By Cara Waters
Publican Paul O’Bree is bracing himself for weary travellers turning up to his Fitzroy pub, The Standard Hotel, with their wheely suitcases looking for a bed for the night when luxury hotel group The Standard opens the doors to its newest hotel in a few months.
O’Bree has seen a few things in his time as proprietor of the historic pub but was somewhat blindsided when he heard a luxury hotel was opening just down the road.
Owner of the Fitzroy pub, The Standard, Paul O’Bree is worried about confusion when luxury hotel The StandardX opens on the same street. Credit: Penny Stephens
“When I first heard of a hotel coming into Fitzroy, named The Standard, being built on the same street as mine naturally I had a few questions,” he said. “To say the least.”
The Standard Hotel first opened its doors in Fitzroy in 1865, on the back of the gold rush, and has survived a failed temperance movement and Covid lockdowns.
Its latest challenge has been a dispute with US-based luxury hotel group The Standard which is about to open the doors to a new $60 million hotel a few blocks down the street which it planned to call The Standard hotel, sending the pub and hotel group into mediation.
The Standard hotel group was founded in 1998 by hotelier André Balazs and the New York hotel gained worldwide fame thanks to on-screen appearances in Sex and the City and Steve McQueen’s film, Shame.
It has expanded to hotels in London, Miami, Ibiza and Thailand. The Fitzroy opening was set to be the first The Standard hotel in Australia.
However, the US-based owners of The Standard hadn’t factored in The Standard Hotel which has stood just a couple of blocks away on the same Fitzroy street for 159 years.
O’Bree said he didn’t want to make trouble but felt he needed to stand his ground.
“It just felt like at the start they came in over the top with no regard for us,” he said. “They were really coming in and bulldozing the name really.”
Inside The Standard Hotel, which has been serving pots of beer and meals for over 150 years. Credit: Jason South
O’Bree said it had taken many years for The Standard to build its reputation and so it was “a bit cheeky” for The Standard to announce it was opening with the same name on the same street.
“It pissed me off at the time because there was no respect given or anything really,” he said. “They didn’t even know we existed, or care.”
O’Bree said after “positive and respectful” discussions The Standard had agreed to use the name The StandardX for its hotel and his view was that any new business, in this case a hotel with an accommodation focus, would only benefit existing businesses in Fitzroy.
However, O’Bree warned there was still potential for confusion. When The StandardX started advertising for staff, The Standard got a few misplaced applications and it has also had to redirect deliveries and deal with false invoices.
“People might turn up with their suitcases ready for a room,” O’Bree said. “They’ll get a lot of people flying in saying they are staying at The Standard, I don’t want the taxis dropping them off out the front of my joint. Hopefully, confusion over the two entities sharing a name will be minimal and if they are around in 150 years like we have been then good luck to them.”
Adam Taloni, general manager of The StandardX in Fitzroy, said from The StandardX’s point of view there was no longer a dispute.
“When we initially lodged the name The Standard there were a few questions,” he said. “Putting the X on the name has eliminated those.”
Taloni said there had been a few cultural differences with The Standard’s team in the United States, who were surprised to see that there were so many hotels in Fitzroy, and he had to explain that in Australia a pub is often called a hotel.
An artist’s render of The StandardX hotel which is set to open in the same street as The Standard Hotel in Fitzroy.
The StandardX is expected to open in June or July this year in a Hecker Guthrie-designed building with 125 rooms.
Its aesthetic is “modern industrial” with polished terrazzo floors, leather couches, bespoke artworks and furniture by local and European designers.
The hotel will also house an all-day Thai diner, Bang, headed by chef Justin Dingle-Garciyya, who comes from stints at Sofitel Adelaide, W Hotels, Aman and Six Senses Resorts and a rooftop bar with views of the city.
Taloni said once The StandardX was open it would direct guests to The Standard Hotel to celebrate the pub as one of the best spots to experience in the area.
“Like The Standard in New York, the brand is about being a part of cool suburban areas,” Taloni said. “The focus is on being part of the community, the last thing we’d want to do is annoy another business.”
The hotel operators just might need to brace themselves for the occasional lost pub patron looking for a pint and a parma.
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