A familiar face in Adelaide’s hospitality scene is breathing new life into a long-retired railway station, reimagining a mid-1800s heritage-listed bluestone building as a contemporary neighbourhood eatery.
The Big Easy Group, the team behind Anchovy Bandit, La Louisiane, Tarantino’s and several other highly regarded Adelaide venues, is planning its next concept in the Bowden Railway Station building.
It will be one of three venues in the area linked to the group, which also has interests in Bowden Brewing and a soon-to-open restaurant on the ground floor of Muse, a 36-apartment complex in the heart of Bowden.
Group co-founder Oliver Brown said the building’s history was a major factor in the decision to buy it, despite the group not yet deciding on a concept for the venue.
“The train station was an attractive purchase just because of the heritage of it,” Mr Brown said.
“Like the building, the walls, you just can’t find this and can’t buy it anymore.”
He said that, like the group’s other venues, the restaurant would likely be inspired by a particular culture’s cuisine.
“But for this site, and for this venue, we don’t know yet,” he said.
“We’ll try and drill into something niche, probably something unique, a concept that we haven’t hit yet at any of our other venues.”
The Big Easy Group launched in 2015 and now operates seven venues across Adelaide.
Previously, the Bowden Railway Station building was home to The Loose Caboose, a café known for its weekend brunch crowds before closing in mid-2025.
The building dates back to 1856 and is one of the oldest surviving railway station buildings in South Australia.
It was one of the original stations on the Adelaide to Port Adelaide line, the state’s first railway, and is protected by a State Heritage listing.
Mr Brown said the character of the site gave the group a head start.
“That kind of character is already such a foundation to build a unique and interesting venue on,” he said.
“It’s really hard to recreate that in a new building. It takes a lot of architecture and a lot of work, but this kind of already has it in spades.”
Mr Brown said the restaurant would serve lunch and dinner and sit at the higher end of the group’s portfolio, taking inspiration from two of its existing venues Tarantino’s and La Louisiane.
“They’re very experience-based venues, so it’s not just so much about the food, but it’s about the service and the music and the lighting and how you feel through the entire experience,” he said.
Mr Brown said he remembered The Loose Caboose drawing long queues and wanted to build on that legacy.
“It was definitely one of the first cafes of that kind of culture and that era.
“I know that people want to come to this space already.”
With thousands of people already living in Bowden, and more residents expected in coming years, Mr Brown said the group wanted the restaurant to become part of the community’s daily routine rather than a destination reserved for special occasions.
“We’re pumped about Bowden as a suburb, as an area and a precinct,” he said.
“There’s kind of nothing in SA like it.”
“We want people to pop in on their way home just to say hey, even if they’re not dining”.
“We’re not just a restaurant you go to on a night out every now and again. We really want to be part of it.”
