57 Community Hub

COMMUNITY HUB

Located in the heart of the Marine Village, Sanctuary Cove Tavern offers a warm welcome environment for locals and visitors.

IF WALLS COULD SPEAK, taverns through history would make very entertaining conversation.

They have been the places where pints were poured, meals were served, deals were done, bets were laid … and so much more.

From French taverns to Greek tavernas, these premises were the place for travellers to stop, relax over a meal and do business.

In Australia, however, taverns did not exist until the late 1980s.

Australia’s liquor laws mandated that establishments serving liquor must provide accommodation, hence they were called hotels.

Adam Waller, owner and operator of Sanctuary Cove Tavern, has seen the evolution of hotels firsthand, his family being former owners of the 1885-founded Coomera Lodge Hotel from 1992 to 2004.

Reminiscing about the ‘old days’ of breaking up fights, standing up for standards and gaining a more family-based clientele, Adam notes that the role of hotels has been gentrified over the years to be more of an entertainment and meeting place. WORDS MARJ OSBORNE

With that comes social acceptance across a wider breadth of society.

Adam and his parents, along with Ioesco restaurateur Max Alfieri, founded Sanctuary Cove Tavern in 2011, refitting an original building as it is today: a bar, restaurant and gaming facility with its bottle shop, Corker Cellars, fronting onto Masthead Way.

Max was later bought out by the Waller family, with Adam continuing to oversee operations.

“Sanctuary Cove Tavern was designed specifically for this environment and these people,” Adam explains.

“Seventy per cent of the clientele are residents of Sanctuary Cove and the staff here are like family.”

A centrepiece for the community, Sanctuary Cove Tavern is a light and airy modern building flowing into outdoor spaces which look out to greenery and the marina beyond.

It is an atmospheric place with a waterside charm all its own.

“It’s a great lifestyle here close to friends,” Adam adds.

“I play golf at Sanctuary Cove with residents and it’s a network of people who support each other.”

The tavern is a favourite eating place where residents and visitors can enjoy a business lunch or catch up with friends while dining on the good value traditional meals that they love.

It’s the place to indulge in a Chicken Parmigiana, a top steak (with meat supplied by the fabulous Hope Island Gourmet Meats) or Bangers and mash (featuring different sausages each week).

The seasonal menu is also boosted by a rotating specials board.

“Dining can also be interactive with Keno, the TAB and other gaming taking place while eating and drinking,” Adam tells us.

With a lot of Cove transport being by golf buggy, Corker Cellars plays a special role as Sanctuary Cove’s only bottle shop.

Manager Alfie Pardoe thinks outside the box, sourcing a variety of different boutique products at very reasonable prices.

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Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Rosé and Pinot Gris are the four favourite wine varieties, with Corkers stocking some of the best available, and delivering to Sanctuary Cove residents on request.

When it came to hotels, author George Orwell was ahead of his time, with a vision of pubs that welcomed a wider audience than just men in cloth caps.

In his 1946 essay, The Moon Under Water, he wrote: ‘Up at one end of the garden there are swings and a chute for the children … I think that the garden is its best feature, because it allows whole families to go there instead of mum having to stay at home and mind the baby while dad goes out alone.’

Orwell never lived to see golf buggies pulled up outside the Sanctuary Cove Tavern nor a marina just beyond its back wall, but he would have rejoiced in a pub where women and staff felt safe and accepted, a place where locals supported each other; a community entertainment hub, all within the walls of what was originally a tin shed. sanctuarycovetavern.com