Odd Culture Group’s first Melbourne venue will open its doors in Fitzroy in May. And according to long-term Melburnian Gerry Nass it will fit right in with the bohemian aesthetic Brunswick Street is known for.

Nass is set to join Odd Culture Group as general manager of the new venture after stints managing Melbourne venues such as The Robbie Burns Hotel in Collingwood, the Half Moon Hotel, Middle Park Hotel and Portsea Hotel.

“Brunswick Street has a real buzz about it. Fitzroy is arty, and edgy. It’s dotted with Victorian architecture and has a lot of street art. Odd Culture will fit right in here,” says Nass.

The hybrid bar and bottle shop will take over the beautiful heritage-listed building that once housed Fitzroy’s Post Office. Nass says the reimagined space will pay homage to the 1883 bones of the original building by revealing its oregon rafters and exposed brickwork and introducing accents of timber and brass.

Odd Culture Group CEO James Thorpe says the move to Melbourne felt like a natural progression for the group which, in addition to Odd Culture Newtown, has five other venues across Sydney including The Old Fitzroy Hotel, The Duke of Enmore and The Oxford Tavern.

If you were to distil the essence of Odd Culture Group, Thorpe says you’d be left with something that tasted a bit like a sour beer.

“Odd Culture Group is like a gueuze lambic, a Belgian beer. It drinks more like a fine cider than a beer, is very complex and developed slowly and carefully over a few years,” says Thorpe.

“The Newtown store in Sydney is our flagship venue and we consider Newtown and Fitzroy to be sister suburbs in different states. The name of the group was supposed to reference yeast cultures. We wanted to explore the connection between craft beer and natural wine along with a theme of fermentation. But the name is also a reference to the fact we are a very inclusive brand, which means we are a bit diverse. We are Odd Culture because we are a bit weird,” he says.

Thorpe says while there are a lot of great bars and restaurants in Brunswick Street, there’s nothing like Odd Culture.

“I love parking myself at a bar with a schooner of lager and a bar snack to while away the afternoon. That experience sums up what kind of place Odd Culture Fitzroy will be.”

The venue’s dedication to all things fermented will extend to the menu featuring some of Odd Culture’s hero dishes.

“I would recommend first-timers order the signature chicken liver pâté with potato chips drizzled in fish sauce miso caramel and the sour negroni made using a house-made vermouth that is blended from kriek [a sweet Belgium cherry beer] and refermented in oak barrels with fresh cherries,” he says.

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