2020 Gallery
Winner: Best Bar Design
studio -gram for Leigh Street Wine Room
9 Leigh Street
Adelaide, South Australia
Paying homage to the classic wine bars of yesteryear, Leigh Street Wine Room is a wine bar and a wine store in the heart of Adelaide. That place around the corner that you call home, a ‘simple’ wine bar, to entice the casual sipper and the serious sniff and swirler.
Jury Citation
Everyone deserves a local bar like this one. With its timeless European style, Leigh Street Wine Room on Adelaide’s most happening eat street seems like it’s been around for years. Built on the site of a former dry-cleaning business (the original signage remains intact), the ultra-narrow footprint has been artfully overhauled by local firm Studio Gram on an impressively compact budget. The cosy room has an immediately welcoming vibe, and cocoons its customers with feelings of warmth and intimacy. A dazzling vaulted archway integrates a mezzanine level over the terrazzo bar serving intelligent drops and substantial snacks. A library of more than 400 bottles of minimal-intervention wine fills an entire wall, showcasing what this place does best. While the eclectic design scheme has been carefully curated, it never feels overworked. The result is an instant classic that demands to be visited again and again.