Iconic bar forced to shut alfresco dining early following complaint 06:37

Now have you been to the Old Fitz Hotel? It's sort of Kings Cross, Woolloomooloo area. Staple of the area, the Old Fitz Hotel, it's a great little pub. Great food, good selection of beer, there's a theatre upstairs too if you want to go and see a show. Now, they've managed to get this lovely alfresco dining area out the front of the Old Fitz Hotel. Kings Cross, mind you, fairly busy area.

Anyway, they've got this problem and it's the same problem that's been smashing pubs and other venues all across the city and that is grumpy locals. Now the old Fitz has been told to shut down its outdoor dining after 8pm because a couple of locals complained. One person said it got too busy on the footpath and it was hard to walk past. Well, there's two sides of the street. And another said the footpath had too many people drinking and not enough eating. Again, none of your business.

That's all it took. So after 20 years of serving people outdoors until 10pm, they've now been told by Clover Moore and the City of Sydney they've got to close at 8pm. In the middle of Sydney, in the middle of the dinner rush. Anyway.

There's been a public outcry. The Old Fitz have started a petition to save their outdoor dining area and it's already got hundreds and hundreds of signatures. James Thorpe is the CEO of Odd Culture Group, which owns the Old Fitz and he's on the line for us. James, g'day. G'day, how are you? I don't know how you do this job, mate. It would just be so frustrating to me. When was the first you found out about this?

We were told on Friday, but the decision was actually made a couple of months ago and the planning staff at Council didn't adequately pass through what had happened.

Yeah, that's basically what's happened. We've had that area for 20 years now, trading till 10pm. We haven't had any communication from council about compliance issues with the area for over three years. And then we've just had our hours silently wound back. So it came out of the blue.

Completely out of the blue. Right, so it was not up for an annual review or anything like that? So this decision was made in the process of the annual review. A neighbour or one premises has made two submissions, the same premises. So there were only two submissions received. They have made a number of allegations that, you know, if we had been offered procedural fairness, we would have set the record straight. Um...

One in particular was to do with overcrowding on the footpath and they've attached a photo which actually shows...

patrons lining up to get into Australia's last remaining pub theatre, which is attached to our pub, which takes a total of five minutes each night. It's not a photo of overcrowding on the sidewalk of people drinking beers. It's actually people waiting to get into a theatre show. So they're not sitting there having a drink or having a meal, like it purports to say?

No. Did you say that to council? Hang on a second. We haven't been, we weren't even told of the existence of a complaint until Friday, well after the decision had been made. Do you know who the neighbour is? I can't say that. No, but you know, don't you? Do they live close, James? Yeah, fairly close.

Are they narcs, James? You know what? Neighbourhood amenity is really important to us and we work really tirelessly to sit in community with our neighbours really well.

That said, like, you can't make everyone happy all the time. And I think the fact that we only have one neighbour who's a vexatious complainant is really testament to the fact. And actually, one thing that was really heartwarming today with the public outpouring of support was seeing how many of our other neighbours, neighbours who live closer than these people, saying...

like that they couldn't believe what had happened and, you know, appealing to council to save their own summer schooners, which are now all at risk, you know. And I heard, weren't we talking to Chris Minns, the Premier, and then, you know, John Graham, the Arts Minister and the Nightlife and everyone was, oh, you know, we're going to have people allowed to drink on the footpaths again and we're going to stop, you know, people can drink in parks again and we're going to...

And then what happens, James? Two days later, the first story that comes out is that you guys, from one complaint, you lose two hours of your training time.

That's right, yeah. And the ironic thing is that the City of Sydney did a photo shoot in the Alfresco area at the Old Fitz and carry photos of it on the front of their marketing material for Alfresco Policy, yet couldn't even, you know, be asked to come and speak to us about a putative issue with the area. How long has the Old Fitz been there for?

150 years. Okay. So I'm assuming your neighbour didn't move in 151 years ago. I think that's a fairly safe assumption, although I'd be really interested to chat with him again if that is the case. So this is what I... I don't understand how you could move to Woolloomooloo, effectively King's Cross, and complain about the pub that's been there for 150 years. It's just... It staggers me. Well...

We're saying that we've had the consent for 18 years, since 2006, but realistically that's the start of digital records at Council. It's possible that the hotel has had an alfresco area trading till 10pm for far longer than that.

In terms of records we can access, we know that it has traded till 10 for at least 18 years out there. Okay. James, we know how hard hospitality is at the moment, and I'm sure that this is a blow that you certainly didn't need. Is there any recourse before I let you go to revive the 10 p.m. knockoff?

We're working with Council. We have to resubmit, so we have to put in a bunch of work to resubmit that application, which I understand has been done today. And then we have to wait. The neighbours are given another opportunity to make submissions. We have to wait the legislative 10 days. And then Council have committed to reviewing the decision but can't tell us how that's going to go.

I don't know how people do business in this city sometimes. James, I appreciate you jumping on. And if you're listening, the old fits, get down in there and support them. Thanks for coming on. Talk to you soon.