Welcome to the Boothby Sydney Briefing, coming on the heels of a very fine weekend in the city. That weather! Cue Nick Cage wind in the hair in Con-Air memes.
This week’s briefing is filed under How Good’s The Pub?
In this briefing:
- A look inside the Carlisle Castle Hotel;
- The thinking behind the cocktail approach at the pub;
- How pubs are Australia’s third space venues and why that’s important;
- Plus cocktail-powered donations to Lifeline at Mucho Group venues, new jobs and more.
In brief
This week (6th to the 12th) Mucho Group is donating $1 from every special cocktail they sell across the group (Cantina OK!, Tio’s, Bar Planet, Bar Bridge, Super 44, Centro 86, Bar Herbs, and The Cliff Dive) to Lifeline, as a way to mark World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th. Very good stuff.
Vitelli’s Upstairs, the New York red sauce-inspired restaurant from House Made Hospitality (where Baptist Street Rec Club once lived) is looking for a restaurant manager.
House Made Hospitality is also looking for an assistant venue manager at The Carrington, with a $75,000 per year salary.
Go inside the Carlisle Castle Hotel
Newtown pub the Carlisle Castle Hotel reopened last week to much fanfare. It’s the next pub from the folks behind The Bat & Ball, which has picked up awards and appreciative punters for the way the pub’s heritage had been respected, while gaining it a spruce up, when they reopened it back in 2024.
They’ve given the same treatment to the Carlisle Castle Hotel, as co-owners Dan McBride and Rachael Paul share in the interview below. They talk about why they picked up the pub, how they conceive of pubs more broadly as essential third spaces, and why they’re only custodians for a moment in time, because, as Rachael says below:
“Pubs will outlive us all!”
BOOTHBY: How did you get your hands on this pub? What have you done to spruce it up?
DAN MCBRIDE: We had our eyes on it for a long time as we have all lived in and out of Newtown and it’s such a beautiful old pub with an awesome feeling to it. The short answer is many, many chats, lots of nos, and then eventually a bit of luck, a yes and the keys.
RACHAEL PAUL: Through a lot of patience and persistence! We always saw the Carlisle as a pub that would really suit our vision and approach so it’s incredible that we have been able to get in there and put our stamp on it. We’ve put a lot of love into it to freshen it up without losing its heritage charm.
BOOTHBY: Can you tell us a bit about the thinking behind the cocktails?
DAN MCBRIDE: With the cocktails we’ve very much gone down the line of simple, tasty, quality ingredients at an affordable price. Newtown is home to some of the best cocktail bars in Australia so we wanted our list not to compete, but to sit nicely somewhere in between. A lot of the work is done before the drink hits the glass, like our Baileys Cacao cream for our Carlisle Coffee, our orange and pepper marinated olives for our Martini, or the Vanilla Cola recipe we’ve come up with.
RACHAEL PAUL: We’re a stone’s throw away from some incredible cocktail bars on Enmore Road so we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel on that front — our main goal was to execute the drinks people know and love, while introducing some new ‘Carlisle classics’ as well.
BOOTHBY: What price points are you looking at when it comes to cocktails? What’s the thinking behind that?
RACHAEL PAUL: From $14 for the Vanilla Cola to $21 for our Carlisle Coffee and Martini. Being conscious of pricing is important and we’ve tried to stay competitive in that regard while still being able to use quality spirits.
BOOTHBY: What is it about pub culture that you love?
DAN MCBRIDE: The meeting place for all. Much like over the pond in the UK and Ireland, in Australia the pub is an extension of the living room. It’s a no-pressure dining and drinking experience. One mate can have two schnitzels and five pints whilst the other sips a Heaps Normal or two over a few hours. It’s a choose your own speed without the pressure of table service and a large bill at the end. I love that we play a small part in that. A pub is unique, its name literally implies that it’s for the people. Anyone should be able to walk in and find a reason to stay. That’s what makes the atmos in good Australian pubs so alluring.
RACHAEL PAUL: Pubs really are the third place for Aussies — and it’s a privilege to operate a venue that becomes part of someone’s ritual. I love that you can celebrate a birthday, play weekly trivia, enjoy a cracking roast, run into friends or neighbours, all in one place. I love how accessible and flexible the pub space is.
BOOTHBY: I think I’ve seen you talking about being a custodian of pubs like the Bat & Ball — can you explain the thinking behind that?
DAN MCBRIDE: A lot of these old beauties deserve a glow up. For us it’s simple, we hope to be here for a long time but it’s not really ours. It’s the neighbourhood’s. We are always engaging with the community and tweaking things. Not everyone will be happy but at the end of the day we are just the lucky caretakers that have been handed the keys. We take this approach in every aspect of the business. Through the brands and suppliers we partner with, through to keeping the old charm intact. Why paint or plaster over some beautiful old tiles because there is a crack? The crack tells a story, it’s heaped in history. Like the old punters window that now showcases some of our red wines. Work with the pub, not against it.
RACHAEL PAUL: Pubs will outlive us all! We’re lucky enough to be holding the keys and hopefully we will for a long time but we respect the pub’s rich life before us, and the one it’ll have after. A pub’s legacy is so much more than one operator, but we hope our time there will be a beloved part of it.
