‘We got to dine within metres of royalty’: New wine bar draws famous crowd

A new bayside wine bar offers ham and pineapple cocktails, an inventive menu, elegant surrounds and a royal clientele, albeit of the rugby league variety.

Adelita wine bar Picture: Alyne Media

I had dinner with The King on the weekend. No it wasn’t Charles, out from Buckingham Palace for mango season, tucking into pavlova flecked with the tropical fruit while gazing over an expanse of his vast dominion, across the swing sets and cricket pitch of a closely mown park to the placid waters of Moreton Bay.

Rather, there was rugby league Immortal Wally Lewis, aka The King or The Emperor of Lang Park, with some friends, utterly oblivious to our existence but hey, it’s not every day we riff-raff get to dine within metres of royalty.

Adelita wine bar Picture: Alyne Media

We are at Adelita, a wine bar that opened in Wynnum in November last year at the base of a new apartment building, across the road from the park lined by spreading Moreton Bay figs. Bay breezes fan diners seated at the umbrella-shaded couches and tables on the wraparound patio, which is also protected by blinds should the weather turn dodgy. Inner doors peel back to let the air flow through to a centrepiece bottle-backed, horseshoe-shaped bar, fronted by stools, while tiled floors, mossy green walls and linen napkins atop bare tables complete the elegant yet laid-back picture.

Just after 5.30 on a Saturday evening, the place is full, drinks in hand everywhere, disco and dance music in the background. Charcuterie plates and slices of chunky bread sail by to outdoor tables, but there are several others, like us, seemingly determined to delve more broadly into the expansive food offering.

Adelita wine bar snacks. Picture: Alyne Media

Snacks include oysters, or perhaps duck liver parfait and then move onto smaller plates such as sardine escabeche and fennel on rye toast; kangaroo tartare with oyster cream, egg and chips, or wild pig chorizo with guindilla peppers. Servings are not huge so we share three smaller plates; crispy squid ($21) topped with a salt bush leaf and accompanied by a black puddle of squid ink mayonnaise is clad in a pleasant, light batter but is on the chewy side, while two large grilled tiger prawns ($19) are enhanced by nduja butter and teamed with a cairn of tart finger lime pearls on the side, which don’t seem especially compatible. Small fermented crumpets ($12 each), are covered with spoonfuls of lightly curried egg and spanner crab and there’s the option to add salmon roe ($6). The flavours are pleasant but the softness of the toppings would have perhaps contrasted better with some crunch in the crumpet.

Slow-cooked lamb shoulder at Adelita

The “substantial” dish choice is between pumpkin with harissa, feta and sage ($28), a wagyu striploin with a marble score of nine ($75) and slow-cooked lamb shoulder with peas, beans, mint and speck ($50). The lamb, cut into chunks, is soft and tender, strewn with mint leaves and encircled by pea puree with some cubes of speck, kidney beans and chick peas beneath, all perfectly nice, but again, the dish could be improved with some textural contrast.

On the drinks front, there’s a lengthy range of wines from around the globe and the by-the-glass selection is extensive, ranging from $13 for a house verdelho from the Granite Belt, to $30 for 2021 Marco Lubiana pinot noir. Then there’s sake, a wide range of beers including a blackberry sour from Aether Brewing in relatively close-by Northgate, spirits and mocktails. And the cocktail list wins bonus points for its radical inventiveness, with the likes of a beer-noffee pie (banana-washed dark rum, Stone and Wood, ginger and nutmeg), and the ham and pineapple (coconut fat-washed bourbon, toasted walnut, spiced apple, pineapple and pork crackle).

Golden Gaytime-inspired dessert at Adelita

We pass on pavlova with passionfruit, mango, lemon and smoked vanilla cream and opt for a play on a Golden Gaytime, which has arcs of chocolate piped armadillo-like over a mound of ice cream that’s covered in a Vegemite-spiked caramel; the lot surrounded by a macadamia biscuit crumb. It’s a cool and downright delicious combination that speaks to its seaside surrounds and, now that I think about it, is fit for a king.

ADELITA WINE BAR

32a Glenora St, Wynnum

adelitawinebar.com

Open

Wed, Thu, Sun: noon-6pm

Fri, Sat: noon-10pm

Must try

Golden Gaytime dessert

Verdict

Food 3 stars

Service 4 stars

Ambience 4 stars

Value 3 stars

Overall 3.5/5 stars

For more reviews

visit delicious.com.au/eatout