First Look: Heaps Normal Bets on Social Wellness With Its New Health Club

“As someone who grew up in Sydney at the peak of pre-lockout partying, we really wanted to create a space that complements all the other spaces still flying the flag for that energy – like The Abercrombie, Club 77 and Freda’s.”

Tim Snape, Heaps Normal’s chief brand officer, is telling us about the flash new Heaps Normal Health Club. The non-alc beer brand has officially taken up residence in a Marrickville warehouse, across the lot from Poor Tom’s on Brompton Street, right next door to Gelato Messina’s HQ.

And it’s been a long time coming.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about and contemplated basically since the beginning,” Snape says. “We’ve always talked about wellness through the lens of social connection – coming together and playing and having fun is the ultimate form of wellness.”

Snape sees the space as a physical manifestation of the brand’s DNA. “It’s a dance hall, a live music venue, a bar.” It’s a place to hang out, that isn’t exclusively focused on the not-drinking side of being well.

Behind the bar, it’s not all about low- or no-booze. In fact, the drinks menu (curated by Mike Bennie) sees a mix of Heaps Normal brews – including its new draft on tap – alongside beers from neighbours like Grifter and Philter, and wines by Doom Juice. “It’s never been about whether you drink or not. A lot of our drinkers are still partaking in booze, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot,” Snape says. There are also cans from Mateo and TINA to round out the soft offering.

The Health Club quietly entered Sydney’s party scene with a soft-launch party in November, before hosting the first edition of Healthy Hour – a play on a traditional happy hour – last Friday. There were half-priced Heaps Normals, plus alcoholic bevs and vinyl DJs. Showing off the “slightly weird” personal record collections of Snape and his mates, the event format is inspired by listening bars and makes good use of the venue’s vintage sound system.

The long-term plan is for the Health Club to have permanent opening hours from later this year. For now, Heaps Normal fans and Sydneysiders looking for a Marrickville night out can hit a mix of free and ticketed events. There are more Healthy Hours on the horizon, as well as dance parties and plays on trivia, bingo and karaoke nights.

“We’re not locked into a genre or a scene or a type of music. We really want it to be a space where there’s a variety of programming – a cross-pollination of stuff happening,” Snape says. Anyone who attended Normfest in 2022 will be familiar with the brand’s ability to bring together the unexpected. “We’re putting on interesting, fun nights that introduce people to new things that they haven’t experienced before.”

Interiors by Sydney-based artist Michael Delany are lit up by the glow of what Snape claims is the “southern hemisphere’s second-largest disco ball”. References from venues in Thailand and across Southeast Asia informed the design brief, which brings “Indo-Chinese-Wes Anderson” energy to the industrial space with two-toned walls (pink and blue-washed bricks), a green-tiled bar and a wall of retro glass bricks.

“The intention behind the space is that it feels safe and inclusive for anyone – from the tattooed rocker to the Marrickville family with three kids,” Snape says. He and the team want to put a little party back into Sydney’s nightlife. And while the venue won’t be a late-night scene, they hope to complement the resurgence of dance floors through day raves and evenings of revelry.

A small R&D brewery out the back gives the team space to test out new flavours, and hopefully start bringing Health Club exclusives to the taps soon. Phase two of the space is still under construction, but there are whisperings of a sauna and bathhouse element joining the club, giving more oomph to the venue’s name. For now, food will be catered by pop-ups from mobile vendors. But there’s a kitchen in the works and a drinks-appropriate menu to follow.

Heaps Normal
2/10 Brompton Street, Marrickville

heapsnormal.com
@heapsnormal