Swan Street Chamber of Commerce is Actually a New Pop-Up Food Precinct

Richmond is getting a brand new food and cultural centre, set to open its doors in the next couple of weeks. Operating out of the old State Bank at 214-216 Swan Street, and named in honour of the building’s former tenants, the Swan Street Chamber of Commerce will be home to the likes of Will & Co. coffee, Rustica Sourdough and My Two Mums ice cream, as well as a 42-seat repertory cinema.

The venue is the brainchild of pop-up specialists Pop Union and hospitality consultant Adam Del Mastro. With the building set to be transformed into a pub in 2016, Del Mastro and Pop Union set about reinventing the space's image. He describes the result as "an ambitious version of a pop-up," one that will operate over a 12-month period and combine food, drink, retail, art and entertainment.

"It came together really quickly," says Del Mastro. "Most of the operators who came on board signed up in the last four or five weeks... we're at the very pointy end of finishing up the council stuff, and aiming to launch very, very soon."

Other vendors who'll operate out of the location include Storm in a Teacup, Pressed Juices and Hoy Pinoy Filipino BBQ. "We’ve also reserved a few key spaces for short term operators," says Del Mastro. "We’ve got a pop-up record store on the first floor that will be an interesting proposition. Then on the food front, we've been discussing with a company called Autumn Harvest, who are basically mushroom foragers, about doing a wild mushroom market. So that’s going to be a really interesting seasonal thing."

The Chamber of Commerce will also be looking to partner with local artists and creatives. "We've already had a few approaches about people doing interesting stuff in the space," says Del Mastro.

Central to the hub's creative ambitions is a partnership with Jose Maturana, the proprietor of Valhalla Social Cinema. A devotee of Richmond’s long-defunct Valhalla Theatre, Maturana has previously run cult film screenings at various venues around town, and will bring his programming savvy to the Swan Street cinema four nights out of every week.

"I think spaces like the Valhalla, which are ambitious pop-ups that take advantage of opportunities and spaces, are kind of the future of smaller repertory cinemas," says Del Mastro.

Swan Street Chamber of Commerce is set to launch in the next couple of weeks, as far as they've revealed. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for more details.