Newtown About to Get a Lot More Social

It was a sad day for Sydney's live music scene when Newtown's beloved Sandringham Hotel was placed in receivership last June, and even sadder when it was finally forced to shut its doors in December. But there was also cause for cautious optimism, with word that the team behind two of Melbourne's most iconic venues, the Corner Hotel and Northcote Social Club, would be taking over the site, doing a complete overhaul of the entire place — which, admittedly, had seen better days.

Well, it's been a few months coming, but the Newtown Social Club will finally open its doors this Friday, May 3. It will be open from midday to midnight Monday to Saturday and close at 10pm on Sundays. The kitchen will be open all day, serving pizza, nachos, chips and hot dogs.

There'll be a distinctly Melbourne vibe to the place, with the owners promising to show every AFL game they can on the TVs in the front bar — a welcome announcement for long-suffering Sydney fans of the code, too often forced to crowd around a Cold War-era audiovisual relic in the basement just to watch the nation's most popular football code.

But if you can't wait to christen Sydney's newest live music venue, you've got a bit of a wait coming. Although the bar is open from this week, it'll be another few months before the upstairs bandroom is fully operational.

Via Mess+Noise.