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I never met Donlevy Fitzpatrick. But I certainly have spent more than enough time in The Dogs Bar at the end of my street and The Melbourne Wine Room in the George in the other direction. These were his creation.
George Biron notes his peaceful death at 11pm on Thursday 21 February.
Brian Kearney, the director of Liquor Licensing in 2003, wrote to The Age:
“The benefit that we all enjoy as a consequence of the diversity of licensed businesses in Victoria, including the bar scene, is very much a consequence of Don’s unrelenting challenging of the status quo of licensing law … All the industry now owes a great debt to him.”
In a feature on his recovery from a brain tumour inThe Age in 2003 journalist Peter Wilmoth also wrote:
“He was the pioneer and symbol of St Kilda’s rebirth. He was there before every second joint was a cafe, before house prices rocketed, before the rich moved in. He was the antithesis of the vulgar developer, slightly reserved, softly spoken. “He was never really the front man,” says his friend John van Haandel, the owner with his brother Frank of St Kilda’s Prince of Wales complex and The Stokehouse. “He was more comfortable sitting down talking about ideas…“With its snack-heavy menu, The Dog’s Bar attracted paint-spattered artists, Versace-suited real estate agents and everyone in between. Deals were done, love affairs started. But despite its success, Don was frustrated by the council’s refusal to allow him to open up the building’s rooftop garden. “I love gardens,” he says now. “In Melbourne, everything was inside. This place was all garden, vines growing, pizza ovens. But they wouldn’t let me use it. Because I couldn’t make that building what it was meant to be, I saw the opportunity to do The George and put my frustration to bed.”
Perhaps plans to finally open the Dogs Bar’s rooftop this year will serve as a fitting tribute to him as will raising a glass of wine to the pioneer.
“So what’s the secret of the Dogs Bar? Perhaps its position, in a cut off part of Acland Street, away from the bustling shopping strip; perhaps its quirky style, the wrought iron on the gates and doors which designer and regular patron Mark Douglas put in eleven years ago; the good quality and good value wines, chef Sabrina Santucci’s array of food on the bar?For Don, the secret lies in the locals themselves, ‘The Dogs Bar has been one of those incredible businesses that has worked on auto pilot, thanks very much to all the locals and everybody else, and the staff.’”
He created my St Kilda, the one I first moved to in 1996. And back to from Sydney in 2000. Plans are afoot to open the rooftop terrace above The Dogs Bar. It would be a fitting tribute.
Everything Port Phillip Council plans with the St Kilda Triangle is the antithesis of everything Fitzpatrick achieved.
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Ed, what a great compilation of tributes. What a legacy we have been left with, and wonderful that people such as yourself and the writers of your extracts acknowledge this.