Old Mates, owned and operated by Aussie hospitality operators and personalities, is opening in New York’s Financial District next week, bringing an Australian pub offer to the Big Apple.
Old Mates is the brainchild of expat Australian hospitality operators Eddy Buckingham and Nick Stone, who partnered with famed comedians Andy Lee and Hamish Blake on the venue. Buckingham had been the GM of The Australian pub in New York for a couple of years, before the venue closed during Covid. Since then, he and Stone have been looking for an opportunity to open an Aussie pub in New York. After years of searching, they found a building in Seaport that housed an Irish pub, which had also been closed since 2020.
Partnering with Andy Lee – who Buckingham met several years ago at The Australian – and Hamish Blake, the partners acquired the three-level building and have spent the last 15 months renovating it and creating an authentic Aussie pub offer.
“The pub is deeply personal for us. We embarked on this project because we profoundly love an Australian pub, and we felt and hoped there might be some people in New York who felt the same way,” stated Buckingham.
Old Mates has a small outdoor component – rare in New York – which has been turned into a beer garden. The ground floor houses the public bar, with a large island bar as the centrepiece and high tables and stools seating around 100 people. The basement level, called The Sticky Carpet Lounge is reminiscent of an Aussie dive bar. The furniture has all been carefully chosen as a nod to classic Melbourne bars, and there’s a DJ booth in the corner. The first floor is known as The Harbour Room, with views over the Hudson River, and carpet carefully chosen as an homage to the carpet in the Members Lounge of the MCG.
“There’s a nod to the corner hotel, and there’s a nod to an RSL, and there’s a nod to Richmond bars,” states Old Mates general manager Amanda Verratti (ex Merivale, Solotel).
In total, Old Mates has a capacity of around 400, which is a significantly large offer within New York.
An Australian offer, all the way
The Old Mates have gone to great lengths to bring an authentic Australian pub offer to New York. The menu is decidedly Australian, with dishes like a burger with the lot, a salad sanga, parmas, fish and chips, pies and sausage rolls – not to mention a pavlova for dessert.
The drinks list also focuses on Aussie drops, with an almost exclusively Australian wine list, and a wide range of Australian spirits on offer. Almost every cocktail on the drinks list uses an Australian spirit as its base. Importing Australian beer has proven trickier, but Coopers and Sydney Lager are both on tap.
“We’re working with Lion Nathan to get a few others over here hopefully in the coming months,” Verratti said.
There are other Australian touches throughout the venue. The walls are covered in art by Australian artists, and the stained-glass windows at the front of the venue were created by a West Australian glasser. There’s also a pool table in the public bar, and a meat raffle – which Verratti said is a concept they’ve had to explain to American guests.
While Old Mates is an authentic Australian pub, the only tweak for the US market is the preference for table service, which is more in line with the American service model.
An appetite for the Aussie pub
Set to open officially next week, Old Mates hosted a pre-opening party on Friday as a trial run. Expecting a fairly quiet night, the venue staff were prepared to work until 11pm or 12pm. But with a crowd of 70 people waiting before opening at 4pm, and running at capacity by 5:30pm, the venue had to close at 9:30pm when it ran out of beer.
“The pre-opening party exceeded our very best expectations. It was a very rewarding to experience the reception for the venue. Hundreds and hundreds of people filled the venue and queued outside in the cold so they could be part of it too, because they love the pub,” stated Buckingham.
With many Aussie expats living in New York, Old Mates was always destined to draw in that crowd, but the initial response has shown that it’s been a hit with Americans who aren’t familiar with a pub offer.
“We had an incredible reception. We checked our Google reviews the next day…and it was really overwhelming. Everybody here has given us such kindness and grace. The response has been overwhelming.”