By Stefanie Collins, Editor bars&clubs
Endeavour Vintage Beer Co has collaborated with bar group operators Applejack Hospitality (Bondi Hardware, The Botanist, SoCal, Della Hyde and The Butler), to open the Endeavour Tap Rooms in The Rocks.
Housed in a building that was once Sydney’s longest-running colonial hotel, Seaman’s, dating back to the 1800s, the venue has an onsite-brewery, bar and restaurant.
The collaboration between the Endeavour Vintage Beer Co Founders Ben Kooyman, Andy Stewart and Dan Hastings, with Applejack’s Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll, was in the works for a long time. The two companies have been working together for four years, with Applejack serving Endeavour Beer in their numerous venues, while the two Bens are actually old friends from school.
The venue itself took the team over two years to find – searching the Lower North Shore, Inner West and city – until they fell in love with the location, character and heritage of the building.
Well known for their venues’ amazing interior design, Applejack entrusted Welsh + Major, an architectural firm with accolades for transforming heritage and historical sites, with transforming the venue into a contemporary space, that still paid homage and respect to the building’s classic history.
The result are interiors which are understated and modern, with art deco references.
The restaurant menu lends itself to the beers on tap, using the best local ingredients where possible, and from producers that support ethical farming practices. Head Chef Sam Tingle (a former sous chef at The Butler) has created a menu focusing on a range of smoked produce. The meats are smoked in a Yoder YS1500, and are lighter versions of American barbeque.
Using the on-tap beer and ferments play a key role in the kitchen, and there are a large array of fresh and lively greens, vibrant salads, home-made sauces and interesting sides.
The Tap Rooms is also the home of Endeavour’s first brewery and follows the brands unique philosophy of using all-Australian, seasonally-harvested ingredients with no preservatives. Newly opening later this month, there will be an innovative Australian designed double-stacked 600-litre brew house, six tanks that will also be double stacked and, in the bar, four key lines and four rotating taps serving on-site exclusives.
The team is planning meet-the-brewer dinners and tours, as well as producing distinctive, interesting and craft beers that won’t be found anywhere else.
As well as beer, the Tap Rooms serves rosé and an “Australian Negroni” on tap using Four Pillars Gin. The locally sourced wine and seasonal cocktail lists have been created by Applejack’s Lachy Sturrock and are all 100 per cent Australian.
The renovation of the venue coincided with the $15 million NSW Government initiative to renew and revitalise heritage retail tenancies in The Rocks, inspired by successful strategies in heritage retail precincts around the world, including SoHo in New York City and Le Marais in Paris.
