TWO of Western Australia’s most influential hospitality men, Stephen Scaffidi and Geoff Hayward, have joined forces and are embarking on two substantial developments – a bar at QV1 and the redevelopment of the Brisbane Hotel.
TWO of Western Australia’s most influential hospitality men, Stephen Scaffidi and Geoff Hayward, have joined forces and are embarking on two substantial developments – a bar at QV1 and the redevelopment of the Brisbane Hotel.
Geoff Hayward is the man behind the Cino to Go brand, eventually selling the five-store operation to Dome in 2000. He has since created Italian pasta bar Monza (which has recently been sold) and the popular Highgate bar Luxe with business partner Maree Hewson (who has recently left the business).
Stephen Scaffidi is the operator of Altos Bistro and its recent make over is only the first of new development plans on his agenda over the next 12 months.
Messrs Scaffidi and Hayward are gearing up for two large “multi-million dollar” developments at the same time. The first of these is the bar at QV1, which is located next to Matsuri.
“We think the west end is a development metropolis and it is sure nicer than the middle. Even King Street is not the west end any more, it is east,” Mr Hay-ward said.
“I’ve been looking at it for years but it takes a long time to deal with big corporates.”
The yet-to-be-named bar will open in September and will be unlike anything Perth has experienced, the pair said. “It will be a European bar that serves amazing Italian food, coffee, and drinks,” Mr Hayward told WA Business News.
The bar, to be open Monday to Friday, will utilise the wide-open space but will not resemble West Perth’s lounge bar Onyx, according to Mr Scaffidi.
“It’s a look that is very open but no, it’s not Onyx,” he said.
“We are going to create an environment where people can have a coffee and they can have a beer but in a very non-pub drinking environment.”
The designer for both the new bar and the Brisbane Hotel redevelopment is the man be-hind the designs of Cino to Go and Luxe, Graham Taylor.
According to Mr Hayward the new bar will have a very old feel to it.
“There will be lots of marble and it is going to feel and look old. It will be like it’s been here for 50 years,” he said.
“It’s pitched at city workers who enjoy great food and great service.”
And while the west end development is taking place the pair will also transform the Brisbane Hotel on Beaufort Street into a quality local pub.
“It is going to be radical and we are going to create a real local pub. We are putting an emphasis on the beer garden and simple pub food; it won’t be Altos food,” Mr Hayward said.
Mr Scaffidi said there were too many pubs providing restaurant-priced meals and that he and Mr Hayward would put good pub grub squarely on the menu.
“So many pubs aren’t doing pub food; they are doing anything but, and the prices reflect that,” he said.
“You go to these trendy pubs and you pay $25 for a piece of fish that’s no different to restaurants in town.
“We don’t want to do that; we want to provide good honest pub food.”
The Brisbane Hotel will close in June for a period of five months but as yet the pair is unsure of specific design detail.
What is a certainty is that The Effie Crump Theatre that occupies the first floor will stay.
“Effie Crump will stay upstairs and the theatre will be enhanced. My original view was that it would have to go but there is something about Effie Crump and keeping it here keeps with what we want to do,” Mr Hay-ward said.
