$50K – IS DUFFY TIPSY?
A Glitter Strip bar boss admits he might have had “too many Balters” when agreeing to launch his new spot with $50,000 promotion
THE owner of a new back-alley bar trying to bring Melbourne cool to the Surfers Paradise nightclub precinct is offering a $50,000 venue voucher to anyone who can open its safe.
The Tipsy Pig bar’s millionaire owner Craig Duffy has converted a giant brown metal safe he found in the Orchid Avenue site’s basement into a coffee table at his new joint.
He has no idea what its combination is or what is inside – and says if anyone cracks the code they can keep the contents as well.
“We actually don’t know the combination so if people think it’s a gimmick, they’re wrong,” he says.
“I feel a bit embarrassed about it but it is what it is. It has been floating around for 10 years. Someone wanted $800 to crack it open and I was going to throw it out but it’s so heavy.
“My marketing manager Karavini Junior came up with the competition as a joke but I thought it was a great idea – but maybe we had had too many Balters.”
Duffy, who owns Hollywood Showgirls strip club above Tipsy Pig, can’t back out now however, having advertised the $50,000 voucher offer to crack the code on Tipsy Pig launch material and social media.
The $50,000 voucher would help pay for pricier drinks on the menu including American beer Sierra Nevada which is $12 a bottle and an Armand De Brignac gold magnum of champagne going for $1500.
Duffy says he bought Sierra Nevada because “it was the most expensive beer I could find” but the bar price point overall is cheaper than most night spots. Schooners out of the bar’s Balter and Stone and Wood taps go for $8 a pop.
Tipsy Pig opens Thursdays to Sundays from 6pm with Duffy’s son Kalvin, 18, as assistant manager.
The 100-patron venue was launched last night with a free gig by The James Street Preachers.
I thought ‘Great idea’ but maybe we’d had too many Balters