AFTER more than five years, thousands of beers and a ticketing fiasco last month, the party is over for the little laneway bar that spawned a national festival.
St Jerome's, wedged in the bowels of the Myer building in the central business district's Caledonian Lane, will close at the end of the month.
Jerome Borazio, the owner of the bar and co-director of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival, came in for widespread criticism after hundreds of ticketholders were locked out of February's festival.
Many complained, and the matter is under investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Mr Borazio denies the bar is closing as a result of what took place at the festival.
Myer yesterday maintained the matter was purely about real estate.
''The vast majority of tenants in Caledonian Lane have vacated, and properties located on Lonsdale Street (including Myer) and Caledonian Lane are part of the larger redevelopment project for the area,'' Myer spokesman Damian Glass said.
The Age believes Myer is seeking council approval to demolish the Caledonian Lane building and construct a new loading dock as part of its $1.1 billion redevelopment plan.
St Jerome's will not go quietly, though.
On Sunday, the bar launched the Last Days carnival, a two-week wake that will culminate with a ''Tent Down, Circus Over'' party on March 28. Two days later, the bar will close.
Mr Borazio is in negotiations to secure a lease on the old Harley-Davidson assembly factory in Little Lonsdale Street. The new venue, he said, would be called the St Jerome's Preston School of Industry.
The name refers to the school for delinquents attended by US killer Charles Manson.
Oh no! Where can coolsies perve on each other now?
ohhh...well the place is a bit of a garbage dump....and they still charge $5 for a can of Draught.
What a retarded name for a bar. Manson didn't go there either, it was Merle Haggard and Neal Cassady.
I assume this Primitive Calculators gig will be one of the last things there then.
Wow! St jerome's Preston School of Industry presumably.
doffs overpriced skaters cap
its just pining for the fjords.
for all the anti hipster ranting, having cheap toasties around the corner from don dons and rue beb's rolls was a lunchtime trinity that saw me through my undergrad.
St Jerome's Spiral Stairs . . . ?
Won't someone think of the children?!
Where can they get a beer now?
boronia.
King St.
heh haz, i came in to make similar jokes.
if the preston school of industry is to laneway what the other preston school of industry is to pavement, that bar will be too horrible to even contemplate.
Aw, I used to love this place. Haven't been in years. Sad.
I'm with you zizzle. had many a good times there.
de.foxus.... SWISH! ZING! etc.
good to hear he's opening a new crappy bar somewhere else
i preferred laneway for daytime beers when it was empty anyway
I remember getting trashed there with djbollocks after one of the union rallies, then winding up at the joint on Elizabeth st. I was popular when I literally reeled in the door at 6:30 stinking of booze.
Those toilets have seen more sex than anywhere in melbourne I reckon..
Yeah, I used to love it too, before it became over run with toddlers swinging from the monkeybars.
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What's all this about Myer only just discovering that the bar has been, erm, 'appropriating' their electricity for years?
Ah ha ha ha ha!
That is awesome, if true.
City bar told to dish up or shut up
KATE LAHEY
December 22, 2009
A CITY bar has been ordered to start serving more food, and proper meals, if it is to carry on trading as the restaurant it claims to be.
Sister Bella, owned by Jerome Borazio, has been trading as a restaurant for more than two years in Sniders Lane, off Drewery Lane.
The planning tribunal has ruled Sister Bella does serve food, but later at night it runs illegally as a tavern. It is a victory for the city council, which challenged Mr Borazio to prove he was running a restaurant.
Councillor Peter Clarke said officers would now examine other venues. ''It is a significant decision. The council has been concerned about restaurants morphing into taverns and hotels without appropriate permits and this vindicates our concerns,'' he said.
In the city, restaurants can open without a permit, but taverns need council approval. Taverns do not have to serve food, but a restaurant must prepare and serve food, and must have tables and chairs set out for at least 75 per cent of patrons.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has given Sister Bella 30 days to beef up its meal service, stop running as a bar or apply for a tavern permit. Mr Borazio said he would appeal against the order.
Yesterday his father, Jerome Borazio snr, said he was shocked by the ruling of a senior member of the tribunal, Russell Byard. ''He had to have explained to him what a tapas bar was,'' he said.
In the ruling, Mr Byard says Mr Borazio (jnr) may be reluctant to seek a permit because he fears noise restrictions will be imposed on the venue, which trades until 1am.
Mr Byard said council evidence indicated ''significant numbers of patrons who are drinking alcohol but with little or no food at all, and with hardly any evidence of proper meals eaten at tables with knives and forks as opposed to snacks and nibbles eaten with the fingers''.
The kitchen was ''uninhabited'' during most inspections, many of which were after 10pm.
Mr Borazio provided photographs and documents, including menus, of food prepared and consumed on site.
''I accept Mr Borazio's evidence that 7pm to 9.30pm or thereabouts is peak . . . with diners finishing up their meals at around 9.30pm to 10pm,'' Mr Byard said. ''The possibility of ordering food continues for a while . . . although the range available becomes limited.''
That's funny, considering one of their other joints, 1000 Pound Bend, can only dish up food as it has no license yet.
start serving Cocopop and Fairy Breads.
Jerome .... what an outlaw
what's this city coming to?
Start serving food to those hairy hipsters.
SuperHans is still hanging around. This time in Bondi with my friend.
oops
Priest in 'plot' to stop bar in CBD
MARK RUSSELL
July 5, 2010
VICTORIA'S energy and water ombudsman Fiona McLeod and two Catholic priests - including Melbourne's punting priest Joe Giacobbe - have been accused of a conspiracy to stop a bar opening in the CBD.
Bar owner Jerome Borazio has questioned why Ms McLeod and Father Tom Knowles are objecting to his bar, but not to Father Giacobbe's plans to expand his nearby gaming venue.
Father Giacobbe's Doxa Social Club runs the Meeting Place pokies venue at Melbourne Central in Elizabeth Street. The club recently applied to open a first-floor bar and restaurant with a late-night licence.
Father Knowles, from St Francis' Church in Lonsdale Street, and Ms McLeod, who lives in Little Lonsdale Street, have not objected to the Doxa application, but strongly opposed Mr Borazio's plans for a bar and art gallery.
Mr Borazio wants to transfer his liquor licence from St Jerome's in Caledonian Lane to his new Little Lonsdale Street venue, with a bar, restaurant and gallery for up to 600 people, trading until 1 am.
Mr Borazio, in a statement to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, said Father Knowles and Ms McLeod were inconsistent in their attitudes.
''The Doxa Social Club generates its income from gambling and liquor consumption activities conducted from its premises, directly across the road from St Francis' Church … Father Knowles and Fiona McLeod have no objection to those activities being conducted … until at least 1 am,'' Mr Borazio said in his statement.
Ms McLeod has threatened to take legal action against Mr Borazio over the conspiracy claims. Her lawyer, Nick Pullen, said the allegations were ''clearly calculated to damage the high standing and good reputation our client enjoys in her professional career and the general community''.
Ms McLeod denied Mr Borazio's claims. ''My only motivation is concern for the amenity of the area,'' she said.
Mr Borazio's application for a licence transfer was rejected by the director of Liquor Licensing and Mr Borazio has appealed to VCAT to overturn the decision. A hearing will be held on July 20.
There was no organisational or financial connection between Doxa and St Francis' Church, Father Knowles said.
Still no licence.... Dammit.
Loivng the $2 coffees and the cheese n spag toasties for brekky.
Better have a licence by summer. Where can we find out how this application process is going?
doncha know TopherPlus, according to Jerome, everyone hates Jerome and is in a conspiracy against him.
Anyone been to the new St Jeromes bar? The Resurrection on Lygon St... how is it?
Havent been, looks shit though from the pictures. But I can't really say.
I also found out last night that 1000 pound bend has a license now.
i live literally 20 metres from this bar, but have not yet gone. the front section is very small but keen to check out the massive beer garden once the weather warms up.
Went the other week, huge outdoor area, tiny indoors. It's ok, plenty of bars on that block though
What is 1000 pound bend like? I've only ever walked past.
good to have another, alderman and atticus are often packed out
I havent been to 1000 pound since last year, before they got a license, should be good to check it out sometime soon. It looked pretty busy last night.