Hospitality industry veteran Michael Rasheed hopes his new venture will bring a positive vibe back to Northbridge.
Hospitality industry veteran Michael Rasheed hopes his new venture will bring a positive vibe back to Northbridge.
MICHAEL Rasheed’s passion for hospitality developed early, about the time he used to wash dishes and collect glasses as a 14 year old at his family’s pubs in regional South Australia.
Having decided he wanted to pursue a career in hospitality, Mr Rasheed worked as a barman in Adelaide pubs in his early 20s, before moving to Western Australia to get married.
Initially finding it difficult to break into the WA pub scene, Mr Rasheed ended up running several retail-type businesses until his 30s.
“While I had my own retail businesses over here, I had a passion for hotels and bars and always wanted to get back into hospitality but could not find the opportunity,” he says.
However, Mr Rasheed says he leapt at the opportunity to buy his first Perth pub, The Old Melbourne Hotel, when it came up for sale in 1985.
Since then, he has owned and operated more than 20 pubs and bars across Australia.
Using The Old Melbourne Hotel as a springboard into the industry, Mr Rasheed bought The Red Lion Hotel in 1988 before transforming it into The Aberdeen Hotel the following year.
He says transforming The Red Lion into The Aberdeen was one of his greatest challenges.
“Northbridge was in the doldrums back in 1988, and I wanted to convert that hotel into something that was like [Fremantle’s] The Left Bank, and we did that and we did that very successfully,” Mr Rasheed says.
In 1996, however, an unexpected problem arose for the business, with the state government stepping in to buy The Aberdeen from him to make way for the new Northbridge Tunnel.
“I had no intention of selling The Aberdeen because it was attracting extraordinary numbers of young people and was hugely successful,” he says.
“But the state government came in and wanted to build the Northbridge tunnel directly under my beer garden; so it bought the whole hotel.”
Mr Rasheed established Aqua Late Night Bar and the Universal Bar in the early 1990s and then became a co-owner of the Old Swan Brewery and The Left Bank Hotel a decade later.
Today, Mr Rasheed is the sole owner of The Left Bank Hotel, and co-owner of the Universal Bar on William Street and the US-themed Mustang Bar, located on Lake Street.
Now with more than 30 years’ experience in the bar and pub scene, he is hoping his new venture – a microbrewery in Northbridge – will encourage an older demographic to visit the area.
Mr Rasheed says the idea for a microbrewery came out of his involvement with the Old Swan Brewery.
“Our brewer for The Northbridge Brewing Company will be Hugh Dunn; Hugh and I teamed up when I owned the Old Swan Brewery and he was our head brewer down there,” he says.
Following an extensive tender process, the City of Perth selected Mr Rasheed and Mr Keiller to redevelop the 350 square metre site adjacent to the Northbridge Piazza.
The Northbridge Brewing Company will be set over three levels and will include a microbrewery, cafe and restaurant/function room.
Mr Rasheed says the venue will have a positive effect on the behaviour of the public in Northbridge and development of the site will provide an impetus towards its revitalisation.
“I think the council liked our tender because it offered something very different to Northbridge and it would attract an older and more sophisticated market,” he says.
“While it’s getting a heck of a lot better, Northbridge is still seen as a late night area and it still has a few image problems; so we saw this as a great way to change the demographic of people that frequent it.”
Construction is likely to start on the Northbridge Brewing Company before Christmas, and Mr Rasheed hopes to have it up and running by the end of next year.
Despite a lot of negative press, Mr Rasheed says Northbridge has been significantly cleaned up over the past couple of years.
“The City of Perth has been marvelous, the lord mayor and the councillors have done a great job in changing the face of Northbridge,” he says.
“I think the bars in Northbridge are running as well as I can ever remember, the licensees have really chipped in to make that happen.”
Mr Rasheed has joined forces with other Northbridge bar owners to form the ‘Big N’ committee, which has worked closely with the City of Perth to assist in the clean up of the area.
But anti-social behaviour is an issue that is not limited to Northbridge.
“This is an issue that affects so many hospitality venues in Perth and nationwide,” Mr Rasheed says.
“The main challenge for the industry is changing the behaviour of young people and some older people in society, and changing the way they view going out and the way they view alcohol.”
Mr Rasheed says working in Northbridge and influencing positive changes in that area in particular has been the most rewarding aspect of his hospitality career.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working in Northbridge for 20 years, I’m passionate about Northbridge and I love watching it grow and seeing new people come into the area,” he says.
“Watching it go from the days of the Red Lion in 1988 to what it is today … and knowing I’ve helped that growth in a small way, has been greatly rewarding for me.”
Along with his microbrewery venture, Mr Rasheed has received liquor-licensing approval for a new pub on Ranford Road in Southern River, a project five years in the making.
“Southern River is a great suburb, the locals have been very supportive of what we are going to do and they want an up market hotel and the same kind of food offering that we provide at The Left Bank,” he says.
Construction on that new venue is expected to start in March.
