Long-running Collingwood pub and live music venue the Tote Hotel has been placed up for sale, with its owners citing burnout after managing the venue throughout the pandemic.
In a statement shared to social media yesterday (1st March), co-owners Jon Perring and Sam Crupi said they had “no petrol left in the tank” to continue operating the venue after the difficult conditions of the last few years.
“We Signed Up to Save the Tote Once, Not Expecting to Have to Do It Twice”
“We signed up to save the Tote once, not expecting to have to do it twice,” Perring and Crupi said. “Especially after we lost our business partner to cancer just before the COVID lockdowns started. It’s time for someone else to take it on with renewed enthusiasm and vision now COVID is behind us. We feel the timing [is] right.”
The Tote will remain open in its current state and continue to hold gigs until there is new ownership, which is expected to be around June. Gig bookings will be accepted until that time – but any after that will “have to be made with the consent of the future owners.”
“The Tote needs to broaden its business model to remain relevant in the future. We will be looking favourably at proposals that ensure a live music component including buyers who wish to pursue a mixed development of the property centred around the Hotel,” Perring and Crupi said in their statement.
The pub was built in 1870 and renamed the Tote in 1981 when it began hosting local punk, grunge and metal gigs. Legendary Australian bands who have performed at the Tote since the early 80s include The Drones, Cosmic Psychos, Magic Dirt and The Birthday Party, while international acts such as The White Stripes, Mudhoney, the Lemonheads and Dead Moon have also performed there.
In January 2010, it was announced that the Tote would close imminently, after a change to liquor licensing laws meant the pub was designated a “high risk” venue. Then-business owner Bruce Milne said conditions of their “high risk” status – such as CCTV installation and increased security – had made operating the Tote untenable.
Thousands of people came together at a rally to save the venue shortly after, and a petition circulated calling for its “high risk” status to be evaluated. Perring, Crupi and the late Andy Portokallis later put their hands up to save the venue, and it reopened six months later.
Perring and Crupi’s stewardship of the Tote has not always been smooth sailing. In 2021, staff at the Tote reported that they had not been paid superannuation. The pub self-reported to the ATO to put a superannuation repayment plan in place, and Perring announced the Tote’s super arrears had been paid out in full later that year.
The Tote was one of many establishments in Melbourne hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on hospitality venues and live music venues. It was one of more than 100 venues that received financial assistance from the state government as part of its “lifeline” recovery package in 2020.
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