New underground bar to open in Adelaide

The face of Adelaide nightlife is set to evolve once more with the official opening of Bank Street Social in the next two weeks.

Housed in a cosy basement space at the corner of Hindley and Bank streets, the 240-square-metre underground bar is the exposed-brick, initimately lit brainchild of business partners Shaun Campbell, Simon Orders and Tom Paxton.

As reported by the SA-based Rip It Up magazine, the trio secured the lease to the premises in February and have been nose-to-the-grindstone since bringing their new 120-capacity space up to scratch as a warm, inviting social space to finish a hard day, or an even harder week.

“It’s all in the finishing stages,” Campbell said. “We’ve got almost all of our structural elements in place, and in the next week we’ll just be working on back-of-house stuff and our stock – getting all our wine and beer in – a bit of decoration and a lot of cleaning! But we should be on target to open in the next two weeks.”

The renovated space draws on the underground, urban speakeasy vibe found throughout inner-city New York, where Campbell - the space's primary designer - had spent a number of months residing. Despite the vintage look of the walls, the red-brick structures are new creations, rather than old supports simply stripped back.

Bank Street Social also looks set to embrace and encourage local beverage-makers to promote their wares, with the primary beverage list not only to be exclusively drawn from South Australian providers but the venue looking to project Friday-night lights on locally sourced consumables that help the venue stand out as a point of difference among the venue scene.

“It’s a bar-bar,” Campbell said of the venue's catering plans. “We don’t have a kitchen or anything like that. We’re going to have some cheese boards and we’re going to try and use local suppliers to get some cold meats, dried fruit, cheese – that kind of thing.”

Bank St Social is due to open in mid-July. Check the venue's Facebook page or its website for more information as the official opening draws nearer.

Source: The Music - 7 July 14