Expect modern Italian at Molly's, now serving up pizzas, pastas and fun cocktails at Glenelg.

Glenelg is having a resurgence.

With a new hotel set for completion at the end of 2024 and new Jetty Road ventures popping up around the place in the meantime, it’s no wonder Colley Hotel shareholders Nick King along with Steven King, David Elmes, Gavin Bailey and Craig Bailey thought it was time to revamp what was formerly the Jetty Bar.

“So there’s obviously been a lot of effort being put in by the local council. There’s a lot of investment going on in the area,” Nick says of the neighbourhood that needed “a bit of a revamp”.

“The changes to Jetty Road and the hotel going there — there’s a couple more different accommodation offerings that are in the pipelines.

“Obviously, we’re really excited about that potential and bringing people to Glenelg, not only from other parts of Adelaide but obviously the rest of the country.”

Despite the future hotel looking like it’s nowhere near the finish line, Nick says he’s heard the development will be finished “later this year”.

“I think it is planned to be a five-star hotel and obviously the more people that are in in Glenelg, the more people are out on the street and more people that we have the opportunity to welcome into the Colley [Hotel],” Nick says.

“I think like most successful hospitality operators will say that they’re not worried about what’s going on across the road or around them because people bring people and we want a successful precinct,” venue manager Sam Comley continues.

“I want every venue in this precinct to be busy and successful because it’s just going to bring more people to the area and make us busy and successful as well.”

The Colley Hotel reopened after a rebrand mid-March. In this rebrand, the team decided to introduce an Italian eatery, Molly’s, upstairs.

“So we took over the business in August of 2021 and whilst the hotel was still operating well, we thought that it was probably underutilised,” Nick says as we sit on the second level of the premises with arched glass doors overlooking Moseley Square.

“When we decided to renovate, not only did we decide to change the name, but having this space up here — obviously there was nothing here — so we levelled this out and then built what’s come to be Molly’s.

“[It’s] an Italian-themed space. Obviously, we’ve got a restaurant, function space, entertainment offering.”

Sam and Nick on the new balcony

The most notable part of the Molly’s space is the balcony.

“[There’s] a large balcony that we put on. So the balcony can fit about 90 people comfortably and then we can have about 300 people in here,” Nick says.

The space is split up into sections with a separate area for table-service dining, along with a larger more casual area they hope will eventually turn into a late-night hotspot as the warmer weather approaches.

“We wanted to open up the space,” Nick says of the now light and bright interiors.

“Before, it was quite congested with different rooms. We’ve knocked all of these walls out but we’ve still kept some of the original balustrades.

“We put these archways in which we think really opens up the space and gives you a great view out onto the terrace.

“We pushed the bar to the back which maximizes the space that we have at the front for people.”

A feed. This picture: supplied.

As for the food, the menu follows a traditional Italian flow with a range of antipasti, pizzas, pasta, seconds and desserts.

“Then we’ve got a conchiglioni, which is our take on lasagna — it’s a filled shell pasta with a nduja pork spice which gives it that spice to it and it’s layered with cheese as well — it’s not a lasagna, but we’ve done a bit of a twist on that with the layered pasta section,” Sam says.

“The rigatoni alla vodka is flying at the moment, both in the restaurant area, but also the more casual bar side.

“We’re seeing people order it with a bit of puff bread and use the bread to actually scoop up the sauce because they love the sauce so much.”

The mains range from a funghi to a capricciosa option, whereas the seconds include duck fat chips, patate al forno and polenta.

This picture: supplied.

We ask about where the name originated from, and Nick begins to tell us about the original owner of the place, named Molly.

“She was quite a prominent figure in the Glenelg area. She actually used to live up here. There were [hotel] rooms but there was also an apartment, like an owner’s quarters,” Nick says.

“We have decided to change the name. It previously was trading under the Jetty Bar. The hotel didn’t start at that name, so we didn’t think that we were really wedded to that.

“Putting in such an effort with a redevelopment, we decided to change the name for a little bit of a fresh start, but also by naming here Molly’s is somewhat still paying respect to the past.”

Molly’s is located at level 1/28 Jetty Road, Glenelg 5045 and is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30am until late.

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