By James Atkinson
Sydney publican Tim Condon has picked up a second venue, the Newington Inn Hotel, with plans to revamp the Petersham pub and large format bottleshop with a craft beer focus.
Condon, the proprietor of successful gastropub East Village Balmain, snapped up the Newington Inn Hotel a few weeks ago following a sale campaign managed by Gerry Quinlan of Manenti Quinlan.
It is the third Petersham venue to change hands in the last few months in a flurry of transactions kicked off by Drink & Dine’s acquisition of the Oxford Tavern, 500 metres away from Condon’s new digs.
Condon told TheShout that he and his sister Liz Condon, a chef who is behind The Little Mule cafe in neighbouring Stanmore, will run the pub.
Its front bar features mainstream beer, a TAB and 16 poker machines and will continue largely unchanged.
But the duo has big plans for the remainder of the pub, with a refurbishment coming in the New Year.
In the meantime they are working on a new menu and the pub’s eight beer taps will soon be increased to 12, with the outdoor area to be rebirthed as a “craft beer garden”.
The liquor barn at the rear of the venue has 25 car spaces and is currently part of ILG’s Little Bottler banner group, but that is all set to change.
“The idea is to have Sydney’s biggest range of craft beer with a growler fill station, home brew section and on-site coffee roasting,” he said.
“Warners At The Bay is obviously the benchmark up in Newcastle, but there’s nothing big like that down here yet.”