Guest
Paula Scholes
Episode Number
№2
Paula Scholes, known to generations of Melburnians as Miss Pearls, is a hospitality personality, operator and consummate host whose career became synonymous with the theatrical spirit of Melbourne nightlife.
Paula was one of the founders of Madame Brussels, the eccentric Bourke Street rooftop bar that became a Melbourne institution.
Created with Michael Anderson and the late Vernon Chalker, Madame Brussels was never designed to feel like an ordinary bar. It was part garden party, part theatre and part escape, with tennis whites, Pimm’s, artificial turf and a deliberately mischievous sense of occasion.
At the centre of it was Miss Pearls.
Paula became the venue’s unmistakable public face and hostess, creating an atmosphere where hospitality was not simply about serving drinks. It was about performance, personality, humour and making people feel as though they had stepped into another world.
Madame Brussels operated for around 15 years before the original operators closed it during the impact of Melbourne’s COVID-era shutdowns.
Paula’s contribution to Melbourne hospitality was recognised with a Legend Award at the Time Out Melbourne Bar Awards.
But her story did not end with Madame Brussels.
She later became General Manager of The Kelvin Club, one of Melbourne’s historic private members’ clubs, bringing the same emphasis on intimacy, connection and personal hospitality into a very different environment.
Her story is ultimately about something hospitality often forgets:
People remember how a place made them feel.
In The 8th Voice, Paula explores hospitality, identity, reinvention and the lost art of being a great host. It is a conversation about creating places people never forget, surviving the loss of something you helped build, and discovering who you are when the curtain finally comes down.
