Merivale Going for Whole Beachside Boardwalk Experience in Coogee Pavilion

Coogee Pavilion, Merivale's revamp of the old Beach Palace Hotel, is set to open its first phase on July 24. If you've had mixed feelings about the mega group's growing expansion into Sydney's suburbs, they're determined to charm you: the plans for the ground floor of Coogee Pavilion sound less public house, more funhouse.

Overlooking Coogee Beach, the Pavilion will of course focus on seafood dining, with fresh catches, a raw bar and an oyster counter. But then there's Vinnie's Pizzeria (serving up woodfired creations from Merivale's pizza maestro Vincenzo Biondini), a fresh flower stall, Will & Co coffee cart, a cocktail bar, a juice bar and a gift shop.

The games area is perhaps the most surprising element of the venue. It's in big part for kids, but the promise of "beautifully refurbished" 1950s ping pong tables, petanque, a giant hand-painted Scrabble board and old-school arcade games suggests they've fun-seekers of more refined tastes in mind too. The area will even include a movie theatrette and barber.

The 1887 building encloses 4500 square metres of space, which explains how they're able to promise all these fabulous things. The upper two floors will continue to be developed over the coming months. The ambitious plans for the venue have been developed by a design team including Kelvin Ho of Akin Creative, Amanda Talbot plus Justin and Bettina Hemmes.

Coogee Pavilion ground floor will be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and more from Thursday, July 24. Its opening hours are 11am - 11pm, Monday – Thursday; 11am – 3am, Friday; 7am – 3am, Saturday; and 7am - midnight, Sunday.

Update July 22: The revised opening date for the Coogee 'Pav', as we may as well start calling it already, is July 24.

Image: Santa Cruz beach promenade, many moons ago.