Staff from Highways with the Best Overall Venue in Victoria Award at the Tabaret Awards for Excellence.HIGHWAYS Tabaret has taken out the top gong for Victoria’s best Tabaret venue.
Staff from the Melbourne Racing Club venue at Sandown Racecourse recently attended the Tabaret Awards of Excellence, and for the first time in the venue’s history, won two accolades.
Judges awarded Highways the Best Overall Venue in Victoria, as well as the Best Club Venue in Victoria.
Highways is on the corner of the Princes Highway and Corrigan Road, Noble Park.
The venue won the awards against tough competition – mostly newly renovated venues also performing at a high level in terms of revenue and customer service.
Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) general manager commercial operations Simon Gardner said the award for Best Overall Venue in Victoria was of special significance as it had previously been dominated by the hotel sector of the industry.
“To take out the number one award in the state against such strong competition is testament to the design excellence of the venue, the venue management team and staff who have worked tirelessly to achieve the results to date,” he said.
Mr Gardner said Highways Tabaret operations manager Peter Crowe had worked on recruiting key management staff who in turn added many new employees who were inducted and trained through the human resources arm of the MRC.
The new Highways Tabaret includes a bistro with a seating capacity for 250 guests, a function room with modern audio visual facilities catering for 120 guests, Ahern’s Irish Bar to attract a new demographic, a cafe for a cup of coffee, along with a benchmark TAB and state-of-the-art gaming room.
Mr Gardner said the impact was immediate with unprecedented growth in all departments that had been identified as industry-leading in an entertainment venue.
He said the success story started when the MRC showed great foresight to open the venue in 1997.
In 2004, the MRC committee approved the venue’s renovation.
Senior projects manager Brian Discombe contracted the services of hospitality design group TM Design to look into the wants and needs of the south-eastern community to produce a complete entertainment package.
The committee approved $4.5 million in capital works and the appointment of hospitality builder Cooper Morrison to head the works.
The rebuilding was completed for the opening of an industry benchmark venue the week after last year’s Caulfield Cup Carnival.
Melbourne Racing Club chief executive Warran Brown said winning Tabcorp’s major award was recognition that Highways Tabaret had been successfully re-established for the needs and expectations of the modern market.
“The club is delighted with the spiralling success of Highways, and now we are unveiling our state-of-the-art massive extensions and renovations at the Caulfield Glasshouse Tabaret,” he said.
