Venturin family set to open new ‘hidden gem’ Loose Goose Bar in Mitchell Street’s Transit Centre

The new bar will offer ‘a more sophisticated and restrained setting than has traditionally been associated with the Mitchell Street nightlife scene’. Read about the family’s grand plans.

The site of the proposed new Loose Goose Bar in the Darwin Transit Centre on Mitchell Street.

A prominent NT tourism and hospitality family is set to shake up Darwin’s party strip by opening “a small, intimate and hidden gem” in the heart of the city’s nightclub precinct.

The NT Liquor Commission issued a small bar licence for the new Loose Goose Bar in the Darwin Transit Centre on Mitchell Street earlier this month, at the site of a former cafe also owned by the Venturin family.

In the family’s application, Top End Lodges director Robert Venturin described the venue as “a small, intimate and hidden gem in the Darwin City, offering a relaxing atmosphere in a central location”.

“The application is for a small, rather secluded venue where patrons will be charged a premium for food and drink in a more sophisticated and restrained setting than has traditionally been associated with the Mitchell Street nightlife scene,” the commission’s decision reads.

The Venturins bought the DTC building, which includes Shenannigans, Youth Shack Backpackers and Six Tanks Brewery, for $16.25m in 2021.

The new venue promises ‘a more sophisticated and restrained setting’ than other nearby options.

The following year the family opened the Finniss River Lodge on its 200sq km working cattle property, the Finniss River Station, with the commission noting there had been no instances of non-compliance with the conditions of its licence since.

In issuing the new licence, the commission found it was in the public interest and would not have a significant adverse impact on the community.

“The premises are situated in Darwin’s popular Mitchell Street tourism and hospitality precinct, which the commission assesses as being well suited as the location of a venue of the type proposed by the applicant,” the decision reads.

“Having considered each of these objectives and having particular regard to the location of the premises, the detailed operational plans prepared by the applicant (including a risk assessment management plan), the relatively small size of the premises and the good record of the applicant’s principals in managing licensed premises, the commission is satisfied that it is in the public interest to issue the licence.”

The family has offered to install acoustic dampening in the buildings walls and ceilings while restricting entertainment to “light, background music”.