When the Paragon Hotel sold in May this year, rumours were quick to spread around town about the fate of the iconic Mudgee hotel and what it might be changed into.
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The Mudgee Guardian sat down with owner of the Paragon Hotel, Jamie Fitzgerald to address the rumours and talk about what's next for the iconic hotel.
An oft-repeated rumour was that the liquor license was being sold to ALDI and that the Paragon would focus more on accommodation rather than food and beer.
Labelling the rumours 'laughable', Owner and Director of the Paragon Hotel, Jamie Fitzgerald told the Mudgee Guardian that everything people love about the Paragon is here to stay.
"To be totally honest with you, I hadn't heard one rumour. I think the rest of the staff have, but I've got no idea where it's come from. So I can't really explain - you do hear a lot of rumours in a small town - but I've got no idea, can't explain it," he said.
"It's a tradies pub, a good food pub. So that's what it's going to continue to be."
- Paragon Hotel owner, Jamie Fitzgerald
"For them [ALDI] to buy a liquor license from a hotel it's going to cost a lot of money. So, look I've got no idea where these rumours come from, it's actually laughable this one."
Jamie went on to say that instead of making drastic changes, they're putting effort into improving the aspects of the Paragon that people already know, citing that he has a long history with the establishment.
"At the end of the day, I was pretty much brought up in this pub back in the 80s, it was a very foundation hotel to the Mudgee Dragons where I used to run out the back, so I've got very good history and good memories here where the old man used to have barbecues, kids used to run out the back in the laneway so I know it well.
"It's a tradies pub, a good food pub. So that's what it's going to continue to be."
However, this doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for the future. Jamie says there are gaps in the Mudgee market for more accomodation he'd like to look into filling.
"We've got 18 rooms which we're going to slowly progress and do up. Look it's a really good foundation to this hotel as far as the core business of it," he said.
"I won't lie, this hotel's on a massive block of land. Partly I guess with that block of land will come more opportunities for more accomodation. So we're going to look in the future to see what the gaps in the market are in Mudgee.
"I can rightly I think justify that there's a massive gap with accomodation at the moment. It may mean more accomodation down the back on this block of land, pending approval etc, but that's basically the makeup of this hotel."
The interior has seen a new lick of paint with more improvements on the way soon.
"We've got a new menu. It's called the Bushman's table, the history behind that is this used to be called the Bushman's Arms Hotel, that was the first name," he said.
"We're slowly doing the courtyard up, we have new furniture coming in, another pool table.
"We're showing it some love."
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