The vendors at Zu Bar have been there a while. Nineteen years and have seen it all. Venues coming and going either side of them and they just did what they do throughout all that time. Just opened the doors on a Saturday night and traded until the sun came up. No real marketing, just word of mouth amongst those that frequented the strip of venues on Maroondah Highway in Ringwood.
Heading inside you hand your coat over to the front desk and then it is in to one long room. Past the pool table is the bar on the right which is packed with easy to serve drinks that fly off the shelves each weekend. The DJ is raised above the dance floor at the end of the venue with the toilets right at the back. Behind the DJ is a store room and cool room that is constantly needed to keep the bar well stocked. There is varied seating throughout but mainly a lot of space to dance the night away. It must be said the place is not pretty, not too nice but that is just how it is meant to be.
What Zu Bar does have is a very rare Late Night On Premises licence until 7am with a capacity of 100. Rent is $1400 a week including GST. There are eleven years left on the lease made up of 2+3+3+3 with no suppliers or equipment contracts in place.
Zu Bar is only open one night a week at the moment with the capacity and request from patrons to open more often. As you become a night owl running the place, the vendors have limited the nights because of family requirements and this is also the reason for sale. Zu Bar suits a couple of hospitality professionals that understand the late night scene as there is so much scope to do much more with the venue. Even on just one night a week the full set of books shows that the place generates excellent income. The vendors have had great fun with the venue and are now looking for offers in the region of $225,000 (Price Reduction).
