Two years ago, two drunk men rolled into the Empire Hotel in Sydney’s inner-western suburb of Annandale. They were slurring misogynistic insults at the staff. Two women behind the bar, one heavily pregnant, were in charge that night. They asked the men to leave.
Instead, the patrons walked into the pub’s courtyard. One woman followed them, only to be chased back toward the bar, prompting an off-duty male staffer to intervene. There was no regular security at the bar, a scuffle ensued, and the men threatened to kill him. The female staff pushed the emergency button. Police came and nobody was harmed, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the incident.
Primrose RiordanAssociate editorPrimrose Riordan covers private companies and family offices from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. Primrose was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and covered foreign affairs and politics in Canberra. Primrose has won multiple awards for her journalism including from The National Press Club, SABEW in the US and Press Gazette in the UK. Message Primrose on Signal: https://tinyurl.com/PrimroseSignal Connect with Primrose on Facebook and Twitter. Email Primrose at primrose.riordan@afr.com
Sarah ThompsonStreet Talk editorSarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com
