A new bar owner in Newcastle is banking on customers looking for a more distinguished and boutique experience when Roxanne opens on Hunter Street around the end of March.
Tim Bone, the former manager at the Prince of Merewether and one-time manager at the Delany, has been waiting to see Roxanne - the city's newest small bar with an artsy film noir aesthetic - come to fruition for years. Like many ventures in the late night entertainment scene, the plans to open in 2020 ground to a halt when the pandemic descended, but the idea came out of hibernation in the last 12 months as the long-time barman secured the former bank building on the corner of Bolton and Hunter streets and began the fit-out.
Bone, a former sound engineer who moved to Melbourne for university around 2002, bounced around that city's bar scene for a few years before coming home to Newcastle in 2017. His credits include management stints at small bars Pony and Revolver Upstairs in Melbourne, as well as some time spent at the Clarendon, the Del and the Prince.
While Roxanne certainly leans into the art-deco aesthetic of the former bank building, Bone says he's steering clear of any kind of theme but wants the venture to be known for its service.
"A few times in Melbourne, we would sit down and you didn't have to get up from the table," he said, "That's what we want to be known for - once you sit down, we're going to bring the service to you."
Bone has tapped former Coal and Cedar manager Jacob Flynn, another Hunter-born barman with ties to the Melbourne scene, to lead the establishment which he said will offer cocktail and late night food service in the space once occupied by art deco restaurant The Gatsby and French outfit Le Passe Temps.
The venture comes just over 12 months since the state government formally ended Newcastle's lockout laws and began relaxing licensing restrictions on late night trading.
A final effort to curb the relaxation of lockout laws failed in January when an application to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have the changes reviewed was thrown out of court.
The "Newcastle Solution" began in 2008 in response to high rates of alcohol-related violence. After 15 years, Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority chair Caroline Lamb said Newcastle's lockout laws were scrapped because the city had "matured" and high alcohol crime was confined to a handful of venues.
A year-long late night trading trial that allowed 21 venues in Newcastle to extend trading hours from between 1am and 1.30am to 3.30am, and suspended restrictions on serving shots and cocktails, showed a 40 per cent increase in total spending on dining and entertainment across the Newcastle LGA compared to 2019, according to Sydney consultants Woolcott Research & Engagement.
The same report found there were 135 offences committed at participating venues during the trial. Ms Lamb emphasised that it was "vital that any proposals to relax conditions are considered individually".
Bone said the diversification of the city's bar scene towards small bars offering varied niche experiences had changed the city's drinking culture.
"It's tricky to get a bar licence in Newcastle," he said, "But the council has favoured the small bar model recently and allowed a few little bars to open up and I think it's a really exciting time in Newcastle for that sort of thing.
"I think it is such an important thing that you can go and try something that you have never done before ... if you're going somewhere new, it puts a different focus on the night from being about (having) an experience of some sort.
"It's a much healthier way to go out."
Roxanne will join a swathe of new additions to the Newcastle scene including Mad Poet and Grandads Bar on Hunter Street, Charlies Rooftop, and Bernies on the site of the former Star, among others.
