Owners of the successful Harry & Frankie wine bar have bought Fitzroy’s Rose Hotel as they take their business model to the next level.
Tom Hogan and John Tennent opened their first hospitality venture together mid-2013, and are ready to expand on the formula.
Harry & Frankie “celebrates anything and everything vinous” with over 600 wines on offer from around Australia and the world. Very much the result of Tom and John’s passion for wine turned into a business, the name comes from the pair’s first-born children.
Speaking to PubTIC, Tennent says they are very excited to get started.
“The hotel’s last day of trading is 20 December, we take possession of the keys on the 21st and begin demolition on the 22nd.
“It’s a beautiful old double-brick building, with a great bar, but it’s pretty badly in need of a reno.”
Tennent says the plan is to both continue and enhance the pub’s sports bar and ‘locals’ feel – with care.
“The Rose has a real community attachment,” Tennent stressed.
“We’re very mindful of the way we do the reno, the way we run the place, and the offerings.
“It will still be a footy pub, but we’ll give it a full face-lift, and we’re going to improve the food offering a bit. Pub-style food, in a traditional pub-style venue.”
“Upstairs won’t be dissimilar to the current Harry & Frankie. It will have a separate entrance, and the two will trade as different businesses.”
The Rose remodelled its upstairs space just a couple of years ago, but the change didn’t prove indispensable and Tennent and Hogan want to overhaul it again into Harry & Frankie Fitzroy, adding a full-length bar and wine selection room.
Changing only internals in the heritage façade building, Tennent says they are hoping to reopen the public bar by mid-February and upstairs by the Easter weekend, late March.
Hogan has been a sommelier at renowned venues such as Lake House and Langton’s, and partnered with his friend, Tennent, who was an enthusiastic wine hobbyist working in logistics, to launch the Harry & Frankie concept.
Offering ‘drink-in’ or take-away, the bar champions wine’s role as both “delicious” and arbiter of good times.
The Rose Hotel’s new upstairs will complement the existing Harry & Frankie business, which will continue in Port Melbourne, just 10 kilometres south-west.
“It’s been quite a success, so we thought we’d like to give something else a go,” said Tennent.
