Review of Winston’s Bar

Review By Nick Peters

Winston’s 192 Pirie (formerly Winston’s Bar) has been living in the shadow of it’s next door neighbour, the famous/infamous Shotz Pool Lounge, for some time now. But with the invigoration of new management and a new name, the “underdog” tag is one that Winston’s is trying to eliminate.

Their website really tells the whole story as the banner claims Winston’s to be a bar, club, function facility, restaurant, outdoor area, conference facility, birthday facility, hens night facility, bucks show facility and live entertainment venue. Phew! And really that’s the vibe that the place gives off on a Saturday night: very disjointed and uncomfortable. Despite the ambition of the management, Winston’s makes for a quaint bar but a very ordinary club.

The atmosphere is really a bit claustrophobic. The low ceilings and irregular shaped rooms make for a strange venue at the best of times, and make the vibe even worse when the bar isn’t that great. To top it all off is the fact the most Saturday nights there will be a function, making the back room and beer garden out of bounds for either the majority or the entirety of the night. There are nice touches with the wood paneling and Winston Churchill memorabilia adorning the walls, but again these don’t really fit the young partygoer vibe that they’re obviously aiming for on a Saturday night.

It’s pretty easy to say that I don’t like this place, because even if it was made well, I’m really not into the 90s dance hits that bombard Winston’s on a Saturday night. But the fact is that it’s generally going to be too up-market to attract the alternative types, and too dingy, small and not polished enough to attract the clubbers. Simply there are far better and more characterised venues in Adelaide no matter what your style, so it’s difficult to see where Winston’s longevity is going to come from. But somehow it does seem to be attracting a bigger crowd, and good luck to the management for being ambitious.

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