The Juke Beer Garden

Let’s face it, if you’re heading to a beer garden this summer, you want assurance that you’ll be sipping on some great quality beer. Joel Taylor, co-owner of the Grovedale Hotel, can assure just that as the Juke is one of very few venues in Victoria taking on the duo tank initiative of Carlton Draught, which gives you the freshest beer possible.
The duo tank system takes away the need to pasteurise the beer for preservation – like in beers on tap – instead, every glass poured from the tank will be fresh from the breweries – basically beer as it should be.
“They take it straight from the brewery, put it in a tanker, drive it down the highway and fill our tanks up. The same day it’s brewed, we’re serving it,” he says.
Though if you’re not a CD fan, Joel has opened up the craft beers on tap, with ciders and even more beer available in the fridge as well, so there’s plenty to choose from regardless of your preference.
Though the real charm lies in the decor of the beer garden, which Joel designed and sourced himself. “I just kept buying stuff and we got to a point where the interior designer was like, ‘You have to stop buying stuff, we’ve got enough stuff’. Then we sort of just put it all in here and it all worked,” Joel says.
Red and yellow oil tin seats are scattered across the venue as well as a quirky collection of antique chairs, providing pops of colours and ample seating. A large wooden planter box sprouts beautiful greenery from the centre of the space with a large communal table placed beside it – made from wood from the Point Lonsdale pier and supplied by Williams & Campion in North Geelong. If sitting in a group isn’t your thing, intimate seating lines the far wall next to a large wall garden, similar to something you would have seen in The Block. The fully retractable roof means on lovely summer days The Juke is flooded with natural sunlight, and on the colder, windy summer days – or when the southerly change rolls through – the roof can be closed over, meaning it’s your spot for all conditions.
Completing The Juke Garden bar experience is live music played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights as well as a extensive bar menu, think sliders, ribs and fried chicken burgers.
Another drawcard is the huge art mural by street artist Mike Makatron. Featuring a large cyclindrical piece and a large wooden ship, the artwork is a point of difference in beer gardens around the region and makes it worthy of a spot in a laneway on Melbourne.
The Juke is at The Grovedale Hotel, 236 Torquay Rd, Grovedale VIC 3216
Ph: 5243 2814
www.grovedalehotel.com.au