What to expect from Adelaide’s newest Hi-Fi listening bar
A rare collection of vinyls and a baseball card-style cocktail list that promotes “drinking with your eyes” are just the tip of the iceberg for this new Frome Street multi-storey bar.
For co-owners Raf Thomson, Sean Howard, Josh McIlhanney and Alex Johnston, the inspiration behind Frome Street’s latest multi-level bar came from trips overseas.
“This concept started with Sean,” Raf says. “Sean and I met through work in bars, and then reconnected through remote music festivals, many, many years ago and as long as he’s been running and opening venues, he’s always had a music focus.
“[He went on a] trip to New York and Japan and discovered listening bar venues – something probably a little more adult, something more mature and considered by way of music venues. He’s been talking about it for quite a while, and for him, it was just a case of finding the right space and the right people.
“And when it was first mentioned, I expressed my desire and interest and got on board.”
Honeydripper, which opened on Frome Street last week in a Renew Adelaide space, is Hi-Fi bar listening bar.
“I can name a lot of bars that play amazing music over great speakers, but while they do that, does it come at the expense of the conversation between you and your friends? Does it consider the comfort, the lighting and the drinks?” Raf says.
“Something the Japanese particularly espoused in everything they do is just that uncompromising consideration of everything they do and pride in everything they do.
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“For us, that was the big one: not just whacking the name Hi-Fi bar, a listening lounge or wax or vinyl bar and leaving it fairly surface level. It was really about a back-to-front considered approach.”
The vinyl collection from the Honeydripper team is extensive, and Raf says they “got really lucky” when acquiring a large portion of records.
“We realised we needed to go beyond our own personal collections and so we started putting out feelers through connections in various parts of the music industry,” he says.
“We still can’t really believe it: a DJ that both Sean and I had seen perform live – Gene Farris, who’s a Chicago born, internationally recognised DJ from the peak of the house boom in the in the 90s – was selling a huge chunk of his personal touring collection that he’s accumulated from the 70s all the way through to the 2020s.
“Some of these are unlabelled test pressings. We’ve had to spend two hours researching to work out what the fuck they are.
“There is jazz, there’s blues, there’s funk, there’s soul, there’s house…we can have DJs roll through with their own 100 records and play them, which will happen, but they could rock up empty-handed and still have an absolute field day, genre jumping through this 3,500-record collection.”
As for the interiors, the Honeydripper team enlisted Claire Markwick-Smith, who has designed hospitality venues like Chicco Palms, LOC, Africola Canteen and more. Raf describes Claire’s initial mood board and ideas for Honeydripper as “love at first sight”.
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“One of the big briefs…was we didn’t want this to feel like a bar. We didn’t want it to have that sterility or that rigidity to it,” he says.
“While you walk in and it’s undoubtedly a fairly luxe fit out, you can really be tricked into thinking you just stepped into your trendy or your rich mates’ living room.
“It’s big, expensive couches and booths. It’s warm wood panelling, dim lighting. You’ll notice on the ground floor, there’s not really any tables for two sat in the middle of the floor uncomfortably.”
Honeydripper is a multi-level space, and the upstairs mezzanine has “a bit more of a focus on it being a bar”, which allows for “a bit more intimacy”.
“When you leave this beautiful, expansive lounge area to go upstairs, that’s where you’ll find the DJ booth…[there are] bar stools lining the entirety of the bar. The booths are a little bit smaller – think suited to four or five people, rather than 25 – and a bunch more tables for two or three,” Raf says.
As for the cocktail list, the Honeydripper team have used the approach of “drinking with your eyes [and] buying with your eyes”.
“We’ve presented [the drinks] in a baseball card style format…[it’s not a] drinks menu that’s formatted with text, we’ve got photos of them – they’re literally baseball cards with a name of a song that accompanies [the drink],” Raf says.
The baseball card also features the flavour profiles of the drink and what it tastes and feels like.
An example of this is Honeydripper’s “reimagined booze and juice” which is paired with a song that makes them feel “clean, crisp and fun” which is ‘I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits’ by Moodymann.
The wine list will has a focus on “drinkability” and a smaller 60 bottle wine list which will be “explorative and fun”.
Honeydripper want the focus of the venue to be drinks and music, and have opted for “very light snacks” for the menu.
Honeydripper is located at 11 Frome Street, Adelaide is open from Wednesday to Friday from 5pm until late, then Saturday and Sunday from 3pm until late.
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