NewsBite

Advertisement

Join the club: Top restaurateurs sign up to Demetriou’s new venture

By Stephen Brook, Kishor Napier-Raman and Gemma Grant

Melebrity restaurateurs Chris Lucas and Shane Delia are joining former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou’s new private sport and entertainment club, which is due to open in the first week of September.

The club, Sanctum, will be based at the Pullman Melbourne on the Park across from the MCG. It will provide a “curated experience of sport, entertainment and culture”.

Andrew Demetriou and Clint Hillas are founding Sanctum.

Andrew Demetriou and Clint Hillas are founding Sanctum. Credit: Eamon Gallagher

Demetriou said: “If you believe what you read, some clubs are closed shops. Ours will be very inclusive and very diverse.”

Translation: women will be admitted as members, unlike the traditional establishments such as the Melbourne Club and the Australian Club.

“We have already signed a number of members and have people going through the process of wanting to join,” said Demetriou, who left the AFL in 2014.

One thing Sanctum will have in common with the traditional clubs is high membership fees. First-year membership will be $5250 a year, and then fees fall to $4500 a year.

An artist’s impression of private members’ club Sanctum, devised by former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

An artist’s impression of private members’ club Sanctum, devised by former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

Junior memberships will be about $1500, and there will be discounted memberships for people living in country and regional Victoria.

Demetriou is backing the club, along with sport and entertainment executive Clint Hillas, who will also run it.

Advertisement

Hospitality partners also include the San Telmo Group, Yugen Dining, Lamaro’s and Mr Miyagi. According to Sanctum, the venture is “poised to introduce pop-up restaurants, exclusive private dining experiences, and bespoke concierge services”.

“When I was at the AFL, I often marvelled at the precinct – the MCG, Rod Laver Arena, AAMI Park – and thought, ‘You can’t find many places in the world that have a precinct like this,’” Demetriou said.

“I thought it was underutilised. Often people would struggle to know where to go after a game.”

Possibly relevant fact: the Pullman liquor licence is until 3am.

But wait, there’s more

Yesterday, we brought news of a freedom of information application that put left-wing Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly in the temporary naughty corner after his planned publication of a newsletter to residents was deemed by the council chief executive to have breached confidentiality provisions.

The newsletter was withdrawn, pulped and reworked while Jolly and councillors attended an “Integrity and Good Governance” session late in 2024, with a 19-page PowerPoint presentation to boot.

Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly.

Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly.Credit: Justin McManus

CBD can reveal that the man who submitted the FOI was former independent councillor Herschel Landes, who retired at the election last year.

Loading

Regular readers will recall that the Greens, who previously dominated the council, were at the last election reduced to just two councillors as Jolly’s Yarra For All alliance stormed to a commanding position with four out of nine seats. That gave the Jolly gang a working majority with the help of another councillor.

Jolly had some of his trademark frank words for Landes and his FOI requests (note the plural).

“He needs to get a proper hobby like lawn bowls, or go down to Readings [bookshop],” Jolly told CBD.

“I just feel sorry for the officers of council who have to respond to his incessant FOIs.

“Having said that, he isn’t doing anything illegal.

“I don’t want to be an absolute arsehole to this guy ... I just think that ... is this the best way to criticise a council if you don’t like them? Just incessant FOIs. They are at ratepayers’ expense, unlike our newsletter.”

The ill-fated newsletter was paid for by Jolly’s Yarra For All group, although it isn’t clear where its donations came from.

Jolly acknowledged that freedom of information laws were legitimate and hard won, but questioned if they were being overused.

For his part, Landes noted part of the FOI was redacted. “What has got them so worried?” he asked.

“He has been around for 20 years. He knows the game, and he knows what it is about.

“When he prints a newsletter and ... that newsletter gets pulled 24 hours later, I am asking the questions and I have no problem with that.

“This is serious. I think there is a real problem with governance with this council.”

Where all this will lead remains to be seen.

Following his two freedom of information applications on the newsletter, Landes has submitted FOIs on a bike path, conflict of interest and mayoral statements.

Can’t. Let. Go

The election night in May was notable for the denial exhibited by the Greens regarding its electoral wipeout.

As this newspaper reported at the time from the party’s party in Melbourne’s concrete ghetto of Docklands: “The activists who’d poured their hearts into doorknocking and handing out fliers and how-to-vote cards were mingling and dancing, blissfully unaware of the disaster unfolding before them.”

The header on the Greens website showing Bandt.

The header on the Greens website showing Bandt.

Regular readers will know that the Greens had hopes of winning nine lower house seats, but history records they were left with just one, and the wipeout engulfed the party host, then-leader Adam Bandt, who lost his seat of Melbourne after five elections and 15 years.

Loading

The party’s denial then was understandable (not even Labor thought its candidate Sarah Witty would win Melbourne). But now it’s a different story.

CBD was first to bring you the news that Bandt had moved on and was gigging in the legal department of the Labor-aligned United Firefighters Union, where an old mate and client, Peter Marshall, presides as secretary.

But his old party? Not so much. Click on the party website to check out which sitting MPs under new leader Larissa Waters have been granted which portfolio, and the first thing you come to is a giant online banner photograph of the now very former dear leader. A clear case of Can’t. Let. Go.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

Most Viewed in National

Loading

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/join-the-club-top-restaurateurs-sign-up-to-demetriou-s-new-venture-20250721-p5mgik.html