The Waterside Hotel, the long-awaited new venue from Sand Hill Road, opens in Melbourne on Friday 14 November. One of Sand Hill Road’s directors, Andy Mullins, sat down with Australian Hotelier to discuss dreaming big, taking risks and bringing a team of people along on the journey to open a bold new pub project after years away from the game.
Sand Hill Road is set to open its highly anticipated Waterside Hotel in on the southern edge of Melbourne’s CBD tomorrow. It’s been a long and headline-grabbing road for the venue to open. The group acquired the rundown pub in 2017, giving it a quick refresh before opening.
In early 2020, after years of accolades and awards, Sand Hill Road shocked the industry by announcing it had struck a deal to sell almost its entire portfolio (including the iconic Espy) to AVC – only to have COVID scupper those plans. Having seen the group’s staff through the pandemic, AVC and Sand Hill Road returned to the deal in mid-2022. The Sand Hill Road directors – Doug Maskiell, Andy and Matt Mullins, Tom Birch and Andrew Lark – retained only one pub, the Waterside Hotel.
Andy Mullins, spoke to Australian Hotelier about the “bold vision” for a new expression of hospitality at Waterside Hotel, and what the last three years have been like to make that dream a reality.
While covid lockdowns meant that the focus for the Sand Hill Road leadership team was keeping their teams fed, Mullins states that the team never stopped dreaming. His brother Matt came to the rest of group’s partners with a daring concept for a completely overhauled Waterside Hotel.
“He had made up a 3D cardboard model of what it could be; this five-level tower of hospitality that was all built around gardens and breathing life into new spaces. And it was such a bold vision. It was so bold, he was a bit nervous about sharing it,” explains Mullins.
A few years later, and the Waterside Hotel is set to open across seven levels – three of which are a new addition – looking “eerily similar” to the model, applying all the lessons learnt through the group’s experiences, bringing on lots of talent, and taking big risks.
Starting again
When the opportunity arose to sell Sand Hill Road’s venues to AVC, Mullins said it was “the opportunity to tidy up a quarter century’s worth of work, knowing it was going into hands that were safe and would possibly make all the venues stronger and better than what we could.”
It was a good bet, but with an extremely bold concept for the Waterside Hotel to work on, even the lucrative sale didn’t change the fact that the group’s next steps were a gamble.
“After we sold, we pretty much went, we’re sitting back at a poker table all in again. And that’s the pocket that we feel most comfortable in. It’s risky, but without risk, there is no reward,”
Andy Mullins, director, Sand Hill Road
However taking on such a big risk, meant getting others to get on board with the risk – brining on partners who also believed in the project.
“We had to have a really supportive team around us. It’s great to have a vision, but you need to support to be able to pull it off.”
Mullins credits Commonwealth Bank for sticking with the group throughout the project, but he also credits pulling together a design team who have worked together in the past on the group’s previous projects, including Technē Architects, and interior designer Eleisha Gray, who worked on Sand Hill Road’s revival of Hotel Esplanade.
“It felt like coming home, just on a bigger scale. And as the scale grew of course, the risk grows. It’s terrifying – like we’re back on the line, same as we were as kids 25 years ago.”
While it may be some time before the team knows whether the risk is met with reward, Mullins is confident in the project.
“We’re just hoping we got it right, and we know in our bones that that we have, because we can still walk into any venue in the world, and you almost get that feeling straight away of, ‘Does this feel right?’
“This place feels really, really right.”
An informed vision
With the Waterside Hotel set to open to the public on 14 November, it brings to Melbourne’s CBD a venue that melds the traditional components of a public bar and beer garden behind a heritage façade; with a new modern garden-filled tower, including the Past/Port restaurant, a rooftop cocktail bar and terraces, a private lounge bar and multiple event spaces.
Mullins says that while the concept is something daring, it is informed by every pub the group had ever operated, going all the way back to opening the Commercial Club Hotel in Fitzroy 25 years ago.
“Every single venue we’ve ever owned has informed the next one in some way. This is just the ultimate expression of all those experiences.
“We couldn’t have done this without doing the Espy; we couldn’t have done the Espy without Garden State; without Richmond Club; Prahran; Bridge Hotel; Terminus; without Post Office. It all goes back to Holliava, and it all goes back to the Commercial Club Hotel in Fitzroy in 2000.”
And what has informed all of the venues from the start is what Mullins calls partner Doug Maskiell’s “punk rock” attitude to hospitality, questioning the status quo. He gives examples of removing all the branded decals on the taps at Commercial Club Hotel to encourage conversation between patrons and bar staff; putting a DJ behind the bar; or spending a significant portion of the pub’s renovation budget on the ladies bathroom to encourage more female visitation. These ideas may now seem quite normal, but at the time they raised eyebrows.
“That was Doug’s vision for what Sand Hill Road would ultimately become. It was the Commercial Club then; and we’ve changed it, and we’ve added in different instruments here and there, but the Waterside is still that punk rock vision.”
Pulling together an empowered team
The partners brought in pre-covid Sand Hill Road talent to help build the dream, including Sarah Chan (“the mother of Mya Tiger at The Espy”), who has overseen all the food at the new venue – from the public bar menu to the signature Past/Port restaurant.
James Scott, the group’s previous group F&B manager, has come back on board as the GM of Waterside Hotel after a couple of years away. Danny Ellaway, project and development manager, stayed on with Sand Hill Road after the AVC sale to lead the Waterside build.
Mullins notes that bringing this talent back and putting together a new team behind the Waterside, is what has brought the vision to life.
“This is something we couldn’t possibly have dreamed of without the people behind it to do it with you.”
Everyone involved with the project has had input and influence on what Waterside has to offer.
“It’s about giving them the confidence that they know what they’re doing, and they’re here for a reason, which is to express themselves within this idea and concept,” says Mullins.
“And we make mistakes every single day, but let’s keep going. Let’s keep trying. Let’s keep tasting. Let’s keep pushing. Let’s keep laughing. Let’s keep learning.
“We’ll provide the canvas – you’ve got the brush. That’s how we get to where we’re going.”
Now it’s time to see what the public think of this multi-year dream that the team has gone all in on.
“Now we’re going to see what Melbourne thinks of it,” says Mullins.
“We couldn’t be more inspired and confident that we’ve given this absolutely everything. There’s nothing left in the tank on this one.”