Two-and-a-half years after opening Cry Baby on Solomon Street, Jon Di Pinto has launched two new bars on Gilbert Place. As at his first venue, there’s an Americana theme, but this time he’s turning the volume up a notch.
“I’ve got a massive interest in everything American,” says Di Pinto. “Cry Baby was that whole American rock thing, and this seemed to naturally progress from there.”
Western saloon Shotgun Willie’s opened in the old Red October site in February. Beneath it – in the old Suzie Wong space – you’ll find basement bar Memphis Slim’s House of Blues. “[Upstairs is] country and western, Wild West sort of vibes,” says Di Pinto. “Downstairs is more a delta blues, Chicago blues bar. It’ll be more cocktail-oriented as well.” (More on Memphis Slim’s here.)
For the two new bars, he’s teamed up with new partners Sean Howard and Matt Blyth, Cry Baby’s venue manager and assistant venue manager, respectively. The sites have separate entrances, too – while Suzie Wong was a hidden bar accessible only via Red October, Memphis Slim’s stands on its own.
Upstairs, there’ll be country and folk music, darts, and American beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Brooklyn Brewery, Coors, Budweiser and Miller. Spirits – whisky, predominately – won’t cost more than $10. “We want to keep it super simple,” says Di Pinto.
The trio have all spent time in the US and were inspired by venues they visited in Nashville and New York. “There’d been conversations about places on Broadway [a street famous for its honky-tonks] in Nashville and a lot of old dirty New York bars,” says Howard.
And if you needed another clue as to the vibe, the bar’s Instagram account is following just three people: Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Nelson even has a shrine dedicated to him behind the bar.
“We nearly pulled the trigger on another bar … and blues was always the original idea and it sort of evolved from that,” says Blyth. “And we thought, ‘Here we’ve got an opportunity to do two [concepts]: what do we want?’ Saloon was the first idea, into honky-tonk, into truck stop, and we figured, ‘Why don’t we just roll it all together?’ That’s something that hasn’t really been done in South Australia.”
“Like Cry Baby when it first opened, this is something different [for Adelaide],” says Di Pinto. “People might not know they needed something like this till they come here … For us it’s about doing something a bit unrefined. There’s probably heaps of things [in here] most designers would fall over at the thought of.”
A suitably Southern-style menu has been designed by chef Kane Boase (recently appointed head chef at Sparkke at the Whitmore). “The Philly cheesesteak is probably going to be the signature dish,” says Howard. There’ll also be a Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich; smoked wings; ribs; Southern fried mushrooms with white barbeque sauce; fried pickles; and a Frito pie (a variation of nachos served in a Fritos packet). “Real trashy street food,” he adds.
“We’ll start small and see where the venue takes us,” adds Di Pinto. There are plans to add larger meals and – in true American spirit – food challenges down the track.
Shotgun Willie’s
22 Gilbert Place, Adelaide
Hours:
Mon to Thu 4pm–late
Fri 3pm–2am
Sat and Sun 4pm–2am
