Newman’s Nursery, a garden centre in the verdant Tea Tree Gully foothills, is the home of Topiary, which for 15 years has been one of Adelaide’s most underrated dining destinations.
Run by star chef and Tasting Australia food curator Kane Pollard and his wife and business partner Adele Pollard, the restaurant occupies a 140-year-old cottage and its sandstone courtyard, where you feel a world away from the city sitting beneath the wisteria-wrapped arbour.
As Broadsheet writer and Topiary lover Tomas Telegramma has explained, it’s a restaurant which has flown more under the radar than it should.
Now the Pollards are calling time on Topiary.
Pollard shares two clear reasons why now was the time to wrap up. Firstly, the lease is up. Secondly, running a restaurant for 15 years straight is “really bloody hard”.
For all this time, Topiary has been a family business in every sense.
“For first 10 years, [Adele and I] ran it with father-in-law and mother-in-law. The first seven to 10 years were possible because we just had that extra layer of support in each other. [My mother- and father-in-law] stepped back and retired about five years ago, and Adele and I have continued it from there,” says Pollard.
In those 15 years the Pollards have welcomed two daughters, Isla and Maisey, who grew up with the venue. Many regulars have also become like family for the Pollards.
“We’ve got regulars that come in every week, like Ken and Faye, who come in every single Friday. They’ve knitted the kids’ jumpers over the years, and Ken’s come up and helped me build Isla’s cubby house. They’ve been coming in every Friday for 15 years, without skipping one,” says Pollard.
“We’ve got so many customers like that. We’ve got Nigel who comes every single day of the week to say g’day and have a cup of tea. That consistent support from community has been huge for us.”
If you haven’t made it yet, now is the time to head up for a garden-to-table breakfast menu that’s among Adelaide’s best; a reasonably priced à la carte lunch menu which balances fine-dining flourishes with sourdough pizzas; or Pollard’s fancy Graze set menu, which is a steal at $85 per person.
To give everyone a chance to say goodbye, Topiary will open for Saturday dinners in September, as well as for its daily breakfast and lunch service. The menu over Topiary’s final months will be one of its best.
“We’ve had a chat to the team, and one of the first things we did was write a big, long list of the dishes that meant the most to them. It’ll essentially be a 50/50 split of new seasonal stuff – [and] every couple of weeks, we’ll change our menu, so there will still be new dishes for people to experience – and continuing to bring back some dishes that we’ve done in the past that have been favourites in one way or another.”
Don’t mistake this move for Pollard’s retirement.
“Next year will be focusing on my role with Tasting Australia, and then really hitting the ground running with Place, which I’m so bloody excited about. It’s been a passion project for a while,” he says of the nomadic dining series he launched in 2023, which he’ll be able to devote more time to in 2027.
“I’m not stepping out of the industry by any means. I still love cooking both in the commercial kitchen and at home every day. It’s in my blood and that’s not going to change. I’m keen to keep on cooking and continuing the creativity, but bricks and mortar won’t play a part in that for a little while.”
An exact closing date has not yet been confirmed for Topiary, but the Pollards will share one on Instagram soon.
Additional reporting by Tomas Telegramma.