NOLA

Nola has become one of my favourite places for quick after work drinks and a good, little feed. It is in a great location, just at the very east end of Rundle Street, in a very «blink and you’ll miss it» type of location. The food has been consistently delicious every time I have dropped past, and the selection of drinks always seem to be exponentially increasing. The food has been primarily designed around the premise of sharing, but in reality, the fried chicken is almost too good to share. However, the collard greens are a perfect addition to a table full of tasty fried morsels. I must say, that I do love the whole «Southern» comfort food theme that is this restaurant/bar’s speciality, and I am sure that it will continue to be one of my favourite places for sneaky after work snacks.

On a Friday night, it was busy and I found tables upstairs. It has a great view of Rundle Street and the vibe here is positive and friendly. It’s difficult to find street parking along Rundle Street as it get’s really busy so best to find a a good car park and it’s easy to walk to Nola.
The place is such a trendy and hipster place, it’s a small place with booths and stools downstairs or there is more space upstairs with tables and stools. You can order meals and drinks either upstairs or downstairs.
What we ordered:
CROCODILE RIBS — succulent cajun spiced croc ribs. Looks like ribs, tastes like chicken but the meat looks like fish. Fried and battered, a bit salty.
NOLA FRIED CHICKEN — boneless fried chicken with NOLA’s sauce of the day. I’ve had these before and tasted juicy, these however had too much salt. Thumbs down!
JAMBALAYA — EGGPLANT (V) spanish influenced dish, much like a paella these rich flavours are combined in rice
PO’BOYS — Beef Brisket in a bread roll, lettuce, tomoto and pickles with fresh cut potato crisps. This was delicious, the beef brisket, the meat was shredded and soft, full of flavour, however the bread roll was stale and the potato crisps tasted slightly off.
GUMBO — Chicken, Bacon and rabbit in Cajun based Gumbo with rich southern flavours. This was like a stew, very thick and tasty and rich with tomato flavours with vegetables. Thumbs up!
BOURBON & APPLE — American Bourbon has an enounter with fresh apples to get juicy on some rocks. Sweet and delicious.
Overall, I’ll come back to this place, it’s hip and trendy the beers, whiskey and cocktails are fantastic here.

After seeing NOLA’s friend chicken all over Instagram I’d been dying to try NOLA.
A group of about 8 of us went in for lunch one Sunday and sat upstairs. Awesome atmosphere and great aesthetics.
We were greeted, sat down and even got table service.
Range of gin was fantastic and came with recommendations from staff of how to have them served.
We did several different orders in groups around the table, some of us sharing, some of us eating alone, when it came to pay the bill they had it all sorted by order/​group and we could split payment easily.
Would highly recommend the fried chicken, venison meatballs and fried green tomatoes. I’ll definitely be back to see these guys. What a great lunch!

Sigh.
The boyfriend is a craft beer fiend, from a full mash to a partial mash he is on to it. So of course we were excited for Nola and all of its hype. We went and visited on a warm Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere is nice and chilled. What is slightly ridiculous is the prices.
I like most people understand the rental prices in the east end, what I do not understand is the prices Nola is charging for beer, the atmosphere did not want me to pay $ 20+ more for a beer in a bottle that I can purchase at Norwood cellars for less than half the cost and be content with going and finding my own atmosphere in my garden… The price of an on-​tap schooner which is not a standard schooner was also disappointing.
The lack or knowledge of staff about the beers and spirits they had on offering was disappointing for a place who seem to classify themselves as a craft beer lovers home and set up by people who have a passion for it.
The food menu did not catch my eye and the servings I did see coming out where small for their price.
I always will give a place like this another try, so let’s see what happens when I return.

This newest addition to the bustling East End of Radelaide came with much hype and excitement.
Upon entering, we were all very impressed with the space which was bright, airy and vibrant, a nod to its New Orleans inspiration. With two levels and a rocking ducted airconditioning system, this place will do well over our mad Summers.
Boasting an impressive collection of whiskey and grained spirits and craft beers, this would appeal to a large demographic. Not a beer or whiskey drinker myself, I ordered a gin and tonic. There was only one choice and it set me back a surprising $ 12. The girls ordered cocktails and whiskeys and thoroughly enjoyed it. I appreciate that they tried to cater to many tastes, however, one gin option is really poor form, especially when we have local producers with a growing gin following.
Moving on, our tummy is growling for solids to line our stomach. The menu is tiny, and to my disappointment, they removed the fried chicken from the menu. Something that is an icon in New Orleans. I settled for a Po’boy with softshelled crab as my pick. However, I was informed they were out and that mussels is the replacement. Why not I thought?
Other dishes included fried green tomatoes, wild boar meatballs and gumbo. Unfortunately, the verdict was not good on any of these meals except one. My mussels tasted like it came out of a can, with a $ 15 pricetag served in a Vietnamese breadroll, one would expect more than 8 mussels. The fried green tomatoes was bland and the oil need to be changed. The gumbo had an interesting flavour, but looked and tasted sloppy. The only saving grace was the boar meatballs. Presentation was nice and the meat was well done. Flavours was good here.
We would return, however, it won’t be for the food. I understand that teething problems are common with any new venture, so will make another visit later down the track.

So I returned.
Gumbo, jambalaya, and little cod patties with a spring onion aioli. Really tasty, homely cooking. The spices they use are all quite subtle and fragrant — the sort of food you munch slowly and think about. «Oh, I see what they are getting at here!» Far from big flavours, but very pleasant.
Previously I wrote of the chicken being well-​cooked but bland. I stand by that. But on this occasion, there seemed to be a higher degree of balance within each of the dishes.
We went the Gaelic Cemetery (2014) riesling and were assured it was a riesling as we would know it — taking into account our mistake last time of ordering the sickly-​sweet Some Young Punks offering.
Service is top notch.

The Thursday after work crowd was young (20−30s), and of the fashionable hipster variety. I went with a larger group and found it’s energy exciting, but as a native of New Orleans (born and raised) not true to its name or particularly authentic. First of all, whiskey is native to the bluegrass state (KENTUCKY) and though whiskey is ‘the drink’ of the moment it’s time too shall pass… Since the 1700s New Orleans is and has always been a rum city, but hey, why be bothered with the details or with authenticity, right? I mean who cares that the iconic poboy sandwich is supposed to be served on a French baguette (which could likely be sourced from another local biz just around the corner –Le Carpe Diem, Grenfell Street) when you could use a (possibly cheaper?) inferior Vietnamese roll?
Back to the food: we sampled the fried chicken which was a very small serve for the price and it was accompanied by a mayonnaise ‘sauce’ — why is it needed? Is there bread to make a sandwich?!? Um, no. So, I gave it a go and found the sauce bland, tasteless, and utterly unnecessary. It’s mayonnaise! With nothing else. Fried chicken in the States doesn’t ever come with a sauce! Ever. Back to the chicken, it had a delightful crunch and was reasonably well seasoned but far too greasy. If served with grease glistening then it should sit on a piece of bread to soak up the oil OR should be blotted with paper. Not good.
Next we had the Marlin tartar which was one of the few unique and creative takes on NOLA cuisine; it was presented on a crisp much like a Zapps’ Potato Chip (for Western Hemi folks). This is something I can recommend without reservation. Then we sampled the rabbit stew — very, very tasty with just enough seasoning, however too much rice and not enough rabbit.
One last thing, it is a total and complete sacrilege to have a Mardi Gras party on the first Friday of Lent. Pure and simple commercialization. If you can’t do it on Shrove Tuesday, just give it up!

Supertolle Bierkneipe mit 16 versch. Biersorten, einer sehr guten Küche für den kleinen Hunger zwischendurch.
Auf 2 Ebenen wird man von freundlichem Personal bedient.
Sehr empfehlenswert.
Gruss
Hubert

Excellent joint great selection of craft brews and Whisky.
Would suggest anything on the menu

Anyone who knows me, or has read my reviews would know that I’m partial to a drop or two of the malted beverages. I’m talking about beer. Give it me in pints or schooners, in a glass or a can, a bottle or a growler. I don’t care how you give it me, just give it me.
All Adelaide beer aficionados know the best places to find a classy beer in their neighbourhood. As a hills dweller, I’m lucky to have two great breweries not to far away and some good pubs with tasty crafties on tap. However, there’s always some dirty smelly mass produced beer in there with the good stuff taking up precious tap real estate. This is because the big breweries subsidise the bars to have their beers in there; quite often front and centre. I don’t like this. No sir, not one bit.
So, while the Stag hotel has been given a paint job and had what looks like $ 100,000 worth of copper beer delivery equipment installed to pump filthy dirt beer into joe public’s glass, another kind of bar has popped up around the corner. NOLA is a «New Orleans inspired» craft beer and whiskey bar. (Note the «e» is whiskey — this means bourbon, not scotch). The 16 beer taps have been crowdfunded through pozible donations, ensuring that the beers are all from small craft breweries and never locked in with bad contracts with big brewers.
There is also a huge bottled beer list, and they do Louisiana cocktails and «Creole and Cajun soul food» (try the fried chicken — it’s great)
The highlight of NOLA for me though, is the beer. Behind the bar there is a blackboard with 1 – 16 list of taps. On my first visit I was greeted by SA favourites Pirate Life, Prancing Pony, Mismatch, Little Bang, Pikes and Lobethal Bierhaus; as well as some beers from NSW, Tasmania, USA and Denmark.
On my return trip I found that all the taps had changed with SA breweries Clare Valley Brewing, Vale, Barossa Brewing, Little Bang, Brew Boys, Lobethal Bierhaus, Hills Cider Co and Micro Cider Co; as well as NSW, Vic, Scotland, NZ and Denmark beers again. All I can say is wow. It’s like having a mini wheatsheaf hotel in the city. Amazing.
I’ll be back. It’s great to see the beers constantly changing and no crap beer on the menu. Well done to everyone involved.

Went here after 9pm for a nightcap with high hopes. It was about a quarter full. I did not find the friendly or knowledgeable staff others have. My friend asked for a recommendation on the whiskey and got given the house choice — secondhand via the bar person after they asked someone else for advice because they didn’t know. No effort to match to the taste she had asked for, no offer of ice, a dropper bottle of water tossed her way with no discussion of what it was for. She was, understandably, underwhelmed.
My cocktail (mint julep) was made with love, but the hand operated ice blender made the effort look pretty amateur. I don’t know what they would do if they got multiple offers for one given how long the ice took to grind. The cocktail was OK but the mint embelishment was a wilted mess. For $ 22 I expected more. Maybe we were unlucky on the night with the choices we made, the staff and the atmosphere, but this place did not do it for us.

I have to be honest here and admit that I generally don’t check Unilocal for recommendations of places to visit, however I do like to check through the recommendations every so often and as I was doing it while down this end of Adelaide I came across this place. As far as I am aware it must be quite new, but then again I haven’t been in Adelaide since April so there are a lot of places here now that weren’t here back then. However what caught my attention was that it was a craft beer bar, so it literally jumped on my list of places to check out, and I have to say that I am really glad that I did. They have a awesome selection of craft beer, but on top of that they have an absolutely huge range of whisky. Okay, I’m not much into whiskey, but if you are then this is definitely a place to go an check out.

NOLA is a New Orleans themed bar in the East End. While technically on Rundle Street, the entrance is easy to miss as it’s actually down the little laneway between The Stag Hotel and the block containing Sosta, Lemongrass and Street ADL. There’s also an entrance on Ebenezer Place, between East Terrace and Mothervine. There’s no Rundle Street sign-​age just yet, but hopefully in the next few months they decide to put something up, because it’s a place worth knowing about!
The layout it amazing. The two-​storey building has high ceilings, exposed stone and decorative green arches throughout. Downstairs hosts the main bar and some stool/​booth seating, whereas upstairs has bar tables and dining tables with more seating. We went during the day, but the lighting used would look fantastic at night!
We went to the bar and each ordered a drink. There’s a huge selection of local craft beers. A particularly notable favourite was one called a ‘Holden Haytime’. Apparently the name was based on Golden Gaytime ice cream, given the caramel taste in the beer. There’s also an extensive cocktail list, most of which feature a variety of whiskies, predominantly either Australian or American. I’m not a huge whisky fan, so I ordered a cider and my partner ordered a beer, then we got set to deciding upon food.
Their menu is New Orleans inspired, and features classics such as fried chicken and jambalaya. We ended up ordering fried chicken, rabbit stew and the bean and charred corn salad. We set ourselves up at a table upstairs, overlooking the Rundle Street alleyway entrance below and listened to the not-​the-​New-​Orleans-​jazz-​we-​had-​expected background music (this is a good thing, for me anyway!).
The cider I ordered was totally not what I had expected. It was quite sour, but was refreshing none the less. The food arrived swiftly, and we got eating straight away.
The fried chicken, it’s just… just order it. It’s friggin’ amazing. Super crunchy outside and sooo moist and juicy on the inside. We were trying to work out if perhaps it had been brined beforehand. It was absolutely delicious. The sauce served with it pairs fantastically too. The rabbit stew was so tasty, and the perfect amount of spice for my somewhat non-​spice loving palate. The rice had no gluggy-​ness and was perfectly cooked. I really enjoyed the bean and corn salad. My partner was braver than I and added one of the menacing-​looking DIY hot sauces to it, and he thought that the extra kick took it up a notch.
NOLA is a great new addition to the East End. Would also be nice to see the upstairs section used for private functions, which NOLA also offers. I’d recommend hanging out at NOLA after work on a Friday, however our lazy Saturday afternoon lunch here was just what we were looking for.

Loved the atmosphere of this newly opened Adelaide bar. Presentation of the beer paddle looked amazing. Even tho’ not a beer drinker this was replaced with an interesting and enjoyable red wine. Presentation of the variety of tapas style small plates was fantastic and the mix of flavors stimulated the palate.

Oh yes, you had me at beer and whisky. A rising star in Adelaide’s Bar Scene only a few weeks. It is very impressive to see the attention NOLA has received in such a short time.
I think this is a good reflection of South Australians really supporting entrepreneurs who are trying to make it independently.
Did you know that NOLA have crowd funded their beer tap system? Why? Well, what some of you might not know if you have not worked in hospitality is that most beer taps in pubs are installed with funding by large beer & beverage distribution corporations. When these corporations fund the taps, the venues usually sign a agreement that they are only to serve their beer. So a lot of venues cannot get mirco-​brewed craft beers on the tap. That is why you will find a lot of places with craft beer in bottles. By NOLA seeking the help to fund the beer, they can then tap all the lovely craft beers from whom ever they wish to deal with. Great right?
As for the beer here, check out the menu! It’s great. There are a lot of local beers, interstate and even some special ones they have shipped from overseas. You can really see the potential to showcase some unique stuff here. Just as they are able to change the stock as often as they like. Very exciting.
Onto the whiskey, there is a good selection here of American and Australian blends. Which fits in with the idea of it being a more of an American style bar. But, I like Scottish whisky’s. Oh well… Still good.
As for food, well you cannot go past fried chicken! Oh yes, it is tasty and crispy and juicy. Finger licking good! I also really loved the marlin tartare on house made sourdough crisps. The fish was really fresh and sweet and then paired with the spices on the crisps was just perfect with a beer.
Great function space upstairs as well. Quite roomy and can be booked privately.
I am a very big fan of this new addition to Adelaide. Well done boys!

Loved this place! Spent a Friday night here untill the wee hours– a perfect place to hang out with friends, nice moody lighting, great drinks list and the best part ALL NIGHT FRIED CHICKEN. Adelaide needs more places that allow you to eat and drink until late, and I think NOLA really fills this gap. Definitely becoming my local