11 minute read
WATERSIDE GLAMOUR
LOCATED AT THE MOST NORTHERN POINT OF NEW SOUTH WALE’S PORT STEPHENS REGION, ANDREW LAZARUS HAS RESTORED THE SHOAL BAY COUNTRY CLUB TO THE BEAUTY OF ITS 1950S HEYDAY.
Andrew Lazarus, known for his operation of The Eastern Hotel in Sydney’s Bondi, views Shoal Bay Country Club as his retirement project. He spends most of his time up in Shoal Bay now, loving both the venue and the lifestyle.
In mid-2016, Lazarus had bought his first regional New South Wales venue, acquiring the Exchange Hotel in the Newcastle suburb of Hamilton. With Shoal Bay being in close proximity, when the opportunity presented itself, he was happy to consider it.
“I saw value with Sydney hotel prices going up the way they did. I think there’s regional opportunities that are certainly good value. It’s a great lifestyle as well – I feel like I’m on holidays up here.”
And once he visited the property, it was love at first sight.
“The country club is just a unique property. It’s on the water, it’s just beautiful. And I could see what could be done with the hotel in terms of transforming it into a large-scale, familyfriendly venue – which it certainly was not.”
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
At the time of the purchase, the venue was slightly dated in terms of its facilities. The clientele was very much the schooner-drinking tradesmen crowd, with hardly any females frequenting the hotel. So Lazarus set up about targeting families to get a much broader demographic visiting the hotel.
“It had a very narrow clientele, whereas I wanted to build something that catered to everyone from the area. That’s been the most satisfying thing about the transformation, that we’ve managed to attract 18-80 year olds with these facilities.”
The Port Stephens population swells during summer, school holidays and long weekends, as tourists – mainly from Sydney – holiday in the area. The pub is also situated next to a 200-room Ramada Hotel (the two venues were originally owned and developed by the same person) which does not have any F&B facilities of its own, so Shoal Bay Country Club supplies all of the F&B services for the hotel’s guests. While there was definitely the possibility of attracting tourists to the area, Lazarus wanted to focus primarily on appealing to locals, who would bring the venue steady patronage all year round.
The hotelier engaged Rachel Luchetti, co-director of award-winning architecture and interior design firm Luchetti Krelle, to re-envision the pub. The brief was to build a large-format hotel that offered a wide range of facilities, could cater for families, had multiple food offerings, excellent live music facilities and function areas.
“You’ve got a big local community there that you can draw from, but it is as at the end of the line, with Shoal Bay being the last stop in Port Stephens. To get people motivated to go past Nelson Bay, to your destination venue in Shoal Bay – obviously the views help, but you also need to draw them on other levels,” states Luchetti.
COLOUR PALETTE
Shoal Bay Country Club is full of different colours – so how does Luchetti ensure that all of that colour won’t date? “We just made sure that the colours were 50s inspired, and that way they will never date because it will always look 50s. That’s why Andrew got on board with the concept, because he could see this was vintage classic. So we’re not using some new panelling product or material that will be in for five minutes and then out. It’s more about going back to basics. A lot of what you see is just carpentry work and real genuine materials. And interesting tiles done in retro, mid-century styles, plus classic furniture, classic shapes.”
THE GOLDEN ERA
The concept for the venue that developed quite naturally was to return the hotel to its heyday of the 50s and 60s, when it was a particularly glamorous venue for high society to frequent, when overseas travel was unaffordable.
“In those days people didn’t jump on planes and go to Europe, they came to Port Stephens. Being a country club it was pretty posh. So a lot of the ideas in terms of décor came from the original fit-out from the 50s,” explains Lazarus.
Luchetti agrees, adding of the era: “Shoal Bay was the closest you had to one of those European coastal resort towns, where there was a bit of grandeur about it. It was tapping into that nostalgia and the 50s sensibilities of what a coastal holiday destination is.”
So a 50s Riviera aesthetic was agreed upon. Luchetti had recently travelled to Santa Margeherita, a small coastal town in Italy, replete with lots of candy coloured buildings and oldworld beauty. She took the stately homes in the area, and locations like Santa Barbara on the west coast of the United States, for her inspiration.
And with such a sprawling venue that had so many different offerings within it, the designer was able to interpret this 50s Riviera look in many different ways.
“Even though all the various spaces in the complex are different, they all tie together around that 50s theme. So you’re in the sports bar and it’s still got a 50s vibe, but it’s not the same as upstairs in the kitchen or in Mermaids Café where it’s just a different take on it. I think certainly that residential quality has come through, particularly upstairs in the kitchen.”
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
The pub trades almost 20 hours a day, opening at 6:30am for breakfast, and closing at 2am. As the day progresses, different areas within the hotel are activated over the 2000 sqm pub, which houses 730 seats and has a maximum capacity of 2000 people.
Mermaids Café, located on the ground floor, is Shoal Bay Country Club’s dedicated café venue, serving up breakfast, takeaway coffees and fresh juices. There is some seating in this take on a 50s diner, as well as a kiosk window that is active from the street. This more casual milk bar setting is pared back with polished concrete floors and booths made of bright blue leather and timber, subway tile bars and little nautical touches throughout.
The Beach Bar is the main public bar of the space. The actual bar itself is the main attraction of the space, using a retro patterned tile in marble, with the curved corners of the bar in plywood. The bar also features turned legs made with brass feet, and a terrazzo top. “The terrazzo is definitely a throwback, but it’s also very much of the now. It certainly suits that spot. The back bar we really had fun with. It’s inspired by mid-century bookshelves with the threaded rod separating the shelves,” describes Luchetti.
Past the Beach Bar is the Cane Lounge, a more feminine space, that is named after a section of the hotel that existed in the 50s. The lounge is almost a pavilion, with fresh white walls, blonde timber window fitting, cane furniture and velvet cushions. Tropical wallpaper adds to the elegance of the space that is perfect for an afternoon cocktail.
Also located on the ground floor is the revamped gaming room, with carpeted and patterned tile flooring, and walls that feature black subway tiles and teal quilted velvet. This leads you through to a large TAB section, and the sports bar. Lots of thought was put into the sports bar, which had one of the most significant structural upheavals in the venue. Where previously it was a warren of gaming,
TAB and back-of-house areas, now it is a purposeful sports bar that doubles as the pub’s live music space.
“By moving the gaming to the front corner and then cleaning up this huge space at the back of the sports bar to do live music – we had great success with that. So now we have this really good live music venue which the Bay really needs. It’s certainly doing really well. That’s something that the client really wanted to introduce and it’s been a real hit,” states Luchetti.
The courtyard is the venue’s main outdoor mingling space. It also encompasses a kids’ play area with an interactive projection that goes on the floor that kids play with. There is also table tennis and pool tables to keep kids of all ages entertained. One detail in the courtyard that is one of Luchetti’s favourites of the whole venue, and is indicative of just how much thought has gone into every aspect of Shoal Bay Country Club – the trelliage surrounding the space.
“All the trelliage that has gone in there is something that we really worked on getting right. It wasn’t just lattice from Bunnings that you stick on the wall; it was carefully worked out to be the right scale and proportions to be that 50s-style trelliage.”
The second floor is dedicated to the venue’s bistro, known as the Kitchen Patio, which trades until 10pm serving lunch and dinner. As the name suggests, it comprises not only a large indoor space, but also a large patio where patrons can dine in the open air looking out onto the picturesque bay views.
The original terrace was quite small, so the patio was doubled in size. Even the indoor space is light and airy and reaffirms the idea of the bistro as the extension of a grand residential dining space.
“[It’s] full of 50s Ercole furniture, original pieces from the UK. It was certainly worth the investment because it just sets the tone. The whole idea in there is like going into a residential kitchen. So even the detailing on things like the waiters’ station is like a 50s kitchen.”
FUN FOR ALL
Since opening on Christmas Eve, the venue has already reached capacity on several occasions – not only on public holidays but also when there is something on. Thanks to Lazarus, live music has been a big part of Shoal Bay Country Club’s social calendar.
“We’re doing some big concerts now. There was a night when we had The Radiators playing, the whole place was at capacity. We’re doing a lot of those big shows. That certainly helps fill the place up. We’ve got Pete Murray coming up. He’s doing a national tour and we’re the first venue that has sold out on his tour. We’ve had Thirsty Merc, we’ve got Daryl Braithwaite coming up. The Angels, Dragon – a lot of those older bands that were very popular in the 80s.”
Kids concerts, activities and petting zoos are also a big drawcard for families, especially during school holidays. On the day that Lazarus spoke to Australian Hotelier, the venue had just finished holding a kids concert for 500 little ones and their parents – who no doubt enjoyed a meal at the venue for the first time.
“A lot of those people are being exposed to the place for the first time, because it’s not the sort of place that they would have come to at all.”
Six months into trading, and Lazarus could not be happier with how his vision of the venue is faring. This is compounded by the amount of grateful patrons who often thank him for bringing more F&B and entertainment options to the area. For the hotelier, it’s a dream scenario for his ideal venue.
“There’s just always something going on, there’s something for everyone. And every day just looking out to that beautiful view, it’s amazing. This has kind of been my retirement plan, because it doesn’t feel like I’m at work when I’m up here.”
