First Look: Canopy Bar Springs to Life With Stem Alums at the Helm and a Killer Wine List

When Henry Bampton began to think about transforming Hindley Street restaurant Stem into a new wine bar, he anticipated a complete refit. Then he invited the venue’s original designers back.

“They said, ‘It’s already designed as a wine bar’,” Bampton, a sommelier who had been working at Stem prior to its March closure, tells Broadsheet.

“We couldn’t picture it. Then we took out all the furniture, we subbed in the low and high tables [and] boarded up the kitchen, and we were like, ‘Okay maybe they were onto something’.”

Fast forward two months and Canopy Wine Bar is now open and carving out a niche as a drinking destination in Adelaide’s West End.

Formal dining has been replaced with casual places to perch, plus a DJ spot for Friday and Saturday nights.
The concept is, in part, inspired by American “fern bars”, which soared in popularity in the ’70s as desirable places for young professionals to socialise. Fern bars, as the name suggests, were characterised by indoor ferns or plants, timber tables and Tiffany-style lamps.
“They played yacht rock-type music, which I love,” Bampton adds. “The DJs have really taken that on board – so [artists like] Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, Gary Wright’s Dreamweaver. It’s 70 per cent this old-school vibe, which I’m so on board with.”

For Bampton, the bar was an opportunity to bring a vast selection of back vintage and rare wines into one accessible place. But it’s not snobby – rather, his focus is on offering something for everyone, whether it’s a glass of Shaw & Smith sauvignon blanc, or a $1350 bottle of 2015 Henschke Hill of Grace. Then there’s the cocktails, expertly – and, at times, crazily – crafted by Stem’s former restaurant manager, Lorenzo di Pasquo.

“He’s gone full mad scientist,” Bampton says. “He’s fermenting things that go for days, infusing things that take weeks, he’s putting Vegemite in cocktails. I am not a cocktail person, but I would drink these cocktails because they present a lot like wine – they’re complex, they’re interesting, they present a lot of layers.”

Drinks-friendly snacks include cheese and charcuterie, kimchi toasties and caviar. Bampton, a keen cook himself, has taken charge of the food offering. He is making everything from pickles to chutney, which he crafts to complement the wines. Future bites will include sausage rolls and duck liver parfait.

“Stem was a restaurant with an immaculate reputation; we did amazing food – a steak would take 45 minutes to cook because it was cooked with such care – but it doesn’t work for everyone, a restaurant like that,” Bampton says.

“What does work for everyone is [that] you can come in here and have a glass of wine, and then leave. Or, have a gin and tonic, have a cocktail, or order a bottle and have a snack – there’s no pressure of ‘dining’. You can just basically come in and do whatever you want.”

Canopy
188 Hindley Street, Adelaide
No phone

Hours:
Wed & Thurs 4pm–midnight
Fri & Sat 4pm–2am
Sun to Tues closed

@barcanopy