Expect more crabs, new pub from Drink ‘n’ Dine

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Amidst a thriving new venture (the House of Crabs above the Norfolk) and the success of their new pub, The Oxford Tavern in Petersham, Sydney publican group, Drink ‘n’ Dine, closed their successful venture at The Abercombie in January.

“We always had a two year lease there, but we’ve been going for two and a half years,” said said Michael Delany, who, with Jaime Wirth, is part of the duo behind Drink ‘n’ Dine.

The Abercombie is on a block that has been redeveloped, and part of that is the demolition of the beer garden area of the pub. The heritage-listed venue will end up being enclosed by the development, said Delany.

“[The developers] are going to keep the shell of The Abercombie but they’re not sure if they’re going to keep it as a licensed venue or not,” said Delany.
It comes on the back of a closure of their Kings Cross venue, Santa Barbara.

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“We found it increasingly hard, you know, with no cocktails after midnight, you’re not allowed to serve booze for the last couple of hours, drinks in plastic, all this kind of stupid stuff is really inhospitable, to be honest,” he said.  “And I think the people that know us and know our product, it was probably not something they responded well to, and we had an opportunity to get out,” said Delany — so they did. “It was just an opportunity to leave before we killed ourselves!” he said.

“House of Crabs has been a really good thing,” said Delany, “we’re looking for some sites to do some standalone ones. We’re really enjoying that and people are responding to it because it’s lots of fun.”

A new pub is also on the cards for this year.

“We’ll probably get another pub this year,” he said. “We’ve had a look at a few, and we haven’t quite made up our minds but pretty much another pub is on the cards this year.”

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