Grovedale Hotel cheers being named regional Victoria’s best hotel

GEELONG has proven it has a worthy place on the state’s food map, with the Grovedale Hotel crowned regional Victoria’s Hotel of the Year last week.

The “Grovey” scored three regional titles at the Australian Hotel Association (Victoria) awards for excellence on Tuesday last week, including Hotel of the Year, Best Pub Bar and Best Casual Dining.

Joel Taylor and his father John have run the hotel for the past 13 years, completing a renovation about five years ago. The pair also head up the Barwon Heads Hotel and Torquay Hotel as part of Taylor Group.

Mr Taylor said he was surprised to win having attended the ceremony for the last four years without success despite being nominated each time.

“I sort of said to a couple of the guys that if we won one out of the four or five categories we’d been nominated for, I’d be stoked.”

“I was mindful not to get our hopes up too early because they’re so hard to win. They (the staff) have been over the moon – it was such a good reward for all the hard work that they do.

“My role was to really set up the venue and give them the management tools to help them along the way, but they’ve really taken it to another level in the past 12 months with the standard of service and food to create an award-winning venue.

“For us we always feel that we have to be constantly improving because the hospitality industry is so fierce, and if you’re not getting better or moving forward, you’re probably going backwards.”

Other winners from the Geelong region included MoVida Lorne (Best Pub Restaurant), Murphys Geelong (Best Sports Bar) and the Queenscliff Brewhouse (Best Retail Space).