East End Cellars Norwood Green, and other small bars: a new way to eat and drink in the suburbs

A new type of bottle shop at Norwood and a new bar in Unley will breathe new life in Adelaide’s bar scene beyond the boundaries of the CBD.

Adelaide’s first suburban bottle shop to serve food and drinks on site is set to open in Norwood, sparking a new way for people to eat and drink outside of the CBD.

East End Cellars Norwood Green, at 88 Magill Rd, is the suburban offshoot of proprietor Michael Andrewartha’s successful East End Cellars bottle shop, tasting room and restaurant in Adelaide’s Vardon Ave.

Slated to open by April, the 180 sqm space will house a small kitchen serving tapas-style small plates, a bar for tastings and bottle shop.

Currently, small bars and restaurants are not allowed to sell takeaway liquor – a rule that was temporarily relaxed during the Covid-19 pandemic – while traditional bottle shops are unable to serve meals.

Mr Andrewartha’s business model has been made possible with a hotel licence, something he says is not easy to obtain.

“We have a good track record with liquor licencing and SAPOL,” Mr Andrewartha said. “We don’t want pokies, we don’t want a drive-through bottle shop, we don’t want 2am closes; we want midnight closes.

“I have absolutely no doubt that it’s going to work really well.”

East End Cellars in Adelaide’s Vardon Ave. Picture Morgan Sette

East End Cellars Norwood Green will be the latest of a string of small bar venues to open across Adelaide’s suburbs, partly thanks to relaxed liquor licencing laws and changes in consumer habits brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While there has been no commitment to extend Adelaide’s small venue liquor licence – which allows city small bars to sell alcohol without food – changes that came into effect in 2018 allow operators with a restaurant licence to serve alcohol without food, as long as food is available for purchase on site. That has led to a wave of bar-led restaurants, whereby people can go for a drink and optional casual bite without having to commit to a full lunch or dinner.

It’s the way of the future, according to Adelaide restaurateur Sam Worrall Thompson, who is behind the popular Bar Lune in Beaulah Park among other hospitality ventures. On Wednesday, he opens the doors to his 52-seat Unley bar, Dolly, which he describes as part bar, part food, part disco.

Sam Worrall-Thompson at the soon-to-open, Dolly. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“We’re trying to pull three elements from three different styles of hospitality – we’ll have a serious food offering but we want people to come for an after-work drink, but then we’re trying to create this disco vibe where … if people want to stand up and dance, we’re not setting any rules,” Mr Worrall-Thompson said.

“I think Adelaide is not big enough to focus on one or two demographics. So many people do fine dining really well, but the atmosphere is like going to a funeral, or they do the bar really well but they don’t have any trade outside of Friday and Saturday nights, or they do a restaurant but they’re only busy 12pm-2pm and 5pm-9pm. This (Dolly) creates that all – day turnover which in the times that we’re in, you kind of need.

A look inside Dolly, in Unley. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

A look inside Dolly, Unley. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“I think you’ll see a huge resurgence of these style of venues in the next few years, in the suburbs. There are so many untapped areas … There’s nothing really out west unless you go to Henley; there’s nothing Brighton way, and the Hills is desperate for something.”

Mr Worrall-Thompson’s Bar Lune set the bar, for bar dining, the venue making South Australia’s delicious. 100 list of best restaurants in 2022.

“I feel like it (Bar Lune) gained momentum because it was during Covid – people still wanted to go out, but they didn’t want to go into the city,” he said.

“I think it was always going to happen. If you go to Melbourne you don’t leave your suburb – you’ve got great restaurants and bars in every suburb.”

Fellow restaurateur Oliver Brown, one of the founding partners of hospitality group Big Easy Group, agrees the pandemic acted as a catalyst.

“Covid pushed it forward because people weren’t venturing as far and they were looking for a CBD-offering closer to home,” said Mr Brown, who recently opened Bandit Pizza & Wine in Unley, a southern offshoot of his Prospect bar-restaurant, Anchovy Bandit.

“If you look at how people consume and go out and eat and drink and socialise, it’s not so clear-cut anymore,” Mr Brown said. “It’s not, ‘let’s go out for a full service meal’ anymore.

“You can go and have a drink and a small plate and snack, at a restaurant or somewhere like Bandit – they’re a social utility. People frequent these places more regularly.

“The line between restaurant and bar to me is very blurred now.”

Bar at Bandit Pizza and Wine, Hyde Park.

Other bar-led restaurants to open in recent months include Pastel in North Adelaide, Willy’s in King William Rd and, opening back in 2020, Good Gilbert in Goodwood.

While Mr Worrall-Thompson would like to see the small bar licence extended to the suburbs, Mr Brown believes the next iteration will be to allow venues to sell takeaway liquor – much like Mr Andrewartha’s EEC model.

“In Sydney and Melbourne you can have all these boutique bottle shops – like East End Cellars – where you can sit down and have snacks and a glass of wine, and take some bottles home with you,” Mr Brown said.

“The wine bar is the new suburban restaurant. I see it as a graduation of the small bar. The owner/operator model of small bar has a set expectation of quality and care, and I think the expectation of quality is spreading into the suburbs.”

Michael Andrewartha at East End Cellars. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive officer Suresh Manickam said Adelaide’s bar scene spreading to the suburbs was “exciting”.

“The diversity and offerings of the emerging bar and dining scene is as exciting for the industry as it is for the customers,” Mr Manickam said. “Adelaide’s CBD environment has, for many years, spawned a vibrant, quirky and interesting bar-led restaurant scene. It’s exciting to see this idea migrate to the suburbs.”

Mr Andrewartha said the response to EEC Norwood Green has been overwhelmingly positive.

The most similar operation whereby you can have a drink at a bottle shop with a snack, is the regional Stirling Cellars at The Stirling Hotel, where pastries are available.

Executive chef Josh Lansley will oversee both the city and Norwod EEC operations.

“The response we’re getting is, ‘hurry up; giddy up, we can’t wait’,” he said.

“People want to go out for a drink in their suburb and go home.”

He welcomes newer operators, and said liquor licencing should regularly be updated to allow for young “guys, girls and families who want to open a small bar and work for themselves”.

“I think good on them … the more the merrier,” he said.