It’s fair to say Adelaide’s most diverse bar-hopping can be done in the CBD. But a fresh-faced Prospect is giving punters a reason to head north for a drink (or three).
Cocktails outdo suburban standards at the newly opened Rosemont Hall and New Nordic on Prospect Road. In a few weeks a Southern-Italian-inspired pizzeria and cocktail bar – Anchovy Bandit – will join their ranks, within the Palace Nova cinema complex. All three are within eyeshot of each other.
Oliver Brown and Josh Talbot (two of NOLA’s four owners) always wanted to do something suburban. Unsurprisingly, they’re time-poor. That’s where long-time NOLA bartender Alex Bennett comes in. In Brown’s words, Bennett – who’s also a stakeholder – will be “the man, the myth, the legend of Anchovy Bandit”.
But who is the “Anchovy Bandit”? A 14-year-old Quentin Tarantino conceived the character, a pizza thief, in his unpublished play Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit.
That air of nostalgia lingers in Sans-Arc Studio’s (NOLA, Pink Moon Saloon, Smallfry Seafood) design: light-wood panelling, vinyl tabletops and a charcoal-terrazzo-tiled floor. “It’s ‘gonna be warm, it’s tight, and we’re throwing in a few ’60s Art Deco features … to tie in with the cinema,” Brown says.
An Italian-imported wood oven will turn out Neapolitan-style pies. Toppings will bow down to tradition – mainly – but they're “taking a bit of creative license” with one or two. There’ll be eight pizzas and a few “supporting dishes” from head chef Kate Ryan. “We want everything to come out of the oven so we don’t have pots and pans and grills,” says Bennett.
With 30 amari (digestive Italian liqueurs such as Campari) and 60 gins and whiskeys, Bennett will shake spiced-up Italian classics – Spritzes, Bellinis and Negronis, but with a few more bells and whistles. There’ll be puffs of liquid nitrogen and a CO2 line direct to the cocktail station. “Being limited to prosecco and soda water is no more,” Brown says. “We could spritz up a cocktail with riesling carbonated ourselves.”
To be served in carafes, on-tap table wine will come by the keg directly from a rolling selection of local winemakers. It makes sense to cut out the middleman. “It’s such a waste – being so close to some of the best wine regions in the world – for them to bottle it and send it to a distributor who sends it to us,” Brown says.
Anchovy Bandit opens in late February. It will operate for dinner daily and for lunch on weekends.
