Bikes, blues and beers for Black Swan

AFTER several years of closure, Pall Mall venue Black Swan re-opened earlier this month.

The old building was purchased by Bendigo local Dugal James four years ago and has undergone a significant revamp and renovation after a number of COVID-19-based delays.

Venue manager Peter Phillips said plans are for a three-level layout, starting with a bike enthusiasts’ dream function room upstairs.

“Dugal has got the largest collection in the world of Indian Motorbikes,” Mr Phillips said. “We have a small handful of what he’s got here at the moment.

“What we plan to do up here is more events based and then on the weekends people can come up, look at the bikes, have a drink, have a snack.

“We plan to break them up and theme them as well. Dougal has got army bikes. So, we may do an army theme or, an Indian bike theme and then maybe Ducati’s and so on.

“We see a market for people coming up from Melbourne, jumping on their bikes, saying ‘let’s go for a trip’ and then coming up for the day for a look.”

The refurbished ground floor bar is a celebration of all things local, with blues playing over the speakers and live blues bands planned.

“So downstairs is opening Thursday through to Sunday, midday till 11pm, and we are pretty strict on keeping everything local,” Mr Phillips said.

“Everything’s from Bendigo and its surrounds.

“The wines are mainly from Bendigo, Harcourt, and Heathcote and for the beers we are talking Castlemaine, Bendigo, and Shepparton.

“We are looking at getting bands in on a Saturday and Sunday. We haven’t started that yet, but we’ll probably look at getting into that next month.”

There are also plans to develop the cellar with the venue owner having already put in a body of work in preparation.

“Planning on opening a whiskey lounge down here,” Mr Phillips said.

“When Dugal bought the pub, the dirt was waist-high from all the crap coming in during storms and floods down there and he dug it all out himself during COVID.”

“It’s now water-proofed and has a bar, we have some high hopes for our plans down there.”