Bar Pin is exactly what the inner-west needs right now
Boasting homely small plates, cocktails featuring backyard figs and a colourful collection of Indigenous art, Bar Pin is a perfect addition to the inner-west.
When CityMag visits the newly opened Bar Pin on Henley Beach Road, it’s the last day of a week-long January heatwave.
This reporter passes through the doors of what was once Francesco’s into the renovated space, dripping with sweat. The former restaurant’s black walls are now white, with the building’s original bricks on display. Aircon blasts – thank God.
I’m handed one of Bar Pin’s signature cocktails by co-owner Nina Haigh — an iced tea. It’s the perfect start to our two hours spent in the space.
Nina says the drink is an ode to her childhood; a mix of jasmine and chrysanthemum tea, a splash of lemongrass syrup, some lime and a shot of vodka. It’s delicious, cold and sipped in about five minutes – perfectly refreshing.
The drink is emblematic of what makes Bar Pin special. Nina and co-founder Hamish Gibson-Smith – also the head chef – have placed community at the very heart of the new neighbourhood bar.
That’s not to mention the hyper-local approach to produce provenance. The sourdough is made locally by Idle Hands, the tomatoes are fresh from Common Acre, and the figs in the fig gin and tonic cocktail are literally grown in the bar’s backyard.
As such, the bar fits neatly and politely into the inner-western suburbs of Adelaide, which otherwise lacks a suburban bar of the likes of Bar Pin. The Wheatsheaf has long been the watering hole for Mile End’s younger suburbanites, but this new spot offers something the CBD’s hospo scene has been championing for some time, but otherwise doesn’t exist this side of the park lands.
It took very little time for Bar Pin to go from ideation to realisation. Late last year, Nina and Hamish sat down for dinner. He told her Francesco’s — where he’d been working as a chef — was closing, and asked if she’d open a bar with him. She jumped at the opportunity and quickly left her job at an Indigenous arts organisation.
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“We had a vision, a time frame and a budget. A small budget,” says Hamish, also a founder of Gunson Street recording studio Interim Studios.
“We willed it into existence, working every day.”
Nina says the offer couldn’t have come at a better time.
“We’ve been friends for a really long time, and I wouldn’t have done it with anyone else,” she says.
It took about one month to transform Francesco’s into Bar Pin. A team of 25 friends and family became tradies overnight, watching YouTube tutorials on how to use jackhammers.
The space is now light and open, with a front bar area more reminiscent of a typical restaurant, a living room-style space behind it complete with a small stage and DJ decks, and a courtyard out the back where cigarettes are smoked underneath the giant fig tree.
On the walls are works of Indigenous art from Nina’s personal collection, gathered over her long career in the arts space. They add splashes of colour to the white walls, drawing interest and attention. The only other colour comes from the dark blue seats, which sit underneath silver tables.
It’s at those tables that you can enjoy the small plates menu, designed in collaboration by Hamish and Nina.
I start with the kingfish crudo. The fish is fresh and tasty, but beautifully complemented by lime, chilli, and green apple soldiers on Ozempic. It looks sweet and unassuming, but the light spicy punch to the tip of your tongue proves you should never judge a book by its cover.
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A roast tomato, white bean and walnut pesto soup is the next dish on the menu. Soup in summer sounds wrong, but I’m quickly sold on the concept after one spoonful. Like the rest of the menu, it’s super homely, and the Roma tomato falls apart gracefully without much resistance while sourdough made by local bakers Idle Hands sops up the soup.
Tomato carpaccio topped with crispy anchovies and a heaping of chilli is another highlight and very shareable. The heirloom tomatoes come from a small-scale farm on the Fleurieu Peninsula called Common Acre – another nod to Pin’s commitment to SA produce.
“Knowing where the food comes from is important. Knowing it comes locally, knowing who’s behind the food,” Hamish says.
The menu highlights a range of flavours – Indonesian, Thai and Northern Australian: “We wanted fresh, approachable food,” Hamish says.
“I love sharing. I love talking about eating. I love sitting alongside people you don’t necessarily know to see what they’ve got and having a chat.”
Crafting the menu was Nina’s favourite part of the journey to building Bar Pin.
“I’ve definitely got some punchier flavours from growing up in Indonesia and living in Southeast Asia when I was younger, then living in Darwin and all the amazing influences from there,” she says.
The cocktail list came last, but organically, says Nina, who pulled it together after days spent painting walls.
“The Fig and Tonic I literally just made up. I thought I’d order some fig gin to make a little fig drink, and now it seems to be the hero.
“It looks so beautiful and is yummy too.”
The Darwin energy is set to continue with Nina saying she just ordered some salty plum gin from Darwin Brewing Company.
“I’m excited to kind of make a really salty sour Territory electrolyte fun drink,” she says.
Hamish says he hopes the local area – which he lives in too – will embrace the new neighbourhood bar.
“There are so many share houses and creative people. There are lots of young professionals, lots of families, and so many different food options on this street,” he says.
“It works in Norwood, Goodwood and Prospect. There’s nothing on this side.
“There’s the Thebby Theatre down the road – come here before and after shows.”
Bar Pin is now open at 146 Henley Beach Road, Torrensville. Connect with the bar on Instagram.
