Pub, bar and hotel fit-outs in Sydney

People judge a pub or bar on opening night. Whether it works comes down to the back of house: the cellar, the bar plumbing, the floor behind the bar and the fire separation. Here's what we've learnt from the venues we've built and restored around Sydney.

The back of house comes first

At Blackwattle Bar + Brewery in Alexandria, the venue sits in a converted warehouse. We screeded the floors to falls and finished them in food-safe vinyl with coving, built standard, ambulant and accessible bathrooms, and made the bar top and the metal bar front. We also took out an old mezzanine. It opened at the end of 2024.

Heritage pubs have their own rules

The Observer Hotel in The Rocks is a 1908 State Heritage listed pub that had been shut for six years. For Barrelhouse Group we restored it from the basement joists to the chimney pots and built a new glass observatory over the courtyard. We brought it up to code through three fire-engineered solutions, which kept the original stair. It reopened on 29 September 2026. Read the case study.

Also in The Rocks, we did historical rectification and a restaurant refurbishment at Le Foote in 2023. With a building that age, the heritage architect and the fire engineer need to be part of the job early, so we bring them in from the start. More on that on our heritage page.

Keep trading where you can

If the venue is open, the work goes around service. We split the site so part of it can keep trading safely, do the noisy work outside trading hours and keep deliveries and waste away from the front door. Clubs work the same way. At Tattersalls Club in the CBD we did interior upgrade works.

Breweries and D&C

At Bucketty's Brewing Co. in Brookvale we designed and constructed the venue with North + North and Kiwi Creator. The brief was reuse: bridge timber for the tables, donated pallets, and rusted iron from a farm shed on the bar. It seats 100. See how we built it, or read about D&C.

Line up the approvals with the build

Council consent, liquor licensing and the fire engineer's report all feed into the opening date. Sort them out alongside the build program so the date you announce is one you can hit. If food is the main event, read restaurant and cafe fit-outs.

Planning a new venue or a refurbishment? Talk to Dylan, Matt or Neil, or see more of our commercial and hospitality work.