Clancy's Fish Pub in Subiaco continues to challenge the accepted boundaries of what a pub can be.
Clancy's Fish Pub in Subiaco continues to challenge the accepted boundaries of what a pub can be.
The well-known Subi eatery, in the Subiaco Village on Hay Street, recently completed its very own on-site cellar door.
The movers and shakers behind the fish pubs have always had a Western Australian focus about them. As long-time bastions of the local microbrewery scene, this new venture is billed as a small vineyard’s cellar door in Perth.
According to one of Clancy’s proprietors, John Fisher, the cellar door idea took shape only a few months ago and grew out of a desire to showcase the talent of local winemakers rather than merely paying lip service to the trade with a mini bottle shop.
Through consultation with eminent Perth wine experts, Clancy’s cellar door has grown to more than 230 wine labels, becoming one of the most comprehensive lists of boutique and speciality WA wines available anywhere.
“The idea was to build a cellar door that people could move around in. Surrounding the customer with a similar feeling of being in a bookshop,” Mr Fisher says.
Clancy’s spokesman Justin Osborn says that while the current wine climate didn’t prompt the group to develop this initiative, it allowed the creation of a point of difference.
“With an increase in the number of wines on the market, it has opened up avenues to have a niche markets such as this, one that is hands on,” he says.
The new venture comes at a trying time for small wine producers, but it is aimed at a niche market that has attracted a lot of support in recent months.
As Gusto reported in August this year, dedicated small vigneron functions like those at Old Bridge Cellars in Fremantle are shifting the spotlight onto the mums and dads of the local wine community.
“Everyone has read the stories about small producers trying to get into Coles and Woollies and getting knocked back,” Mr Osborn says.
“So this has been an effort to get their wine up. We are very family business focused – we’re all trying to achieve the same thing as they are.”
A quick glance around Clancy’s wine shelves will reveal many strange-looking labels, but behind every one is a story of passion, commitment and dedication. Names such as Barking Owl, Trevelen Farm, Cosham, and Swings & Roundabouts are examples of the estate grown wines from small producers.
“All of the people making the wine that you see here, if you were to contact them, you have to leave a message because they’re out there, pruning the vines, picking the grapes,” Mr Osborn says, as illustration of the hands-on nature of the list.
The cellar door highlights Clancy’s point of difference, stocking one of the largest ranges of organic and kosher wines in WA.
And given that Clancy’s has always been something of a mecca for local boutique beer lines such as Bug Ocean, Bootleg and now Gage Roads, all of these and more find a home in new surroundings.
Subiaco may be the baby of the three Clancy’s pubs – it joins sister pubs in Canning Bridge and Fremantle – but it is taking this new wine venture seriously, devoting 20 per cent of total floor space to the endeavour.
Mr Fisher says the idea has worked so well he is currently sizing up the capacities of the Fremantle and Canning Bridge facilities where the group hopes to expand into before Christmas.