The Grand Hotel, Mornington in race to pull first pot out of lockdown
A historic Mornington Peninsula pub is hoping to make another entry in the record books when it serves the first beer out of lockdown.
South East
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The Grand Hotel wants to pull metro Melbourne’s first beer out of lockdown.
The Mornington pub will open at midnight Tuesday in a bid to break the drought and already has a group of drinkers ready to sink their first tap brew in months.
General Manager Cam Price will have the honour of pulling the venue’s first beer and said if punters weren’t quick he’d drink it himself.
“I can’t wait to reopen. We won’t make any money of course, but it’s not about that,” he said.
“It’s been such a long haul for everyone, especially our staff. To be able to serve customers again will be an awesome moment.”
The landmark pub, which has been serving customers for more than 130 years, is already booked out until November 5.
“We took 400 phone calls yesterday and another 300 this morning” Mr Price said.
Under the new guidelines, which will come into effect at 11.50pm Tuesday, the pub can host 20 people indoors and up to 50 outside.
“We’ll have 10 in the sports bar and 10 in the bistro tonight,” Mr Price said.
He said the venue would open daily from 11am to 10pm from Wednesday onwards and had some innovative things planned for customers.
The pub is allowing the eatery across the road – Mercetta – to use their outdoor area for up to 50 breakfast customers.
“There going to let us put a live band on their side of the street on Saturday nights for our outdoor customers to enjoy.”
The Main Street watering hole isn’t the only metro-Melbourne venue racing to beat CBD pubs to the pour.
Cold Stream brewery in the Yarra Valley is also vying for the honour.
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