Maldon is soon to have a new music-bar-pizza cocktail lounge–the Blue Cockatoo. Somewhere to eat, drink, relax, socialise, and go karaoke. Our local fish‘n’chip shop Maldon Takeaway is soon to open a cocktail lounge at the back of house. When you enter this fine establishment, it’s like stepping into another world. What are Melitta (Lee) and Adam (Isaacs) from Maldon Takeaway waiting for to decide when to open? For the liquor licence to come through which, they are reliably informed, is imminent.
“With Maldon Takeaway, I eat really late,” Melitta said. “Adam eats really late–like past 11pm at night. There’s nowhere in Maldon where you can get food past 8pm at night. So that was our main consideration–to have somewhere locals and visitors can relax, enjoy a drink if they want, and actually get something to eat as well. It’s evolved into a cocktail lounge.
“So, when our fish and chip shop closes on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday nights during summer, the Blue Cockatoo will remain open. And you’ll still be able to get pizza and a limited bar-type menu up until we close.”
Melitta and Adam gave the Tarrangower Times a sneak preview of the almost-finished cocktail lounge last week. Both were still busy behind the takeaway counter but took time out to introduce the Blue Cockatoo. “Because we live at the back of the takeaway shop, we would often come to the back section we’re sitting in now when the takeaway shop closed. To wind down and relax, we would do karaoke and jam ourselves. We would literally sing into fly spray cans as our microphones–all to an imaginary audience. One evening, we discussed creating a place where people can eat, drink, relax, sing, and all feel involved,” said Melitta.
On reflection, the gem of the idea came much earlier.
“We did dabble in the garden that we had down the side here, and that was going really well. We had a really lovely space where people loved sitting, and they loved listening to our music when we played it.”
Melitta explained how they always had people asking if they could enjoy a beer to have with their pizza or fish and chips. But a business needs a liquor licence to do that. As a result, they decided to investigate the music-bar-pizza idea properly.
The Blue Cockatoo name is in honour of their three birds. People come from all around Victoria to see them. And to hear them. Of course, cockatoos don’t come in blue, but Melitta explained she and Adam have a blue macaw, “So we thought the Blue Cockatoo had a nice little ring to it… and it honours our three birds.”
Opening soon.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 18 August 2023.
