James Thorpe’s Odd Culture Group is furthering its outside-the-square ideas at its city-fringe venues, unveiling live music plans, and innovative new menus at The Duke and Old Fitzroy.
The Duke Enmore has launched new attractions based in its revamped menu and a dedicated pickleback bar. The kitchen is spearheaded by new head chef Doug Alvarenga (formerly Porteño), with group executive chef James MacDonald (formerly head chef of Hubert).
The new menu is based around the pub’s new custom woodfire oven and charcoal grill and influenced by Alvarenga’s Brazilian-Australian background, and is 50 percent vegetarian.
“It’s really exciting to have the opportunity here to get to start from scratch, and there’s certainly nothing subtle about the new menu,” says MacDonald.
“With our custom woodfire kitchen, we’ll be focussing on no-fuss, full-on food that nods to Middle Eastern flavours, but isn’t limited to it. It’s the sort of food I love to eat when I’m out and it’s the perfect complement to the loud and spirited atmosphere The Duke is known for.”
Backing up the menu is the new ‘pickleback bar’ in The Duke’s beer garden. The pickleback is The Duke’s house shot, featuring a nip of Jameson alongside a nip of house-made pickle brine. There are four bespoke pickle brines, designed for the bar.
And in honour of the announcement of Enmore Road as the state’s first Special Entertainment Precinct, The Duke is positioning itself as a live music destination, sporting upgrades to the lighting and sound system, and a shiny new drum riser.
The Duke wants to bring back tunes to the inner west – post-shutdown – with a free line-up of music supporting local artists nearly every day throughout July and August, and beyond “into the foreseeable future”.
The team report a lot of time is being spent “curating fun events” and no genre is off limits, boasting ‘broad and boundary-free’ country, blues, rock n’ roll, metal and dark folk several times a week.
“Rest assured, you’ll hear The Duke before you see it,” says GM Sabrina Medcalf. “Its walls shake with good times and we like to say our music rides the breeze all the way down Enmore Road to King Street, getting in the ears of the lucky ones, pied piper-style!”
The live music will join The Duke’s established and popular Friday night event ‘Happy Hour with Mr Hearts’, hosted by Jy Perry Banks.
In limbo alongside greater Sydney amidst a two-week stay at home order, Woolloomooloo’s The Old Fitzroy has launched a creative takeaway menu to provide stuck at home patrons a little extra.
Head chef Anna Ugarte-Carral and the team have designed the “Fitz It Yourself” menu of almost complete meals.
Each dish comes with all the necessary ingredients and an instruction card on preparation. Most meals are cooked and only need re-heating, while some require home cooks to boil pasta, bake a potato or similar, providing some room for creativity and flair.
Meals come as individual portions for one, or people can order multiple.
The à la carte range includes entrées, mains and desserts, offering meals such as Duck confit, Honey bug and prawn marinara, and sticky prune pudding.
There is also a bespoke wine list created to complement the takeaway offering.
Amid ongoing uncertainty, Odd Culture Group (OCG) has also extended its meal offer for underemployed hospitality workers. The Old Fitzroy too will now be offering workers in need a free fried fish sambo each day, alongside sister venues The Duke, and The Oxford Tavern, at Petersham.
The group currently counts the three pubs, with announcement of the opening of “Odd Culture Newtown” said to be coming soon.
OCG prides itself on a casual and inclusive vibe across all venues, while remaining strictly devoid of gaming machines.
