Ella-Maree Chambers and Tim Smith enjoy a daytime drink at the Leederville Hotel.
Camera IconElla-Maree Chambers and Tim Smith enjoy a daytime drink at the Leederville Hotel. Credit: Supplied/Marcus Whisson

Hotel hopes to liven up

Staff ReporterEastern Reporter

City of Vincent council approved a six-month trial for the iconic pub’s new outdoor space last week to help boost activity in the town centre.

General manager Jason Antczak said the space would benefit the entertainment hub, livening up a ‘dead’ Newcastle Street during the day.

‘It would be good to have people interacting with the street and the hotel,’ he said.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

‘We have applied for the alfresco licence because we’d like to start softening the hotel and we’d just like to get everything in place so when we do decide to do the small bar, everything is done and dusted.’

Mr Antczak said the transformation would include stripping back the interior to remove existing ‘roughness’, bringing in more light, changing the awning and introducing a food operation. ‘I think we’ve identified the current business format isn’t the best for me as an operator, the owners and also for Leederville and we’d just like to do something a bit different with it,’ he said.

‘We’ve got this beautiful old building that needs a bit of a facelift and I think as part of that we’d like to do a different operation out the front.’

He said a wall would be erected to separate the small bar, expected to hold up to 200 people, from the back of the hotel, which would continue catering for crowds on its popular nights

He said once they established the small bar, they would like to extend the alfresco area’s curfew to midnight, which now only has approval to run until 6.30pm.

During the meeting, councillors were concerned about it operating any later than the given time.

Mayor Alannah MacTiernan said the trial would enable them to see the effect outdoor seating would have on the strip.