The recently departed Sly Fox of Enmore will live and breathe again under the wing of acquisitive inner-west publican Ged Dore, who has quickly jumped to a hattrick in the district.
After trading for more than 16 years as a late-night live music venue without the proper licence, the operators of the Fox became embroiled in a battle with Council and the liquor regulator to be granted the missing authority. Despite collecting over 7,000 signatures for a submission to retain 24-hour trading, the battle was lost and in January the Sly Fox went quiet.
The freehold owner, commercial property investor Shadd Denesi, engaged HTL Property’s Sam Handy and Dan Dragicevich to market the leasehold interest.
Danesi still holds Darlinghurst’s famed ARQ nightclub, but has sold down his pub interests, divesting Mr Mary’s in Redfern to Marty Short, and the Imperial Hotel Erskineville to Fraser Short and Scott Leach, also through Handy.
“Our vendor’s brief was to secure him a quality tenant that would be able to build a sustainable business model in concert with both the local community, and the framework required by Council,” offered Handy of the Fox transaction.
Built 1879 under the moniker the Enmore Hotel, the three-storey city-fringe Victorian pub features a welcoming public bar, gaming room with 15 EGMs, and 13 accommodation rooms upstairs.
Its very vintage, fundamental features and location make it an ideal addition to the growing Dore family. Late 2018 he secured the freehold of Stanmore’s Salisbury Hotel, built 1899, for $10.75 million, and last month he consolidated a growing partnership arrangement with leprechaun publican Ray Reilly for the lauded Henson Hotel.
Mates for more than two decades, Reilly and Dore had begun seriously considering a partnership to leverage efficiencies and buying power, leading to Ray’s offer for Ged to take on his beloved Henson as he looked to increasing his landlord position.
The pair report they see greater collaboration as “key to their future” in the industry, now counting a clutch of five within a few kilometres, each built in the 19th century and still hearts of their respective ‘burbs.
“It just made sense on every level,” remarked Dore. “And the offer for three just made sense to me.”
The former Fox will return to its honoured and poignant title of the Enmore Hotel, and team Dore is already neck-deep in the rejuvenation, with doors scheduled to re-open 1 September. Local Bridget Jakobson, who has worked at the Henson for the past three years, and for Dore at The Steyne sometime before that, will bring into the pub the local licensee feel she lives and breathes.
Dore says as with the hotels, his heart belongs to the precinct, and the newly inked link with Reilly further shores where he wants to be.
“Over the years we’ve probably argued enough and drank enough to know our principles are on the same lines.
“The Enmore Hotel speaks to my passion for the Enmore area, with all its restaurants and cultures, and the bar culture that’s sprung up … soon the pub will be back, and the brewery … I just love the whole Enmore hub.”
