Images: Jonathan VDK
Australia’s Bar of the Year has expanded upstairs, with Tread Lightly opening the doors to its long-awaited upstairs restaurant and introducing a bigger menu built firmly around its low-waste, local-first philosophy.
The expansion comes six months after owners Will and Trina Kay-McPhail opened their underground cellar at 29 High Street, Willunga, which recently won Australia’s Bar of the Year at the 2026 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards.
While the intimate cellar introduced diners to Tread Lightly’s approach to food, wine and cocktails, the new dining room gives the kitchen more room to explore it, Will told Glam Adelaide.
“The animal products we have on the menu are either waste cuts, things previously considered waste products, or they’re invasive species that are destroying the environment around us,” he said.
That means beef hearts and pig’s heads supplied by the butcher along Willunga’s High Street, Goolwa pipis and seasonal fruit and vegetables, alongside wild venison and camel.
Current dishes include beef heart skewers, pig’s head terrine, wild venison and camel ragù, with the menu designed to encourage diners to reconsider ingredients they might otherwise overlook.
“We get a lot of people coming in and saying they’ve never eaten food like this before, which is obviously incredibly exciting for us to hear,” Will said.
“We’re so grateful that we get to give people these new experiences.”
The kitchen also makes extensive use of bivalves such as pipis, mussels and oysters, which Will points to as some of the most sustainable sources of protein available.
The philosophy comes from Will’s long interest in what he calls “nose-to-tail dining”: the belief that less fashionable parts of an animal can be just as valuable as prime cuts when handled properly.
“If you respect the life that was given for something to be eaten, the best way to do that is to use the entire thing,” he said.
Menus change approximately every two to three months, allowing the restaurant to follow the seasons while continuing to explore overlooked ingredients.
The drinks list follows a similarly considered approach. Every wine poured by the glass is South Australian, with producers from the surrounding Fleurieu Peninsula given particular attention.
Will has also created a compact house cocktail menu, including a black pepper vodka martini, a tequila-based Rosita, a kiwi margarita and the Whiskey Almond.
The latter combines whiskey, almond liqueur and Geraldton wax-infused almond milk, creating a floral, slightly tropical drink served over ice.
“Geraldton wax is a native botanical herb which is steeped in hot almond milk. It’s then chilled down and served cold over ice,” Will said.
“It’s a really delicious, quite dessert-like and very floral whiskey drink. It’s almost a little bit tropical.”
That focus on local producers and thoughtful sourcing is also part of why Will and Trina chose Willunga as the home for Tread Lightly in the first place.
“We started looking for possible spaces and quickly realised that Willunga was going to be the best place for us to create the concept we were putting together.”
“There’s an environmental centre here. There’s the Waldorf school. There’s this massive sense of community that’s already here.
“There are butchers and a bakery. It’s almost like a proper old-school English village, with the High Street and the way the community operates and supports each other.”
“We just thought, ‘God, this is perfect,'” Will said.
“It’s full of people who understand what we’re trying to do, and it’s turned out that we were completely right.”
“Everyone locally has been so receptive to what we do. They appreciate that it’s a completely different offering locally as well.”
The restaurant itself sits within a slate building dating back to the 1860s, which has lived several lives before becoming Tread Lightly. It has previously operated as a butchery, tailor, newsagency, dress shop and art gallery.
McLaren Vale-based Little Road led the interiors, retaining the whitewashed stone walls while introducing salvaged timber, biodegradable cork around the bar and acoustic panels made with flower petals.
With both levels now open, visitors can choose between a full dining experience upstairs or a more casual night of drinks and smaller plates in the cellar below.
Tread Lightly
Where: 29 High Street, Willunga
When: Upstairs restaurant: Thursday 5pm–10pm; Friday and Saturday 12pm–11pm; Sunday 12pm–5pm. Cellar Bar: Friday and Saturday 5pm–11pm, walk-ins only.
For more information and to book, click here.
