Last week, NSW Premier Chris Minns announced that the Covid-era ban on standing while drinking outside a pub would be reeled in. It’s a planned change for the second phase of the Vibrancy Reforms, which are designed to rejuvenate Sydney’s nightlife. While it’s been gratifying to see our local and state governments band together for our hospitality venues – there’s been permanent outdoor dining provisions, Special Entertainment Precincts and death to single-neighbour noise complaints – Friday’s shock 8pm curfew for The Old Fitz’s al fresco dining area proves there’s more work to be done.

“I feel the system itself is on the way to looking really good, but then you have stuff like this come out and kick you in the guts,” Odd Culture CEO James Thorpe tells Broadsheet. “It doesn’t make me want to continue investing in the city, and open new places, if all it takes is a complaint from one neighbouring premises for a consent [to trade till 10pm on Dowling Street] that we’ve had for at least 18 years to just be taken away. We weren’t even told it happened.”

Odd Culture Group runs the historic (and locally adored) Woolloomooloo pub – along with Odd Culture, Spon, Pleasure Club, The Duke of Enmore and soon-to-come Bistro Grenier – and the team first noticed the change in operating hours “buried inside a renewal document”, and assumed it was an admin error. A fortnight later, after chasing for a fix, they received notice from City of Sydney that the Fitz’s licence to operate its outdoor dining area had been adjusted from 10pm till 8pm.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

“The reality is that council haven’t contacted us for over three years about compliance issues with that area, so we’ve assumed everything’s fine. We work really hard to make sure our area sits with neighbour amenity too, our neighbours are part of our community – as you would’ve seen from the outpouring of support. A lot of the people who’ve contacted us are neighbours who live closer to the pub than this person.”

Along with the kerbside Dowling Street tables, the pool room will also close at 8pm, as that’s where the team stores the furniture.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore took to Instagram yesterday to respond to the situation. “The Lord Mayor and Councillors don’t assess and determine individual DAs, but when this outcome came to my attention I asked staff to expedite a review and work productively with the Old Fitz to resolve the matter. I’m advised there were some compliance issues, hence the Council officers’ initial recommendation. But I’m sure it’s not beyond us all to work this out.

“Staff have already re-exhibited the Old Fitz’s application to trade outdoor 11.00am-10.00pm, Monday to Sunday. That application is live online and open for community feedback. By law that exhibition will run 10 working days.”

It's a quick response and a hurried timeline, but the onus was on the Odd Culture crew to submit an application – then wait for the review. “I’ve calculated, if it takes five or six weeks to get reversed, it’s going to cost the pub about $100–120,0000 in lost revenue,” Thorpe says. “Who do I see about that?”

At the time of writing, a petition to show support for the Fitz was at 2813 signatures.

“There is an appetite for change, we’re in a really unreal moment where all three layers of government are allegedly at the table together, in good faith, acknowledging that the hospitality industry’s had a really rough trot for some pretty poor reasons in the past,” Thorpe says. “Pleasure Club has the first 4am consent in a very long time, and we get complaints from one neighbour in particular … and the way that Liquor & Gaming deals with it is just spectacular. It’s really changed.

“From that perspective, the stuff that the state government’s doing, using the Liquor Act as the centrepiece, is great. But this is a local government decision. This is what I would call the hard part of reform, that the government’s going to need to tackle. What they’ve dealt with with Vibrancy so far is all the low-hanging fruit. Now it’s time to get into the weeds.”

To convey your support for The Old Fitz and the retention of its historic al fresco dining area, sign the petition.

@theoldfitz