AFTER several years of closure, Pall Mall venue Black Swan re-opened earlier this month.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Venue manager Peter Phillips said plans are for a three-level layout, starting with a bike enthusiasts\u2019 dream function room upstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDugal has got the largest collection in the world of Indian Motorbikes,\u201d Mr Phillips said. \u201cWe have a small handful of what he’s got here at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019s and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see a market for people coming up from Melbourne, jumping on their bikes, saying \u2018let’s go for a trip\u2019 and then coming up for the day for a look.\u201d<\/p>\n
The refurbished ground floor bar is a celebration of all things local, with blues playing over the speakers and live blues bands planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo downstairs is opening Thursday through to Sunday, midday till 11pm, and we are pretty strict on keeping everything local,\u201d Mr Phillips said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything’s from Bendigo and its surrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wines are mainly from Bendigo, Harcourt, and Heathcote and for the beers we are talking Castlemaine, Bendigo, and Shepparton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also plans to develop the cellar with the venue owner having already put in a body of work in preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlanning on opening a whiskey lounge down here,\u201d Mr Phillips said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now water-proofed and has a bar, we have some high hopes for our plans down there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n