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West Melbourne beer hall and takeaway bottle shop Benchwarmer is closing in September. The Hot Listed spot has been pouring limited release craft beers and serving an Asian-inspired food menu since it opened in 2020, weeks before the first Covid lockdown hit in Melbourne. Owner Locky Jones says the decision wasn’t easy but has been on the cards for a while.
“For about a year I’ve seen this as being inevitable but it’s so hard to finally make the decision to pull the plug,” he says. “As a hospo lifer, you just want to put your head down and keep working, but at some point you just have to say it’s not working.”
Jones cites several factors that contributed to the decision to close the venue, including cost of living pressures and the beer excise tax.
“I think people are seeing craft beer as a luxury, almost a special-occasion experience now. When they can only afford to spend maybe once a week, what they spend on becomes much more specific,” he says. “We try to have tap specials and happy hours to serve a $10 pint when we can, but with the beer tax going up every six months, that’s just not a sustainable thing to do anymore.”
Benchwarmer sits on a stretch of West Melbourne’s Victoria Street with a handful of cafes, shops and restaurants. There are a couple of wine bars nearby, but the area isn’t known for its nightlife. Jones says this also contributed to the decision to close.
“Some people have said we were a bit early, maybe a case of the right venue at the wrong time,” he says. “We wanted to help build the area up as place to go at night, but you look around on a weeknight and there’s just not many people around after dinner.”
Jones also runs his own craft beer brand, Oishii World, which he plans to focus on once Benchwarmer closes its doors.
“I’ve got a lot to do, I need to make sure all our staff and suppliers are looked after first,” he says. “It’s been a really emotional few days for everyone, so we’ll make sure everyone’s taken care of, take a small break and then I’ll focus on the next steps.
“Having done all this independently without financial backing, you end up learning so much more. You learn to be a tradie, how to set up a sound system, how to fix things. So I definitely haven’t come away from the experience empty-handed. It just wasn’t the right time.”
Benchwarmer is hosting a send-off party on August 29, with the final day of trade set for September 13.
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