When Des Middleton tried to open a pub in Haberfield in 1948, the Metropolitan Licensing Board quashed his application. A Herald report at the time noted 4238 Haberfield residents opposed Middleton’s proposed transfer of a Sydney CBD pub licence to their happy hamlet.

Given more than half of Haberfield’s then adult population of 7500 took time to object says something about the early residents of the suburb, located just over six kilometres from the CBD. Half a century earlier, in 1901, Ashfield alderman Richard Stanton had conceived Haberfield as “slum-less, lane-less” and – to the delight of the wowsers – “pub-less”. To this day, Haberfield remains not only pub-less, but also without the inner west’s accoutrements de jour: a wine bar or small bar.

This historical drinking quirk was brought into the now with the arrival of restaurateur Con Dedes, who last month added Haberfield Rowers Club, rebranded as Regatta Club, to his hospitality portfolio.

Dedes, whose hospitality group includes Pyrmont’s Flying Fish restaurant, has armed the Haberfield venue with new menus and decked staff out in T-shirts with a cheeky nod to the suburb’s rather “dry” reputation. “It says Regatta Pub Club with the pub crossed out,” Dedes says.

Dedes explains the venue’s unique position as Haberfield’s only club where you can grab an alcoholic drink probably morphed out of its sporting club lineage and the quirk of its more isolated location at the edge of Haberfield, on the foreshore of Iron Cove.

In the heart of Haberfield, chef John Lanzafame felt the weight of trying to get a liquor licence when he opened a restaurant in the suburb two decades ago. “I had to jump through hoops, and it was only a restaurant,” he says.

Lanzafame says the process became so arduous, he engaged a solicitor. “In the end we had to open without a liquor licence,” he says, unable to serve alcohol despite having a sommelier on the payroll.

When it was eventually granted six months later, Lanzafame says his Haberfield restaurant (which has since closed) was the only one at the time with a full liquor licence aside from “a couple of places that could serve wine, and ... a bottleshop”. “I did the hard yards,” Lanzafame says.

But why no pub or wine bar in the suburb? For all the talk of Haberfield’s heritage conservation zone, it’s hard to find anything precluding the opening of either. “I was told at the time it was an unwritten [mandate],” Lanzafame says.

Ashfield Council has since merged with Leichhardt and Marrickville councils to become Inner West Council in 2016, which says, “there are no specific planning controls relating to restrictions on pubs opening in Haberfield”.

With no recent applications for either a pub or wine bar, the suburb’s reputation could be behind the lack of attempts from operators to test the waters.

“Before we opened, people used to pop in and ask if we were going to be a wine bar,” says Chris Theodosi, co-owner of Haberfield’s award-winning Happyfield cafe. “There might be a few residents resistant to it, but I think most are screaming for one,” Theodosi says, while conceding Happyfield “sells more merch than alcohol”.

“A wine bar or small bar seems to be one thing Haberfield needs,” Lanzafame says of his old stomping ground.

Until someone takes the temperature of residents on the issue, Haberfield restaurants are the best bet for a drink. Con Dedes says locals can grab a drink without eating at Regatta Club. Or they can pop over to neighbouring Summer Hill for a cocktail at The Temperance Society.