Hidden in the shadows of Fitzmaurice Street, Wagga's newest, speakeasy-style bar has opened its doors.
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Where popular Chinese restaurant Lum Inn used to be is now a hidden gem like nothing else found in Wagga, which officially opened to the public as Bar Olivette on Saturday.
Owner Nick King said he and his wife began speaking about their plans to open a speakeasy-style bar almost two years ago.
"My wife was talking about how the space was vacant and what her vision was for a bar and given we had already had a plan in place for a venue we just pivoted it to this venue," Mr King said.
"It just took longer than we thought."
Mr King said they wanted somewhere hidden and concealed underground, so the venue was perfect for them and their vision.
"We had wanted a prohibition-style venue to put a speakeasy for a while but it took for this venue to become available for us to be able to do it - it needs to be concealed underground or have something quirky about it to really harness the roaring 20s of the USA," he said.
Mr King said the bar is something different for Wagga that offers people something no other venue can.
"For Wagga it's unique, it's very different and we put a lot of focus into cocktails and whiskey and matching that with tapas and small-style food," he said.
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"It's very different to anything else in town. People can come and sit down and speak among one another."
Prior to the bar opening, Mr King said he and his wife had to travel to larger cities to find venues similar to Bar Olivette.
"We used to travel to Melbourne all of the time to go to venues like this," he said.
"There was nowhere in town offering it and we thought there was a real gap in the market.
"Particularly when floating the idea to friends of ours, they gave us examples of [how] they would go out for date nights, or they'd go to movies and out for dinner and they would want to have a few drinks afterwards, but then they would have nowhere to go that wasn't really full-on so then they would just go home."
The community has already embraced the bar, with people coming to get a first look at the venue in action on Saturday.
"We had a soft-launch on Friday with businesses, family and friends and then the official opening was on Saturday," Mr King said.
"It's definitely a relief to see it come to fruition, relief that it occurred and then relief that the locals responded well."
Trading hours can be found on the Bar Olivette website at barolivette.com.au
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