DUSTY & MERCEDES’ GUIDE TO WINNING A BAR

Words and images by Panda Sanders

If you are a Reservoir local who loves a tipple, you’ve almost certainly spent a bit of time pounding the pavements of Plenty Road.

Nestled there, in this little nook of Reservoiran are a group of hospitality savants forging a new nightlife in our ever evolving suburb.

From piano bars, to burger joints to coffee and vinyl - Plenty Road is for hospo people with the drive and passion to create something new where little was before.

Once among these excellent establishments was a watering hole named Hard Rubbish, thrown together with gusto. Using an eclectic mix of bits and bobs, quite literally, picked up off the side of the road. And this was a joint that went HARD. Great cocktails. Cheeky banter behind the bar. Ice cold pints of craft beer on rotation. Until one day it didn’t, for no other reason than it was time to move on.

So what is it that a trail blazer does when they’re done with their bar and have set their sights on a new trail to blaze? Why, they give it away. No catch. No con. Open season. Best pitch… Winner. Takes. All.

Which brings me to today, to a new bar. Hard Out. A familiar bar, now with emerald green walls dressed with work from local artists, some even for sale, and Dr. John spinning on vinyl. On the table in front of me sits a delicious cocktail and an ice cold beer.

Two young women stand behind the bar wrestling with scraps of paper and a lamp, creating a makeshift studio to snap some photos of an exquisite looking cocktail featuring Kurdish Arak, pausing occasionally to pour a beer or run a drink out to a grateful patron in the beer garden.

These are the new owners: Dusty & Mercedes, hospitality stalwarts each with nigh on 15 years experience in the industry and the attitudes to prove it.

So was winning a bar always part of the business plan?

“Absolutely!” they both laugh enthusiastically, completely aware of how absurd that sounds.

“Owning a bar is something we’ve always thought about, but never actually considered a possibility.”

When Hard Rubbish went on the market (so to speak) there was only one thing to do. Go hard out.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” says Dusty “I’d just got home from a nightclub in Germany, got a message from Mercedes at whatever time and it was all on from there.”

The two had never discussed opening something together, having made friends from across the bar, and then working on the same side for the last few years. When the opportunity arose they simply thought it wouldn’t be the worst idea.

But it was the best idea. The best of the 37 submissions in fact.

Keeping much of the same spirit as its predecessor, Hard Out has been shaped into a dive bar for sophisticated degenerates. Bougie on the outside, filthy on the inside…in the best kind of way.

A fun, homely bar where the working class heroes of Reservoir can stop off on the way home for a drink.

“It’s for everyone,” Mercedes says adamantly when asked who the bar is for.

“If you want a drink and a chat, to sit in the corner and read a book or to spin some vinyl that’s what we want to be about. And we want it to be affordable, just because you’re working class doesn’t mean you don’t deserve nice things.”

It becomes clear why these two got their names on the lease, fierce passion. They’re not here to add another bar to a portfolio, or flip it for some easy money - they are here to make their mark, keep some of the ethos of old, but most certainly bring something new.

Then when their time is done, it’ll be them offering the next passionate and ambitious bartender the chance to become a publican.

Which brings us to their tip, for winning a bar:

“Fuck around and find out.”