Cricketer teammates turned events operators turned publicans Ross Drennan and Drew Flanaghan are opening two mega-pubs in Perth’s urban growth corridors.
The mates are the faces behind national events company Nokturnl, and once swore they would ‘never get into pubs’.
More than a decade ago they hosted their debut Oktoberfest, in Supreme Court Gardens, and now hold a growing portfolio that includes Fremantle’s Old Synagogue, opened at the end of 2019, and Highgate’s The Beaufort, which began trading in 2022.
Nokturnl reports ongoing upward success at both pubs, considered multi-venue ‘dining and drinking precincts’ in their own right.
By the end of this year, following two years of planning and approvals, Nokturnl plan to open The Station, in and beneath the historic South Perth police station.
The heritage-listed former station, built 1908, will become a pub, with indoor and outdoor areas.
Nokturnl was permitted to construct a kitchen and 130-seater underground French-style restaurant beneath the station, and a bar around it. Upstairs Ludo, named in a nod to ex-Rockpool head chef Ludovic Mulot, will serve a separate menu of quality pub food in an alfresco area, pitched to out-class the nearby Windsor Hotel.
After The Station comes “the biggest risk we’ve taken” according to Drennan, in the 2000-capacity Stories, slated to cost around $12 million to construct.
The two-storey Stories will be a re-transformation of the failed Yagan Square development, which Nokturnl hopes to make a drawcard on every day of the week.
Set between the CBD and Northbridge, beside the ECU campus opening in 2025, the site is located literally above a train tunnel, spread throughout multiple spaces. But it is prime CBD real estate and boasts excellent access to public transport.
The partners plan to soften what they describe as “quite a harsh environment” through increased use of greenery. It will feature a beerhall, Stories Pourhouse, in the old market hall, leading to an alfresco area, a train-themed cocktail bar and three restaurants. There will be long tables, banks of beer taps, big TV screens and a small playground.
A huge new kitchen will be steered by executive chef Sundoo Kim, coming from The Beaufort. On the mezzanine level will be a modern Asian restaurant Karla, and an Italian trattoria will overlook Wellington Street. Some things are still in final design, such as the cocktail bar that may be called The Fat Controller, and what will happen in the space formerly occupied by Shy John Brewery.
Stories’ rooftop bar is to replace the former playground, incorporating a water feature and a retractable roof over the dancefloor.
The group hopes to open by March 2024, and regularly feature live music.
They were awarded a 30-year lease at the Yagan Square site through a tender process by the WA government, and while they report the State Government was “brilliant” to work with and just as eager to make use of the site, the project definitely represents their biggest gamble to date.
Drennan told PerthNow he thinks it will be spectacular – either “spectacularly good or spectacularly bad”.
Similarly government endorsed, The Station is part of the Civic Heart development of Mends Street, in Finbar. The partners see these urban in-fill projects increasing the local population and the market for these kinds of venues.
National operators, Drennan and Flanaghan say they “love” Perth, live in Perth, and wouldn’t live anywhere else.
