There are few places better in Perth to catch a sunset beer than in Fremantle. What’s more, there’s only one place in Perth that you can take that sunset beer, and sit right on the beach to enjoy it. That’s the service offering of Bathers’ Beach House.
We found our way onto this project through personal recommendation, and were quickly brought up to speed with their concept. Our clients, Henry and Nick, found the inspiration for beachfront beers while on holiday in Greece. Henry called Phil from the otherside of the world to tell us how commonplace it was in Europe.
Canford advised that the smartest option to realise their goals was to apply for a tavern restricted licence, as well as 3 extended trading permits (ETPs). These ETP’s were needed to satisfy the two alfresco areas to the north and the west of the venue, and the third for the beachfront itself.
After agreeing on the plan, we quickly ran into a couple issues that needed resolution. Firstly, was the issue of land ownership. The main building had the Dept of Transport as the landlord, whereas both the alfresco areas and the first floor terrace area were on land administered by the City of Fremantle.
However, using the precedents put in place by the City of Fremantle, that have allowed other venues along South Terrace to have serviceable balconies overhanging the footpath, we managed to make the same arrangement for Bathers.
Secondly, there was an intervention from the Police. Upon submitting up the application, the Police asked the Director of Liquor Licensing to impose a condition requiring crowd controllers everyday from 4pm. While the request was most likely well founded, the potential cost could not be justified by our client. Thankfully, we were able to meet in the middle with the Director of Liquor Licensing. The new agreement reduced crowd controller hours to just Friday and Saturday evenings.
The project and our involvement began back in 2014. Today, we’re stoked to say Bathers Beach House is still going strong. We’d say this is attributed to their unique beachfront liquor offering, and their veteran operators, who also run venues like Char Char Bull and Cicerello’s.
We feel very fortunate to be a part of another landmark venture in Perth’s hospitality industry. We wish Bathers continued success – head down and try their crispy pork belly!