Dulcie’s sits under a jacaranda tree planted by the Goodsill family. Photos: Supplied.
When Kirsty Pongratz first purchased the 90-year-old building in Merimbula in which her restaurant and bar Dulcie’s Cottage now resides, her original vision of building an industrial-styled bar quickly changed when she found out about Arthur and Dulcie Goodsill.
A decade on from that purchase, as the building turns 100 and Dulcie’s turns 10, Kirsty is keeping their name and story alive in the town she grew up in.
The building in question isn’t grand, or imposing, and it isn’t architecturally significant. What it is, though, is the family home built by Arthur and Dulcie exactly 100 years ago. It’s the home in which they raised eight kids and the home that holds the memories of a whole generation of early residents of Merimbula.
The small weatherboard cottage painted in white, featuring grey-blue trims, is tucked away among the commercial buildings of Alice and Main streets. Had it not been for Kirsty’s purchase, it may have suffered a similar fate to the other cottages in the street, which Kirsty explains were previously bought up by the RSL club and turned into a carpark. An event Kirsty calls disappointing.
When Kirsty took on the building, it was owned by a surveying business and was being used as offices. Despite this, the Goodsills’ residence was still intact and in the original layout that at one point housed the 10 members of the family.
In a stroke of luck, Kirsty discovered Dulcie and Arthur’s youngest child was still alive, and it was after meeting her that a whole new aesthetic was born for the bar.
“We visited her, her name is Fay, and she was really generous with the story of her family. And that’s how we came to know about Dulcie and their life there,” Kirsty tells Region.
Fay’s verbal accounts of life in the cottage were backed by pictures that were taken by Arthur, who was an avid photographer, and are now on display in the bar.
Historical pictures cover the walls at Dulcie’s Cottage.
Kirsty describes the aesthetic she created as being of the era. It incorporates vintage elements for an old and comfortable feel and she has cleverly worked the Goodsill story into the fabric of the business. Even the menus bring you along on the journey, stating: “While Arthur worked hard as a curer at the bacon factory, Dulcie cooked, cleaned, washed and ironed for everyone. She was the boss. Welcome to her house.”
It’s this care and attention to the family history that keeps Fay and her family coming back to Dulcie’s, their initial trepidation over the sale turning into joy when the building was set to be restored.
“Fay has kids and family that live in the area, and they all come to Dulcie’s,” Kirsty says. ”They’ve had family events, celebrations of life and birthdays.”
In addition to the home itself, the land on which it sits bears the mark of the family that resided here, with a 70-year-old jacaranda tree standing tall in the front yard, the sapling having been brought from Sydney in a tea tin by Dulcie and Arthur’s eldest son, Max.
While sharing the Goodsill history has been a wonderful side effect of building her business, Kirsty has now written herself into this story. It’s a story that started with a mission of its own.
Kirsty originally thought Dulcie’s Cottage would be all about the drinks.
Born and bred in Merimbula, Kirsty left the town for higher education and work in Sydney. It was a trip back to Merimbula for a high school reunion where the idea for Dulcie’s was seeded.
“We went to go for a drink and there was nowhere to go,” she says. ”Nothing had happened in the town since I left. There was only the RSL, the bowlo and the pub, which was not great at the time.”
This experience stuck with Kirsty, who saw an opportunity to play a role in creating a healthier drinking culture for young people in the region.
“Because there was nothing here, we’d grown up drinking in parks and people’s houses; the culture then was to drink to get drunk. With Dulcie’s, we wanted a beautiful space for people to enjoy and be together, just like any bar in the city.”
The mission has come full circle in the 10 years that Kirsty has been building the business. She is so happy when she sees 18-year-olds coming in for their first drink with their families and is proud that they chose Dulcie’s for that experience.
Dulcie’s has evolved greatly in the past decade; Kirsty feels she was winging it for a long time and there were aspects of the business that she and her team hadn’t planned for that really took off.
“We didn’t even think that the food would be much of a thing; it was going to be about the drinks. But now the tourists that come to town every year are – first stop, dump the camping gear; second stop, Dulcie burger.”
The burgers at Dulcie’s are a big hit with locals and tourists.
Since taking that leap and renovating and opening Dulcie’s, Kirsty feels there has been a real shift in Merimbula.
“There are at least five places that have opened in that time. There’s an injection of people who saw I did it, I came from here, I moved back, and I opened something.”
Kirsty says the hospitality path she took works for those wanting to return to the region and raise their families there.
“I don’t want to say there’s a scene here; that’s excessive, but there’s stuff going on here,” she jokes.
In a desire to cater for locals as well as the tourist trade, Dulcie’s is open seven nights a week and for lunch on the weekend year-round, with an extension to the lunch hours in the shoulder and peak seasons.
You can learn more about Dulcie’s Cottage on its Facebook page or website.
