Everything old is new again at the beautiful and much-loved second-generation family run Country Club Hotel at Stanthorpe.
The historic hotel, dating back to the 30s, reopened earlier this year after a year-long renovation and has once again become a community hub and place for locals and visitors to meet and relax.
Steph Elms, who swears her business card has Country Club Head Honcho on it, and her brother Brian, who is the bottleshop manager, embarked on the renovation last year as a tribute to their father Neil Johnson who bought the hotel in 1990 and had wanted to renovate for many years with ill health stopping him.
Steph said feedback had been really positive since the venue reopened.
“It’s doing really well, it’s nice and fresh and welcoming,” she said.
“I think people are excited because they have somewhere new to go to and even though it’s still the Country Club Hotel they still have somewhere nice too – we are getting a lot of nice comments about the renovation.”
The makeover was pretty extensive with walls coming down as well as the installation of new carpets, new furniture.
“New everything inside – probably the only thing we really kept inside was the old fireplace,” she said.
“The fireplace is a beautiful focal point during the next few months particularly – people can come in play the poker machines, have a bet, play the keno, sit around the fire and have a nice local wine. I am very passionate about local wines and really want to let the locals know – sometimes when you’re a local you don’t realise what you have, if you live at the beach you don’t always go to the beach. So you can come to me and try your local wines.
“Our food is above pub grub – we will have lots of lambshanks and so forth for winter and we still have our beautiful steaks – we still have a traditional pub menu with all the favourites but we have specials where you will have on-going hearty meals.”
She said they had brand new pokermachines making the Hotel a great place to come on a Sunday and Saturday afternoon with your mates to enjoy the TAB, Keno and Pokermachines and watch the action on the big screens especially as the weather gets colder. There is accommodation on-site, a drive-through Liquor Legends bottle shop and friendly welcoming staff.
“We always have background music going as well – even if you are in the bar you can see the football going, the races, you can see other things happening but we still have the music in the background,” Steph explained. “If they don’t want the music, they say and we just turn it off.”
Find the Country Club Hotel at 26 Maryland St, Stanthorpe contact them on (07) 4681 1033.
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