Sydney pubs getting ready for summer

Sydney pubs will be heating up the city this summer.

The places coming on to the scene will be places the soon-to-open Bondi Beach Public Bar, The Unicorn, Berts at the Newport, The Dolphin, The White Cockatoo, the Courthouse Hotel and Mr Liquor's Dirty Italian Disco at the Tennyson Hotel

 And they won’t just be serving chicken schnitzel.

These days, pubs also serve caviar, negronis and natural wine. The bottom line is that customers now expect better food, drink and service.

"The Sydney pub market has changed massively in the last five years," Jake Smyth, co-owner of The Unicorn in Paddington and Chippendale's live music-loving Lansdowne Hotel told Good Food.

“Over the last two years of running pubs, we've learned how to listen to what punters want.

“It's a two-way conversation between you and your customers. Restaurants are about vision, pubs are about community.

“People will always be happy to tuck into a schnitty and chips at the local as long as they know it has been put together with pride and care. For places that have really stayed true to the community, it's not even about the food offering – people will go there regardless. It's about sitting in the sun and drinking with your mates."      

Merivale chief executive Justin Hemmes, whose pub empire has now expanded to 65 venues, including Woollahra's Centennial Hotel and Bondi's Royal Hotel, both purchased within the past four weeks, says pubs have now become a bigger part of people’s lives.

They’re now basically places where people can re-engage with other human beings and the Merivale Group will be running many of these pubs.

“I think hospitality is playing a more important role in people's lives because of the internet and social media," Hemmes told Good Food.

"We are not as face-to-face with each other as we once were and people are crying out for real-life socialising more than ever.

"Five years ago, I noticed people would sit down at a table, their phones would come out straightaway and they would be on them the whole time. 

"Now people might look at their phone once, then they put it down and never look at it again. They're engaged in conversation and they're interested in the food and wine in front of them. They're interested in that moment."

by Leon Gettler, November 28^th 2017