Marrickville brewery nails the 1980s in Hawkie-inspired new venue

Except it's the late former prime minister Bob Hawke, and this is the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre, so what else should greet clientele as they enter this inspired new Marrickville venue.

Hawke's Brewing Company, co-founded with Hawke five years ago, describes the centre inside its newly built brewery as a love letter to Australiana - most specifically, 1980s Australiana, to which it is a meticulous and cheeky paean.

On the ground floor of the cavernous, 2100-square-metre space is the Lucky Prawn Chinese restaurant, where you can order honey king prawn, sweet and sour pork, prawn toast and other Chinese-Australian culinary classics off a leaflet-style menu that Is pure vintage, right down to the instructions on how to use chopsticks.

You can dine seated on bar stools, banquettes or around tables with Lazy Susans at their centre.

The food is served from a delightfullly retro-fronted kitchen, while the bar is fronted by 10 taps of Hawke's core range beers, brewed right on the premises.

The 1980s was the decade of the power lunch, but the vibe on the Leisure Centre's fourth day of operation last week is decidedly glam free. There's not a perm or shoulder pad in sight. Hoodies, caps, work boots and beards rule this day.

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And leisuretime, shirtless Hawkie is in your face. He's on the beer coasters and the drinks menu. In the Pool Room, home to a carefully curated and comprehensive showcase of Bob Hawke and other '80s memorabilia, he's sunbaking on a banana lounge - "one of his many natural habitats", says his daughter Sue Pieters-Hawke in the display notes.

Upstairs on the mezzanine is the Sanctuary Cove bar, where portraits of '80s tycoons Christopher Skase and Alan Bond - before they were disgraced - loom over a vintage tableau of rattan chairs, pastel upholstery and palm fronds. Downstairs again, cricket commentary by Richie Benaud and Tony Greig plays on a loop in the loos.

Says Hawke's Brewing Company co-founder, David Gibson: "When we spoke about a vision for the venue, we agreed immediately that the experience should trigger that nostalgic-soaked love that we can all have for our home country."

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