Oran Park Hotel, in southwest Sydney, is indeed huge, a jaw-dropping sight, especially to someone who grew up in Britain, where many pubs are not much bigger than a cupboard.
Recently, the team from Food and Beverage Media publication Australian Hotelier, together with a number of publicans from around the country, got a hard-hat tour of Momento Hospitality’s mega-pub, as part of the Pub Leaders Summit Study Tour.
It’s safe to say, the visit left a large impression.
Due to open before Christmas 2024, it’s still a long way from being finished. But enough of the concrete skeleton is there to sense just how grand this venue is set to be, not just in terms of its physical size but also in its scope and ambition.
Let’s list out some of its features:
- Not one but two 50-seat cinema rooms.
- A massive functions space with a capacity in excess of 200 people.
- A large open-air courtyard, with underfloor heating to keep diners warm in winter. The courtyard features a baobab tree (already in place) as its central set-piece.
- Rooftop bar and dim sum and dumpling restaurant Jinja.
- Underground parking for 200 cars.
- Children’s play area, pizzeria, bottle shop and interactive sports bar.
Underfloor heating is never cheap to run so large solar panels will help offset some of those costs. Other environmentally friendly features include electric vehicle charging and advanced onsite food and organic waste recycling systems.
The project is rumoured to cost $60 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if the figure is higher.
When complete, it’s likely to employ 200 people.
I wonder which movie they’ll choose to screen first in their cinemas.
Given the size of the hotel, Titanic springs to mind. But Momento will be hoping Oran Park enjoys a longer future than Titanic had so that can’t be an option.
With the cost of building such a pub, not to mention the revenue this venue will generate, Clint Eastwood’s classic spaghetti western, For a Few Dollars More, could be apt.
But there’s an even more obvious choice for the pub’s inaugural screening. It’s a Tom Hanks comedy, made in 1988.
What was it called? Oh, yes, Big.
