The team behind Clever Little Tailor and Pink Moon Saloon now offers a casual, modern European restaurant with a musical twist in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD.

As CityMag approaches the Rhino Room premises, Marshall King welcomes us underneath the Adelaide icon.

The ground-level location, which is a Renew Adelaide space, is being transformed into Longplay Bistro. It’s the now baby from Marshall, Henry Holland and Dana Whyte, who also own Clever Little Tailor and Pink Moon Saloon.

Marshall says the trio were looking to open a new venture but wanted to dabble in food, as they had only ever played in an alcohol-centric setting.

“We’ve been looking around for a little while — looking for certain things that we thought we could turn into something,” he says.

“We saw it here, we just saw a lot of potential. I’ll walk you through.”

As Marshall explains to CityMag what will go where, he happily admits the premises is quite large. This gives the team a chance to “fill the space” and really play around with one particular aesthetic.

Longplay Bistro will have coppery, wooden tones throughout, using colours like maroon, oranges and creams.

A secluded private function space will be available at the front of the restaurant, which overlooks the street.

The venue is slated to open in early November but there is still work to be done. To sit, the team rip the bubble wrap off Tasmanian Blackwood chairs, with the timber also to be used for table tops.

“That is essentially the aesthetic — warmer, earthy, I guess neutral sort of tone for most of it, with a few pops,” Henry says.

To mirror this casual yet fun aesthetic, Henry says Longplay Bistro will be “a celebration of the food that we love, in conjunction with the drinks that we’re already doing at our previous venues”.

“We really love that whole culture and we wanted to add it, and make our own mark on it.”

Henry, Jude and Calum, but inside

Co-head chef Jude Hughes says the menu will follow a “European Brasserie or bistro style [where] people don’t have to think too much”.

“It goes back to the not-too-complicated,” he says.

“Using the best produce you can get. We’re going to do a rib-eye steak with simple sauces [like] béarnaise, beautiful salads.

“Classic dishes, just brought into the modern.”

While the menu feels French-inspired, Jude says it will also include influences from Italy and Spain.

Though the team keep their cards close to their chest about the specifics, they do say pasta, Escabeche and cured fish are also set to feature on the menu.

“I think if you really wanted to sum it up, it’s probably those comfort and nostalgia dishes,” Henry elaborates.

This pic slid into CityMag’s DM’s after our visit — a renovated Longplay Bistro. This picture: Marshall King.

With any venue that Marshall, Henry and Dana are part of, music plays a vital role. Longplay Bistro will be no different.

“Longplay refers to an album played start to finish,” Henry says.

“Where a lot of venues currently are probably going for more of a mix DJ style listening experience, we’re just going to go for the single turntable and just play albums start to finish.”

By doing this, they hope to keep the focus on the Longplay customer.

“I think for us, it’s more about the music than it is about anybody who’s playing it,” Henry says. “And as a result, it’s also more about the people who are sitting here.

“In that way, when we’re playing things, it’s meant to just enhance the experience, not necessarily add a social element to it in terms of like that famous DJ or something like that.”

The team, with varying music tastes, have all agreed upon modern jazz to fill the ears of Longplay Bistro patrons, with fellow co-owner Lenin Paunovic leading the music direction.

Despite the restaurant taking a modern look at European food, they also want to pay great respect to its predecessor, Marco Polo, claiming the territory as “hallowed ground”.

“Back in like the 80s and 90s, Marco Polo was an absolutely massive restaurant for Italian cuisine,” Henry says.

“It was so popular that they ended up opening up a small spot downstairs to facilitate extra sales.

“They called the place downstairs Fasta Pasta — that was the original.”

Longplay Bistro is located at 131 Pirie Street, Adelaide and is slated to open in early November.

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