6 minute read
SOLOTEL: REVIVING NIGHTLIFE CULTURE
PUB OPERATORS
Some of the most respected and forward-thinking publicans across Australia reflect on the highlights and challenges of 2022, while outlining what they have planned for the year ahead.
SOLOTEL
Reviving nightlife culture
FOR SOLOTEL, 2022 was a year that got better as it went along. At the start of the year people began returning to venues without restrictions, and staff had to re-learn how to service the crowds with fewer staff, as well as handling personnel getting covid as part of the ‘new normal’. But as we all adjusted, Solotel CEO Elliot Solomon says the year continued on an upward trajectory of trade and goodwill towards the industry.
“As every month passed, it was the first year in three years that felt very positive. And that’s very exciting.”
Solotel’s list of achievements in 2022 is dizzying, with highlights early in the year including the opening of Rekōdo restaurant and bar at Barangaroo House, as well as re-winning the tender to operate dining on the grounds of the Sydney Opera House, and subsequently opening House Canteen on the old site of Opera Kitchen. An unused level at The Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Sydney’s CBD was also turned into the Dusk Club which offers late-night jazz and cocktails. Solomon is particularly pleased with that achievement, saying the team within the venue led that project from start to finish.
“It was really good to see that we could deliver a project that was driven by the team in venue.”
With a well-publicised focus on improving Sydney’s late-night landscape, multivenue night-time activations were also a massive success for the group, pulling off events such as ‘The Longest Night’ and ‘The Sydney All-Nighter’ across more than a dozen pubs around greater Sydney. The other big win for the group was being named the exclusive hospitality partner for the upcoming WorldPride festival running from 18 February to 5 March this year.
“It’s a great thing for a lot of our regulars that come to our venues that are key pillars of the LGBTQIA+ community –also for a lot of our staff as well. It’s a big win for us and something that we’re very proud of,” states Solomon.
But it wasn’t all good news in 2022, with the group’s only Queensland venue, Riverbar & Kitchen in Brisbane, being submerged and destroyed by the floods in March. The venue suffered catastrophic damage and had to be rebuilt almost completely. Thankfully, with the venue reopened in September, trade has returned to the venue at pre-disaster levels.
“We’d never lost a venue in a natural disaster. I imagine it would be similar for publicans that lost venues in the bushfires in 2019/2020. It was pretty devastating, but we are open again and trade has gone back to what it was before we closed, which is really great.”
Nightlife and The Abercrombie
Australian Hotelier spoke to Solomon in early December, two weeks before The Abercrombie Hotel was set to re-open on the fringes of Sydney’s CBD after having been closed for years. The Solotel boss already knew that the opening would be the biggest highlight for the group in 2022.
Solomon describes the Abercrombie as “three venues in one”, meaning that all demographics and nightlife experiences are catered for. The ground floor houses the venue’s nightclub space, as well as it’s courtyard beer garden. This mostly targets the 18-25 year-old crowd, looking to party into the early hours of the morning. Casa Rosa is the rooftop bar, catering to those in the 25-35 yearold bracket, who want cocktails and somewhere to sit with friends, while still enjoying a DJ playing in the space. And lastly there’s Lil Sis, a wine bar and shop, for those who want to enjoy a sommelier-chosen bottle of wine and share plates in a quieter space.
“By having the three different concepts, which are related but hit you at different points of your life, it just means there are more points of interest for you to keep coming to the venue,” suggests Solomon.
Since it’s opening in late December, the venue has cemented its position in Sydney’s clubbing scene, with lines out the door to get into the venue on Friday and Saturday nights – something rarely seen in Sydney since the pre-lockouts era.
Revitalising Sydney’s nightlife is a key driver for Solomon and his group, with the CEO on the board of the State Government’s 24-Hour Advisory Committee. He sees the industry and government’s collaboration on the broader facilitation of everything that nightlife entails as the key to its success.
“The partnership between public and private is really key. Whether that’s through financial grants or liberalising outdoor drinking spaces, it all helps to facilitate us to do what we do best.
“The work that the government has done in terms of getting everyone involved in late-night to be in the room and work together has just made such a big difference. And when we work together as precincts or on large events, we all benefit.”
Up next
Solotel is already gearing up for one of the largest cultural events in Sydney this year – WorldPride, a global LGBTQIA+ festival. It’s something that the group felt it was already naturally aligned with.
“A lot of our venues are based in the heartlands of LGBTQIA+ communities, and a key group of our customers and our teams have always identified with those communities, so it’s second nature to us. They are our communities, friends, lovers, partners and customers. They’ve also been such an incredible support for us, so its really about reciprocating that support,” explains Solomon.
As the exclusive hospitality partner for the festival, Solotel is planning events at all of its pubs across Sydney, partnering with a different LGBTQIA+ tastemaker for each venue to host DJs, parties, karaoke, drag shows and more throughout the two-week festival.
After WorldPride, Solotel will be kicking off a big capex program for the year, starting with a complete renovation of the Kings Cross Hotel for the first time in a decade.
“Kings Cross has been so challenging for so many years, but since the last lockdown the area has come back, and the numbers we’re seeing – we haven’t been this busy since before lockouts,” states the CEO.
Works are also planned in various parts of The Golden Sheaf, and renovation planning of the group’s most recent buy, The Carousel Hotel in Rooty Hill, will get under way, with the DA almost ready to be lodged. Elsewhere in western Sydney, Solotel will be relocating the Albion Hotel on Parramatta’s outskirts to a new site the group has acquired in the heart of the CBD.
There’s a lot going on, but for Solotel, it’s all about putting the fun back into Sydney’s night-time economy.