Popular Adelaide CBD wine bar LOC Bottle Bar closes as building set to be demolished

A popular wine bar shut its doors for the last time on Saturday night, as regulars raised a glass to celebrate five years of operation ahead of a radically new look for the CBD site.

Olivia Moore opened Loc Bottle Bar on Hindmarsh Square in the middle of the pandemic. Picture: Morgan Sette

LOC Bottle Bar – described as a ‘funky, laid-back hangout with coffee and pastries by day and wine by night – has permanently closed ahead of the demolition of the Hindmarsh Square building it operates from.

The site, known as The Block next to the Pullman Adelaide hotel – is set to make way for a student accommodation tower with 405 individual and shared accommodation apartments.

The ground floor of the new development will retain retail outlets and a student reception area integrated into Pulteney St and Hindmarsh Square.

The business survived and thrived despite lockdown – but has now called time. Picture: Morgan Sette

LOC Bottle Bar owner Olivia Moore took to social media on Sunday to announce the closure.

“An update to let you all know the LOC had its final night of service last night,” she said in a post on the LOC’s Instagram.

“As we celebrated the fifth birthday it felt like the right time to call it a day and take a little control back over the timeline of the upcoming demolition.”

She said the pending building demolition and the arrival of a new baby were contributing factors to the timing of the closure.

“It’s been a challenge operationally not knowing when the building was going to be knocked down or how the next few months were going to play out,” she said.

“And with the arrival of our new baby I want to be able to focus on my family and not have the stress and uncertainty hanging over me any longer.

The new month said she would have liked to sell the business and for LOC to live on in another owner’s home.

“In an ideal world I had hoped to sell the business to free up time for me to start a family but with the inability to renew a lease with certainty, this became impossible,” she said.

“Last night was a lovely way to spend time with the community that has supported the bar for the past five years – so I’m incredibly grateful for that – although disappointed I couldn’t have seen the bar live on in someone else’s hands.

Thank you to everyone who has come through that silly sliding door. Producers, friends, chefs, colleagues and customers. You made LOC … LOC.”

Originally published as Popular Adelaide CBD wine bar LOC Bottle Bar closes as building set to be demolished