Rochester’s beloved Shamrock Hotel circa 1912, is only weeks away from re-opening their kitchen and dishing up their long-anticipated meals.
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With new carpets, fridges, a fresh paint job and a brand new kitchen, the hotel’s new look is a true testament to the resilience of the establishment and its publican, Ian Crouch.
The words Welcome to Shamrock Flood Bar hang above the bar like a symbol of strength and tenacity.
But the process of getting the hotel to where it is today has been far from easy.
With no insurance and with flood relief grant money still yet to be received, Mr Crouch has had to fork the money out of his own pocket for all the repair works.
He and his family resorted to undertaking some of the less complicated work themselves to try and minimise the cost of trades.
“Whatever we can do on our own we’ve tried to do and everything that’s needed to be done by a trades person has been done by a local business,” Mr Crouch said.
“It was really important to us to be able to support local tradesmen who have also been impacted by the flood.
“It’s slowly all coming together, one area at a time.”
Little by little, the place is taking shape and the silver lining is that this time, Mr Crouch gets to re-design the entire place so that it stands a better chance against future floods.
The carpet is tiled and can be split into squares and moved to higher ground, if an emergency situation were to arise.
The kitchen has been rebuilt from the ground up, quite literally, with a fresh slab of concrete laid.
Because of the age of all the appliances, every single piece of equipment had to be replaced, apart from the range hood.
In purchasing the replacement appliances, Mr Crouch thoughtfully made sure all the new equipment could be separated into modules and shifted elsewhere.
Aside from all the practical design qualities, the place just looks great.
The completely revamped beer garden is lush and abundant with greenery.
It’s the ideal place to sit back and appreciate the last of the warm weather.
Mr Crouch said it’s been a long, drawn out process to get the hotel back up and running.
“It’s been exhausting and tiring,” he said.
“We’ve been working on the pub every day since October 24.”
Even with all the hours the family has put in, there’s still more on the list to be done.
The side dining room and downstairs are next on the list to be overhauled and the kitchen will need to be fully re-stocked before meals can be served again.
There are also eight accommodation rooms that were not damaged by the flood being refurbished upstairs.
By some miracle, Mr Crouch somehow managed to save his beautiful wooden bar from being damaged by the wave of water that erupted through town.
The public bar opened on December 2, with the opening night going off with a bang.
Taking their minds off their problems for a few hours, community members used the night as an opportunity to come together as one after an emotionally challenging past few months.
But even with the support of local community members, Mr Crouch said it was not enough to keep businesses thriving.
He said the Shamrock alone is down 80 per cent its usual income.
“The community that is here is really supportive of all the businesses but the occupancy level in Rochester at the moment is low,” Mr Crouch said.
“Residents in Rochester are displaced and spread out everywhere so we haven’t had the same number of residents coming through, and then on top of that, tourism has suffered.
“There’s just not that traffic flow through town any more.
“It will take a few years for Rochester to recover. They say it will take our house about two years to be repaired, so you can just imagine it’s going to be a few years for businesses as well.”
On top of the loss in income, Mr Crouch now needs to try to recruit staff as many moved on when the hotel closed for months.
“All our junior staff, our chef and some bar staff have found work elsewhere, which I don’t blame them for,” he said.
“We are hoping the kitchen will be ready for meals in the first or second week of March, we just need the tick of approval from council, from a compliance point of view.”
The Shamrock Hotel in Rochester is currently on the lookout for a chef. If you’re looking to pick some hours up at the hotel, give the staff a call on 5484 1841or drop your resume in at 1 Gillies St, Rochester.