Among the many live music venues that closed their doors in the last twelve months, one of the more treasured, at least to Melbourne’s inner North, was Phoenix Public House, whose brief but brilliant tenure was cut short on June 12th, 2012.
Though a fresh-faced entrant on the Melbourne music scene, the popular live music venue hosted a range of both (then) emerging local talent like Brous and Last Dinosaurs, to tastemaking cult acts including The Twerps and Lost Animal.
The new owners of the venue however, Dom Perri and Dave Trimboli, are looking at raising the site of the old Phoenix Public House from the proverbial ashes, according to the Moreland Leader Community Newspaper, who ran an article in their late December edition about the revived venue location.
The brand new live cafe, restaurant, and live music venue will be located at the same site at the corner of Sydney Road and Union Street, but Perri and Trimboli turned to the local community to help name their local with a competition offering a $1,000 cash prize to the best name.
The winning entrant? (brace yourself) Introducing The Jewell Of Brunswick Hotel, and no, that’s not a typo.
The new name was revealed on the competition page with organisers writing: “We understand that most people will refer to the venue as “The Jewell” [sic] or “The Jewell of Brunswick” [double sic] Either is fine. Make sure you introduce yourself so we can share a few beers x”
The Jewell in fact refers to the name of the train station behind the venue, but as if the double ‘l’ wasn’t confusing enough, it certainly doesn’t help that the new venue is located directly opposite the real Brunswick Hotel.
“People who live in Brunswick are very patriotic, and we thought it would be good to get them involved,” David Trimboli told the Moreland Leader of the competition. “We understand that most people will refer to the venue as “The Jewell” or “The Jewell of Brunswick” either is fine.”
Regardless, the news of a new live music venue in the Melbourne firmament is always positive, and the Moreland Leader reports that the new restaurant will provide an Italian-inspired menu available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a 280-plus capacity bandroom to complement the eating.
“We’ll have a strong focus as a live venue, across different genres: funk, jazz, indie rock, deep house and disc, even Latin,” says Trimboli. “We’ll try to be open every night whether it’s a band or a DJ, each night will have a different focus,” he continues. “Being a bigger room on the street, hopefully we can fill a bit of a void.”
The pair have also gotten rid of the mirrored wall and moody decor of the former site in favour of exposed brick and polished concrete, with Perri and Trimboli hoping the new fittings will attract the area’s hipsters.
‘The Jewell’ is the latest in a string of names for the Brunswick location, which first opened as Austin’s in 1966, going through a number of hands and names over the years – including the Paris Tarvern, Candy Tarvern, RJ Hawke Hotel, The Spot, and then Phoenix Public House in honour of one of its former namesakes, Phoenix Hotel.
The team that brought the excellent music showcases to the former tenants of Phoenix Public House have also made it clear that they’re not involved with The Jewell Of Brunswick Hotel’s band booking. Responding to queries on their Facebook page they write: “the building on the corner of 133 Sydney Rd, Brunswick has NEW tenants. It is not the Phoenix Public House. We are not booking the bands and we have nothing to do with the new owners.”
The Jewell Of Brunswick Hotel isn’t the first eccentrically named venue in Sydney Road either, with the Rare And Reclusive, Oft Neglected, Lesser Spotted Mallard, or simply Spotted Mallard for short (as opposed to the acronym RARONLSM) opening last October with a 300 capacity band room, as well as a fully stocked bar and restaurant.
It was one of a number of new venues springing up in Melbourne’s inner-north late last year, including Fitzroy’s The Rochester kick-started a new 150 capacity upstairs band room, and a club named Level 2 opening just up the road from The Northcote Social Club.
