Kent Town Hotel

Pioneering Owner Makes Kent Town Hotel a Local Favourite

BY TYLER MAUND

A lolly trolley wheels past and it’s laden with delicious treats, but you’re not on the Hogwarts Express – you’re at the Kent Town Hotel.

It’s just one of many quirks of the city fringe pub, which has recently undergone a $7 million renovation and has plans for a major accommodation project next on the list.

The venue previously operated as the Tap Inn and Jungle Restaurant, with the latest revamp taking the hotel back to the community.

“The plan this time was to make the Kent Town Hotel a local again,” said owner Tom Hannah, who has operated hotels for 40 years.

“All of a sudden, Kent Town is getting locals.”

Born and raised in Adelaide, his journey in hotels began in 1982 with the Gouger Hotel, which proved to be a tough initiation into the hotel industry.

“We took over the lease of the Gouger Hotel and it was a baptism of fire.

“We learnt all the hard lessons, it was a tough end of town but we just went on from there.”

These valuable lessons ensured Tom evolved when he took over the Earl of Leicester Hotel in 1997, starting a concept that combined two menus, the bar menu and a restaurant menu.

“That was our formula for many years, without anyone really taking any notice of what we were doing.”

“I’d been a restaurateur and a publican, which has had a lot to do with us developing the formula with food that we did,” he said.

“All of a sudden we were doing porterhouse schnitzels instead of topside schnitzels and you could get that in the restaurant, alongside restaurant dishes.

In 1999 Tom created the Bombay Bicycle Club at the Ovingham Hotel, which added an international flavour to the successful menu strategy.

“We added Indian food to that formula and it just went crazy,” he said.

“We were booked out for two sittings, every lunch and dinner, including Saturday lunch, six months in advance for two years.

“It was a phenomenal thing, I don’t think Adelaide had ever seen booking numbers like that.”

The Bombay Bicycle Club was inspired by the East India Trading Company and offered a British Raj India theme that introduced a new experience for customers.

“We thought ‘wouldn’t it be great to ride the elephant, shoot the tiger and find the lost city of gold’,” said Tom.

“At that particular time the most popular meal in Britain was butter chicken and chips, and the second biggest employer in Britain was Indian food houses.

We were booked out for two sittings, every lunch and dinner... for two years.

“It all added up for us.”

Tom’s journey of innovation continued at the Tap Inn, which had 63 points of difference to a normal hotel, and excelled with its golf theme.

“We did the Tap Inn after the Bombay and that was a roaring success, but we leased it out and it deteriorated badly,” he said.

The Tap Inn featured its own indoor driving range onsite and a bucket of balls in the corner that customers could tee off with.

The Tap Inn was a huge success. It became a tourist icon and was named the best hotel redevelopment in Australia.

It was also at this time that Australian Tapas was introduced as part of the venue’s food offering.

“We started small plates - Aussie tapas,” said Tom.

“We didn’t get the credit for that, but it worked well. We had 54 small plates of food which people hadn’t seen until then.

We started small plates - Aussie tapas.

Within seven months the eastern seaboard had added small plates to their menus.

“Within seven months the eastern seaboard had added small plates to their menus.

“It was labour intensive and complicated but it was massive, everybody loved it because they could have three or four things instead of just the main course.”

When Tom took back the lease for the venue, he established the Jungle Restaurant, a lively jungle-themed venue that became very popular.

2020 saw COVID-19 thrust the hospitality industry into chaos, forcing Tom to close the Jungle Restaurant and reassess his next move, which would ultimately lead to the new Kent Town Hotel.

“We did the jungle and that was fun for a while and doing good numbers but it wasn’t what we wanted to do long-term,” he said.

“We gutted it when COVID happened.

“The gift and the curse of the hotel was its size. It’s a 2,500 square metre site, we had 6,500 square metres of useable space.

“We developed the pub side which took us two-and-a-half years and $7 million. It’s come up a treat and we’re getting good feedback.

“I’m usually the project manager for all our projects but this time around I was the builder as well because the builder didn’t turn up,” he said.

“It nearly killed me.

“My decisions that I have made in the hospitality industry come from the fact that I see myself as the average Joe Blow,” he said.

“A lot of the ideas I come up with, I figure the majority of people will think is a good idea as well.

The clear directive this time was to make the Kent Town Hotel a popular venue for locals again, whilst maintaining the key points of difference that Tom loves.

“The Tap Inn and Jungle Restaurant concepts were put in place because we knew we had to draw a clientele base from everywhere because Kent Town didn’t have many locals,” he said.

“In this last development, we were very aware of how hot Kent Town had become with apartments and townhouses going up and properties being snapped up.

“We wanted to create atmosphere for people to stay longer, to take ownership of the place as part of the community.

“The people of Kent Town that have had to put up with the golf balls and gorillas, are very pleased that they now have a local pub to go back to and have a meal and a glass of wine.”

It’s a revamp that has been endorsed by the council, realising how important a good local pub is to the community.

“The council were very supportive with the outside area. They had the foresight to realise what we were doing with the pub would not only reinvent the pub but change the whole of Kent Town,” said Tom.

“We were fortunate enough to be able to negotiate with them to get some extra footpath space, to give us an extra 150 seats outside. That’s been a strength of the hotel already.

“It’s a popular area and it’s great to have had council support.”

The outside of the Victorian-style hotel features a Parisian café feel, whilst inside it is a throwback to yesteryear with chesterfield lounges and warm décor.

It features a restaurant, downstairs bar, balcony bar and café, along with a billiard room and a room of quotes, which are both suitable for small gatherings.

Two function rooms have also been completed which will be ideal for weddings.

“We’ve just finished our 200-person function rooms which opened midFebruary,” said Tom.

“We have set it up for weddings and to be able to do functions, rather than functions prioritised over weddings.

The hotel also has underground carparking for more than 50 cars.

It’s a revamp that has been endorsed by the council, realising how important a good local pub is to the community.

FOOD OFFERING

Developing a balanced menu that satisfies all tastes and types of people has also been a priority.

“It has taken us a few goes at the menu since we started but we have it where we want it now, which is a good combination of pub traditional, with restaurant food as well. The old formula,” he said.

“We are getting great feedback.

“The lolly trollies are a big hit.

“If I’ve had a couple of courses of food and someone brings the dessert menu around I’ll think ‘no I really don’t need that’,” said Tom.

“If someone brings a bowl of chocolate covered peanuts around, I’m in.

“We put 48 different lollies and chocolate together on a trolley, we call them the lolly trolleys and we wheel them around the pub.

“People can buy a little bowl or a bag, take them home to the kids, and it takes the pressure off the kitchen dessert staff.”

The Kent Town Hotel’s bottle shop is the only one in the area, offering retail prices and $20 corkage on premise if visitors want to enjoy it in the restaurant.

“There isn’t a bottle shop in Kent Town, so we wanted to provide that,” he said.

“People can walk around the corner and grab a six pack or a good bottle.

“The staff we are concentrating on recruiting are people with good wine knowledge.”

The latest renovation doesn’t have an indoor driving range or a jungle theme, although it maintains its own points of difference such as the lolly trolley, bottle shop and tongue in cheek signage.

“We have a sign on a door that says ‘a great number of movie stars and celebrities use our hotel, please respect their privacy’,” said Tom.

“That’s gone gangbusters, we’ve had a few laughs already.”

TEAM EFFORT

It hasn’t been a journey that Tom has experienced on his own however, working closely with his wife Lara and son Tom Jnr.

“My wife Lara is my business partner, we worked together for about 15 years before we became an item,” he said.

“Tom Jnr is the assistant manager at the Kent Town Hotel, he’s doing a great job and really enjoying the journey.”

The early signs are encouraging and Tom believes the hotel is being well received by the community.

“The response has been good. Obviously we have had our teething problems just like everyone does, we still have a lot of work to get it exactly where we would like it to be,” he said.

“We are really happy about people coming down for Sunday breakfasts and lunch.

“You go outside and there are half a dozen people with their dogs. People with dogs are a great sign.

“We see that as great community contact.”

FUTURE PLANS

Tom said the development is “only halfway done”.

“The other half of the hotel property, not yet started, will become 75 four-star hotel rooms over four levels.

“It’s our first foray into accommodation, but we are confident with Kent Town being a great site within walking distance to the city.

“We expect to have this out of the ground in the next two years. It will again change the hotel for the better, with hopefully the ‘pub’ side being a drawcard for the accommodation, and vice versa.”