Nothing but the Pub

When Ben Reusch arrived in Meningie in 2015 on his fourth hotel resuscitation mission the town’s pub was on life support. “This was my biggest challenge. There were pigeons living on the verandah and in some of the upstairs rooms, the bottle shop wasn't working because the roller shutter door was jammed and there were nine full-to-the-brim 30 cubic metre skip bins out the back including one with 28 broken televisions.” He attacked on two levels: Upstairs he replaced all the broken windows, turfed out the pigeons upstairs and made the eight guest rooms liveable. They are now all air-conditioned, with fully screened windows and the common room has a fridge, microwave, toaster and makings for your morning brew. Downstairs he fixed the roller door, replaced the beer pipes and the carpet, fixed the plumbing throughout and gave it all a fresh coat of paint. There’re now eight beers on tap and the re-furbed dining room serves dinner every night and lunch Wed to Sun. A ...