How Adelaide’s small bars are changing the way we drink

ADELAIDE’S small bars have spurred a revival of classic drinks made with care, old-fashioned service and a friendly pub vibe. We talk to the people behind this generational change in our drinking culture.

Dana Whyte at Clever Little Tailor. Picture: Mike Burton

IT’S easy to forget what Peel St was like in 2012. We didn’t call it a laneway back then, we called it dangerous.

Shadowy figures lurked in Peel St after dark, but most people avoided it, not least because it often gave off an unwelcoming waft. Then a little bar called Clever Little Tailor arrived.

“There were three lights on the street back then — ours,” says Clever Little Tailor co-owner and barman Dana Whyte.

“We were the only ones on Peel St. You had to walk through the dark to get here.”

When Whyte (tall, bearded, neatly turned out and unflappably courteous) first took up position behind the bar he had no inkling that he was also sited at ground zero of Adelaide’s small bar explosion.

“We were imagining we’d be standing around serving a few drinks, making ends meet.” Whyte says.

“We were naive to the bigger picture — not that there was a much of a bigger picture back then.”

There was also no Small Bar Licence — introduced a year later — which cut red tape on venues that serve drinks to 120 patrons or fewer. When Clever Little Tailor opened, only a few government wonks were talking about “laneway activation” and — prompted by difficulties Leigh St bar Udaberri was forced to overcome — the need for a new bar licence.

Dana Whyte, the man behind the bar at Clever Little Tailor. Photo: Mike Burton

Whyte was just 26 when Clever Little Tailor was born.

At the time, Adelaide City Council and our State Government wanted to know more about the nascent small bar scene, so the petite pub was given a one-of-a-kind liquor licence, to find out what a mini inn could do for our city and what our city needed to do for its diminutive drinkeries.

It paid off.

Today, Adelaide is winning plaudits around the world for its livability and hospitality, largely due to the moxie of small-bar entrepreneurs like Whyte, who now co-owns three smartly resolved bars — the other two being the whimsical Pink Moon Saloon and micro-bar Pink Moon Café.

The running joke used to be, “I went to Adelaide. It was closed.” Now entire laneways of bars and diners are open until later than you’d expect, every night of the week. Happily, more small bars and longer opening hours hasn’t led to spirit-fuelled social chaos. Instead, the rise of sophisticated speakeasies has brought with it a generational transition to safer laneways full of light and people, and an appreciation of a good drop. They’ve proven to be an inexpensive prescription for social regeneration.

“Go back five years and if you wanted to grab a great beer you’d go to the Wheaty [in Thebarton],” says Whyte. “But where else could you go to get a great beer and maybe have a chat to someone behind the bar about a beer you didn’t know about?

“We have a maturity here now. The wine culture that we’ve got in South Australia has given us a leg up in terms of the way we drink and our openness to trying different things,” says Whyte.

As we chat, Whyte opens the door to take delivery of a trolley stacked with magnums of rosé from Brandon Keys at Basket Range.

“He makes great stuff — we love pouring things out of magnums — it’s a lot of fun,” says Whyte.

“There’s something about sharing a magnum — it’s bigger, more people are sharing the same thing — it brings people together.

“We pour a ton of magnums — we open up a lot of them on the weekends and pour by the glass — it’s less intimidating to have a glass from a magnum than have to commit to a whole one.”

Providing a drink that’s a cut above and an experience to match is what separates Adelaide’s new small bars from many of the pubs and bars of old.

“People are willing to spend a bit more money on a better drink now,” says Cody Deakter, who is at the helm of small, nautical-themed Hains & Co on Gilbert Place. “And people aren’t just trying to get drunk for the cheapest price possible, which was a blight on Adelaide’s drinking culture.

“People can come here for rum, or go to Clever Little Tailor, for example, where they make great cocktails and have a really good whisky range.

“We might still get someone coming in here and asking for a Fluffy Duck,” says Deakter, “but rather than just saying ‘No, we don’t do that here’, I’ll say: ‘Instead of that Fluffy Duck, how about I make you something that will blow your mind?’

“People are exploring a lot more and their taste is evolving, which for us, as bartenders, is fantastic because that’s what we do — play with taste.”

Classic cocktails have made a comeback as Adelaide’s bar is scene grows up.

“The amount of negronis we sell is fascinating to me,” says Deakter. “People aren’t just after a sweet cocktail any more, they’re after a balanced drink with interesting ingredients. Negronis and daiquiris have been around for decades, but that doesn’t mean they’re not one of the most exciting and delicious drinks out there.”

Cody deakter of Hains and Co. Picture: Mike Burton

Another key sign that Adelaide is growing up is our choice of beer and spirits. “People have stopped saying: ‘Whatever the cheap beer is, I’ll pound that’ or ‘Give me the house gin, I’ll smash that,’” says Deakter.

Instead, drinkers are now exploring Hains & Co’s formidable range of rum and gin — for the tastes they offer — though Hains never loses sight of the fact that it is first and foremost about providing a good night out.

One of the most recent small bars to open is 55ml, in Mill St, just off Gouger St. Owners Seira Hotta and Seamus Noone deliberately sought a site that is far from the Peel-Leigh-Gilbert St patch that has become synonymous with little drinkeries.

An independence of spirit marks their decision making — 55ml bar stands alone (in the former SAFCOL fish cold store near the Central Market), they own their own beer taps (they crowdfunded the purchase — a portrait of their biggest donor hangs behind the bar) and they’ve combined the best of the small bar scene (craft beers, rare Japanese whiskies, classic cocktails done well, and an architecturally designed space) with something of the friendly old corner boozer.

The bar and stools are set up to allow discussions to flow between patrons who’ve never met before.

“We like the V shape of the bar,” says Hotta. “It lets us bring other people into conversations. Don’t know the answer to a question? Let’s ask Bill on the other side of the bar.”

“And good service means knowing whether that punter wants to have a chat or doesn’t want to have a chat,” adds Noone.

Politics is off the topic list but everything else is up for debate.

“I’ve been doing hospitality ever since I went to uni,” 27-year-old Hotta says. “And I was brought up to like drinking alcohol. I met Seamus in my final year at uni — we were working in the same bar.

Seira Hotta from bar 55ml. Photo: Calum Robertson

“It was Seamus who said we should open a bar and it took about three months to persuade me. At first I was saying, ‘that’s ridiculous, that’s crazy’, but by the end I was thinking ‘Hmmm, I don’t want to do a serious job, but opening a bar would be fun’.

“We opened this space not because we were unhappy with the alcohol on offer in Adelaide, that’s great, but because there was nowhere that we really liked to hang out — somewhere casual and relaxed, where anyone’s welcome. That’s the purpose of this place. And that’s one of the reasons we actively went for this end of town. We never considered going to the Leigh St end.

“We’re doing our own thing, creating a community where there wasn’t one.

“It’s working well. There are so many local residents around here who come in for a drink a few times a week and they’re beginning to know each other. They know us really well and that’s what we wanted to do — it wasn’t about being in the hospitality network, it was about being in the general public network.”

It can mean things get a little out of control.

“Four guys played Twister here last night, which was kind of weird,” laughs Hotta.

But as with all small bars there’s rarely any trouble. “Everyone is much better behaved than we are when we’re on the other side of the bar,” Hotta adds with a laugh.

Banter over craft beer at 55ml offers a signally different experience to the hip-hop groove of Clever Little Tailor or lashings of naval rum at Hains, but all dispense with the conventional big-batch beers, pokies and large-screen TVs.

They instead tap into a global culture that arose out of a yearning for a respite from fast-paced city life, where drinks are made with care, the barman knows your name and the Fluffy Duck has well and truly flown.

Clever Little Tailor, 19 Peel St, city, cleverlittletailor.com.au

Hains & Co, 23 Gilbert St, city, hainsandco.com.au

55ml, 55 Mill St, city, www.55ml.bar

 

5 things your bartender wishes you’d stop doing

 

Seira HOTTA at 55ml When people come behind the bar. That makes me angry. This is a casual joint, so they think they can walk right in. I tell them: “You don’t go behind the altar.”

 

Cody DEAKTER At HAins & Co Ordering a drink then, when I’ve made it, saying, “Oh, I’ll have another one of those.” I think, “Well, I could have done both at the same time”.

 

Dana WHYTE AT Clever Little Tailor When someone’s been waiting a while because the bar’s pretty busy, you finally say, “What can I get for you?” and instead of them being ready they go: “Hey John! John! What do you want? Bob! Bob! Do you want a beer, mate?” And I’m left standing there with people looking at me all thinking, “So we’ve got to stand and wait for this guy to decide what he actually wants”.

 

Cody Not knowing bar terminology but using bar terminology. Someone might ask for a whisky and I’ll ask if they like it neat or on the rocks. They’ll say “neat with a rock”. But you take that for what it is.

 

Seira We might kick you out if you’re too drunk, but if you come back and say “I acted like an idiot” we’ll say “That’s fine, come back in”. Do not not come back.

 

What to drink, where to go

 

Cody’s picks

Drink: My first drink has to be a daiquiri.

Cafe: I don’t drink coffee. I don’t do biscuits
and tea.

Restaurant: Gondola Gondola (1 Peel St, city). They do really good food and have a great Japanese whisky selection. Andre’s Cucina (94 Frome St, city) is also really good.

 

Dana’s picks

Drink: If I’m at a cocktail bar it’s pretty hard to go past a negroni or a daiquiri. Otherwise a beer and a whisky.

Cafe: I enjoy the not-quite-formal, relaxed atmosphere of Whistle and Flute (136 Greenhill Rd, Unley). The coffee there is awesome. Mondays (7/38 Gawler Place, city) is also great.

Restaurant: Osteria Oggi (76 Pirie St, city) — their food is always really great — and I like just being in the space, it’s really beautiful. Low & Slow (17 Commercial Rd, Port Adelaide) is easygoing, low-key and definitely the best barbecue in South Australia — hands down.

 

Seira’s picks

Drink: Beer!

Café: Trouble and Strife (123 Goodwood Rd, Goodwood). Their coffee is my favourite and the owner and barista are lovely people.

Restaurant: Himeji (22 Grote St, city). We always have a craving for Japanese food.

 

 

 

5 must-drink cocktails

Classic cocktails have made a big comeback. Here’s five you need to know, with recipes thanks to A Spot at the Bar: Welcome to The Everleigh, The Art of Good Drinking in 300 Recipes by Michael Madrusan and Zara Young (Hardie Grant).

 

A Spot At The Bar: Welcome to The Everleigh by Michael Madrusan/Zara Young

1  Negroni22ml gin; 30ml Cocchi sweet vermouth;
 22ml Campari; orange twist to garnish

Build your ingredients in a rock glass with ice. Garnish with an orange twist.

 

2 Daiquiri60ml light rum; 30ml lime juice; 22ml sugar  syrup; lime wedge to garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a frozen cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

 

3  Sherry Cobbler45ml amontillado sherry; 22ml sherry  juice; 22ml orange curacao; seasonal berries; mint sprig; lemon and orange slices, to garnish

Build all ingredients in a frozen double rocks glass with crushed ice. Garnish with seasonal berries, a mint sprig and lemon and orange slices.

 

4 Tom Collins60ml gin; 22ml lemon juice; 22ml sugar  syrup; soda; orange slice and cherry, to garnish

Add all ingredients except soda to a shaker with ice and shake briefly. Strain into a frozen Collins glass with ice and top with soda. Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.

 

5 Rob Roy60ml Scotch whisky; 30ml Cocchi sweet  vermouth; 3 dashes Angostura bitters; cherry, to garnish

Add your ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a frozen cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.