You could do a small bar. You could do a club. Or you could do both.

The rule that you can’t be all things to all people feels like conventional wisdom, but Hacienda’s façade alone shows this is not a strictly conventional club.

According to Tim Klaosen, the guy who owner Terry Board brought in to help re-focus the former Apple nightclub space, it’s an entirely new concept for Adelaide: a small bar and a club housed within the same walls.

“The goal is definitely to [have] a place where all the small bar people, who are done doing cocktails at 10 or 11, have a place to go,” Tim says.

“With the Dive Shop just closing… they’ll need somewhere to go in the East End, so I think the timing’s good and it’ll appeal to those people.”

Entering through the vibrant gateway, punters will be greeted by the Dim Doolie Bar – Hacienda’s small bar space.

It will be an intimate setting accompanied by boutique beers and carefully crafted cocktails, as well as food provided by local East End eateries (Fancy Burger fans rejoice). Once the crowd is sufficiently sauced, they’ll head through the doors at the back of the room and the Hacienda experience will properly begin.

“So Saturday is going to be very consistent… so same pop, funk, disco, RnB vibe, and then Fridays will be a rotating once-a-month thing,” Tim says.

“We know Fridays are quite difficult in Adelaide. There’s nowhere outside small bars that really go off, so we think… if we can create a good once-a-month night on a Friday, people will look forward to it.”

When pressed as to what that might look like, Tim remains tight-lipped.

“We do have it, but yeah. It’ll be different to anything that’s been done,” he says.

For anyone familiar with the site during its Apple incarnation, this might seem like a drastic change, and you would be right.

“Apple became sort of a hardcore nightclub,” Terry says.

“With everything changing to the small bar scene, we just wanted to try and be a small bar that transitions into a nightclub.”

“It was definitely the goal to fit into the East End,” Tim adds. “Apple didn’t fit into the East End, but this place… I think it’s what the East End needs and wants.”

Renowned nightclub owner Michael Delany was brought from interstate to design the space – his first Adelaide project – and the result is exactly as eclectic as should be expected from the inventor of Rave Juice.

Colour has been introduced, arched windows have been uncovered, and the former smoking deck has been converted into a beer garden.

The most important change though, is the focus on helping the big space feel a little more intimate.

“Terry gave [Michael] complete rein,” Tim says.

“We wanted to turn the space into a more intimate environment. We wanted people to be able to mingle more, and then we fucking loved the concept of a small bar into a club, because no one has done it.

“Hopefully it works,” he laughs.

Hacienda is opening this Saturday, June 4, so it’s not long until he finds out.