Melbourne's beating Sydney yet again, this time getting its own Mana Bar well before we New South Welshmen do...
Director of the Brisbane-located world’s first gaming bar explained why the Melbourne Mana Bar expansion - announced for mid December - took precedent over that of the Sydney expansion.
"Well, ideally we wanted to open up in Sydney and Melbourne ASAP, however the stars aligned up with Melbourne first - we found the right venue, had the right support, and ultimately Melbourne already has a very strong 'small bar culture' that will hopefully work in our favour," said Guy "Yug" Blomberg one of four co-owners of the Mana Bar.
Details of the Melbourne Mana Bar opening of mid-December were announced on the Facebook fanpage yesterday, along with the first photos of the renovation. It was hinted on the fanpage that they aim to open 19 October. The first Mana Bar, located in Brisbane's nightclub hot spot suburb of Fortitude Valley, was opened in April 2010.
"Myself and Shay will be bouncing back and forth between the Melbourne and Brisbane venues while they operate," said Blomberg of head bartender and cocktail creator, Shay. "Yahtzee will fly down once a month to do his gaming trivia."
The four co-owners kept the location of the Melbourne expansion close to their chests until yesterday’s revelation that the bar will be located in the well known suburb of Fitzroy. The Sydney location - yet to be announced - will open in the new year.
The Melbourne Mana Bar will be "slightly bigger" than that of the Brisbane location and with more rooms for those games that require the sound to be cranked and more movement involved.
"We have a room that we can use not only for Guitar Hero, but also potentially for Kinect games as well," said Blomberg.
Mana Bar started to take on applications for head bartender, security guard, and bar back positions at the new site yesterday, with manager applications "to be handled internally". Blomberg revealed in a previous interview that successful applicants require RSA, bar experience and deep knowledge of hardware and software of the PS3, Wii and Xbox consoles.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012