ChaCha Bar brings a Japanese inspired tea room to the CBD
Expect traditional Japanese sandos with fillings you can’t really find in Adelaide at South Terrace’s ChaCha Bar.
Leyna Cho and Vinh Dang have always managed other hospitality businesses. Their back catalogue ranges from businesses like Hispanic Mechanic, Mexican Society and Hilton Adelaide.
But when it came to opening up their first venue, ChaCha Bar on South Terrace, the pair wanted something relaxed and a mix of both their passions.
“We postponed [the idea of opening our own venture] saying ‘we’re not ready. We’re not ready’. And then we realised, we’re never going to feel ready, you know?” Leyna says.
“So we just have to do it and it’s kind of worked out.”
When asked how the two went about finding this space for ChaCha Bar, Vinh replies: “it’s a good story”.
“We actually just live upstairs,” he says, as the two are a couple.
“We bought the apartment upstairs probably about six years ago and this place has been empty for around about the last six years.”
You might like
They decided it was the perfect place to open up their latest venture, ChaCha Bar.
“That’s why we were like ‘look, obviously we don’t have much money, but if you want to use space instead of it just being empty, would you mind leasing it to us?’,” Leyna says.
“Then it kind of worked out.”
The pork and prawn dumplings
But because the space hadn’t been used as a hospitality venture before, they had to start everything from scratch – including installing a functional kitchen. Thankfully, they had some help from friends and Vinh’s dad who is a retired builder.
Leyna came up with the concept for ChaCha Bar and was inspired by tea rooms in Japan which are “nothing fancy”.
“It’s just a little small space where you can sit down, have a coffee or tea,” she says.
“They’re always serving some small snacks: could be a sandwich, could be pasta – nothing really fancy – just somewhere people just read books or magazines.
Subscribe for updates
“I wanted to open a space like that in Adelaide. However, obviously I didn’t know what it was going to look like, because we’ve never done it before.
“And people are saying it gives you a nice, positive feeling…that’s what we want to offer. I think it turned up pretty good.”
The katsu prawn sando is a hit
Leyna and Vinh also took inspiration from Japan when designing the menu.
“I wanted to have sandwiches, but it’s been in my head quite a long time, and I noticed actually a lot of places have started to serve sandos,” Leyna says.
“Then I was like ‘am I sure I still want to open another sandwich place?’ And then, obviously, I decided to try every sando shop, and then I found [what I want to do] is actually still different.
“[ChaCha Bar] has more of an Asian influence – the warm toasted bread – instead of just sourdough or just focaccia and some pesto.
“[We’re] still doing sandwiches, but we are doing some Korean, Asian, Japanese flavours, and then it might be different.”
The sando fillings have carefully thought-out ingredients – much like in Japan – such as 48-hour brined fried chicken, roast pork and more. Leyna’s favourite is the prawn patty katsu sando.
“It’s really easy to get a prawn patty in Asia. It’s common. Even when you go to McDonald’s or something, you can just get a prawn patty burger,” Leyna says.
“It’s something I miss because I’m not big fan of red meat.
“We realised it’s not easy and simple to make the best one. So we tried two times, and then, luckily, turned up very nice and very similar to Japanese style.”
As for the rest of the menu, it follows a snack-style formula with dishes designed to share like dumplings, prawn spring rolls, Takoyaki, ChaCha wings and more.
ChaCha Bar is located at 60 South Terrace, Adelaide and is open from Tuesday to Wednesday from 10am until 6pm, then Thursday to Saturday from 10am until 9pm.
Connect with the business on Instagram for more.