Unique twist to revive vacant waterfront café
A riverside spot formerly home to Folklore café has a new owner planning to make a splash next summer, with dolphin-watching and a boat drive-thru.
A Port Adelaide nightclub owner has taken over the former Folklore Café spot on the Port River, with plans to transform the dolphin sanctuary into a café and event space.
Shane Hryhorec, the owner of CONFESSION nightclub, had his eye on the waterside venue since Folklore owner Anika Havey closed the popular café in February 2024 after almost a decade of trade.
“What sets this apart from the rest is it’s the only cafe restaurant event space on top of the water in a dolphin sanctuary anywhere that I can think of in the world,” Shane says.
“The idea that you can come have a coffee and look out the window and spot dolphins is just incredible, and it’s something that we will really be honing in on.”
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The new spot will be called Juno, which was the namesake of two ships: the first self-powered vessel to enter the Port River in 1847, and the first ship to ferry passengers across from Port Adelaide to Port Vincent in 1904.
Shane, an InDaily 40 Under 40 alumnus, says Juno will introduce diners to the dolphins and offer a boat drive-thru, as the venue features a public boat dock.
“One of the things that’s really frustrating about South Australia is there’s nowhere you can take your boat, park, and have lunch,” Shane says.
“It just doesn’t exist, if you take your boat out of harbor, you can’t park – they’re all private berths, whereas there’s a public boat dock right next to the restaurant, so people can pull up, order some food, we can deliver it to their boat, they can sit in the sanctuary, relax, have some lunch and food with their family and friends, so they get to enjoy the Port Adelaide River and the sanctuary and the dolphins all at the same time.”
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The venue is expected to open later this year, in time for summer 2026. It will be able to host up to 200 people for private functions and operate as a café six days a week.
Confession is booked out most weekends with private functions, after making the choice to focus on events rather than operate as a weekly nightclub as businesses faced cost-of-living constraints.
“Earlier this year we relaunched our weekly offering, but it was a bit of a struggle, because people were coming, but people had less money to spend buying drinks, because of the issues with cost of living,” Shane says.
But despite the economic environment for small business remaining similar, Shane hopes he can activate the dormant part of Port Adelaide.
“People are still going out, but they’re going out less often, and people are very selective about where they go,” he says.
“So we’re hoping because of the uniqueness of the space, the beautiful food, our great attention to great customer service, and the fact that you can sit out the window and look at dolphins will hopefully set this venue apart from the rest as a space that people would love to go and have breakfast.
“We’re hopeful that the venue will be able to potentially push forward and still be successful, even though we’ve got a lot of those economic pressures.”
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