Shadows Bar Reopens for 2020
Shadows Bar has reopened in its new street level location at 8 Alfred Street. Speaking to Craccum, bar manager Matt Marquet stresses that despite the changes, Shadz will still be offering all the things students have grown to love about the bar. $8 jugs and $2 toasties will stay, however the bar will now also be home to the cheapest coffee on campus as well as lunch and dinner options.
“I’ve always wanted to do coffee but where we used to be we were out of the way, it was something that we couldn’t do,” says Marquet. “And with the coffee, it changes our market of what we can offer in terms of the alcohol side of things, we can be a little bit more creative and start adding things like espresso martinis. We can give students hopefully a different experience to what they’ve had with that same feeling that they are at home.”
Despite pushing back the date of reopening, Marquet is certain that this week will go off with a bang. He references legal and compliance issues as the cause of delay. “We did get there in the end, but it has delayed us in terms of setting up our furniture,” Marquet says. “We made a decision so we would have a comfortable amount of time so that we could make everything perfect. We don’t want people to come and be underwhelmed about what we’ve done.”
The new space is freshly renovated with features like a private function room, an outdoor space and a lowered wheelchair accessible bar. To celebrate their reopening, Shadows will be continuing the tradition of giving away Jagermeister t-shirts for those who buy four Jager drinks. Jupiter Project will be playing in the bar on Monday night and O-Week events organised by the AUSA will continue throughout the week. For students looking to get their coffee fix, free coffee giveaways will be advertised at select times throughout this week on 95bFM.
Marquet hopes that students will enjoy a fresh, modernized Shadows bar. “For 36 years we were in the same place, on the third floor of a student union building and now we’re on the bottom with more of a basement feel,” Marquet says. “We’ve got foot traffic, no one has to walk up the stairs which I think people will be happy with…We’ve tried to look at the modern student and see what they like”.