Adam Swanson’s dining destination
As the Henley Surf Lifesaving Club celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025, much-loved chef Adam Swanson reveals what has brought him to the club’s beachside headquarters.
Adam Swanson is a sucker for a beautiful sunset – which is lucky, because as co-owner and executive chef at Ocean Bar + Kitchen at Henley Surf Lifesaving Club he’s perfectly placed to witness the sun sinking into the sea every day.
“If we get a good sunset, I tell the kitchen staff to take 30 seconds and go and look,” Adam says. “We’re so fortunate, with the left-to-right sweeping views. And, actually, the winter sunsets are usually better than the summer ones.”
With friend and business partner Josh Harkin, Adam opened the doors to Ocean in December 2023.
“This is venue number seven for me. And to be honest, I thought I was done with seasonal restaurants – you know, I had Zucca for 15 years at Glenelg,” he smiles. “But this opportunity was just too good to pass up.”
Surf lifesavers at Henley Beach circa 1960. Photograph: State Library South Australia, B 48584.
Adam opened Zucca Greek Mezze at Holdfast Shores in late 2003, fresh out of chef training and aged only in his mid-20s. One year later and still the new kid on the block, he won Best Mediterranean Greek Restaurant in the SA Restaurant and Catering Awards – which he did again in 2005 and 2006. Further category wins in later years secured Zucca a Hall of Fame accolade. National attention soon followed, with a Best Greek Restaurant award and Young Achiever of the Year. By 2015 Swanson was appointed executive chef at Lot1 Italian restaurant and espresso bar in Sydney’s central business district. But more recently, Adam initiated Barossa Cucina in Tanunda and Cheeky Chook Eats at Lockleys.
A natural in front of the camera, from the late 2000s Adam also built a name as a celebrity chef, appearing on television’s Ready Steady Cook and more recently Everyday Gourmet, Good Chef Bad Chef, Open Homes Australia and Spaghetti and Noodles.
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But throughout his rise to fame, Adam has never lived outside of his home state.
“I commuted interstate, back and forth, during those crazy years,” he smiles. “Yes, at one stage I did think about moving to Sydney, but Adelaide is too good. I love it … I can’t leave!”
Pictured watching but not participating in 1946 are (standing) Laurel Butterfield, Rhonda Middlebrook and Shirley McGargill; (sitting) Pam May and Dolores Amos.
The fly-in-fly-out approach will still work for Adam in 2025. Along with putting his heart and soul into Ocean, he’ll continue his 15-year role as ambassador for Australian pasta brand San Remo, and star in new TV productions aimed at food-lovers.
“Every year, I’m lucky to travel to Italy to film cooking shows that are sold into Asia first, and then reach an Australian audience via the SBS Food channel,” says Adam. “These trips mean I stay connected to family and food trends in Italy, but allow me to remain rooted in SA.”
Along with his wife Betty and two children, Adam is a long-term resident of Adelaide’s western suburbs – although he wasn’t born and bred on this side of town. For an Italian-Australian kid growing up in 1980s Rostrevor, the beach was only an occasional experience for Adam.
Adam has turned the club’s restaurant into a dining destination.
“Back then, I only saw the ocean in school holidays,” Adam explains. “My grandparents would pick me up, then we’d get takeaway food and drive west to picnic on the sand, followed by a swim. Honestly, I felt as if I was a bit of an outsider to the beach back then.”
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Adam feels differently now – there’s a sense of belonging, both for him and his new venture.
“With Ocean open just a little over a year, we’ve already got our regular customers, who come in and eat with us one, two, even three times a week,” Adam says. “That’s just so special, to have those relationships develop. These are the people who drive what we’re doing – they tell us what they love and help keep us focused on customers.”
Henley is a busy spot, with numerous cafes and bars spilling out onto the square and along Seaview Road. By contrast Ocean is relatively hidden, situated inside Henley Surf Lifesaving Club. Initially Adam wasn’t even aware the location existed – until friends at his regular coffee catch-up pointed out the club house’s internal stairs that lead visitors up to the light-filled dining space. When the club’s board of management sought external expressions of interest to run the club’s food and beverage arm, Adam and Josh tendered successfully. Their offering? The best of South Australia and Italy.
Henley Surf Lifesaving Club members Kim and Matthea are looking forward to celebrating the club’s 100th anniversary this year.
“Traditional, coastal Italian-style food that uses the best seasonal produce, local where possible, consistent and served in a place where people feel comfortable – that’s what we do,” he says. “And of course the ocean speaks for itself.”
Every summer, Henley comes alive. Just as with the trips Adam used to make with his grandparents, a mass of sun-seekers migrates from the eastern suburbs and the Hills to the water. Henley’s lifesavers keep a close eye on proceedings, patrolling the beach from October to April each year.
“I watch the lifesavers out there on the water, doing their thing – it’s wonderful, and incredibly they’re all volunteers,” Adam says. “I feel lucky to be part of this community.”
South Australia’s first surf club
Henley Surf Lifesaving Club is South Australia’s first surf club, celebrating its centenary in 2025. And a lot has changed in surf lifesaving over 100 years. When the club was established in 1925, only men patrolled as active lifesavers. In 2025 club memberships are split approximately equally on gender – but it had taken 55 years for women to finally be admitted as active lifesavers in 1980.
Henley local, Matthea, is a Henley club member and lifelong ocean swimmer. “We used to sit on the beach in the 1970s, watch the boys train, and think ‘why not me?’,” she says. “As soon as women were allowed to be lifesavers, I trained for my bronze medallion.”
It’s not just next generations of the same families who become members at surf clubs these days either. Patrolling Henley member, Kim, joined … literally by accident.
“In 2017 I was diving near the jetty and must have been giving off a swimmer-in-distress vibe – a lifesaver came out on their board to check if I was OK,” he says. “When they realised I was fine, we had a chat about the club and I joined that season.”
Kim says those who regularly swim in the ocean
are typically chill, happy and content folk: “They are my people”.
This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
