Neighbourhood, Henrietta team opening 2 new bars

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The team behind Neighbourhood and Henrietta Supper Club — Eddie de Souza, Simon McGoram, Joshua Evans and Keith Hodgson — are adding another two venues to their collection: a bar in Newtown called Raven’s Eye, and their first pub, New Britannia, in Chippendale.

The 90 person capacity Raven’s Eye is opening next week, said McGoram.

“It’s named after the bar in the movie Donnie Brasco,” he said.

“We’re trying to avoid a lot of mafia cliches, but there’s a little bit of that flavour coming through in the menus. It’s more mid-20th century American-Italian vibe with the food and drink,” McGoram said.

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“We want it to feel like it’s kind of been there forever,” he said.

They’ll be taking what they’ve learned at Neighbourhood in Bondi and applying that to Newtown’s nightlife.

“We always said when we opened Neighbourhood in Bondi that wouldn’t it be great if we had this in Newtown?” said de Souza. “I actually looked at this place before Neighbourhood came about,” he said.

Raven’s Eye is slated to open next Thursday, after which the team will set their sights on opening New Britannia, six weeks later.

“It was built in 1879 by William Chippendale,” said de Souza of the New Britannia site. “It’s a heritage-listed building, and it’s take us over a year to finalise the plans, the colour schemes, the interiors,” he said of the work needed to satisfy the requirements of a heritage-listed building.

The focus here will be on the students of the area, with plenty of tap and craft beer, as well as the operation of the existing pizza store on site, which they’ll be renaming Fast Eddie’s Pizza & Liquor.

“We’ll have slushies machines,” McGoram said, “we’re working on something we can do with that, and there will be a drinks program, but it’s going to be pretty simple.

“There’s an existing pizza business there no which makes a profit so we’re going to keep that going,” he said. “We’re going to build up the online side of things and actually add a delivery liquor business to it, too.”

The two new venues along with the existing venues will be managed under the newly established Idle Group, consisting of de Souza as managing director, McGoram as group beverage manager, and Evans as group executive chef.

Raven’s Eye will open Thursday June 4 at 127 King Street Newtown, and expect New Britannia to open at 103 Cleveland Street Chippendale come July.

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