First Look: The Mulberry Group Flips Its Abbotsford Bistro – Again

Nathan Toleman, The Mulberry Group’s founder and creative director, opened Abbotsford restaurant Molli, and adjoining cafe Little Molli, at the end of June 2024. The neighbourhood bar and bistro didn’t gain the traction the group was expecting, so in April last year it pivoted, reimagining Molli as a relaxed day-to-night eatery. But, again, it didn’t catch on.

“A lot of people came back and said Molli was a good restaurant, just the wrong location,” Toleman says. The restaurateur behind Hazel, Coupette, Liminal and more closed Molli in December. But rather than walk away from the site, he treated it as an opportunity to start again. “The options were we sell it, we walk away or we go again.”

Charlie Duffy’s Daybaker took over the Little Molli space in May, and last week The Mulberry Group reopened the doors to the restaurant with an entirely new concept.

Bar Sala splits the old 100-seat restaurant into two distinct spaces: a dining room and a dedicated music room. One is filled with white tablecloths and candlelight, the other with vinyl, low-slung armchairs and rugs sourced from Facebook Marketplace. The idea, Toleman says, was to recreate the feeling of moving through someone’s home. “You go to the lounge room, then you go to the dining room, then you go to the music room.”

Locals told Toleman they wanted somewhere they could drop in for a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta rather than commit to a full-scale dining experience. The dining room at Bar Sala is his response.

Former Lene chef-owner Cam Williams serves a Mediterranean-leaning menu centred on handmade pasta, woodfired cooking and share-style dishes. Burrata with braised greens and mandarin sits alongside vitello tonnato with caperberries and horseradish, while larger plates include pumpkin agnolotti with chilli and brown butter, baked rigatoni with Bruny Island washed-rind cheese and truffle, and rump steak served with bone marrow and green peppercorn sauce.

The music room has its own menu of bar snacks and cocktails. Guests can settle in with potato and comté croquettes, fried sourdough topped with ricotta and anchovy, marinated olives and pickled vegetables, alongside Euro-style drinks like Martinis and Montenegro Sours (a zesty number with amaro, lemon, egg whites and sugar syrup). There are also live DJs sets Thursday through Saturday.

The reno marks a return to a more hands-on style for Toleman. He redesigned much of the space himself, sourced carpet and furnishings, painted walls and installed timber panelling throughout the venue. The project, he says, feels less like a reinvention and more like a return to the foundations that shaped his early career. “I built [my first cafe] Three Bags Full with my own hands 16 years ago. To be back doing that again felt pretty special.”

Bar Sala
20 Mollison Street, Abbotsford
No phone

Hours:
Tue to Sat 4pm–11pm

www.barsala.com.au
@barsala.abbotsford