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| The Village Inn Karl Stefanovic & Lisa Wilkinson wear vests to "support" tradesmen |
The Village Inn is a newly renovated pub in trendy Paddington. The Inn has posted a sign with a dress code. It's hardly onerous. Those "hi viz" vests worn by tradies' (tradesmen) are banned. This is similar to just about every venue, restaurant & hotel in the inner city. Some media seem to think this is an insult, and have given the impression that tradies themselves are actually banned. The Sydney Morning Herald even jumped into the fray with claims that tradies had been posting facebook messages on the Inn's profile page threatening revenge if the pub ever needed work done. As though there is some sort of cartel of tradesmen
Paddington used to be a working class suburb where houses cost a few hundred pounds. These days you wouldn't get a property there for under a million dollars. It's been like for about 40 years.
It's amazing that there was still a pub that hadn't been renovated. We don't know how much the Village Inn spent renovating the joint but it would be in the 100s of thousands of dollars. Tradie labour isn't cheap. At $180-300 an hour you can see how the costs would run up pretty fast and why the Inn owners would need to put their prices up. The notion that tradies, having made a small fortune renovating the place, would then complain because the Inn owners need to recoup the costs of their wages is nonsensical.
Meanwhile where does Karl Stefanovic who said "get lost you hipsters" live? Possibly less than ten minutes from the Village Inn in a lavish penthouse. As for Lisa Wilkinson, Whispers often sees her at fashion shows or at the Randwick Races. We've never spotted her yet protesting about the strict dress rules there or anywhere else. But we will ask her why.
