18 November 2021

Changes afoot for Kokomo's with mysterious rebrand announcement imminent

| Max O'Driscoll
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Boarded up bar

Kokomos is currently undergoing a makeover. Photo: Lottie Twyford.

Secrecy surrounds the future of one of Canberra’s most popular nightspots and restaurants – Kokomo’s in Civic.

But there are plenty of hints online about how the venue will emerge when it reopens. Will it become The Pearl or Wilma?

The windows are boarded up, the Kokomo’s Facebook page has changed its name to The Pearl and a mysterious Instagram account has been named Wilma. Both The Pearl and Wilma list the old Kokomo’s 1 Genge Street address as their location.

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Kokomo’s owners, brothers Peter and Michael Harrington, and their team, have remained tight-lipped on the future of the venue, although a formal announcement is expected within the next two weeks.

A spokesperson for the Harrington’s told Region Media that the new venue would be “completely different” from the current one.

The Harrington family has decades of experience in the Canberra hospitality scene, currently running the Akiba restaurant in Civic and Sage Dining Rooms in Braddon.

It is rumoured Wilma will serve Asian BBQ like the pop-up restaurant Krakatoa, which operated alongside Kokomo’s.

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The rebrand is likely an attempt to distance the site from high-profile incidents such as the stabbing murder of Canberra Comanchero boss Pitasoni Ulavalu at Kokomo’s in July last year.

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