Before Covid, you were hard-pressed to find a place to drink great wine in the suburbs. Then came Good Gilbert. Then Bar Lune, Bandit Pizza and Wine, Pastel, Alt and more. Now Adelaide’s favourite subterranean wine den Hellbound is departing the city for the ‘burbs.
“Things need a shake up,” owner Mark Reginato tells Broadsheet. “With a lot of things going on everywhere, it’s time to change it up – make [Hellbound] live on, but change it up.”
Crucially, the new site will consolidate operating costs for Reginato, bringing the bar and his wholesale beverage companies, Connect Vines and Man of Spirit, under the one roof with a tasting room and an event and education space he describes as an “inner-city cellar door”.
“Having two leases, two licenses, two electricity bills, it’s just becoming unaffordable, especially in a small town.”
When Reginato opened Hellbound in 2018 alongside then-co-owner Louis Schofield, the basement bar quickly established itself as one of Adelaide’s favourite wine destinations thanks to its top-notch (and particularly descriptive) wine list catering to casual imbibers and serious wine drinkers alike – and the cosy underground space that became a hub for late-night parties, winemaker takeovers, trade events and intimate masterclasses.
It’ll move out of its Rundle Street premises – once the lease expires later this month – to a location that is still under wraps. But Reginato assures us the bar’s essence will remain intact.
“This isn’t goodbye; it’s just a shift in geography,” he says. “We’re bringing the same passion, the same people, and of course, the same amazing wine list, to a new space that will take everything you love about Hellbound and amplify it.” That includes the bar’s signature Rousseau bottle logo and pink neon signage.
“I get sad every time I turn off that pink neon light in the last three or so months that I’ve dedicated myself to this move. But it’s not going to be turned off [permanently], it’s going to turn back on again, which is the glimmer of hope for me,” says Reginato.
The new look (and above-ground) Hellbound will provide a space for venue owners, operators and bartenders to come by and explore Reginato’s Connect Vines and Man of Spirit portfolios, to “tinker and play”, and have training and education sessions led by the industry vet.
There’ll also be room to cook (“We can’t even have a toaster in the basement,” says Reginato) so expect an amplified food menu, which might feature Reginato’s own osso buco and Sunday guest chef lunches.
“It’s a forward step for me, as a person and as a dual business owner, to put all my creative [pursuits] in one place and showcase the best of that. I’m ready for change and I’m ready to make something new.”
Reginato and his team will celebrate their final week in the CBD with a series of nightly events – starting this Saturday – honouring the seven deadly sins.
“By the time I get to sloth I won’t be doing too much,” he jokes. “Gluttony is going to be about indulgence – I might just put all the food on the bar and be like, ‘Just eat it’. For greed, we’ll be opening up heavy hitting bottles of wine and be like, ‘It’s $30 a glass, drink it’.”
The grand finale – billed as Dante’s Inferno: The Final Decant – will be on January 18, with DJs, cocktails and free-flowing wine.
Hellbound’s next iteration is expected to open in April.
