Adelaide, South Australia, is a place I knew little of until a visit in 2019. A friend, Toby Gilbert, a fellow singer in Irish supergroup Anúna had moved there with his family. I got to meet up with him at Apothecary, a top-rated Adelaide restaurant.
Interior & Seating
We were first to arrive into an interesting pharmacy-inspired interior. The more medical bottles were juxtaposed with more modern bottles of fine wines.
The dark red walls do make everything feel dark. Perhaps it creates the perfect backdrop for a delicious tasting menu with a wine flight to match.
On our travels as singers, we ate out in some fascinating places, but none perhaps so thoughtful as this hotspot.
A bread plate came with a fermented butter (an interesting take on salted butter) and fat green olives.
Below is the first course of edamame, green beans and pickled red onions with a light dressing. It was a thing of perfectly balanced, acidic beauty.
That wine flight was heavy on the pours. My usual focus on taking photographs diminished.
I remembered just before dessert! This was a chocolate ganache with brownie pieces and strawberries. Decadent and delicious.
The owner came by at the end of a meal with a digestivo of bitter herbs. I have had this only once, on a balmy night in Rome in the late 1990s. What’s more, it had the same bitter, unappetising flavour that is supposed to add the digestion.
There are insufficient late night spots in Adelaide for a nightcap. However, one wee bar was open and still serving for a final glass of wine before heading off.
The conversation came around to nights out in New York. How unexpected the trajectory of our lives can be. And how wonderful to have pieced it all together over a well-considered meal in Adelaide.
