The “Vic’s” new function room to well-serve Orange

“I govern by serving” is the family motto of the Victoria Hotel’s long-term owners, the O’Rourke’s.

The “Vic” has been serving Orange well as one of our best-loved and friendliest local pubs for nearly 100 years.

 With an innovative, newly-redesigned function area, the east Orange icon is now looking at continuing to provide its traditional welcoming greeting to the community for a lot longer.

 The “O’Rourke Room” has been created to allow privacy, access, and adaptability for groups ranging from private parties, work functions, to regular club meetings.

  The Hotel is now also offering a lease-free tenancy for its fully-functioning bistro with a fantastic opportunity available for a single, couple, or family to provide top-rate pub-food for the hotel’s famously-loyal supporters.

 “It’s a self-contained function room that we’ve recently renovated, also in doing that, we’re offering the chance to lease-out the kitchen,” Licencee Craig Wright explained.

 “it would be an ideal arrangement for a single bloke or a couple to open and a great opportunity to cater for larger functions,” Craig said.

 The new lay-out allows for functions both large and small with sliding doors and an adaptable layout providing for events ranging from small meetings to large social gatherings.

 “The way we’ve redesigned it, you can have meals, drinks, and rest rooms all in the same location without having to go the main bar… we’re also introducing a coffee machine so that everything will be self-contained,” he added.

 “This is because Orange is such a food-based city. Though we’re not looking at $50 meals, we’d still like it be be good bistro-style dining and, when we get our barista bar, this area will have everything you need for any event,” Craig said.

 “This new room is ideal for family gatherings, closed meetings, and businesses can hold conferences here, the room can be changed around to almost any style you want with the sliding doors closed for privacy or open for larger events,” he said.

 Established as a traditional travellers’ inn in 1922, the hotel was built on the site of the former “The Coach and Horses”.

 However, licensing issues saw this establishment closed with the old hotel described by a local licensing inspector as: “no ornament to the town with no public inconvenience if closed.”

 As one door closed, however, another one opened.  The then-local paper, the Orange Leader, in 1921 said the new hotel was to comprise a: “one-storey and five bedrooms with a dilapidated and old stables, wood-house, and buggy shed (from the former Coach and Horses Hotel) in the rear.

 In August 1922, the Leader reported: “construction of Victoria Hotel has begun for Sandman Ltd. Design of building by Mr J Bates architect and provides for a palatial structure.”

The Leader listed Frederick Goodhugh as the first licensee

 For more than 62 years — from the mid-1920s to the late 1980s — the hotel was owned and run by the Ryan family until the retirement of publican John Ryan with Terry Bouffler then taking-up the licence.

 The O’Rourke family took-over in the late 1990s and have remained committed to upgrading this iconic local hotel that is soon approaching its 100th anniversary, Craig said.

 “The new hotel started in June 1922 and its had continuous ownership since then. This is the crest for the current owners, the O’Rourke family,” he said, pointing to the family crest with the Latin motto: Serviendo Guberno.

 With the modified stables still standing to this day in the hotel’s back section — the hotel embraces both its history and its future.

 “We ‘re one of Orange’s longest-established hotels, we’ve had a strong support of clientele for a long period of time,” he said proudly. “The thing about Orange, is that there is a lot of history in the town.”

 “But you do have to look to the future; the whole game’s changing and you have to stay one-step ahead,” Craig explained.