From Butcher to Bar: Newtown Favourite Earl’s Juke Joint Is (Still) Easy To Miss

By now, Dale Schoon has heard all the jokes about his bar’s former life as a friendly neighbourhood butcher shop. But even after a decade working at Earl’s Juke Joint, he still relishes the look on people’s faces when they realise that what appears to be Betta Meats on the outside is actually one of Sydney’s best-loved small bars.

“It’s still cool to see everyone’s reactions,” he says. “Even [some] people who have lived in the area for like 10 years have just discovered it. They walk past it every day on their way home from work.”

Schoon started at Earl’s more than 11 years ago, not long after the bar opened. During that time, he worked his way up from humble barback to general manager. That makes him something of an authority on how the clientele, and the King Street landscape, has evolved.

“What has changed is just different cycles of patrons,” says Schoon. “At first we were the cool new bar, and then we were established and settled in. Then there was the whole Covid period. After that, it began to feel like everyone had moved out of the area. We had to rebuild this customer base again. So it’s gone through all of these cycles.”

The same is true of the bar’s inner-west neighbourhood. “We were one of the first small bars in the area,” he recalls. “It was just big pubs and drinking dens [until] us and Mary’s. Now you look down Enmore Road and there are more bars than any other business. It’s a massively different scene.”

But one constant has been that old-school signage, an affectionate call back to Betta Meats, a family business that served the area for half a century. The former tenants’ children still own the building, and many locals come into the bar with fond memories of its past – including co-owner Rita’s distinctive beehive hairdo. That’s a big part of the reason that Earl’s owner Pasan Wijesena preserved the building’s facade, despite its tendency to throw off prospective walk-ins.

As for the name, that’s another potential source of confusion that can be credited to Wijesena. Earl’s is named after pioneering New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer, who played with Little Richard and helped establish rock’n’roll’s definitive back beat. The framed photos and posters on the walls hark back to that, as well as juke joints, America’s blues-driven dance clubs (they might be more familiar to people now, thanks to the movie Sinners).

But, in one more quirk he has to explain to newcomers, most of the music playing over the speakers actually ties back to Wijesena’s love of rap. “Generally the idea is [to explore] the roots of hip-hop,” Schoon says. “So anything from jazz and blues to soul. It gives us a nice arc of a playlist: in the afternoon it might be easygoing blues, and then as it gets busier we might go more into hip-hop.”

For Schoon, these points of difference are valuable conversation starters. And conversations are a clear priority at Earl’s, whether it’s about music or trading knowledge about cocktails, local breweries or natural wines. As modern drinking culture has come of age in Australia, Schoon has observed a definite uptick in the local offering, as well as people’s collective understanding.

“It’s been cool to see more bars opened by bartenders rather than big companies,” he says. “And customers’ level of drinking knowledge has evolved with that. But also, there’s a new crowd coming in and it’s starting again. So it’s cool to educate people along the way and see different trends coming through.”

It’s easier to keep those conversations going with portable Square payment terminals, which bartenders can take wherever they’re needed without interrupting the flow with punters. “You can do everything right there, and you don’t have to break that connection,” says Schoon. “It’s the same as our approach to drinks: we make everything really easy to order so that we can focus on having a chat with the customer.”

Square also helps Earl’s employees keep track of inventory and restocking. And during lockdown, the bar ran all its online sales through Square, including prebatched cocktails and merch. Speaking of the latter, someone from America recently reached out about buying a handful of Earl’s T-shirts riffing on US rap duo Run the Jewels’ distinctive album art. It was actually someone involved with the act, and Earl’s was able to sell them a bunch of shirts seamlessly through Square.

Handy data reports from Square also help with the daily operations. “I can look back at last year and see how busy it was on a certain day or a public holiday,” Schoon says. “Or I can look at what was the most popular drink for the past month.”

For a bar where the facade remains the same but the clientele is always subtly changing, that kind of time-specific data helps ensure that Earl’s remains a prized local secret.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Square.