By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
No corner of Sydney has been spared from the irrepressible dominance of Merivale pub baron Justin Hemmes.
After conquering the CBD, yassifying pubs in forgotten suburbs and quiet regional towns, and even trying to introduce the Totti’s bread to those famously snobbish Victorians, the man-bunned one has now set up shop in Sydney’s most exclusive gym.
The Sporting Club of Sydney, where membership costs $22,000 plus a $2000 annual fee – and that’s after you’ve done your time on the years-long waitlist – is the latest venue to get the Hemmes touch. Months after rumours Hemmes and his entourage were doing some advance reconnaissance around the club’s poolside cabanas, this week marks the grand unveiling of S.C Canteen by Merivale, with a menu including things like “wholesome breakfast bowls”.
The club, sandwiched between the Sydney Cricket Ground and Allianz Stadium, is a far cry from the Ivy – think reformer Pilates and cold plunges, rather than espresso martinis and messy nights at the pool club. And it probably rivals anywhere in Hemmes’ empire for people-watching, with the likes of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull or Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh spotted dropping in for a workout.
While CBD is at times sceptical about Hemmes’ cannibalising of the Sydney dining scene, we’ll begrudgingly admit that since Merivale took over hospitality at the SCG and Sydney Football Stadium back in 2021, the game-day food has become a lot more edible.
Not everyone is convinced. The previous food outlet, Azure Cafe, had been run for 17 years by the same, much-loved couple. One member, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of recriminations on the squash court, told CBD that many in the club were “smouldering with anger” at the facelift. Prices are already higher, we hear.
While the catering contract is up for renewal next year, the decision to bring it forward and give Merivale the reins came from the board of Venues NSW, the organisation that runs the state’s stadiums and is chaired by former NRL and Football Australia boss David Gallop. Chief executive Kerrie Mather broke the news to members last week, promising Merivale would deliver an “amazing experience”.
We’re sure the haters will come around eventually. After all, in Sydney, few can resist Hemmes.
CRONK WATCH
Most Sydneysiders would’ve had little love for retired NRL star Cooper Cronk during his years of dominance with the Melbourne Storm and Queensland’s Maroons. Then Cronk followed his heart (and fiancee, now wife, the Network Ten sports presenter Tara Rushton) to the emerald city to play for the Roosters, meaning most Sydneysiders still had little love for the six-time premiership winner.
Tribal footy allegiances aside, Cronk is well and truly a Sydneysider, with he and Rushton landing an $8.75 million home in Mosman two years ago. Quite the change from Cronk’s Melbourne bachelor pad in Richmond he sold for $1.44 million two years ago, a townhouse that cost him a mere $579,000 in 2006 at the height of his success as a Storm boy.
Cooper CronkCredit: John Shakespeare
He’s since done the most Sydney thing possible: he’s got involved in a neighbourly dispute over a home renovation. In April, one of Cronk’s neighbours lodged plans with Mosman Council for a $3.7 million upgrade of their home, including a new pool and outdoor deck.
Cronk penned one of just two submissions made in response to the development application, noting the privacy impacts of the plans. Cronk and Rushton were also concerned that the renovations next door could disrupt their electricity supply.
“My wife and I both work from home to non-negotiable deadlines and we need our power to be available,” the former star wrote. Given the two are both TV regulars on Fox Sports and Ten, that was news to us.
Cronk’s submission was considered and coherent; you would never know he has a few decades of head knocks behind him. But it turns out the former halfback is making a few moves in the real estate game, listing a strategic adviser job at Brisbane-based property investment firm Marquette on his LinkedIn. How many ex-NRL players even have a LinkedIn?
Not that it mattered to the council, who approved the offending development last week.
REAL FRIENDS
Arch-republican Sam Mostyn was sworn in as governor-general on Monday, and used her first address in the Senate as his majesty’s representative to urge the gathered politicians to please be a bit nicer to each other.
Newly sober former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce seemed to have taken that to heart, and was snapped shaking hands with ex-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, all bitterness around the 2018 bonk ban apparently forgiven. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton less so – he looked thunderous about being seated a few metres from Turnbull.
Mostyn brought in a few better-behaved friends from outside the Canberra bubble, including former High Court justice Michael Kirby (Mostyn worked for him), ABC chair Kim Williams and his wife Catherine Dovey (daughter of former prime minister Gough Whitlam), celebrity chef Kylie Kwong and National Gallery of Australia board member and APY Art Centre Collective artist Sally Scales.
The new-guard executive-feminist activist vibe was supplied by Anne Summers, Aunty Pat Anderson, Wendy McCarthy, Elizabeth Broderick, The Parenthood activist Georgie Dent, Vanessa Liell from strategic comms firm Orizontas, and Ronni Kahn from OzHarvest.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.