On the mark: This 100-year-old watering hole keeps the country pub dream alive

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For somewhere that turned 100 this year, The Denmark Hotel looks great for its age.

The hotel is also, I should stress, a different beast to the one that was built in 1926 for original publican, Jack Clark.

(Earlier iterations of the building were so unremarkable that, according to the government’s heritage council website, “the hotel was not even considered in the first round of heritage place nominations by the Denmark community in 1999.“)

Thankfully, something shifted public opinion. Or should that be, some things.

Motel accommodation, a pergola, the drive-through bottle shop plus the cumulative goodwill generated by all these piecemeal upgrades will do wonders for any pub’s reputation.

Ditto being purchased in late 2023 by go-getting property developers, Belingbak.

While previous owners added to and occasionally subtracted from the space, team Belingbak’s contribution is best described as “tying it all together.”

They’ve spent big on fresh paint, blond timber furnishings and woven things to give the motel rooms a real Kinfolk magazine glow-up.

The drive-through is now Denmark Drops: an independent bottle shop stocked with interesting, predominantly local booze managed by winemaker Andries Mostert of Brave New Wine infamy.

Pleasingly, management have also smoothed out and modernised the hotel’s once-patchy food offering.

Although the public bar has, post ownership change, retained its yesteryear charm – the carpet! Darts! A help-yourself water and cutlery station! A big TV! – the standalone bistro uses concrete flooring, bistro chairs and Slow Living™ set dressing to conjure a more contemporary dining space better suited to date-night meals and lunchtime get-togethers.

Regardless of the time of day or where you’re sitting, you’re still ordering from the same menu that, like the hotel itself, artfully blends the old and new.

The counter meal set is well represented by a sprawling breaded chicken breast parmy (ham; sugo; lots of cheese; chunky chips underneath because I suspect asking cheery staff to carry plates big enough to accommodate chips on the side would be an OHS liability) and an XL plate of fish and chips starring two pleasingly crisp torpedoes of beer-battered south coast shark, a great tartare sauce plus more of the good stuff. Your burger options include beef, chicken and eggplant supplemented by a steak sandwich.

While many of the dishes on the current menu are the same ones that opening head chef Ali Osborne – the founder of Denmark’s legendary Mrs Jones cafe and, as of late 2025, the hotel’s general manager – started with, recently appointed executive chef Scott Brannigan has brought some fun new things to the party too.

As regulars at Bread in Common and Coogee Common will attest, Brannigan has a gift for making vegetables dazzle.

But if you didn’t know, a pert salad unifying buckwheat, quinoa, spiced pumpkin seeds and broccolini should bring you up to speed, as will a limey, som tum-adjacent jumble of green papaya and carrot. (If you wanted a not-so-virtuous vegetarian meal, it’s all about that gutsy pan-fried ricotta gnocchi in a deep mushroom ragout.)

In his new role – a FIFO-like gig in which Brannigan flies to Denmark to work alongside head chef and former apprentice Ned Osbourne – he also gets to cook delicious, meaty things that might not have worked at his previous workplaces.

Fried chicken wings are doused in dark barbecue goodness; a zippy earworm of a sauce sweet with sugar, vinegar and spice. Pork shoulder and belly are the stars of a mild, gingery Sri Lankan curry.

There’s also an opportunity for our man to revisit some different classics, too.

Corn and potato croquettes with chilli jam are a fun throwback to the tapas era while prawn cocktail and a joyous sundae – marshmallows, candied popcorn, chocolate bits and all – see the Tardis travel (successfully) further back in time.

While all this speaks to the Belingbak crew’s sensitive and successful relaunch of the Denmark Hotel – not since Cogsworth, Lumiere and co gussied up the grand ballroom for Belle and the Beast’s big date has there been a makeover this noteworthy – I’d also like to mention that independent pubs in WA, to me, feel like an at-risk species that’s slowly moving towards endangered status.

Pubs in regional towns close their doors with little fanfare or tribute. Giant national conglomerates quietly buy up venues and homogenise them.

But despite the lay of the land, the Denmark Hotel is proof that there still is room for personable, singular establishments that still have a sense of place.

To be fair, team Belingbak are far from a mom-and-pop operation – did you hear that they’ve just entered the final leg of another cool regional hotel project? – but being well-resourced is one thing.

Having the nous to use these resources well and to bring aboard good local people for a project is another.

But if this first year and a bit of the Denmark Hotel’s newest chapter is anything to go by, the road ahead is looking promising. Not just for locals and visitors to Denmark, but pub-goers as a whole.

If a 100-year-old pub can grow and evolve, surely others can too.

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