Purchasing the bar, cafe and nightclub is RMS Group ( Hellcat Maggie , Rush Bar). The group took control of the venue last week, reopening the Constance Street bar on Wednesday. This week, the cafe became operational. Popular club room, White Lightning Tiki Bar, opens under RMS ownership for the first time tonight.

It follows a nine month negotiation period to take over the venue from liquidators. Di Santo says the complexity of splitting off what previously operated as a mini precinct into its component parts, ready for sale, slowed down the process.

“We got it back into a really good working condition. It feels warm and friendly when you walk in now.”

“Settlement took place last week,” says RMS co-owner Donna Di Santo. “We closed on the Monday and Tuesday and we did a really intensive clean and got rid of all the clutter that tends to happen when things have been run under receivership.

“There was a lot of negotiation involved,” she says. “There was the business but also all the real estate connected to the business. So we had to look at every aspect of how they were going to separate it.

“The real estate is owned by two separate investors … [so] there was a lot of negotiations between different landlords about how things were going to be done. Even post-mix systems and air-conditioning systems, that all had to be negotiated. The air-conditioning used to be shared across the precinct. We had to take that into consideration and so did the liquidators.”

Alfred & Constance’s initial closure late last year was a domino that set in motion the unravelling of former owner Damian Griffiths’s Australian business empire. It would see the subsequent high-profile closure of Doughnut Time, Chester Street Bakery and Mister Fitz, and the sale of popular steak restaurant Les Bubbles to Griffiths’s former lieutenant Dan Strachotta.

Alfred & Constance was resuscitated under receiver control in mid-January, but it was a shadow of its former freewheeling self. Di Santo says that while its recent troubles initially gave RMS pause over the purchase, research indicated that it was “ultimately a no-brainer”.

“A&C is an institution and has such a loyal following,” Di Santo says. “Every time we talk to someone about A&C, they have such fond memories of it. It’s a real community space. It doesn’t matter whether you’re from the north, south, east or west, everyone’s been here. Everyone knows it. It’s got a great reputation.

“The demand from the previous clientele is very much alive … we see so much potential, especially with the amount of development moving into the area. You have the corporate crowd and King Street. There’s a lot of foot traffic.”

RMS is basing its group operations out of Alfred & Constance for the foreseeable future so Di Santo and her team can get input on the future of the venue.

“Come and meet us. Come and say hi,” she says. “We’ve introduced mates' rates, a $15 burger and beer special. We just want to get people back in the door. We want people to know we’re here.

“We have grand, grand plans for A&C. The first is to clean it up and reopen for Sunday sessions … our goal is to get to know A&C intimately over the next six months. Then we can hopefully renovate and relaunch in the second half of 2019.”