Chapel Street’s Lucky Coq Closes After 20 Years, Making Way for a New Morris Hospitality Venue

For 20 years, Lucky Coq, on the corner of Chapel Street and High Street in Windsor, has been a reliable haunt for students and backpackers alike. But on Saturday April 18, the late-night spot – known for live music, DJ sets and $5 pizzas – called last drinks. 

Parent company Morris Hospitality (also behind The Portsea Hotel, Albert Park Hotel and other Melbourne venues), will completely gut and renovate the space, making way for a new venue it hopes to open by the end of the year. “We’re changing everything,” says Morris Hospitality head of marketing and sales Grace Dorman. “We’re still intending for it to be the institution that it was, but given the evolution of Chapel Street, we strongly felt that the venue needed to evolve with its surroundings.”

Lucky Coq was opened by Naked for Satan founders Eddie Crupi, Pat and Max Fink in 2006 after the success of their venue Bimbo Deluxe on Brunswick Street. Morris Hospitality took over operations more than 15 years ago and purchased the freehold in 2022 for a reported $7 million. The group closed Bimbo (later renamed Kewpie) in 2024, with Lucky Coq now following suit.

The new venue (name and concept to be revealed) will be designed by Ineke Hutter of Studio Co & Co (Elio’s Place, The Sporting Club Hotel), with the food overseen by group executive chef Peter Reffell and group operations chef Iker Garcia. 

Lucky Coq’s successor will retain the 3am close and continue to focus on what Dorman calls  “eclectic” live music. Expect “DJ on the weekends, then something more fun and a bit more chill during the week”. But there’ll be no more pizzas. “The world is not set up for $5 pizzas,” she says. “Chapel Street is changing and we’re changing with it.”