Building The Perfect Pub

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If you were charged with building and managing the perfect pub, what would you create?

Would you have a:

-Bar (serving meals)
-Bar (no meals)
-Sports bar
-Beer garden
-Bistro
-TAB
-Big screen
-Stage / live music / comedy
-Onsite accommodation
-Pool or table tennis table
-Jukebox
-Premium spirits / fine wine bar
-Lounge
-Dance floor
-Karaoke bar

What mixture of these would you have.

What food and drinks would you serve?

How would you do your pricing?

For the purposes of the exercise, you have two locations to build your brand new premises at.
>Richmond or CBD
>Pakenham or outer suburbs
 

M Malice

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been there done that a long time ago, my recipe- cold beer, fine cuisine and a vibe, The Morrison near the gabba does a great job of that ATM.
 
Three levels.

Level 1 - Bar (can get bar meals), with tables and a couple of tvs showing the sports on at the moment and one that always have the races on. A little room off to the side with a TAB. I would have seating out of the front of the pub. I like being able to drink out of the front of a pub and just watch everything go by.
Level 2- Bar and sports bar. A couple of massive tv's with the footy, cricket ext on. alos need a TAB machine up there. Chuck in a couple of pool tables and a buck hunter machine as well.
Level 3- This is where the bistro would be, serving meals until 9pm. This is where I would have a band or dj start playing from bout 9pm onwards on Fridays and Saturdays. There would also be a big bar
Ontop of this I would have a rooftop bar.
 

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Apr 1, 2007
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Three levels.

Level 1 - Bar (can get bar meals), with tables and a couple of tvs showing the sports on at the moment and one that always have the races on. A little room off to the side with a TAB. I would have seating out of the front of the pub. I like being able to drink out of the front of a pub and just watch everything go by.
Level 2- Bar and sports bar. A couple of massive tv's with the footy, cricket ext on. alos need a TAB machine up there. Chuck in a couple of pool tables and a buck hunter machine as well.
Level 3- This is where the bistro would be, serving meals until 9pm. This is where I would have a band or dj start playing from bout 9pm onwards on Fridays and Saturdays. There would also be a big bar
Ontop of this I would have a rooftop bar.
What kindve budget would you need mate?
 
What kindve budget would you need mate?
unlimited budget.

Geez, I don't know. Somewhere around the $2m mark I m guessing. just for the setup.

Would have to rent the building space aswell
 
Hahaha juat sayin.. doesnt sound like itd be cheap.

Good idea tho
True, I guess that's why no pub really has everything that you want

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk
 

Silent Alarm

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Single story. There's a hundred awesome old buildings that used to be pubs, so buy one of those in a corner in a good suburb – not Fitzroy or Brunswick.

Have a good line up of beers: three or four lagers, four or five pale ales, two or three IPAs, and two to five rotating beers. Have your token Boags or Carlton Draught, Furphy, Coopers Pale, and then some good solid staples like Little Creatures, Stella or Heineken or something on tap, and then have the rest as local stuff. Two or three ciders.

Have a good happy hour, 5-7 and 2-5 on weekends where you have a beer of a month. This beer is generally brand new or something they're trying out... get a good rapport with small time brewers where they just want promotion. Just make sure the pints are always $7.

Have a $15 dinner special every night, but do not make the portions smaller on these nights. Have a few staples, ala parma and steak night, but then rotate others for the reason: curry, soup, heartier stuff in winter then experiment in summer. Have a good solid pub menu and make the food good.

Also, mandatory: good staff. It's fair and good to have sexy backpackers or whatever, but have someone who is normal and relatively chatty. So many places the staff are weird, have no personality, are grumpy or smug, and you feel unwanted. Make your regulars feel good about coming in, even if it's just lip service and a "how's your week been?" instead of a "how are you?" that a one-off customer would get.

Have a good, sunny beer garden with some shade. Keep it leafy and green. Have a tele viewable from outside.

Do not make this a sports bar... always play the footy, have two or three teles but not too many. Have them a good size and the volume at a respectable level.

Do not play utter bogan s**t, don't play 'atmosphere' music, don't play pop hits... keep it trendy, keep it at a decent low-ish volume, have it relatively 'groovy' and not too depressive, but just make it good. Good 90s hip hop is a good s**t, Groove Armada, bands like Real Estate...

Make the inside classic looking, but not too hipster (like a wine bar or somewhere with no draught beer...), not too grimey and scummy (like a pokies shithole), and not one of those all steel and light brown wood default bars you get down in the city or on the Yarra. There is a fine line.

No pokies, but maybe a TAB machine... maybe... No Monday night psuedo-club night. No dancefloor. Yes to one or two pool tables.

The sort of place you can have a nice evening at, have a work party at, but also go down with your mates on a lazy Tuesday and sink beers to before heading out. Somewhere good to go with your girlfriend to have a Sunday counter meal and to catch the last game of the round. A good all-rounder. It shouldn't be that hard.
 
Jan 26, 2007
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I'd be happy with just somewhere with a good amount of comfortable seating options, reasonable background music, occasional bands, some beer rotation, house wines that don't come from a box, a few whisky choices when I feel like that, and no pokies.

Sports room to the side with 3 TVs, one with volume on, some pool and table tennis tables.

Most people I know bet on their phones, so having a TAB seems almost redundant these days.
 
Apr 10, 2010
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Maybe don't make business sense from a floor space vs customer pov but you asked for what would be in your perfect pub and there's nothing quite as awesome as wandering in with a few couples or friends and jagging that free corner, complete with table and seats.

Take bookings for the gameday patronage (with a view of even small tvs) and those that do will be loyal customers who will rave about the place.

Agree with what I think a few are saying and keep the volume low-middling, be it sports or filler music but also don't forget live music. Sunday session ideally but Tuesday night if need be and reward the bands that can draw a few mates but either way be seen to be the place that is at least trying to support the local scene.

Of course a few decent dark ales wouldn't go astray either :)
 
Last edited:

Silent Alarm

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Live bands in bands is generally really bad; the music is far too loud for wanting a casual catch-up and chat, and the twat with an acoustic guitar is usually not that good and singing the same 12 songs every other form of twat with an acoustic guitar would sing. Big miss for me.
 

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Silent Alarm

sack Lyon
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Oh and a good quiz night! Jug o' beer for the winners of each round, $50 voucher for the winners.
 
this

images
 
Apr 2, 2013
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Looks like the outdoor area of a pub in Hades.

Could you imagine the debauchery after dark in there?

I think you have to have a theme and stick to it. A few places I reckon get confused as to whether they want to be the up market venue, the sports and gambling pub, the week day catch up or the night club pick up joint so chuck a few things together and they end up dying.

For mine I think you need something else to do. So I'd go either beach front/restaurant or pool table sports bar vibe. Sounds confusing but if you keep the height of the spirit shelves low and have a circle arrangement it can be done. (A place in Bali actually did this very well to catch the Sunset views.

For a) I would have the bar facing away from the beach so those that want to view the ocean from the bar can have a few drinks and do so. Sounds confusing but if you keep the height of the spirit shelves low and have a circle arrangement it can be done. (A place in Bali actually did this very well to catch the Sunset views. Restaurant I'd have outside and serving a surf and turf theme. While you could easily go the exclusive crowd I'd go more casual and market as the place to grab a quick drink/meal after a swim surf.

b) For b) I'd avoid the pokies if possible and have them far out of the way. They kill the vibe. One half I'd have big screens with the sound turned up, few tables couches facing the screen. This could be the area you actually go to watch the game rather than not being able to hear it and watching highlights. In theory in this area you want to keep the noise down so people actually go here as a viable alternative if say they don't have Foxtel at home.

Away from the screens I'd chuck a few pool tables in and have bench tops for people to sit and chat and grab something to eat. I'd hire a decent chef to cook the basics like Parmas, Steak etc and do them well. Nights I'd try and keep the same vibe, have a bit of music but be more of come here before you go out.

Price: Standard but with a cheap happy hour. You need an element of pricing to detract the ferals just getting smashed but everyone loves cheap booze so you need to attract numbers.
 

Leper

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Something like the Orient at the Rocks. Just with Old on tap.

When I read below, I couldn't help but think of The Orient (though whilst it's not a 100% accurate of it, it's not far off)....

Three levels.

Level 1 - Bar (can get bar meals), with tables and a couple of tvs showing the sports on at the moment and one that always have the races on. A little room off to the side with a TAB. I would have seating out of the front of the pub. I like being able to drink out of the front of a pub and just watch everything go by.
Level 2- Bar and sports bar. A couple of massive tv's with the footy, cricket ext on. alos need a TAB machine up there. Chuck in a couple of pool tables and a buck hunter machine as well.
Level 3- This is where the bistro would be, serving meals until 9pm. This is where I would have a band or dj start playing from bout 9pm onwards on Fridays and Saturdays. There would also be a big bar
Ontop of this I would have a rooftop bar.
 

Silent Alarm

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Every Sydney trip I go there. Love Sydney pubs. Reckon they have it much better than us in Melbourne.
They have great RSLs too, you don't really get that culture anywhere else in Australia I reckon. It's one of the few places left where they have a meat raffle every night, $6 schooners with the ice still hanging off them, and $8 schnitzels and $11 steaks. No wonder Bud got fat.
 
Apr 8, 2006
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Agree. Also every corner they seem to have a pub which actually feels like a pub. Probably been 25 years since Melbourne city was even somewhat like that. I remember drinking in some pubs in Elizabeth St circa 95 which were nearly dead then but had that old pub charm. Mona Castle in Seddon captures it, but on the wrong side of town for me.
 
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Not so sure about that anymore. I remember growing up in the era of those old pubs, but now they're mostly gone, or have been renovated horribly and with a sterile blandness from the proceeds of pokies. The old school RSLs are still about, and bowling clubs, and they're pretty good still. The Henson, which is my local, has been done up pretty well, and they don't have pokies, and the food there is great.
 
Apr 8, 2006
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Not so sure about that anymore. I remember growing up in the era of those old pubs, but now they're mostly gone, or have been renovated horribly and with a sterile blandness from the proceeds of pokies. The old school RSLs are still about, and bowling clubs, and they're pretty good still. The Henson, which is my local, has been done up pretty well, and they don't have pokies, and the food there is great.

Better spend a week down here and see how good you have it.
 

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