Historic Hills hotel set to re-open
In this week's column: the Adelaide Hills hotel that could revive a small town, Gorgeous Festival cancelled, a local foodie recognised for her dedication to promoting SA restaurants, and upcoming food and wine events to enjoy.
The Adelaide Hills town of Uraidla is set to once again become a food and wine destination, thanks to the vision of Stirling couple Ed and Julie Peter.
The Peters recently revived the Crafers Hotel with extensive renovations and a food and wine offering that has attracted a strong clientele of locals and people from the plains. Now they intend to breathe new life into the Uraidla Hotel, which has been closed for a number of years.
They are in the process of purchasing the 1880s building from The Fassina Hotel Group and say the deal should be done by the end of this week.
“We want to bring a new lease of life to the pub,” says Ed. “We will keep the old bones, just like we have done at The Crafers, initially focussing on getting the front bar and kitchen up and running while we renovate the rest of the pub room by room.
“The Uraidla was renovated a little bit during the 1920s and 1930s, so we want to preserve some of those Art Deco features. The only thing we’re adding will be a glass conservatory that will offer views across the oval.”
The Peters have also garnered the interest of “a world-class chef who is tired of working in a big city and wants to cook local”.
“The food will be more ‘River Cottage’ than ‘chi-chi’,” says Ed. “There will be no lobster foam; ingredients will be sourced from the hotel’s immediate vicinity.”
In addition to moving the bottle shop into one of three vacant premises next door, the Peters are working with winemakers from the Basket Range region to create a collective cellar door. They also plan to bring in an expert from France to help establish a brewery and distillery in the adjacent former squash courts using the abundance of strawberries, cherries, pears and apples that are grown nearby.
While local orchards and market gardens still operate in the Uraidla region, several small businesses have closed in the past few years, prompting the community to create Imagine Uraidla, an organisation designed to help reinvigorate the town.
Imagine Uraidla member and local resident Tom Feinle-Bisset says the news of the hotel’s reopening has inspired the community, with talk at a recent meeting of other new businesses being created in response to the plans. There is hope the town will once again attract visitors as it did in the 1980s and 1990s, when The Aristologist restaurant was in operation and the Uraidla Hotel was well known for its award-winning food and wine.
“As a representative of Imagine Uraidla, I can say that the idea of the Uraidla Hotel being developed as family pub that makes the most of the site overlooking the oval has been embraced wholeheartedly by the community,” says Feinle-Bisset.
“It will provide part of the essential heart of the town and a stopover point for people travelling through.”
Source: InDaily, Mary Taylor, 4th November 2015
Originally published as: Historic Hills hotel set to re-open
