Howdy, Neighbour – Range Brewing is opening a bar and dining venue in Newstead
Range Brewing is adding another string to its bow with Neighbour, a stylish new watering hole set to open at Gasworks Plaza this August. Inspired by the comfort and familiarity of suburban gathering spots, the venue will pair quality food and drinks with a warm, design-led setting. It’s the latest evolution of Range’s vision for the modern neighbourhood pub.
Range Brewing isn’t simply known for making quaff-worthy beers – the brew crew also has a reputation for opening some cracking bars.
Both Patio, the group’s Australiana-laced Paddington watering hole, and Rays, its Coorparoo hub of suds and schnitties, are a new breed of pub – community meeting spots with shared DNA, but boasting a unique sense of character, fuelled by a desire to reinvigorate the concept of the ‘third space’.
This August, the Range group’s family of venues will increase by one when Neighbour by Range opens at Gasworks Plaza in Newstead. Slotting into the space previously occupied by Botany, Neighbour will bring a dash of suburban serenity to the epicentre of one of Brisbane’s buzziest precincts.
While Newstead is home turf for the Range brew crew, the team has, thus far, kept operations confined to its Byers Street headquarters. Though initially intent on keeping its suburb-centric expansion streak alive, the chance to increase Range’s foothold in Newstead proved too tempting an opportunity to pass up.
“We definitely were on the search for a space,” says Range Brewing co-founder Matt McIver, who reveals the team had inspected a few sites in different areas around town before settling on the Botany space.
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“We’d always been hesitant about taking something else on in Newstead and, to be honest, we’d actually refused it before. But with the growth of our neighbourhood venues, what we’ve been able to do with them and how they differ from the experience that we offer at the brewery, we saw an opportunity that we couldn’t say no to.”
Neighbour will follow the example set by Patio and Rays by delivering a comfortable multipurpose haunt that caters to special occasions just as well as it does casual beers. Similar to its siblings, Neighbour will boast its own vibe and personality, adding a fresh contour to Range’s established (and winning) formula.
“With Patio, we dipped our toes into the Australiana vibe, and then with Rays we wanted to be a bit more playful and youthful,” says Range Brewing’s marketing manager Isla Northey. “With Neighbour, we want to go in the opposite direction – this one is a bit bolder and it’s also a bit edgier, but it still has the bones of a classic Australian watering hole.”
“It’s a different atmosphere to what you might get at a generic pub,” adds Matt. “We think that Newstead is actually crying out for a nice space like that, where we can provide an elevated experience of food and drink while still maintaining that relaxed third-space environment.”
On the design front, Neighbour will be the group’s most elevated and polished venue to date. The team is working with Kate McLean from Soma & Sol on the aesthetic, which will maximise the site’s airy, sun-soaked setting – think a suburban home in the middle of a concrete jungle.
“There are key elements that we are putting in nearly all of our venues now,” says co-founder Gerard Martin. “We’re still bringing in the spotted gum timber linings and the wood wool acoustic panels, while the furniture will have a similar vibe to the others, just maybe not in colour.
“We always like to put a little bit of a spin on it and have some hero elements that create the identity of each venue. For this one, we’re bringing a lot of retro glass blocks into the design that are going to line a portion of the bar and some of our booths. The tile tops are going to have stainless-steel edging rather than a powder-coated finish, just to bring that modern, concrete-jungle Newstead feel into it. We’ve also spent a fair bit of money on some cool custom lighting.”
When it comes to Neighbour’s menu, the crew say locals can expect an offering that mixes established crowd favourites with a few new items to nosh on.
“In terms of the food, it will be modelled off Patio with some extras,” Gerard informs us. “We’ll have a very refined lunch menu that will still be good value. We will have a few more substantial mains, but we’ll still have the parmy and some of the menu items that have become iconic at the other venues.
“As for drinks, obviously, we’ll have our beers and we’ll make some signature cocktails for the venue, and we’ll serve a bigger wine list, too.”
When Neighbour opens, it will mark the completion of a heralded hat-trick for the Range Brewing team, which has managed to navigate choppy waters in the craft-beer scene by creating its own hospitality ecosystem. While it is a savvy play, all things considered, if the success of Patio and Rays has taught the crew anything, it’s the importance of having community hubs outside of the inner city.
“We’ve learned that people in these neighbourhoods want something nice and close to where they are in their bubble – a comfortable space that’s a bit of a hybrid where they can just relax and have a quiet beer by themselves or celebrate a special occasion,” says Matt. “I think our spaces have provided that.”
Neighbour is tentatively slated to open in August – keep your eyes peeled for updates in the coming weeks.
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