Bar 1854, a premium cocktail and whiskey bar, launches at The Cremorne Hotel in Adelaide on Friday 22 November.
The unused first floor of the pub in Unley has been given a facelift and had been transformed into a late-night cocktail bar that comfortably seats 40 people. Bar 1854 will work off a table-service model, and the drinks list will revolve around craft cocktails, rare Japanese whiskies and vintage Champagne. There will also be a martini trolley service, with martinis made table-side.
“There is nothing like Bar 1854 in Adelaide,” says venue manager Grace Kelliher.
“It’s the best of Paris, New York, Melbourne, and Tokyo, uniquely mixed to create a signature bar for Adelaide. This is a place for people to have fun and enjoy a curated experience with personalised service and a rotating list of rare, aged, and crafted drinks.”
Duxton Pubs CEO Mark Condi, who joined the group from Merivale in early 2024, told Australian Hotelier it was one of the first projects he greenlit when he began his role in the group. With 23 pubs in the group, there were many requests for various capital projects within Duxton Pubs, but the Bar 1854 project stood out, as it was led by the venue team at Cremorne Hotel.
“In my experience in this industry, it’s very easy for all of us at head office to sit back and think about what we want to create at a particular venue. It’s also very easy to spend money. The hardest thing is the execution,” explained Condi.
“And in this case, the actual team at The Cremorne Hotel were the ones that came up with the concept 18 months ago, and were the ones that prepared the proposal that came to me. The team was so engaged, so enthusiastic, so excited and driven, that the execution was already looked after.”
The CEO also pointed to cocktail culture – which has been hugely popular in cities like Sydney and Melbourne for some time now – has begun to seep into drinking culture in South Australian pubs, particularly as it relates to perceive value for patrons compared to other categories. While South Australian pubs are very focused on wine, Condi says he can see the move towards for cocktails as being a win-win for venues and patrons.
“I believe cocktails, like every other state in the country, is something that we need to move towards, and certainly the team here were very engaged and enthusiastic in providing that. Cocktails obviously provide a pretty good margin for the for the venue, but also in this cost-of-living crisis, what we’re experiencing – and I saw this at Merivale – is people are still happy to spend money, but they want to get value for their money. And so ordering cocktails provides what a lot of our customers believe is value. It’s something special. It’s a whole experience, rather than just a drink.”
Bar 1854 also provides a different sort of experience compared to the lively pub below, with a quieter, more refined atmosphere within the cocktail lounge. The moody interior was designed by Duxton Pub’s in-house designer Zoe Hilton, and the name pay’s homage to the venue’s history with the Cremorne Hotel pouring its first drink in 1854.
