Venue 68

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS Chris Feros Partner, The Feros Group Tim McIernon General Manager, Camfield Hotel Paul Fischmann CEO, Little Albion Hotel

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9 771832 143005

Greg Anderson Restaurateur, Manly Greenhouse Adam McIlveen General Manager, Squire’s Landing Deane Jacobs CIO, William Inglis Hotel

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CONTENTS February 2019 No 68

issue sixty eight 2019

— Chris Feros, Director Highfield Hotel

B a r a n g a r o o H o u s e • Th e A l b i o n • N u B a m b u

When people talk about demographics, I say, let’s talk about experiences. What experiences can you have under this one roof?

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS Chris Feros Partner, The Feros Group Tim McIernon General Manager, Camfield Hotel Paul Fischmann CEO, Little Albion Hotel

Greg Anderson Restaurateur, Manly Greenhouse Adam McIlveen General Manager, Squire’s Landing Deane Jacobs CIO, William Inglis Hotel

$9.95 inc gst

9 771832 143005

Venue: Chin Chin, Sydney Photos: Tom Ferguson

Pubs

12 Highfield Hotel, Sydney 30 Evening Star, Sydney 50 Squire’s Landing, Sydney 46 Camfield Hotel, Perth 32 Greenhouse Manly, Sydney 60 All Hands Brewery, Sydney 24 Stock Exchange Hotel, Brisbane

CONTACTS:

Hotels

Live Venues

56 Little Albion, Sydney 44 Michelton Hotel, Nagambie 36 Inglis Hotel, Sydney

Editorial Office: (03) 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353 Sales Office: 0416 230329 PO Box 6216 Frenchs Forest NSW 2086 Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@venuemag.com)) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@venuemag.com) Art Direction & Design: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Graphic Designer: Daniel Howard (daniel@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Enquiries: (subscriptions@alchemedia.com.au) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (accounts@alchemedia.com.au)

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All material in this magazine is copyright Š 2019 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title Venue is a registered Trademark.

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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. 01/02/19

11 Smooth Operator 66 You Wish: Sean Connolly

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E

very now and then a story that has very little to do with running venues, is a story worth telling in venue.

We discovered such a story about a year ago when we took over the Espy – The Hotel Esplanade in St Kilda. While you probably don’t know this story, you probably do know The Espy itself. The Espy is one of the most famous and storied pubs in the country.

The Espy was built in 1878 on the sloping banks of the St Kilda foreshore, when St Kilda was a playground for the rich and famous of Melbourne, Australia, and, in several notable cases, the world. St Kilda Road and The Esplanade were lined with enormous, grandiose mansions. The beach was crowded with sea baths.

A tram bought wealthy Melbournians, still enjoying the benefits of the 1850s Gold Rush to the beach to frolic and play. Originally designed as three terrace houses, the architects Smith & Johnson, responsible for designing the impossibly grand Melbourne GPO and Law Courts, convinced the owner part way through construction to go for something a little grander. And so a 60-room hotel was built, in the Renaissance Revival Regency Resort style with Italianate references. (Yes, that’s the actual Architectural style! I didn’t make it up!)

ESPLANADE’S UPS & DOWNS The Hotel Esplanade was born. And it’s been the Hotel Esplanade for every one of the 140 years since. Through until the 1920s it was a luxury accommodation hotel, whose guests included Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt as well as a long list of Melbourne’s wealthiest businessmen and families. In the 1920s new owners added an art deco extension off the front of the grand Victorian façade, and a large ballroom at the rear, and for the first time opened up parts of the ground floor to the public, with a public bar and lounges. By the ’60s and ‘70s the Hotel Esplanade followed St Kilda’s downward socio-economic trajectory, as the wealthy moved out and the artists, prostitutes and criminals moved in. Of course, depending on your view, this change didn’t make St Kilda a worse place to be, but rather a different place to be. From the ‘70s on, the Hotel Esplanade was one of the many iconic live music venues that made St Kilda the home of music in Melbourne.

In the last 30 years, enormous battles have played out between council, developers, the state government and the local community. On many occasions the hotel was earmarked for demolition, and on each occasion, a highly organised and deeply passionate groundswell of local support forced a stay of execution.

FELTON MOVES IN This particular story is less about the hotel than it is about one of its guests: Alfred Felton.

In 1853 — with the gold rush in full swing and Melbourne fast becoming one of the richest and biggest cities on earth — a young Englishman arrived to make his fortune. And in short order he did. First, selling wares to miners in the goldfields, and then as a wholesale druggist, glass bottle maker and pastoralist. From early on he loved St Kilda. He loved its clean air and clear water, its refined atmosphere, its proximity to the bay, to the steamships that plied the routes to Williamstown, Geelong and Sorrento. And he loved the Hotel Esplanade. So much so, in 1891 he moved in permanently. He took over two rooms at the front of the ground floor, looking out over St Kilda pier and the bay, and he slept in a third room on Level 1.

SMOOTH OPERATOR His filled the lower rooms with his extraordinary collections: paintings, sculptures, books, magazines, furniture. As fate would have it, an innocuous photo album went to auction 10 years ago, containing photos of some paintings recognised as once belonging to Felton. Upon further investigation, other photographs were discovered, these ones of a series of Victorian parlour rooms, circa 1900, crammed to overflowing with sculptures, books, magazine, furniture and – you guessed it: paintings. Felton’s paintings.

The Espy’s history is full of stories.

This is one of them.

Matt Mullins is a partner in Sand Hill Road hospitality group

THE LEGACY And so now we have 10 beautiful photographs of the inside of Felton’s Espy rooms, and in some ways too, the inside of Felton’s mind. For it was his love of art, and the role art could play in enriching our lives, that informed the most extraordinary part of this story. Throughout his entire adult life Alfred Felton had been generous. A bachelor, his only family a long way away in England, he had always donated large sums of money to local worthy causes, especially those of women and children. His art was his other great outlet.

Even so, when he died in his bed at the Hotel Esplanade, in 1904, and the details of his will became known a few weeks later, no one had the slightest notion of what he had planned.

His entire estate, worth nearly 400,000 pounds (equivalent to perhaps $100,000,000 today) was to be administered by a committee, to distribute half its annual earnings to local charities supporting first children, then women; and half to purchase art for the National Gallery of Victoria. In that moment, the NGV became one of the wealthiest galleries on earth, with more acquisition funds than London’s Tate and National galleries combined. In that moment, Melbourne changed forever.

Of the NGV’s estimated $4 billion worth of art, about $3 billion of it was purchased through Felton’s bequest. And it’s still purchasing art now. And still supporting important charitable work. Felton loved the Hotel Esplanade. It was in his magnificent art-crammed rooms at the hotel, sitting on a park bench every afternoon out the front of the Hotel, lying in his bed on the first floor of the Hotel that he planned this extraordinary gift to the people of Australia. We’ll never be able to thank him. But we’re sure as hell gonna tell his story..

It’s all about location

11

LEVEL UP This ‘vertical pub’ in the ’burbs is a cut above.

Story: Christopher Holder Highfield Hotel: 22 MacKay St, Caringbah NSW (02) 8536 6100 or highfieldcaringbah.com.au

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8

4 tradies on site… at the one time.

Them’s a lot of utes!

The Highfield Hotel came together in a hurry. Once the Go button had been pressed, after all the approvals came through early 2017, the Feros Group poured more than $10m into the build over the course of seven months.

The deadline was ‘before Christmas’ and Director, Chris Feros, stayed strong, cracking the whip – ‘let’s get this done’.

It required a monumental group effort. Back in February 2017, pigeons were flying through the top level and there were gaping holes in the Level 1 timber floors of the old Bizzo’s Club. On December 15 the whole venue, including a ground floor ‘ultimate’ sports bar, first floor bistro and bar, and best-of-breed gaming lounge were all open to the public. No soft opening; it was pedal to the metal from Day 1.

Leading the contractor charge was H&E Architects, and New England Constructions. In the month prior to the December opening it was an around-the-clock work site.

Not only that but New England Construction was able to keep the existing Feros Group venues open in the basement — Huxley’s and the takeaway pizza restaurant, Ugly Pizza. Feros Group factored in 20 days of lost trade, there wasn’t a single day of down time.

NEXT LEVEL PUB Highfield Hotel is the Feros Group’s new flagship.

The Feros Group, helmed by father and son team, Nick and Chris Feros, are suburban pub operators.

In fact, the group has three of its pubs all within 15 minutes drive of the Caringbah-based Highfield Hotel in Sydney’s Sutherland shire.

The Feros Group is well known for operating family-friendly pubs with ‘cut above’ food offerings. Highfield was going to be a bit of a departure: “If I showed you all the different draft plans for Highfield’s upstairs space you’d be amazed.

We were looking at plans for a full-blown a la carte restaurant, a cigar bar…” recalls Chris Feros. “Then we took a long, honest look in the mirror and asked ourselves some key questions: ‘Are we heading into new territory?’, ‘Are we ready for that?’, and ‘Can we be certain of delivering a high quality product?’

“As we answered those questions we decided not to stray too far from our core strengths — great pub fundamentals — but take that offering up another couple of notches.”

After examining Chris Feros’s motivations, it’s clear the group wasn’t entertaining the idea of a cigar bar or table service because they were sick of the traditional pub paradigm or outgrown their Wednesday parma patrons.

“It’s hard to find a pub in Sydney that now doesn’t do food well,” observes Chris Feros. “You can’t differentiate yourself by having a competent food offering. You need to go further.

“Ten years ago, I’d never dreamt that my competition would be the Westfield rooftop at Miranda shopping centre. You’ve got the likes of Grill’d and a cinema complex. They’re getting it right.

“My competition isn’t the pub down the road it’s for the hospitality dollar. As a hospitality group, in fact, as an industry, we have to be evolving to stay ahead of the game.”

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HIGHFIELD VIDEO WALLS

The AV experience in the Highfield Hotel’s sports bar is certainly elite level. Dominating the room are four giant 3x3 video LG Commercial walls. DJW Projects undertook all the audiovisual work. Helmed by Dave Coxon, DJW bravely jumped into largely uncharted territory – using a video over IP system to give the video walls the advanced capabilities they needed.

Traditionally, achieving multiview functionality (where you can select a number of different sources in a bunch of different configurations on the one display canvas) requires serious hardware grunt. It’s now become possible to achieve the same sort of advanced functionality using software and off-the-shelf network switches.

DJW Projects used a system called Octava, which allows the hotel staff to choose the sources and the screen configuration from an iPad. The interface is elegant and belies the sheer quantity of data throughput required to have multiple streams of HD content being displayed on a single video wall.

“With a sports bar, each source really needs to be displayed in full HD,” commented DJW Projects director Dave Coxon.

“Which means you need a mind boggling amount of bandwidth to achieve the sort of multiview functionality required, as much as 800Mb/s per stream on the back plane switch.

So we learnt that the quality of the switch determined the quality of the vision. We used 60Gb Cisco switches.

“The Cisco switches aren’t easy to configure, but once configured, they’re very stable.

“The other key thing we learnt was you need to preserve the frame rate of the source video. You can’t skimp on that.

Things will get glitchy otherwise.”

There are some 200 displays throughout the venue. Apart from the 36 within the video walls, the other screens are sent video via a more traditional RF MATV system.

“We discovered that if we wanted to send hi-def IP video to every display in the hotel, the network switches would be hundreds of thousands of dollars each, so that was out of the question.”

Feros Group factored in 20 days of lost trade, there wasn’t a single day of down time The audio system is based on Acoustic Technologies loudspeakers, EAW SB120 subs, Powersoft QC1204 and 2404 multichannel amplifiers and Symetrix processing. All the audio routing is via Dante IP audio over Cisco SD350 series managed switches — again, ensuring the correct audio matching the selected video source can be heard in the right zone.

“It’s a background music system and we were looking for a more cost effective option as a result,” explains Dave Coxon. “Acoustic Technologies worked with us on a specific model for the Highfield Hotel. A full-range, low-profile, loudspeaker that performs really well at the right price.”

Call Stephen on 0412 800 031

DJW Projects: (02) 9114 9993 or djwprojects.com.au LG: www.lg.com.au Acoustic Technologies: (07) 3376 4122 or www.atprofessional.com.au PAVT (Symetrix, Powersoft, EAW): (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au OPOC (Octava): 1300 670270 or opoc.com.au

2017 HOSPITALITY BUILDING AWARD UP TO $10M

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The Botanical rooftop bistro has raised the pub-grub bar. The menu continues to offer solid value but perhaps the portion sizes are scaled back a little in favour of options and quality.

You can even make a meat selection for the authentic Japanese robata grill. It’s also a venue where patrons are happy to drop $14 on a properly prepared cocktail.

EXPERIENCES Chris Feros is adamant. He’s no longer designing suburban pubs for a specific demographic.

This is interesting given how much of the Feros success has been in providing family-friendly pub environments, complete with playgrounds.

Highfield Hotel is family friendly but doesn’t have that same kids’ focus as, say, The Prince or Taren Point Hotel. What it does have is a bunch of different experiences.

“I don’t talk about clientele, I talk about experiences,” emphasis Chris Feros. “When people talk about demographics, I say, let’s not talk about demographics, let’s talk about experiences. What experiences can you have under this one roof? I could target a 30-something bloke as the demographic for the sports bar, but he might meet his wife downstairs in Huxley’s afterwards or for a cocktail upstairs in the Botanical. So how do you isolate the demographic in that case? It’s more about the experience you’re delivering.”

This goes a way to explaining and understanding the success of the Highfield Hotel in its suburban context. It’s been immediately adopted by the Shire with great enthusiasm.

CHRISTMAS BAPTISM When you sit on the deck of the Botanical bistro, looking across Botany Bay at the city of Sydney, cocktail in hand, Bromic gas heating keeping you comfortably toasty on a clear Autumn day, it’s easy to think that this hospitality game is actually pretty easy. Build it and they will come.

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Wrong. It takes rare foresight and a lot of guts. Something project manager Ben Shaw is all too aware of: “For Chris Feros to see the possibilities of this site five years ago was amazing.

The building was in a real state. Upstairs, it felt like it was only the pigeon poo keeping it together. And to strike the deal with the landlord, spend millions of dollars on a building you don’t even own… well, its success is obvious to everyone now, but I can tell you it wasn’t back then.”

Ben Shaw, is also well placed to provide perspective on the enormity of the completed task: “It was an extraordinary effort by all. This was a complex build. We were ripping roofs off, replacing roofs; we were at times demolishing part of the building and not yet knowing what was being built in its place…

“In that last final month leading up to the December 15 opening, I reckon we had about two and half months of work to complete in around four weeks.

“New England Constructions had all its site team and it’s management team on the ground getting the work done. It was mayhem. Contractors were climbing over each other to get things done.

“It wasn’t a perfect situation but we were able to open before Christmas. And I’m not sure there would be many other builders able to achieve that.”

CONTACTS New England Constructions: (02) 9369 1241 or newenglandconstructions.com.au H&E Architects: (02) 9357 2288 or h-e.com.au Bromic Heating: 1300 276 642 or www.bromic.com.au

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Hole in One

From hopeless hack to championship contender: this is the remarkable Cinderella story of the Strathfield Golf Club.

Story: Christopher Holder Strathfield Golf Club: 52 Weeroona Rd, Strathfield NSW (02) 9642 0326 or strathfieldgolf.com.au

S

trathfield Golf Club was on the ropes.

The salad days of membership waiting lists were well and truly over. Interest was dwindling and there was no money to give the club the shot in the arm it so desperately required.

Things were so desperate that the board recommended a merger with one of the nearby mega-clubs. That proposal was knocked back by members and a new board began to look at any alternatives that might breathe life back into a club that only barely had a pulse.

The decision was made to sell off the practice fairway and use those funds to rescue the club. The 20,000sqm parcel of land was valued at $13m and the club began the process of applying for a council DA. Instantly the developers began sniffing around, universally recommending the club put both the practice fairway and the old clubhouse land up for sale at the same time — the combination would be far more attractive.

The ‘sniffing around’ became quite a bit more intense from that point, as club General Manager Neil Hardy recollects: “The first offer we had was for $28m and there was a subsequent offer for $40m. At that point we knew we were looking at a good return. In the end, we went to tender and we got $52.5m. So that was a great windfall and we luckily caught the top of the market.”

In a short space of time Strathfield Golf Club went from basket case to a cashed-up contender.

The resurrection plan would involve a brand new showpiece clubhouse, a redesigned and revitalised golf course, and a stash of money to maintain the course in perpetuity. Happy days.

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INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMP The club did its homework.

Industry expert Jeff Blunden was commissioned to produce a report for management that conducted a stocktake on the function spaces in the area, the changing demographic, and other key barometer readings that would provide the club with the data it needed to determine what sort of clubhouse was appropriate and the business case for the function space.

The board signed off on a budget in the order of $20m to build the clubhouse that would encompass three distinct areas of activity: members’ area, a dining room and a function space.

The project was put out to tender with five architects, both locally and internationally, submitting designs.

“Altis Architecture came up with a fabulous design that just blew everyone away,” recalls Neil Hardy. “The design needed to have a wow factor and the Altis design was clearly superior in that regard.”

“We could have played it safe but given the nature of the tender process we designed to push the boat out,” remarked Altis Architecture Director Rolfe Latimer.

“We knew it might work for us or against us, depending on who was reviewing the submissions,” fellow Director Andrew O’Connell commented.

“But our proposal wasn’t one that could possibly be ignored!”

Viewed from above, the Altis design takes the form of three golf club heads and sculpturally evokes the dramatic sharp lines of a sand bunker. The three buildings harmoniously sit within the landscaping of the golf course — the nearby greens and tee boxes — each taking full advantage of the beautiful vistas over the course. Architecturally it’s as sympathetic to its surroundings as it is stunning.

DRIVE TO SUCCEED Far from simply being a great-looking architectural shell, the Altis design was easily the most pragmatic of the proposals. Underground car parking and a central back of house core would make the new club house supremely practical.

The pro shop, buggy storage etc, so often entirely separate from the rest of the facilities is tucked under the main first level of activity and within chipping distance of the underground parking.

“That’s the beauty of the design,” reflects Rolf Latimer. “It’s a 10 out of 10 for golfers and yet works just as well for social users. It’s unusual for an iconic building. More generally something has to ‘give’, but that wasn’t the case here, everyone’s needs are met and expectations have

been exceeded.”

Unusually, the club debriefed the losing architectural firms after Altis was awarded the project, as Neil Hardy explains: “We had permission from each of the firms to share their designs. All of them without fail reported back saying: ‘we see why you went with this Altis design, it’s brilliant’.”

WHAT PRICE AN ICON? A $20m budget, although not lavish, would seem to a healthy amount of money to see the venue through to completion without undue compromise. As it happened, Neil Hardy, Altis and the builders needed to draw on all their experience and ingenuity to maintain the design intent while remaining within budget.

The roof structure, for example, is a steel lattice arrangement, saving on tonnes of structure.

“We’ve used some clever modern technologies to achieve the result within budget,” noted Andrew O’Connell. We didn’t want to spend undue money on the engineering; money that might otherwise be used on the interiors.”

The interiors are pared back and its clear that money has been saved on some of the finishes, but such is the stunning architectural and the organic lines so remarkable that the interiors don’t suffer.

“The organic shapes create interest in and of themselves,” agrees Rolfe Latimer. “We’ve spent less on the interior finishes than we may have in another upmarket clubs interior but the simple finish does a lot of the work at Strathfield.”

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PICKING THE RIGHT CLUB Although it has 15 machines, the club doesn’t rely on gaming. Functions are the new currency.

The club has wisely outsourced the catering, allowing them to get accustomed to the idea of managing a new venue and business operations.

The golf course is adjacent to the sprawling Rookwood Cemetery, and the new clubhouse is only a well hit drive from the front gates. With the proximity comes a considerable midweek trade in ‘life celebrations’ (wakes, in the old language). The weekend sees regular function business — weddings, birthdays etc — meaning the kitchen ticks over most nights of the week.

“The first weekend, we catered for 550 people,” recalls Neil Hardy. “We were going to have a soft opening, instead we had a trial by fire. But people were absolutely blown away by the whole experience.”

OFF SCRATCH The eyes of the industry are turning to Strathfield Golf Club. And not just domestically but even overseas. Golf memberships are down all over the world — many are barely viable — and here is a club that seems to have found the circuit breaker.

“If you’re relying on golf membership money and green fees to survive, you’re on borrowed time,” warns Neil Hardy. “I’ve probably had 30 clubs come to see me; battling clubs from all around the country that are looking at what we’ve done and picking our brains. The industry is looking to us as a standout success story — the best story of the year.”

Altis Architecture is already seeing the impact: “Strathfield Golf Club has provided a copybook example of how to revitalise an ailing club; not just a golf club,” reflects Rolfe Latimer.

“Golf courses are a special case,” observes Andrew O’Connell. “Very often they’re sitting in the middle of suburban areas — prime land — and have under-utilised remnant pieces of land they could sell off, rezone, and capitalise.”

Altis Architecture is well placed to assist. With its long-standing hospitality sector expertise it understands the tensions between maintaining the utility of the venue as a members’ clubhouse and what’s required of a modern-day hospitality venue.

“We’re seeing more and more of this,” notes Rolfe Latimer. “Clubs reinventing themselves. Bowls clubs are also an endangered species. But we’re seeing joint ventures where a clubs are entirely integrated into a mixed living development, for example. They’re becoming more mixed use — operationally and as a business model. A clubs’ hospitality and leisure offering can bring plenty to a commericial or residential development — it’s a powerful business model for future sustainability.”

As for Strathfield Golf Club, its future is bright.

Even golf memberships are up some 40% thanks to the redesigned course and world-class facilities.

No one is demanding the return of the old practice fairway.

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Altis Architecture came up with a fabulous design that just blew everyone away.

CONTACT Altis Architecture: (02) 9364 9000 or altisarchitecture.com

Seen the Light Chapel Off Chapel: 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran VIC chapeloffchapel.com.au

CONTACT Showtools International (Chauvet): (02) 9824 2382 sales@showtools.com.au or showtools.com.au ASL Systems (Installer): 0448 804 900 or www.asl-sys.com.au

Taylor Henderson performs on his Love Somebody tour.

Photo: Jacquie Withers. Lighting Design: Simon Prentice.

A

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s one of Melbourne’s most popular live performance venues, Chapel Off Chapel is renowned for its wellrounded program of live music, cabaret, theatre, comedy, dance and visual art. Housed in a deconsecrated church, this celebrated venue has hosted artists such as Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Tripod, and musicals including The Colour Purple, Rent and Blood Brothers.

In early 2018, Chapel Off Chapel went to market with a view to upgrade its existing Chapel Theatre lighting rig. Led by the theatre’s Technical Supervisor, Simon Prentice, the plan was to source reliable, high impact lighting equipment that would not only amp up the visual capabilities, and look of the venue, but also allow for a more energy efficient system: “Firstly, we wanted to reduce our energy consumption by using all LED fixtures — the venue’s carbon footprint is really important to council’s sustainability. Secondly, we needed to acquire some new powerful fresnels and profiles that would give the theatre some new upgraded looks for productions,” mentioned Simon.

After looking at the various fixtures on the market, the tech team was particularly impressed with the Chauvet Professional range in terms of the fixtures’ performance, output, colour temperature and value. They subsequently decided to acquire a range of fixtures from Chauvet’s new Ovation range.

STANDING OVATION Initially, the venue acquired and installed 22 Ovation E930VW Ellipsoidals — a high-performance, variable white ellipsoidal-style fixture that utilises a unique six-colour LED system and, as described by Simon, was a “…a real standout in the Ovation range. This fixture projects a bright, beautifully flat field of light in nearly any temperature of white with high CRI and CQS.” Some 11 Ovation F-915VW fresnels were also added to the lighting rig as well as eight Ovation H-265WW units — a silent, convection-cooled LED house light with a powerful warm white light output and a high CRI — an ideal fixture for theatres.

Following the success of the initial Ovation installation, Chapel Off Chapel decided to continue its journey with Chauvet Professional, soon installing four powerful wash fixtures — namely the Maverick MK2 Wash. “We can use them as downlight washes, backlight washes and cross-light washes, as well as for various scene changes,” Simon emphasised.

By working with Chauvet Professional to achieve the desired outcome, Chapel Off Chapel was able to install a brand-new, premium lighting rig that provided advanced production capabilities while reducing its energy consumption by over 50%.

Music Stocks Are High Stock Exchange Hotel: 131 Edward St, Brisbane City QLD (07) 3229 3522 or stockexchangehotel.com.au

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he Stock Exchange Hotel in downtown Brisbane has seen it all since its 1863 launch. The rooftop bar is a more modern addition and is an urban favourite. The reworked rooftop (part of a larger multi-million dollar refurb), surround by city skyscrapers is a relaxed, hip place to eat, drink and party.

Stockies (as the pub is affectionately known) takes its music seriously. In 2017 it invested in an interesting PA inventory that would allow the pub to be flexible — set up where the party or function is — and provide a level of performance you can’t get from an installed background music system.

The system (or systems) is based on the Bose Professional F1 Model 812 — something Bose call a Flexible Array Loudspeaker.

INOV Audio Visual walked Stockies through the purchase.

Boss, Sam Lehane explains the product choice: “Stockies wanted to build on its existing house PA systems and improve the overall quality of sound across multiple zones (nightclub, bar, beer garden, event rooms etc), with special emphasis on enhancing the atmosphere at the nightclub section. The needed to be a nimble and dextrous yet comprehensive solution. It was also vitally important for management to have control over any of the systems regardless of where they were in the hotel — maintaining compliance with its license was priority No.1.”

CONTACT Bose Professional: www.bose.pro.com

MORE FLEX The system comprises six Bose F1 Model 812 Flexible Array Loudspeakers along with eight matched Bose F1 Subwoofers, controlled via a Bose ControlSpace ESP880 Engineered Sound Processor. The combination means the hotel can deploy the additional PA firepower in three discrete areas at any one time — speeches, acoustic duo, all the way through to a full-throttle nightclub event.

Full system control over all zones at Stockies is now possible through a convenient remote user interface, thanks to INOV’s own software control system. INOV Control pairs with the Bose ControlSpace ESP880 via tablet-style touchscreens.

MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN Stockies management is well pleased: “The new-look Stock Exchange Hotel is the perfect place for your next event. While our F&B staff ensure that your palate is pleased, our new Bose Professional audio system will ensure that your music experience is sublime… and that combination is quite like a match made in heaven!”

QUEENS HOTEL

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TAKING IT ON THE CHIN CHIN Chin Chin proves its phenomenal success isn’t just a ‘Melbourne Thing’.

Story: Christopher Holder Photos: Tom Ferguson Chin Chin Sydney: 69 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills NSW (02) 9281 3322 or chinchinrestaurant.com.au

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he position of Chin Chin General Manager is widely regarded as the toughest gig in Australian hospitality.

Chin Chin is wildly popular. Has been for nearly 10 years. There’s always a queue. You can book a table for six or more people, otherwise it doesn’t matter if you’re Joe (or Jill) Blow or Kanye (or Kim) West, you have to get in line with everyone else.

The General Manager has to ensure the wait is worth it. As well as field livid calls from Kanye’s manager (I’m just making the Kanye thing up, by the way), the GM must guarantee an experience for the (up to) 1000 covers a week, 364 days a year (yes, Chin Chin is open every day except Christmas).

Fundamentally, the reason for Chin Chin’s long reign at the top is in its ability to maintain its quality.

And now Chin Chin is creating the same stir in Sydney.

(DON’T) GO NORTH YOUNG MAN Sydney is a graveyard for Melbourne restaurateurs. And vice versa. There are a few notable exceptions that prove the rule. One such exception is Longrain, which opened up a Melbourne outpost in Little Bourke Street some 10 years ago after enjoying enormous success in Sydney’s (then unfashionable) Surry Hills.

So let me see: contemporary Thai restaurant has runaway success and serves to define a new eating precinct? Sounds familiar, non?

The Lucas Group, which owns Chin Chin as well as its younger Melbourne-based siblings, Kong, Hawker Hall and Kisumé, decided the time was ripe to give Sydney a crack. You could hardly accuse the Lucas Group of acting precipitously.

The Chin Chin brand was well defined and Sydney was gagging for it.

DESIGN TIME The Chin Chin Sydney site is a cracker. Check the box item for a potted history, but suffice it to say, this prominent Surry Hills corner site is ideal.

The Lucas Group engaged a Sydney interior architect for the task of bringing the Chin Chin spirit north of the border. George Livissianis is an inspired choice. You’ve seen his work in the pages of venue aligned to projects such as the Apollo and Cho Cho San. George Livissianis: “My first task was to understand the Chin Chin brand.

“The brand is definitely a bit cheeky. It’s the first food/restaurant brand I’ve worked with that has its own mascot. And the Chin Chin cookbook; it’s hand illustrated like a graphic novel. Chin Chin is fiercely independent and iconoclastic.

“From there, it was easier to break down the site and give each space its own spirit: the bar [Gogo Bar] versus the dining room versus the function space [Chii Town].

“We were able to simplistically take the Chin Chin colours of black, white and pink and apply them across the three main spaces. The dining hall lent itself to being more white; the bar lends itself to being black and intimate; while the function space could be more obviously branded pink.

“There are plenty of design elements that help to make the space, touches such as the seat cushions in the dining room with natural goose feather wrapped in plastic. Then there’s the roof sarking that acts as curtains in the function space. It’s great to have some quirk. I think these elements are the things that can make a space. You need to invest the time and energy into it. It has an effect on people’s experience even if it’s subconscious a lot of the time.”

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CHIN MUSIC: BELIEVE THE HYPE

George Livissianis: “Chin Chin is a restaurant built around the energy of the space. The architectural and interior components; the lighting; they all conspire to help guests rub up against each other. It contributes to the excitement; the ambience; and the hype.

“Music is such important atmosphere component in Chin Chin. As soon as you enter, you hear and feel the music.

You’re energised by it. That’s the commencement of your Chin Chin experience.

“It shows how so many aspects contribute to the bigger picture and you can’t neglect any of them.”

The audio is based on the highly regarded Martin Audio CDD loudspeakers. In all, there are 46 x CDD6 surfacemount loudspeakers supplemented by 14 x BLX 210 dual10 inch subwoofers.

The CDD box uses a coaxial driver arrangement which allows the loudspeaker to be mounted in either portrait or landscape orientation without sacrificing any off axis performance. What’s more, the CDD loudspeaker pioneers an innovative waveguide that ensures patrons right under the loudspeaker experience the same high frequency performance as those further away. Some 14 x QSC CMX800 amplifiers power the system.

Given the immediate proximity of residential tenants upstairs, every effort has been made to prevent sound being transferred through the building structure via the use of isolating speaker mounts.

A QSC Q-SYS Core 110 provides all the centralised DSP to manage the EQ and zone control. The management can make volume tweaks via an Q-SYS iOS app on their device.

The installation was expertly taken care of by Beyond AV, with Angelo Andrews running point.

Beyond AV: (02) 9554 6781 or www.beyondav.com.au Technical Audio Group (Martin Audio, QSC): (02) 9519 0900 or www.tag.com.au

TEA TIME: THE BUILDING

The Griffiths Teas building sits like a streamlined ship in the apex of a tight triangular block in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Surry Hills. Designed by Kent, Budden & Greenwell architects, it opened its doors in 1915 as the NSW warehouse of the Melbourne-based import company.

The heritage-listed, red-brick beauty stood unused for almost 30 years until it was bought in 2014 by developer Michael Grant of Cornerstone Property, who appointed architect Alex Popov of PopovBass to bring it back to life. Popov converted the seven-floor structure into 31 loft-style residences and put seven new penthouse apartments on the roof.

Chin Chin is the prize tenant on the ground floor.

George Livissianis, Architect: “It’s an amazing site with so much texture and character, which really influence the plan of the whole space.

“We anchored the whole design to the middle. As guests circulate they’re always attached to the original parts of the building, the original facades, the ceiling, walls, and what’s amazing about that space.

“It took some work to get all the mechanical services consolidated into the middle. But it was worth the effort.”

George Livissianis: georgelivissianis.com

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CRACKLING WITH ENERGY When Chin Chin is in full swing, there’s a veritable crackle of electricity in the air. It’s exciting, and a little like Matrix ‘bullet time’: it feels like you pack in a full night’s worth of stimulus into an hour.

As General Manager, Emilio Basone, has the job of ensuring all the frantically spinning cogs mesh.

Emilio Basone: “I’m always amazed seeing our restaurant in action. On a Saturday night it can be mental, but it’s amazing to see our incredible kitchen team produce consistently great food… fast. As a guest, there’s no sense of having to wait.

It’s just brilliant.

“Training is a huge aspect. It’s not just dropping a plate at the table, it’s taking time to introduce the dish, explaining the flavour profiles and other aspects. There’s regular team training at all different levels, right from Day 1. It’s a huge part of the business; ensuring our teams feel confident, such that when a new wait staff member finally goes out onto the floor, they’re armed with the confidence and knowledge to entertain and inform the guests, ensuring a seamless experience.

“When I stand at the door and say goodbye to everybody, we get some fantastic feedback. ‘The food’s amazing.’ ‘It’s incredible.’ And the team here is just phenomenal: the consistency of the offering given the volumes is astonishing.”

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NO REPLICANT The newsprint stains of the Evening Star have been replaced with the megatropolis bustle of a pan Asia future-pub.

Story: Christopher Holder Photos: Murray Fredericks Evening Star: 360 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW (02) 9281 8177

Views from Surry Hills: With a pub on every corner, the new-look Evening Star makes a unique design statement you won’t find in any architectural playbook. Combining organic forms with the geometric and an Insta filter colour palette, the Evening Star fitout takes necessary risks to distinguish itself in a highly competitive hospitality market.

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he Evil Star (as it was colloquially known) was the home away from home for News Limited journos for decades. Thanks to its proximity to the Sydney HQ of Rupert’s empire, the pub was essentially a Daily Telegraph annexe. Journos would phone their stories in to the subs over a schooner and debrief well into the night.

The glory days of newspapers is well and truly over. And the newly relaunched Evening Star isn’t a shrine to a monochromatic yesteryear of pork pie hats and trench coats.

Far from it.

The new pub is utterly unrecognisable.

Matching the pan-Asian cuisine, the new look

by Paul Kelly Design is unflinchingly modern; futuristic, in fact.

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WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? Prior to the refit, the Evening Star had a inauspicious look of a pub that was a front for a pokie lounge with little prospect of finding a thirdrate parma.

Paul Kelly Design is renowned in the hospitality industry for combining next-level business acumen (ie. what makes hospo tick) with a cuttingedge eye for the aesthetic.

When it comes to upgrading gaming lounges — ensuring full compliance, comfort and building in smoking areas — Paul Kelly Design is without peer.

Under the watchful eye of Paul Kelly himself, Interior Architect Natasha Modra designed something undeniably stylish, yet intentionally a little intimidating.

Surry Hills is fast paced, brash and tasty. So rather than being yet another ‘modern Australian’ pub grub outlet, the Evening Star has a Blade Runner touch of danger to the pace and feel of the offering.

FRIEND & PHO The pub seamlessly combines eating and drinking. After-work drinks can effortlessly flow into a bowl of wagyu beef shin rendang cooked or phoflavoured beef meatballs.

“The Evening Star operates as a traditional pub but combines that with an energetic food offer,” explains Interior Architect Natasha Modra. “It suits the landscape. It resonates with the culture of the area and provides a look to the future.”

The biggest calling card of the new-look pub is the street frontage. Foot traffic can’t help but notice that something boldly different has just moved in — the bespoke portal entry door; the glimpses of neon lighting inside.

As mentioned, it’s just a little intimidating — this isn’t the Evil Star of yore where a quick midi and a leaf through the form guide would be de rigueur.

The reinvented venue is self aware, glamorous and indulgent.

GAME THEORY

Paul Kelly Designs is the best in the biz when it comes to striking the right gaming lounge balance: privacy, glamour, smoking, practicality. The new gaming lounge is designed to meet the indoor/ outdoor regulations that permit smoking. The air handling is quiet but moves industrial volumes of air to ensure comfort. The touches of bling (including the bespoke light feature) and the large motif bespoke carpet transport patrons out of their day-to-day, while the layout ensure privacy for those seeking it.

Paul Kelly Design: (02) 9660 8299 or paulkellydesign.com.au

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EASY BEING GREEN The restaurateur who jumped to Manly from Lavender Bay. Story: Christopher Holder Photos: Yasmin Mund Manly Greenhouse: 36 South Steyne, Manly NSW (02) 9056 3388 or manlygreenhouse.com.au

HEATING UP

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Craig Hemmings: We had three heating systems on our short list — three systems we had here on site, plugged in and tested.

The aesthetics of the Bromic system sold me. It’s a good looking machine and incredibly efficient — we’ve found ourselves inching the output of the heating down because they’re so efficient.

Our interior designers [Luchetti Krelle] were also sold on them because of the aesthetic.

Rachel Luchetti: They do look good. We use them in almost every project. The radiant heat is great. It heats the people not the air. And they’re especially effective with the sea breeze. The radiant heat remains really effective.

Craig Hemmings: On the rooftop bar, we needed a really good heating solution. People love to be up there whenever they can with the roof retracted. With the comfort provided by the Bromic heaters, people are always happy to sit outside. The Bromic option wasn’t the cheapest. But we made the right decision.

Bromic Heating: 1300 276 642 or www.bromic.com.au

N

ot sure if it’s a case of not needing to try so hard, but Northern Beaches restaurants with ocean views haven’t always covered themselves in glory.

There’s plenty of talent on Manly Wharf, but — how to put this diplomatically? — there was still plenty of room for a quality operation on Manly’s beachside Steyne.

That operator is Greg Anderson. He’s the owner/restaurateur of Sails on Lavender Bay, which has been a considerable success.

Underneath Greg’s laid back demeanour is real ambition. Otherwise it’s hard to explain his new enterprise, Manly Greenhouse.

Manly Greenhouse is a large undertaking, with a full hand of potential pitfalls and gotchas. The upsides are great, but this is a project with even more risk than the average hospitality play.

OF CORSO First up, the location might be prime — right on Manly Beach two doors down from The Corso — but it had a poison-chalice legacy. The previous tenant misused the license. There were constant noise complaints and outlaw bikie gangs would settle in for all-nighters, peppered with punchups. The Police hated the place as much as the residents upstairs.

Suffice it to say, getting the plans through council required persistence.

There were some heavy construction headwinds as well. Building a deck on Level 1 added an additional unplanned six months of construction time, for example.

Greg, and his business partner Patricia Nunes had to hold their nerve.

Part of their confidence lay in bringing in industry stalwart, Craig Hemmings. Craig is a veteran of tough openings. In fact, while he was waiting out the Greenhouse delays he opened Chin Chin Sydney for the Lucas Group. It gives you a sense of the calibre of the man.

“We knew we needed a great operations guy to launch the Greenhouse,” reflected Greg Anderson.

“We were lucky enough to get the best.”

THREE-LEVEL JOURNEY The three-level Greenhouse concept is nifty: everyday dining on the groundfloor, a rooftop bar up top, and a swankier grill in the middle.

In a few short weeks it’s really hit its straps. Although the grill house hadn’t opened when venue dropped by in early October, the two other levels had already gone to a seven-day schedule. What’s more, for half the week there have been significant wait times on the wood-fired pizza and Italian share plates on the ground floor. No matter, patrons have been more than happy to head upstairs to the rooftop bar for a cocktail and a mobile phone alert.

“The rooftop bar acts as an upmarket holding room for diners,” commented Craig Hemmings.

“We’ve found that people are more than happy to go up there for a drink knowing a table will eventually be waiting for them downstairs.”

LEVELLING UP Taking the Greenhouse plunge was a huge risk for Greg Anderson and Patricia Nunes.

The new venture is on a totally different scale to Sails on Lavender Bay. They couched their risk in the savvy engagement of Craig Hemmings.

“He’s the guy who makes decisions,” noted Greg.

“If there’s a question mark over any aspect of operations, he has the experience and the instinct to go ahead and make the right call.”

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Compared to Greg’s restaurant, Greenhouse ratchets up activity at least three-fold. Sixty staff instead of 20, for example.

But those numbers can be deceptive. The stress on the systems is manifold more. It’s something Greg is acutely aware of. In fact, the operational efficiencies so crucial to the Greenhouse have flowed into Sails, thanks to a single back office and staff willing to come for the ride.

CONTACT Luchetti Krelle: (02) 9699 3425 or www.luchettikrelle.com

A VERY MODERN AV SYSTEM

Downstairs: Wood-fired pizza and Italian share plates. Cocktails, wine and house beers on tap. The music is up and there’s a slightly raucous buzz about it. Wander in from the beach and enjoy yourself. The Greenhouse theme is evident in the plantings (as it is on the rooftop). It takes a contractor open whole day to care for the plants, but the authenticity of the indoor plants raises the design bar. Rachel Luchetti: “We insisted on real greenery. Admittedly there’s the ongoing operational cost of someone tending the garden, but there was no other way.”

The Greenhouse features an AV system that represents everything now expected of a modern large hospitality venue.

All the systems sit under the umbrella of an AMX control system. The Dynalite lighting system, the Symetrix audio loudspeaker controller, the heating, the retractable roofing system and more. The advantages of controlling multiple systems from one user interface are obvious. Traditionally, the cost of a control system like AMX would deter operators from moving in this direction, but increasingly the one-stop benefits are outweighing the outlay.

Dave Coxon from DJW Projects designed and installed the system. From an audio perspective, the brief was to install a loudspeaker system that had good coverage, provided a good level of energy and warmth without being too loud.

The rooftop bar features DJs during peak periods and needed a loudspeaker system that could kick, was waterproof and features good pattern control to ensure minimal sound leaked elsewhere. Dave Coxon spec’ed an EAW installation series lou dspeaker powered by Powersoft amplifiers.

Downstairs, smaller Audac SX502 moulded plastic loudspeakers handle background music duties. In a world awash with loudspeakers such as these Dave Coxon declared the Audac alternative to be a “nice sounding, reasonably priced plastic box with a good bracket”.

Acoustic Technologies 10-inch subwoofers were selected for all levels, filling out some of the low-end without sending subsonic frequencies through to the residents of the building. The sub is also very low profile, allowing the cabinets to be designed into the interiors.

Acoustics was another big consideration for the team.

Downstairs would be happily raucous, while the grill house would be treated to encourage conversation, reflecting the older average age of the target demographic. Dave Coxon worked with the interior design team on a range of acoustic treatments to ensure an extra level of comfort.

DJW Projects: (02) 9114 9993 or djwprojects.com.au PAVT (EAW, Symetrix, Powersoft): (03) 9264 8000 or

www.pavt.com.au Audio Logistics (Audac): 1300 859 341 or www.audiologistics.com.au Acoustic Technologies: (07) 3376 4122 or www.atprofessional.com.au

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Rooftop Bar: The 160-cap bar commands amazing view out to the Pacific Ocean. The standard of the beverage offering is intentionally higher than the ground floor. The hand made cocktails (masterminded by drinks manager Rowan Vidler) are a cut above. The piece de resistance is the fully retractable roofing system that allows the bar to go from fully alfresco to ‘electrical storm lockdown mode’ in minutes. The EAW loudspeaker system is beefy enough to provide a level of excitement in peak periods, but has been designed by DJW Projects to include enough cabinets to keep the overall level down to a neighbour-friendly SPL. A central island bar serves the area well. When quiet, patrons feel content sitting on the perimeter banquettes and the like.

When the bar is pumping, standing-room patrons can linger in the middle of the space, providing an inclusive atmosphere — no one’s stuck on the outer.

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Mane Event The William Inglis Hotel: 155 Governor Macquarie Drive, Warwick Farm NSW (02) 8324 3460 or www.williaminglis.com.au

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here is no bigger name in Australian thoroughbred sales than William Inglis. The Riverside Stables is a huge new $110m Inglis development that includes the The William Inglis hotel.

Celebrating racing history and the thoroughbred, The William Inglis is a boutique equine-themed, M Gallery by Sofitel, five-star hotel.

The new hotel, adjacent to the Warwick Farm racecourse, has a wide variety of function and conferencing facilities, along with 144 hotel rooms.

HORSING AROUND

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Each of the 144 hotel rooms – including 22 large suites – has its own name and theme, based on one of the many champion racehorses sold through an Inglis sale ring.

There’s a paddock to plate-style restaurant and gardens named Newmarket Room, a ring-side bar and the Heroic Café in the lobby. Upstairs guests can laze by the pool and enjoy the rooftop bar, known as the Chiltern Pool Deck & Bar, overlooking the racecourse and stable precinct, with sweeping views of the Georges River and Chipping Norton Lake.

Alongside the pool is a wellness centre and day spa, plus a fully equipped gym overlooking the grounds.

The conferencing facilities include The Grand Armee Meeting Room and the Gallery as well as the Inglis Sales Arena which adjoins the hotel.

Overlooking the sales arena, on The Gallery, are nine corpo-

rate suites for VIPs to dine and bid in private with access to a mezzanine bar, the 1867 Lounge.

140 NETWORKED SCREENS The entire AV package was designed, integrated and installed

by The P.A. People. Headlining the AV package is the Bose ShowMatch line array system in the Sales Arena, an Exterity IPTV system that pushes content to all 140 screens around precinct and the VuePix hi-res LED screens. < <Deane Jacobs:>> “The Exterity IPTV system gives us a huge amount of flexibility in being able to control devices — scheduling IPTV devices to change channels before an auction starts and to show other channels after the auction, such as auction results and advertising.”

The Exterity system also runs the hotel room LG Smart TV network.

UNDER THE HAMMER The Sales Arena is a as much a performance venue as it is an auction room. The full-spec Bose Professional ShowMatch PA system provides all the intelligibility and excitement required on auction day, while happily performs concert PA duties for occasional gigs and festivals.

The P.A. People’s Managing Director, Chris Dodds explains the decision: “The original brief nominated a headline European loudspeaker for the job. But the same brief hadn’t consid-

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ered stage lighting and video, so we thought we’d help balance the budget and spec a performance AV system that included all those elements without breaking the bank.”

SCREENS ON THE TROT The showstopping LED screens in the Sales Arena p rovide all the clarity and brightness the auctions need. In the adrenalincharged excitement of a sale, clearly conveyed and accurate information is crucial, and the QE series VuePix LED displays provide it in spades.

The two large-format VuePix screens (each 4.5m wide and 2.5m high) are positioned next to the entrances of the parade ring on each side, with an additional 2.5m wide and 1.5m high screen installed in the middle of the ring above the speaker’s desk.

MORE ABOUT THE P.A.

“The beauty of the Bose ShowMatch system is you can save money without compromising on performance. The reason for that is being able to use fewer boxes and tailor your coverage to the space.

“Each cabinet can handle optional and interchangeable waveguides.

As mentioned, the bottom cab has a 100° waveguide fitted. It provides a very wide and even coverage. So much so that we’ve splayed the arrays out somewhat to get a full 130° coverage of the room. People look at the arrays and assume there must be a hole in the coverage in the centre. There isn’t.

“Two double 18-inch subwoofers complete the system. All the loudspeakers are powered by Bose PM8500N network amps with Dante cards.”

WEST IS BEST

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The Riverside Stables precinct is a unique equine playground that positively seethes with activity on the big auction days. The William Inglis challenge is to maintain a healthy level of activity at other times. Thanks to worldclass function facilities that have quickly put the complex on the radar of wedding and corporate function buyers, that challenge is being met. The William Inglis Hotel is a welcome upscale addition to the western Sydney hotel, hospitality and conferencing scene.

CONTACTS The P.A. People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au Midwich (Exterity): 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au ULA Group (VuePix): 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com Bose Professional: www.bose.pro.com LG: www.lg.com.au

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Sumptuous & Stunning Mama Mulan: The Concourse, Chatswood NSW (02) 9157 1488 mamamulan.com.au

M

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ama Mulan is taking Chatswood’s Chinese dining to a new level with its authentic flavours and stunning 180-seat venue by design house DS17. The playful and ambitious space is the brainchild of young hospitality entrepreneur Kim Jin, paying homage to Disney’s 1988 animation Mulan.

Mama Mulan was created with innovation in mind: a vision to create a casual Chinese dining space with a unique identity. Much of the inspiration has been drawn from Kim’s native province in Northern China. It was both Kim’s Chinese heritage and his passion for food that made it his childhood dream to open his own Chinese restaurant.

Mama Mulan is an opulent interpretation of Chinese modernism, encompassing a 180-seat communal dining area bathed in natural light. Kim’s vision was to recreate his family home space in Shandong, China where he holds his strongest memories of bonding with his large family over delicious food.

Mama Mulan’s expansive size doesn’t compromise cosiness, with soft suede drapes bringing together the entire space.

When the evening looms, the dimly lit geometric light fixtures soften the concrete lime washed walls and teak wood floors.

Traditional Chinese lanterns and feature cabinetry add an oriental touch to the venue.

CONTACT DS17 (Architects): ds17.com.au

LUSH & HOMELY The expansive space was transformed by interior specialists at DS17 (Nour Restaurant, Alpha Restaurant, Beta Bar) led by Paul Papadopolous.

With a neutral colour palette offset by pops of sage and green, the communal dining space comprises marble dining tables, timber seating with handmade linen cushions and lush fiddle leaf trees in concrete pots. The private dining spaces each represent their own unique colour scheme and character.

Seating up to 20 people, ‘Mama Mulan’s Den’ is a group favourite, featuring a quaint outdoor balcony, drawing inspiration from a traditional Chinese garden courtyard.

The mouth-watering pan-Chinese menu (created by chef Marble Ng, ex. Lotus, Chefs Gallery) focuses on the seafood tradition of Shandong cuisine. Dumplings and noodles are all rolled and hand-pulled in-house daily.

With its stunning design and crowd-pleasing Chinese menu, Mama Mulan offers guests a sophisticated backdrop for drinking, dining and entertaining. From intimate lunches and family affairs, to larger corporate functions, Mama Mulan is an outstanding all-rounder for a multitude of occasions.

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Fired Up Asado: 6 Riverside Quay, Southbank VIC (03) 9088 8600 www.asado.melbourne

A

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sado is the latest venture from the team behind South American favourites San Telmo, Pastuso and Palermo.

The new restaurant in Melbourne’s vibey Southbank precinct brings contemporary Argentinian barbeque with a menu from Executive Chef Ollie Gould.

An open fire pit and three-metre bespoke charcoal parrilla grill is the Asado engine room. The cowboy cousin in this restaurant family follows the philosophy of its sibling venues, with a menu showcasing premium meats including O’Connors beef, lamb from Gippsland and Western Plains pork.

Where (sister restaurant) Palermo has Italian leanings, Asado spices things up with Spanish flair. Aperitivo afternoons at Asado are no sleepy siesta — diners can pair jamon boards, high-grade imported tinned seafood and pintxos-style small bites with deep glasses of sangria, Andalusian sherry or Patagonian Pilsner.

Asado has a takeaway arm (Asado To-Go) that serves casual breakfast and lunch bites.

CONTACT

SEE BUENO Designed by leading design firm and long-time collaborators, Ewert Leaf, the expansive 250-seat venue, differs from its moody, low-lit siblings with light flooding through generous steel-framed windows and vibrant art-deco features, creating a bright ambience and buzzing vibe. Adjacent to the main dining room, a dedicated bar space can accommodate private dining groups of 40-50, with further seating available outside, reminiscent of bohemian Buenos Aires’ cobblestone streets. Setting a benchmark for South American culinary offerings since San Telmo in 2011, the San Telmo Group’s new coal-fired venue will certainly heat things up in Southbank.

Bearing Fruit Mitchelton Hotel: 470 Mitchellstown Road, Nagambie VIC (03) 5736 2222 or www.mitchelton.com.au

I

t’s no mere observational eyrie. The Mitchelton Winery ‘Ashton’ tower is monumental. In fact, it can handle 100 people as a standalone function space.

I only mention this because it gives you sense of how ambitious the Mitchelton Winery was when first conceived back in 1969. It was a classic ‘build it and they will come’ Hail Mary of a development.

The architecture has held up amazingly well. A restaurant, chocolatier, and cellar door sales all reside in architect Robin Boyd’s wonderfully preserved ’70s modernism campus.

Mitchelton Wines was sold to Petaluma in 1994 and was then successively swallowed by increasingly larger liquor fish — Lion, then Kirin. In 2011, Gerry Harvey — he of Jayco Caravans fame — purchased the Winery from Kirin.

The moment he and his son Andrew set foot on the property, they both could foresee the need for luxury accommodation.

TAKE ME TO THE RIVER

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Some six years and $16m later, the Mitchelton Hotel & Spa has been launched.

Located within the relaxed surrounds of Mitchelton Winery Estate, the 58-room hotel boasts a four-treatment room day spa and a 20m lap pool, and complements the existing restaurant, and extensive banquet and meeting facilities.

Designed by Hecker Guthrie architects, the hotel’s interiors complement the property’s existing structures and feature earthy tones and a minimalist aesthetic, with all guest

CONTACT Hecker Guthrie: www.heckerguthrie.com

rooms boasting floor-to-ceiling windows with views of either the Goulburn River or the vineyards.

Proving that Gerry and Managing Director, Andrew Ryan, know where their strength lie, they’ve engaged Accor to manage the property. Accor has accorded it ‘MGallery’ status..

Andrew Ryan: “The Hotel and Day Spa is something we wanted to develop early on with our acquisition of the estate.

“It has always been the missing piece in the puzzle for Mitchelton. Goulburn Valley and Nagambie have so much to offer, we have high hopes that the addition of the accommodation facility will help attract more visitors to the region and boost local tourism.”

GLASS HALF FULL Wine lovers will need little encouragement to book a weekend at the Michelton Hotel. A lazy night in, with dinner at the superb Muse restaurant is as relaxed as it is indulgent. The response to the property in its first months of operation certainly appears to positively reflect the market’s appetite for a weekend getaway, with high occupancies. Where the real growth will come from is in the property’s special ability to cater to business retreats and functions. There are a variety of function spaces, each with quality audiovisual provisions, and the accommodation makes Michelton a genuine conferencing destination that is only around an hour’s drive from Melbourne.

ARE YOU GAME? Perth’s Three Pound Group has launched, arguably, the biggest pub in Australia. GM Tim McIernon reckons it’s as easy as having triplets.

The Camfield: 1 Roger Mackay Drive Burswood, WA (08) 6314 1360 or www.thecamfieldbar.com.au

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W

hen The Camfield opportunity came Tim McIernon’s way it was just too good to pass up. One of the biggest pubs in Australia on a 7500sqm site less than 100m from the new Perth Stadium. The Three Pound Group (The Stables Bar, The Reveley) General Manager didn’t ‘um’ and ‘ah’ for long. He’d simply took a deep breath and went for it. Sure, this wasn’t just a huge undertaking for his hospitality group, it was a big undertaking by any measure. Capacity? 4000. Beer taps? 175. Microbrewery? Check.

Tim McIernon: “The Camfield is a large-scale project, there’s no doubt about it. The investment is a big one but it takes about as much time and effort for me to do a small bar as it does to do a 4000-capacity pub like this.

“I think of it as like having triplets — if you’re going to have one baby, you may as well have three! You’ve still got to do the same sort of work, but you get it all done with at once.”

HOLE IN ONE The Camfield isn’t entirely a new build. The stadium development occupies the old Burswood golf course and The Camfield was once the clubhouse, pro shop and function centre next to the 18th green. The state government claimed back the crown land for the Perth Stadium development.

Tim McIernon: “We inherited four big buildings.

We retained three; gutted them and fitted them out. We knocked over the main building and built a microbrewery and main large bar that holds 1500 people. Doing that rebuild helped us to relocate the main bar building towards the river and create a great beer garden — all the things we wanted.”

The beer garden is majestic. It accommodates some 1200 people. It includes a container bar (with space for 50+ patrons on its roof) and a massive 5 x 6m screen for game day and movie nights.

LIVE SOUND Entertainment plays a key role in The Camfield offering.

Whether it’s running a movie night on the big screen, a club night with local promoters, or a popular tribute band, the numbers are huge and the expectations high.

Tim McIernon: “We have a full stage setup — lighting and PA. Being a large venue we can afford to make the necessary investment in a large PA — the economics of hiring in a PA every week just don’t stack up. We can sell 1500 ticket into an event in the courtyard so it was an easy decision to make.”

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GAME DAY The Camfield offering is a bullseye for the Dockers and Eagles families on their way to and fro the 25 AFL games of the footy season. Casual, relaxed, with the food to match. There’s no separate restaurant area — the same menu applies to every seat in the house. Naturally, those 25 game days don’t account for all, or even the majority of the turnover, but they do set the template for The Camfield offering.

The Camfield’s wild card is the standalone function centre. It can hold up to 700 people and has been an instant hit.

BIG OPERATION When the pub is really rocking, witnessing The Camfield in action is something to behold.

On Melbourne Cup day, with the big screen on and people everywhere, Tim had 140 staff working on site — 140!

Tim McIernon: “Hospitality being what it is, you need 450 staff on your books to call on 140 for a big day. And, again, hospitality being what it is, that’s a lot of 18-20 year olds, each with their own challenges. So, yes, The Camfield has operational challenges. But really it’s just about repetition — Groundhog Day — do things well; having a huge night, then backing up and doing it all again. Cleaning, maintenance, restocking… the job is no different to a small bar, only you need to order more and you have more people doing the same job.”

OUTDOOR HEATING

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Perth’s famous for its warm weather and all year round temperate climate. But that’s not to say it doesn’t get cool.

Tim McIernon: “I know it’s not the first thing you think of with a Perth venue, but outdoor heating is absolutely crucial for us. Perth people expect to be able to sit outdoors all year ‘round. And they’ll lose their minds if there’s a tiny bit of rain… even though it might be July and they’re in their T shirt and shorts! Without the Bromic outdoor heaters we’d stand to lose 800-900 seats in colder weather. Plus, with our function bookings being so solid we really have to ensure those events have heated terrace areas for those patrons.

That trade is very important to us.

“It’s not an easy venue to keep heated, which is why we invested so heavily in the Bromic heaters all around the perimeters of the buildings. We also use drop-down blinds to help keep the weather out and the heat in when we need to. It’s got to be dry and warm in there. The Bromic heaters aren’t cheap but they’re worth their weight in gold.”

Bromic Heating: 1300 276 642 or www.bromic.com.au

Perfect Landing Mantle Group moves its take on the Squire brewhouse into The Rocks.

Story: Christopher Holder Squires Landing: Circular Quay W, The Rocks NSW (02) 8014 5661 or www.jamessquire.com.au

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t’s new year’s day nirvana: Sydney Harbour Bridge on one side and uninterrupted views of the Sydney Opera House on the other. Without doubt, Squire’s Landing occupies one of the most enviable hospitality locations in the world.

After Doyles (the famous fancy fish ’n’ chippery) upped stumps, the Mantle Group won the NSW Government tender to take the Overseas Passenger Terminal tenancy.

The Mantle Group has most of its hospitality interests in Brisbane, with a number of high performing restaurants (mostly) in Southbank and elsewhere. It also runs the Charming Squire, an outrageously successful Brisbane brewhouse, and the group’s first partnership with Lion, leveraging the James Squire branding.

The Mantle Group determined that its first foray into Sydney would be behind another James Squire-branded outing: Squire’s Landing.

Squire’s Landing is another brewhouse with a major focus on food and, of course, James Squire beer. There’s a formidable menu of beer on tap, including an ever-changing offering brewed inhouse by the Squire’s Landing full-time brewer.

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FOOD & COALS venue sat down with the general manager, Adam

McIlveen, to hear more: “The Squires brand is well established brand.

People know it, love it and it has a broad demographic appeal — you’re not painting yourself into a corner by appealing only to beer enthusiasts.”

Quite right. Beardy beer hipsters aren’t overrepresented. And, although, the James Squire beer range is extensive and prominently featured, the food is just as important.

Most nights the bustling show kitchen has a whole animal spinning over the coal pit, while the Josper wood-fired oven would also be getting a work out. Some days it might be pig, lamb, duck or even goat.

“Our original plan was to be open in time for Melbourne Cup 2017, but with a number of unavoidable delays we didn’t open until May 2018 — just in time for the Vivid festival. During that early peak period we had to have all our staff onboarded — 40 on the floor and behind the bar, with another 30 in the kitchen. It was intense but we survived largely unscathed, and amazingly kept all our staff.”

SPACE & HEAT Squires Landing has the flexibility of two levels. The upper level can be booked for functions while it simple serves as additional space during peak periods.

The license is for 800 seats. Some 400 of the capacity is alfresco. Of that, 240-odd seats are kept warm by Bromic heating.

Adam McIlveen, General Manager: We would lose almost 30% of our seating footprint if we didn’t have the appropriate heating solution.”

The gas heaters are Bromic’s Platinum SmartHeat models and provide warmth in all the outdoor undercover areas both on the ground floor and the verandah on Level 1.

“We involved Bromic Heating in from the planning stage,” recalled Adam McIlveen. “We provided Bromic with our ideas and they came back with a detailed heating plan and recommendations.”

GET LIT So how about that new year’s eve party? Well, tickets start from $450 with plenty of overseas interest from visitors wanting to soak up the sight of Australia’s two most recognisable landmarks lit up with a couple of tonnes of fire crackers. That said, as we went to press, a big corporate hadn’t yet splashed out on a top floor lock out. Tempting.

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SQUIRED FOR SOUND

Mantle’s go-to AV provider, Gigawatt, took on the audiovisual installation, spear headed by boss, Ben Finlay. Ben spec’ed a KV2 Audio loudspeaker system, after the success of a similar install at the Charming Squire in Brisbane.

“The Mantle Group love the p roduct,” enthused Ben Finlay. “It started with when we won the Charming Squire the job. The client loves the philosophy of creating a comfortable listening environment, where you can hold a conversation, hear the music clearly without the music negatively impacting the interactions.

“KV2 Audio loudspeakers are a higher end product, but the extra investment is worth it.” venue can attest to this. The guitarist/vocalist in the corner of Squire’s Landing plumbed himself into the house system, which consists of dozens (36, to be precise) of distributed compact KV2 Audio ESD6 loudspeakers, and never distracted with a ‘band in the corner’ hot-spot intensity.

A Symetrix Prism 12x12 audio processor takes care of the DSP work and ensuring the levels are right in the various zones.

Squire’s Landing isn’t a sports bar and you won’t find a screen in every line of sight. But two Epson G Series EB-G7905UNL 4K projectors light up dropdown screens when an event is too important to miss.

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CONTACT: Gigawatt: 0402 363 802 or www.gigawatt.com.au KV2 Audio: 0448 959 865 or www.kv2audio.com PAVT (Symetrix): (03) 9264 8000 or www.pavt.com.au Epson: www.epson.com.au

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SMALL PARCELS 8Hotels reinvents the boutique hotel for the Air BnB age.

Story: Christopher Holder Little Albion Guest House: 21 Little Albion St, Surry Hills NSW (02) 8029 7900 or littlealbion.com.au

“I

’m a fan. It’s cool.”

Paul Fischmann, Founder and CEO of 8Hotels is talking about Air BnB and I’m not entirely surprised.

8Hotels’ latest offering, Little Albion Guest House, is shaking up the boutique hotel paradigm. And in many ways Little Albion’s biggest competitor is Air BnB, and not other boutique hotels.

“I love the impact Air BnB is having,” continues Paul Fischmann. “For many years the large hoteliers have waved away Air BnB — ‘nothing to see here!’. That’s what large corporations do when things are scary. Then they’re trying to regulate Air BnB, or taking a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ approach with Air BnB-style businesses.”

But that’s not the Marriot or Hilton’s sweet spot. But it could be 8Hotels’.

8Hotels has always been somewhat of an enigma. It’s owned some properties; managed some properties; and in its short life time has had a hand in 20-plus properties, including the 1888 Hotel, Diamant Hotels, The Kirketon, Limes Hotel… 8Hotels even managed some apartments in Paris for more

56

than seven years.

Now? Well, there’s the Little Albion and the the Felix Hotel at Sydney Airport.

BOUTIQUE SHOPPING It all sounds a little scattergun, but Paul Fischmann has a plan.

“I fell into the accommodation business. At the start of my career, I worked for a property developer and learnt a lot. He had a hotel as part of his portfolio and I enjoyed the hotel management and operations side more than residential development.

“I thought I’d have a go. I started my own business — leasing a backpackers.

“I then leased an existing hotel, which led me to building a hotel management company.

“Hotel management is all about getting more rooms under management — it’s a numbers game. 8Hotels was running as a boutique hotel management company, and really that meant we didn’t have the resources to do anything sizeable.

“That experience made me realise I wanted to operate my own hotels. What’s more I wanted to design and develop high quality and interesting properties.

“So I divested a number of hotels to have the capital to develop Little Albion.”

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ENJOYING THE RIDE You get the feeling Paul is enjoying the ride, even if it’s not been without its challenges.

Paul Fischmann again: “I wanted to be in Surry Hills from the start. And this is the first site I had the opportunity to get.”

Little Albion Guest House is designed around an old (1901) convent.

Paul initially had designs on turning the building into a traditional-style guest house.

His vistas expanded considerably when he was granted council approval to add a floor to the heritage building and a modern extension to the rear.

Paul and his team spent three years driving the design process, working with the builders, architects, interior designers, artisans and fabricators to create a totally bespoke building filled with inhouse designed art works and one-of-a-kind fittings, finishes, furniture and fixtures throughout.

The design of the heritage ‘yin’ of the building has a 1920s flavour, while the more modern ‘yang’ has the splendid heady whiff of the ’70s. Whichever way you slice it, the detail and the fun Paul and the designers have had makes a stay in Little Albion a delight.

Paul Fischmann: “Little Albion Guest House was created with the needs of today’s luxury travellers in the front of our minds, which are the authenticity of a local experience, alongside world class boutique hotel service and ease of booking. To do this we had to redefine the whole hotel category by imagining a modern guest house, developed with the same attention to detail that a home owner has in creating their dream home, resulting in this truly one of a kind property.”

TAKING THE GUEST WORK Or to summarise Paul’s strategy more candidly: Little Albion takes the best of Air BnB and combines it with the best of a boutique hotel.

Which leads us back to Paul’s musings on Air BnB: “I’ve used Air BnB all the time. Air BnB is great for a truly authentic local experience — as much as the big hotel corporations try to create that, they can’t.

“Air BnB manages it because each property is, by definition, unique — for good or for bad.

I mean, I’ve had some amazing Air BnB experiences and some bad ones — it’s a lottery like that.

“A Paris host we’ve used in the past… the last time we stayed the TV and the internet wasn’t working.

“What we’ve done with Little Albion is create something authentic but added a luxury level of service on top of that.

“It’s the next extension of what people want.

Someone’s house but with the backup you need — 24 hours a day.”

AMENITIES: AIR APPARENT

There are some new-school touches that intrigue me about Little Albion. For example, there’s the self-service bar with an honour system. Rather stocking in-room bar fridges, one communal bar is stocked (with some very desirable miniatures along with a handy selection of wines and beers). Grab what you need. Check the appropriate box on the form and pop it into the pigeon hole or settle up at the end of your stay.

Another example, is the approach to in-room dining.

8Hotels acknowledge the fact that there are at least 20 amazing restaurants within a few hundred metres of the hotel. So rather than maintaining a kitchen to supply your midnight club sandwich, you can have your order biked in using a meal delivery service. Little Albion staff will take care of the details, so you don’t need to get out of your robe and slippers.

CONTACTS

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Interior Design: Connie Alessi of Archemy & Cressida Kennedy of Space Control Architecture: Terence Yong of Terence Yong Architecture and Chris Haughton of SHED Architects Art: curated by Vogue photographer Nicholas Samartis

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All Hands on Deck Red Rock Leisure has cleared the decks to create beer nirvana.

Story: Christopher Holder All Hands Brewing House 22 The Promenade, King Street Wharf, Sydney (02) 8270 7901 or www.allhandsbrewinghouse.com.au

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t’s strange to say, but the old King St Brewhouse just wasn’t sufficiently beer focussed.

Sure, there was some brewing on site and it was a ‘brewhouse’ but it wasn’t sufficiently credentialed enough for serious libationists.

Admittedly the King Street Wharf was in need of a refresh, but Red Rock Leisure decided to do much more than that — it would create beer nirvana.

It’s been reborn as the All Hands Brewing House and it’s all about the beer.

Head Brewer Sam Clayman proudly crafts all of the beer in-house. These include the Cream Pale Ale, Gold Medal-winning Cannonball Stout, and the Bunny Hop Lager. During the rebirth of the venue Sam worked closely with architects, planners and builders to design and install the new state-of-the-art brewery. Sam got the venue he wanted.

All Hands now has genuine boutique beer credentials.

It might be all about the beer, but Red Rock Leisure’s Scottish born Group Executive Chef Graeme McLaughlin has grounds to contest that. Graeme has a CV to die for — including stints with a number of Guillaume Brahimi ventures, Tetsuya’s and, if you don’t mind, as Head Chef at the fabled 3 Michelin starred The Fat Duck under Heston Blumenthal. Suffice it to say, this is superior pub grub.

In all, All Hands Brewing House hits the sweetspot for local business people, families, tourists, weekenders and committed quaffers.

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STRIPPED DOWN The redesign of the venue was two years in the planning and took seven months to build. The interior was completely stripped back to a concrete shell and included moving the location of the brewery, kitchen, bars and even the bathrooms. The project architects were Maddison Architects, with Drew Carling taking the lead.

They worked closely with builders, Erilyan, and an expert brewing and beer reticulation team to design the new brewery that is both fully functioning and a work of art.

The venue features extensive indoor and outdoor eating and drinking along with dedicated function space. The interiors are exposed and raw: timber, Cyclone fencing, Edison globes, tessellated brickwork and copper… so much copper.

In fact, metal conduit is so dominant that the AV contractor remarked they couldn’t even run speaker cable a few inches without copper or galvanised pipe making an appearance to conceal it.

ANY SOURCE ANY WHERE The audiovisual aspects of the venue have also been well considered. The job was awarded to Showtime, which is increasingly responsible for a number topdraw hospitality venues around the traps.

There are 11 fixed point TVs and a large 160-inch projection screen (using a Hitachi

CPHD9321 8200-lumen installation projector) in the function space, fed a choice of three Fox or three free-to-air sources.

A Wyrestorm NetworkHD video-over-IP system allows any source to be routed to any destination via a standard ethernet network and network switches. The system takes the place of a old-school MATV or RF modulated ‘pub TV’ system and is full HD. The Wyrestorm alternative means the TVs could easily fall under the control of the QSYS control system rather than requiring a bunch of remote controls.

PEFECT LEVELS The audio is all QSC. A large number of surface mount AD series loudspeakers and 12-inch subwoofers ensure even coverage while not overly exciting the room with all its reverberant hard surfaces.

QSC CXD network amps provide the power.

Showtime designed a simple iOS user interface for All Hands Brewing House managers to take control of the AV. To make matters easier, Showtime wrote a little script for the QSYS control system such that the background music level would automatically raise and attenuate in sympathy with the ambient noise level. When the joint is jumping, the music remains an element. When a group of 20, say, depart at once, the background music instantly heads south to ensure the levels aren’t jarring.

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“We were given the luxury of a good audiovisual budget to spec an appropriate system into this venue,” noted Showtime’s Project Manager Aaron Lee. “As an audio guy myself, I know that if a venue’s music sound scratchy or edgy I don’t want to hang out very long. The audio is certainly a part of the venue that influences customers behaviour and sales.

“The All Hands’ audio is, in my opinion, nice and warm, and comfortable wherever you sit.

“The lighting, temperature, the aesthetics and the audio are all keeping me here spending money.”

Contacts

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Erilyan (Builder): (02) 8188 0700 or erilyan.com.au Showtime: (02) 9824 1004 or www.show-pro.com.au Technical Audio Group (QSC): (02) 9519 0900 or www.tag.com.au Hills (Wyrestorm): 1300 445571 or www.hills.com.au Maxell (Hitachi Projectors): 1800 448224 or www.hitachi.com.au/dps

Comprehensive Commercial Furniture Solutions At Design Choice we custom manufacture, import and carefully select furniture to ensure your business is conceptually beautiful, commercially practical and cost effective. Large range available for immediate delivery.

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Watt’s Adamson Upgrade Max Watt’s House of Music: Entertainment Qtr, Moore Park NSW www.maxwatts.com.au

CONTACT 8th Day Sound: www.8thdaysound.com CMI (Adamson): (03) 9315 2244 or sales@cmi.com.au NAS (d&b): 1800 441 440 or nas.solutions

M

ax Watt’s House of Music in Sydney has upped the ante with a significant bolstering of its PA stocks.

The new Adamson S10-based PA was installed by 8th Day Sound and has quickly started paying for itself, according to venue manager, Lachlan Russell: “It’s a fantastic rig for us. We looked at the fact that competing mid-cap venues were installing more capable PAs and we took a look at the production capacity of our venue.

“We looked at the options, and the Adamson S10 had the right mix of value for money, flexibility and recognition from the international production community.”

PA FLEXIBILITY

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The flexibility Max Watt’s needed was a PA that could be just as useful on a conference booking as it is for a cranking live gig.

“We really wanted the capacity to host a wide range of acts and bands. This type of rig accommodates blues, rock, punk, electronic… it really is a world leader and provides a superior experience for the bands and the punters.”

Not only have the early reviews been positive from the public, tour promoters, manager and bands, the new PA has opened doors the venue didn’t see coming.

“We’ve had a big uptick in bands using the venue for production rehearsals prior to going out on tour.”

The likes of The Rubens, Dean Lewis, and Flight Facilities have all been through the venue prior to national tours.

THE PA 8 x Adamson S10 per side 3 x Adamson S119 subs per side 6 x Adamson IS7P for fill 6 x Lab Gruppen PLM+ 20K44 amplifiers 2 x d&b Q7 sidefill 3 x d&b Q Sub stage subs 8 x d&b M4 stage monitors 6 x d&b D12 amps

Transport Bar, Melbourne 2 x 2.5mm pixel pitch displays

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• • • •

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Sean atConnolly Dubai Opera Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera is a 350-person restaurant, bar and courtyard in the heart of Dubai, with direct views of the Burj Khalifa and is the only restaurant in the newly opened Dubai Opera space.

The restaurant was inspired by the oddball shape and scale of the building and tenancy and drew upon Alexander &CO’s personal interest in 20th-century classic design and architecture combined with the oceanic Australian/NZ influences of Sean Connolly’s cooking.

Vaulted ceiling tiles which reference both the inside of an oyster and the unique geometries of the Sydney Opera House are jewel like and reflective.

The main spaces are focused upon the central cocktail Pearl Bar, constructed from grey leather, walnut timber and yellow

marble. The grey marble banquettes with their pink leather are reminders of the delicate contrasts of the ocean corals and sea creatures while the raw and fire bars remind us of the outer edges of blackened seashells.

There are a number of special design ‘easter eggs’ to note: Jacqui Fink’s (she of ‘extreme knitting’ fame) custom 6m-high Merino Wool hanging artwork; Sydney artist Tracey Deep’s custom, handmade woollen carpet with its blue dappled tones; and the classic Serge Mouille lighting, which has been custom-made in curving white enamel steel and brass finishes.

Amazing what you can achieve with creativity, inspiration, and a Dubai budget!

Alexander &CO.: alexanderand.co Photos: Brooke Holm

• • • • •

IP65 certified Optional switchable 100/70V module Mounts without brackets flush on surface or in corner Hidden cable connection Wide uniform dispersion

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