Review: what makes Bar Bar, Adelaide’s number one bar, essential

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Bar Bar

Address: 78a Pirie St, Adelaide SA 5000
Key people: Matt Harrison, Lachlan Harrison
Owners: Cantina Group
Opened: 2025
Follow them on Instagram here.

Will you see Bar Bar landing on the big global best of lists? I don’t think so, even though I might want to. And that’s beside the point. That’s because it’s not that kind of bar — Bar Bar is just a bar. And that is what makes it essential.

The last 10 years of the bar world discourse has been driven by high concept bar programs, technique-driven and aesthetically designed drinks, and big new menu drops. It’s all about grabbing attention in a world which gets noisier every year. There’s so much to talk about, that a bar which just does the little things right can fly under the radar.

That’s the space Bar Bar occupies. I could tell you about the 30-odd agave spirits they have on the back bar — they are ostensibly an agave bar after all — but that feels superfluous. I could tell you that their signature cocktails are delicious, and focused on flavour rather than clarification, but it doesn’t matter because that’s not so much the point. At Bar Bar, what you get, is two owner-operators behind the stick most days, welcoming back regulars and off-duty hospo types, catching up on gossip, and hosting; sitting at the bar amongst all of that, you feel a part of something larger. The owners are happy to be there. They’re happy to talk to the punters. That they make great drinks — and they do — is a lower-order priority.

Bar Bar is part of an Adelaide collective of sorts, called Cantina Group (Alfred’s, Malt & Juniper, and Jennie Wine Bar), the common denominator of which is co-owner Scott Quick. At Bar Bar he is joined by co-owners Lachlan and Matt Harrison.

And it’s those two you’ll often see shaking tins and getting frosty Modelos from the fridge. I reckon three out of four people who stop in after 3pm, when they open, know them. It’s the bar as a third space — hospo workers on breaks popping in for a beer and a shot, then returning after their restaurant has closed for a knock-off drink. You’ll see suits from nearby businesses dropping in for afternoon meetings or holding up the bar with their corporate cards later at night. I’ve seen international tourists and local folks meeting and getting to know one another.

This is a bar where life happens. That’s the foundation of what makes any bar truly great. It’s the people who work there, and the people who drink there. At Bar Bar, you get two switched-on bartenders who are there to host and show you the way, so you don’t have to worry for what little time you get away from the big bad world. It’s a beautiful little bar.

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