The much-heralded launch of Moon Dog's Wild West venue in the former Franco Cozzo building in Footscray has been postponed by what the brewery described as a "last-minute change of heart" from the local council. The brewery team was forced to pull the pin on last night's media and VIP preview launch event, and have had to cancel plans to open to the public later today.
The Moon Dog team was informed yesterday by Maribyrnong City Council that the location of a fire hydrant in the venue was no longer suitable. According to the brewery, the fire hydrant had been "installed as per the plans endorsed by council, installed correctly, tested, approved for use and is currently pressurised, as per all the requirements needed in order to receive the final occupancy certificate."
However, just minutes before opening the doors to guests, they were told they could no longer go ahead.
UPDATE: Maribyrnong City Council has since issued a statement on the matter, in which they state the cancellation of the opening "was not a result of any Council action". See the full statement below.
Moon Dog co-founder Karl van Buuren, in a statement provided to The Crafty Pint, said: “We are so sorry to everyone that turned up last night excited to check out our amazing new venue, but instead were turned away.
"We always knew creating a venue of this size and scale with ambitious timelines was going to have its challenges, but it's bitterly disappointing to have been tripped up at the last hurdle after doing everything by the book.”
We first reported on Moon Dog's plans for the iconic Franco Cozzo building back in December 2022. It is one of three major venues they're due to open, with the others in Frankston and next to Marvel Stadium in the Docklands.
Moon Dog Wild West represents an evolution of the unique path the brewery has taken over almost a decade-and-a-half now; the three-storey venue features a rooftop with views across the city, Tex-Mex inspired food, a mechanical bucking bull, horseshoe booths and cacti aplenty.
The Crafty Pint has been told that, unless an agreement can be found with the council today, the venue will no longer be opened to the public tonight.
In a statement, they said: "We have real concerns for the safety of the hundreds of people that will be turning up and not allowed to enter the venue. Hopkins Street is a particularly busy corner with trucks and cars and nowhere near enough room for hundreds of people to safely congregate outside the venue."
Karl (pictured above left with fellow founder Josh Uljans) added: “We have had amazing support from the council and the Footscray community in the lead up to opening this venue and we are very sorry to all the bookings, functions and everyone else that was planning to come down tonight.
"We’re hopeful to have a resolution as soon as possible and when we do, we look forward to sharing a new opening date with everyone and finally cracking an ice cold beer and jumping on the bucking bull.”
Council Statement: Moon Dog
Council wishes to clarify the cancellation of the opening of Moon Dog Wild West in Footscray was not a result of any Council action.
Our understanding is that earlier this week, Moon Dog’s private building surveyor, who is responsible for issuing the relevant building permits and the certificate of occupancy required for the venue to trade, had flagged issues with the fire hydrant and booster cabinet, as the works had not been carried out in accordance with the relevant Building Regulations 2018.
The decision to not issue an occupancy certificate is a matter is between Moon Dog and their private building surveyor.
Council is disappointed that the cancellation of the opening has been misrepresented by Moon Dog as being a decision made by Council, especially given how closely we have worked with them throughout the planning and construction process.
We'll update this article as more information comes to light regarding the opening of the venue.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
