Adelaide: an insider’s guide
Arts festivals, culture, a lively food and wine scene, a city building boom… Adelaide is on a roll.
In the depths of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, a quaint century-old tearoom has been transformed into a food lab of sorts where fallen bunya-bunya needles might flavour a smoky sorbet or aged duck is scented with emu bush and daubed with little flowers fashioned from sweet potato.
Chef Justin James (late of Melbourne’s Vue de Monde) and his team of foraging chefs have the run of the 50ha gardens as they prepare their delicious and highly adventurous menus. Relaunched in early July as Restaurant Botanic, the pretty building is now dominated by an elegant new open kitchen with firepit and a chef’s table circling the action. A fermentation lab is under construction because like all good gardeners, James will ensure nothing goes to waste; he’s on a mission to place Adelaide’s lovely gardens on a plate. It’s fitting, given the city’s bid to become the world’s second National Park City after London.
Already named the most liveable city in Australia – and third in the world – Adelaide is enjoying a renaissance. Cranes dot the skyline, new hotels have opened in offbeat locales (behind the Central Market; within the superstructure of Adelaide Oval), there are new festivals and a cool laneway community tentacles through the CBD with little bars and eateries tucked into back alleys or wedged between high-rise buildings. And for visitors, the basics are appealing: a compact downtown ringed by parkland and gardens, easy to explore on foot with free trams in the CBD and e-scooters on almost every corner.
I’m old enough to remember Adelaide’s first renaissance, Premier Don Dunstan’s pink shorts, the birth of fusion cuisine courtesy of the lovely Cheong Liew and the rapid evolution of world class arts festivals. At the stylish new Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets, pink upholstered sofas pay homage to Dunstan’s sartorial style, and vintage festival posters in the guestrooms remind visitors that Adelaide has always had an eye to celebration and innovation.
“Mad March” (Adelaide Festival, Fringe and WOMADelaide) has morphed into a year-round calendar of festivals. Latest cab off the rank, Illuminate Adelaide (on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions as we went to press), aims to lure folk onto the streets on chilly winter eves with more than 150 cutting-edge installations and events across the city. The brainchild of Rachael Azzopardi and Lee Cumberlidge, Illuminate brings together national and international artists and fuses art with technology. Meanwhile, local visual effects studio Rising Sun Pictures (whose CV includes work on the Harry Potter franchise and Game of Thrones) has been tasked with transforming the city’s rapidly expanding future industries precinct Lot Fourteen, home to the Australian Space Agency. Nestled on the city’s North Terrace cultural boulevard, the site will also be home to the national Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre in 2025.
If you’re travelling with family, book a free tour of the Australian Space Discovery Centre. Or drop by the precinct’s “canteen”, Community cafe and bar, a gorgeously restored domed heritage kiosk fronting North Terrace that might be on a Parisian boulevard. The IQ quotient is high, but the brekky chilli prawn scramble is a no-brainer.
Adelaide has long punched above its weight on the food front, with fantastic produce and innovative restaurateurs; the city’s culinary anchor, the Central Market, has served Adelaidians since 1869. With vendors hawking their wares at the top of their voices (particularly at close of day) and crowds squeezing through the old-fashioned stands, the market is a noisy, raffish, multicultural melting pot and arguably the city’s most popular tourist drawcard. Join a guided tasting tour or just follow your nose. Don’t miss Les Deux Coqs (making everything you miss about France), The Turkish Delight (selling nothing but) and the incomparable Marino deli, an Adelaide institution.
A burgeoning network of small bars and eateries is also flourishing along the likes of Peel and Leigh Streets, where tables spill off the footpath and onto the laneways. Check out the after-five action at the Leigh Street Wine Room, a former dry cleaners now stuffed with wall-to-wall oenophiles, and a great spot to sample minimal intervention wines. Or the whimsical Pink Moon Saloon, slotted into a 4m-wide laneway, its two alpine-style huts linked by a little courtyard. Then there’s Shobosho, where chef Adam Liston plays with fire and smoke in a buzzing open kitchen with rotisserie and yakitori pit. (The spitroast teriyaki organic chicken with wood-baked shallot bread is a strong desert island dish contender.) Next door you’ll find the glamorous new Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room, a swanky New York-style Italian restaurant and bar where husband-and-wife chef team Max and Laura Sharrad whip up the likes of “Roman Vegemite” toast. Catnip.
On Peel Street, check out Clever Little Tailor and the newish Tempus Mezze; or pop into Proof, tucked away on Anster Street, for one of their legendary late-night toasties. Nearby on Gresham Street the Bibliotheca Bar and Book Exchange offers literary themed cocktails, perhaps a Huckleberry Fizz. In the city’s East End, a lively precinct of restaurants, cafes and boutiques, you’ll find another clutch of cool bars spearheaded by the excellent East End Cellars (fine wine merchants who also do food); for whiskey lovers, the New Orleans-inspired NOLA; or the cellar-dweller Hellbound on Rundle.
The restaurant scene continues to evolve, but there’s no going past our old faves: Press, Africola, Parwana Afghan Kitchen, Osteria Oggi and the family-run Jasmin (Mrs Singh’s vindaloo is the perfect winter antidote). One final foodie tip: sign up for a free tour at Haigh’s Chocolates’ little factory on the edge of the city’s parklands. To work off all that food, walk the river trail along the pretty Torrens (Karrawirra Parri) all the way to the beach, or sign up for Adelaide Oval’s brilliant RoofClimb for 360-degree city views.
Back on terra firma, the South Australian Museum is celebrating its 165th birthday. It holds the world’s largest Australian Aboriginal cultural collection and also has a beautiful Pacific cultures gallery. I’ve always loved the tiny ancient Egypt gallery, virtually unchanged since 1939.
At JamFactory on Morphett Street there are glass-blowing demonstrations while the lovely APY Gallery on Light Square provides a platform for emerging artists from the remote APY lands.
Maximalists, hands up. The David Roche Foundation on Melbourne Street is a glittering house museum (and a bit of a city secret) fairly stuffed with 18th and 19th century European decorative arts and representing one of the finest private collections in the country. Think armchairs owned by Catherine the Great, and a commode that once belonged to the Duke of Wellington…
Which takes us back to the Botanic Gardens and another cultural rarity, the 19th century Museum of Economic Botany, the last institution of its kind in the world. With its charming botanical collections, the whole thing feels rather Hogwarts (cue Professor Sprout), a mood heightened down North Terrace at the historic Mortlock Wing of the State Library, regarded as one of the world’s loveliest libraries.
Adelaide has wisely preserved its analogue gems, making it not only a liveable city but a clever one.
WHERE TO STAY
Oval Hotel: Australia’s first hotel in a stadium has 138 chic guestrooms with cathedral or city views. Enjoy the game from the smart bar/restaurant. From $200pn. ovalhotel.com.au Eos by SkyCity On the riverfront with a glittering façade, Eos offers the largest, smartest guestrooms in town, a cool day spa and chi-chi pool deck. From $429pn. skycityadelaide.com.au
Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets: Tucked behind the markets and Chinatown, this lively 145-room hotel captures the essence of the city’s foodie culture. The rooftop bar has brilliant views. Rooms from $195pn. ihg.com
Crowne Plaza Adelaide: Views from the tallest building in town and access to Lot Fourteen make this new hotel popular with corporates and holidaymakers. It has a Level 10 pool deck and a lively Asian fusion restaurant. From $195pn. crowneplaza.com
Sofitel Adelaide: Opening in spring, the newest five-star Sofitel will have a très chic Gallic flavour. The $150m, 251-room hotel will nod to the city’s alliance with Bordeaux. From $350pn. all.accor.com
Mayfair Hotel: Popular with the arts set, this residential-style hotel in King William St has 170 guestrooms and a great rooftop bar. From $229pn. mayfairhotel.com.au
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