First Look: The Grace Emily’s New Owners Know Better Than To Tinker

As a regular at the Grace Emily Hotel, Joe Wilkinson always made sure to catch Bert Newton’s eye on the way out the door.

The Australian television personality’s face peers down from a shrine above the exit, the unlikely patron saint of one of Adelaide’s most beloved live music venues.

“It’s something I look at every time I leave,” Wilkinson says while nursing a pint at the Waymouth Street venue, which first opened in 1839 as The Launceston Hotel.

These days, Wilkinson has a better view of the shrine, as well as the pub’s other oddities, from political stickers and Bollywood posters to the portraits of familiar punters. He and Shane Ettridge, his co-owner at Proof Bar down the road, took over from long-time Grace publican Sym Jarowyj on September 1.

“I used to come in a couple of times a week when I finished and would generally sit in the same spot, and Sym and I would talk about everything,” Wilkinson says. “It was a bit of a therapy session. We’d talk about footy, we’d talk about restaurants – all sorts. And then he made mention that he was shopping [the pub] around.”

Ettridge says taking over the Grace felt natural, given Proof is “essentially a fancy front bar”.

“The thing about being a front bar is that rapport and that sense of community that you can build with those who work close by. And if you’re talking about pubs with a strong community connection, the Grace Emily is at the top of that list.

“We feel a level of responsibility to maintain what has been created here over the last 30 years. We’re making Martinis down there, we’re pouring Coopers Pale down here.”

Bread & Bone’s Kyle Landman, who plays in local ska trio Young Offenders, will join Wilkinson and Ettridge as booker. He plans to keep on popular events, like Monday open mic night Billy Bob’s BBQ Jam, but he has ambitions to transition to music seven nights a week.

Though Jarowyj admits he’d become a “disgruntled publican for a couple of years”, with mounting premiums and other challenges, he says the final few shifts were bittersweet. Regulars streamed in bearing gratitude and gifts. At one point, he had to give a speech, and “spent half the time crying”.

“Friday night, sometimes pouring a drink, I’d start welling up and stuff like that – it’s very weird,” he says. “I’ve been around this pub, either drinking in it or owning it, for 26 years. Half of my life has been spent here.”

It was a relief to see the place end up in familiar hands. “It’s a blessing,” he says. “I don’t have any guilts. A lot of people have been asking what’s going to happen.”

For Wilkinson, the answer is simple: not much.

“Why on earth would we want to adjust something that we are so fundamentally attracted to?” he says. “Imagine trying to conceptualise a venue like this. It would be impossible. It has to be done, and we’re really lucky to step into it.”

The Grace Emily
232 Waymouth Street, Adelaide
(08) 8231 5500

Hours:
Mon 4pm–1am
Wed to Thu 4pm–12pm
Fri to Sat 4pm–1am

graceemilyhotel.com.au

@graceemilyhotel