The Laneway in Tuggeranong. Photo: Liv Cameron.
The Canberra Southern Cross Club is coming in hot with two new outdoor bars and spaces to get you ready for summer.
The club’s venue manager in Tuggeranong, Jason Lowe-Moon, said The Laneway bar was designed to be a “very funky and eclectic space” where people could enjoy a relaxed atmosphere.
“Through COVID, outdoor dining spaces were extremely popular,” he said. “Because of that, we’ve learned to activate some common spaces either not used or not the most attractive to try and reinvigorate them.
“We wanted to have something more unique to offer Canberrans because there’s not a lot of great outdoor dining spaces, especially here on the south side.
“‘The Laneway is great in terms of having a great big space with lots of shade and nice acoustics to host live music sessions.”
Jason said the club tried to make the fit-out for the space unique.
“We’ve repurposed a Kombi van to work as a bar, and we’ve got some graffiti art around the place too,” he said.
“Our goal was to make it a real funky place for people to be.
“A great thing about this new space is that anyone can come down, it’s not restricted to members only. There’s no need to sign in and you don’t have to go through any processes, just come in and enjoy.”
He said after a soft launch a few weeks ago, the bar was now up and established.
“So we can’t wait for people to come and check it out,” Jason said.
“When you think of funky laneways in Melbourne, that was the inspiration for the bar. We wanted to create something a bit more out there.
“I still can’t believe how far we’ve come because six months ago, this space was ugly.
“Now we’ve created this really fun, welcoming place for everybody that trades afternoons and weekends and is perfect for summer.”
The Laneway also features a big-screen TV perfect for entertainment over the warmer months.
Canberra Southern Cross Club’s Jamison venue manager Andrew Wolthof said The Yard came about because there was a lot of free space being under-utilised.
“It’s been a project I’ve been working on for the last three to four years,” Andrew said.
“It’s had a couple of setbacks with things like COVID, so it’s taken a little bit longer than I wanted it to. But now it’s finally here.
“We found there was a need for outdoor spaces and outdoor entertainment post-COVID because people wanted to be outside.”
Andrew said he wanted to create a space where visitors were looking to book outside rather than inside.
“We wanted to cater to everybody,” he said.
“We’re a club with a very wide and diverse sort of clientele, but we really want to try and target a younger market.
“Now with the warmer months coming through, we really want to kick off our activations including live music outside to try and drive that traffic into the outdoor space on a Friday and Saturday night.”
There are also plans for more live and local entertainment inside the venue.
“I’m really happy with the way it’s all come together and turned out,” Andrew said.
“I’m really excited to see it full of people.”
Visitors can get a meal in The Yard at Jamison seven days a week from 11 am to 8 pm, and the outdoor bar opens Friday and Saturday 2 pm to 10 pm, and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm.
In Tuggeranong, The Laneway is open Thursday to Sunday 12 pm to 9 pm, and will take bookings for group Christmas parties.
To find out more, visit Canberra Southern Cross Club.
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