PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAIt seems impossible that this rare gem of a bar is in Adelaide. With its lush interior, helpful service and glamorous menu, you may indeed feel you've stumbled upon the antidote to the homogenous minimalist bars that are everywhere nowadays. This character-filled bar is a fairytale for fans of Barcelona’s backstreets and Paris’ style. With a rarefied and beautiful antique apothecary restored and transformed into the front bar, Euro-lovers will imagine they’ve stepped back in time at Apothecary 1878. The exquisite and extensive wine list provides substance to ground the heady interior style, while the contemporary but creative menus by Natalie Homan complete the package.
Entrees like white gazpacho with salad of smoked trout, avocado and chervil; or roasted quail with haricot beans, chilli and tomato broth tempt even the smallest appetites. Mains along the lines of pan-fried pork cutlet with green olive and prosciutto (with a side salad of fennel, celery and orange segments); and paella of chorizo, chicken, mussel, king prawns, vongole and peas, promise a long night with a bottle or two of South Australian red. Intimate rooms, antique lounges and snug little booths turn a simple drink and bite into a heavenly tour, while dinner for four could easily become a wild evening to remember. Everything at the Apothecary is gourmet and completely first rate. The service could at times be a little more prompt and the lighting turned up just a notch so you can read the fine print on the wine list, but otherwise the Apothecary 1878 ticks of lot of boxes, and uniqueness is one of them.
Belinda Aucott, February 2008
