend Ben Purchase, owner of Ingrain, who is gaining recognition for the furniture and cabinetry he crafted for this year’s season of television series The Block.

“We met Ben when we had our café in Fitzroy, he was fitting out a pub nearby and we struck up a friendship,” Greg said.

Ben used reclaimed messmate to construct the new table tops, and the stunning timber bar sections are a mix of birdseye and blackbutt timber, salvaged from a fire-ravaged building in Newcastle.

“The timber still has scorch marks from the fire; the building was originally an old warehouse that was turned into a pub and apparently Silverchair played their first gigs there,” Greg said.

The art deco staircase has been beautifully restored.

An eclectic art collection creates conversation and interest. Photos: Nicole Williams Photography.

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Ph. (03) 5821 0006 8026 Goulburn Valley Hwy, Kialla VIC 3631 Terminus Hotel Shepparton News Feature

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TERMINUS HOTEL LUNCH & DINNER

7 DAYS BAR BEER GARDEN FUNCTIONS ACCOMMODATION FOR BOOKINGS CALL

5821 2147

212-226 High Street Shepparton eatdrink@thetermi.com.au