The burgeoning Thorpe Hospitality has orchestrated a serious shake-up, divesting flagship The Taphouse while taking on two new venues, and rebranding to become Odd Culture group.
James Thorpe’s outfit first entered the Sydney pub scene with acquisition of Darlinghurst sweetheart The Local Taphouse in mid-2017. Around a year later the Thorpe brothers opened their innovative second-floor craft beer and natural wine bar Odd Culture.
In early 2019 they took on Petersham’s Oxford Tavern, and most recently the restructured group without Josh Thorpe took the lease to The Duke of Enmore.
The group is now diversifying further, and rebranding to assume the name of the acclaimed Odd Culture, which was awarded in 2019 Timeout’s Best Beer Bar and Beer & Brewer’s Best Beer Venue in Australia.
This comes as Odd Culture moves out of The Taphouse, as the group on-sells the lease to former director and group stakeholder Josh Thorpe.
Odd Culture the venue will be relocated as part of a $2 million development of the former Happy Chef restaurant of Newtown, which burned down in 2018. This new two-level space for the specialty bar will reportedly take the concept “to the next level” by incorporating a full menu of house-cured meats, cheeses and breads, alongside a hero menu of deep-dish American pizzas.
The interior is tipped to further highlight historic features of the building, in brickwork and cast-iron pillars, to be decked with reclaimed timber, distressed finishes and a centrepiece 20-centimetre-thick concrete slab bar top.
Opening of the new and improved Odd Culture is scheduled for early 2021.
The group has also announced it has won the agreement to operate the iconic Old Fitz in Woolloomooloo.
Details of the deal are being finalised and expected to firm up in coming weeks, but Odd Culture group confirmed to PubTIC the new operation will have no gaming machines, and will strive to retain the pub’s reputation for f&b while working closely with Red Line theatre – residents of the famous Old Fitz Theatre at the rear of the pub – to “continue championing the Sydney live arts scene”.
Group director James Thorpe says the shake-up sees “some exciting stuff in the works” as he and the team get back onto some old stomping ground.
“Our project in Newtown will be our biggest to date, and our first from-scratch development, which is very exciting from a creative perspective.
“We’ve essentially been entrusted with a very beautiful blank canvas by Lee (the original Happy Chef) and his son Richard, who are as in love with our concept there as we are.
“Both our executive and management team have a lot of history in Newtown – in particular, myself and our group ops manager Jenna Phillips are previous managers of the Newtown Hotel, and we have both been keen to get back onto the King St strip for quite some time.”
