Bar & Bites: Musical pubs as Australian Venue Co take over the Quarter Acre Hotel and Found buys Golden West

Australian Venue Co continue to amass pubs across WA with its recent purchase of The Quarter Acre Hotel in Applecross.

A spokesperson for AVC told Bar & Bites that the venue is “a beloved community pub and there are no plans to make any changes”.

The Quarter Acre was previously owned by WA hospitality posse Dark Horse, whose director Miles Hull told B&B that the “timing was right” to offload the popular pub on Canning Highway.

Dark Horse also flogged Northbridge pub Ruinbar to the owners of Picabar and Percy Flint last year as Hull and co seem to be battening down the hatches until the cost-of-living crisis eases.

The hospitality group still has plenty on its plate with Subiaco Continental, Southcamp in Dunsborough and Jetty Bar and Eats in East Fremantle.

Hull is also half of the Social Grounds crew, alongside Graeme Dick, currently working to build and operate The Lodge Wadjemup development on Rottnest rumoured to cost upwards of $50 million.

Meanwhile AVC are in acquisition mode, recently snaffling The Court Hotel and Quarter Acre to bring its WA stable to 25 venues. It could be more by the time you finish reading this.

The Melbourne-based company is rapidly catching up to Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, which owns 28 pubs in WA.

LOST AND FOUND

More musical pubs as Subiaco microbrewery Golden West has found a buyer in Found., the brewpub run by a consortium led by hospo guru Steven Finney and gun brewer Will Irving.

The dynamic group has found success with its Found. Lab venue in Byford, after putting on hold plans to open a big, schmicko brewery in the very slow-moving Old Girls School redevelopment in East Perth.

Golden West fell into administration last year and, while it traded strongly up to Christmas, revenue fell off the cliff in the first few months of 2024, forcing its closure.

Finney told B&B that the Subi brewpub will close for a few months to complete a full refurbishment before reopening.

Meanwhile, Finney and co will launch Found. Friends, a pop-up taproom in the old Henry on Eighth bar in Maylands due to open in mid-May.

NASHVILLE IN NORTHBRIDGE

Kabir Ramasary has wasted little time after closing North Bird restaurant in Northbridge on March 30. He’s turned that frown upside down with South Bird, converting the William Street venue into a Nashville-inspired fried chicken joint.

He’s a clever cookie as serving deep-fried chook with slices of white bread in plastic baskets is clearly more cost-effective than a more traditional restaurant offering during this cost-of-living crisis.

South Bird is also flogging Southern classics such as mac and cheese, hush puppies, “crack salt” fries, coleslaw and potato gravy with Perth chef Frankie Dawson on the deep fryer.

Top local sommelier Daisy Case runs a beverage list starring homemade iced tea, tap beer, cocktails and natural wines.

VALE IAN PARMENTER

Journo turned galloping gourmand Ian Parmenter, who died on April 14, was the very definition of large-than-life.

While he had his trademark beret and mustache, the celebrity chef was probably better known for his forthright, and usually very entertaining, opinions.

Parmenter was never backward in coming forward, B&B has a chock-a-block inbox that is testament to that. He was a passionate communicator.

He reached out to people, whether via Consuming Passions (the first cooking show watched by many future foodies) or generous offers to stay at his Margaret River cottage (still kicking myself for not taking him up on that).

Vale Ian.