The venue formerly known as Beach Bar at the Novotel Northbeach has well and truly shaken off its dark past, officially reopening on Thursday as the bright, nautical Pepe's on the Beach.
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Whitewashed walls and splashes of aqua mean there is no trace of the Novotel nightclub which shunned its views, with a new sweeping front deck and floor-to-ceiling windows allowing patrons to take in the beach.
Novotel general manager Steven Savic said he hoped the dramatic revamp would bring more life to the under-used bar.
"It was just such an under-utilised space, it was dark and drab and had more of a nightclub feel that just didn't use its location to its best potential," he said.
"It was called Beach Bar, but you had these big horrible tinted glass windows and you couldn't hear the beach or smell the salt."
He said it was a "sheer fluke" that the new bar had opened just a week after four men received a combined sentence of more than 100 years for the execution-style murder at neighbouring Splashes nightclub.
"One chapter shuts and another one opens - but ... this was always intended to be open for the summer," he said.
Mr Savic said almost everything about the 1980s style bar had changed, including the decor, menu, service and atmosphere.
"We took some design cues from the Mediterranean and South America, with a little bit of [Sydney's] eastern suburbs thrown in."