There are moments in hospitality that feel like déjà vu, and then there are moments that feel like déjà vu after a couple of bourbons—familiar, but with the edges pleasantly blurred.
Standing at 32 Abbott Street with Sam Kennis and Andrew Pare, I’m experiencing both.
This address, once home to one of Cairns’ most quietly influential cocktail bars, has returned to the fold. Only now it answers to a different name, wears a different hat, and—if first impressions are anything to go by—has absolutely no intention of behaving itself.
Welcome to Wild Pony Saloon.
A Blessing, A Curse, and a Few Choice Words
“Fair few swear words,” Kennis admits, reflecting on how they ended up back in the space they’d already vacated once before.
The story, like most good hospitality stories, involves leases, developments, and the sort of uncertainty that keeps operators awake at night. Three Wolves was moved on when the building was slated for demolition. Then—inevitably, and rather wonderfully—that plan changed.
“Do you want your old digs back?” they were asked.
It’s the kind of question that sounds simple until you realise it isn’t.
“It’s been a blessing and a curse,” Pare says.
The blessing is obvious. The curse is that you can’t simply rewind. You’ve learned too much. You’ve moved on. You’ve built something new elsewhere. Going back would be like trying to reheat a perfectly good soufflé—it might rise, but it won’t be the same.
So they didn’t.
Not Three Wolves, and Very Much the Point
“We had to make sure you didn’t walk in and think this is still Three Wolves,” Kennis tells me.
And you don’t.
Where Three Wolves whispered, Wild Pony talks. Where one invited contemplation, the other encourages participation. If you walked into the former and heard “Achy Breaky Heart,” something had gone terribly wrong. Here, it would feel like the night was just getting started.
The brief, if you can call it that, is deceptively simple: an American-style saloon bar, leaning into North American drinking culture rather than anything overtly Australian.
“No tin roofs, no Akubras,” Kennis says. “This is Americana.”
It’s a subtle but important distinction. Cairns, for all its tropical swagger, doesn’t traditionally lean into cowboy culture. But it does understand atmosphere—and increasingly, that’s what people are chasing.
The venue marks the newest chapter for The Hospo Group, a hospitality collective established in 2016 by Darren Barber, Grant Buckham and Sam Kennis, with Andrew Paré joining the team soon after. Each venue in the portfolio is shaped by a distinct identity, bringing character and creativity to unique local settings.
Today, the group spans seven venues across Far North Queensland, including Wolf Lane Distillery, Flamingos Tiki Bar, The Hound, The Fox Small Bar and Cabana Bar.
The Destination Drink
“There’s no point just going out to drink anymore,” Kennis says, with the clarity of someone who’s watched the industry shift beneath his feet.
He’s right. You can drink at home. You can drink cheaply at home. What you can’t do—at least not convincingly—is recreate atmosphere.
And Wild Pony is built, quite deliberately, as a destination.
There’s shuffleboard—an oddly compelling hybrid of curling and quiet rivalry—set up to encourage strangers to become acquaintances, or at least temporary teammates. There’s a popcorn machine that greets you before the bartender does, scenting the room with something warm and faintly nostalgic. There are shot skis, which require no explanation beyond the fact that they exist and will inevitably be used.
And then there’s the drinks list.
Cocktails on tap. Slushies that sound like they belong at a county fair but taste better than they have any right to. A bourbon peach sweet tea that leans heavily into its heritage. Beer taps that move comfortably between local brews and American staples, including a house lager brewed exclusively for the venue.
“It’s still premium,” Pare says, “just… more relaxed.”
Approachable is the word they keep coming back to.
Four Years in the Making, One Night at a Time
What feels spontaneous is anything but.
“This has been in the head for four years,” Kennis says.
The idea was sparked interstate—Adelaide, of all places—where similar venues have carved out a niche. The challenge was translating that concept to Cairns without it feeling like a copy-paste job.
The answer, it seems, lies in restraint.
“There were too many ideas,” Pare admits. “We had to cut things back.”
What remains is a carefully edited version of that original vision. Materials sourced from the Tablelands and beyond. Design elements that nod to the theme without drowning in it. Enough detail to reward a second look, without overwhelming the first.
Even the popcorn, it turns out, is part of the plan.
Fun, Finally
There’s a word that floats around hospitality circles but rarely lands with conviction: fun.
It’s often used, rarely delivered.
Here, it feels intentional.
“This one’s fun,” Pare says, without hesitation.
Not ironic fun. Not curated-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life fun. Just a space where people can arrive, let their guard down, and stay longer than they intended.
Wednesday nights bring line dancing—an inclusion that sounds like a joke until you realise it isn’t. Saturdays lift the tempo with live music. The rest of the week finds its rhythm somewhere in between.
It’s not trying to be everything. It’s trying to be something—and doing so with a clarity that’s increasingly rare.
Saddle Up
Cairns has always had a split personality: tropical postcard by day, something else entirely after dark. What Wild Pony Saloon represents is a city growing more confident in that second identity.
This isn’t nostalgia. It’s not even imitation.
It’s adaptation.
So if you remember this address for what it was, it’s worth returning to see what it’s become. And if you don’t, all the better—you can take it entirely at face value.
Pull up a stool. Order something cold, something strong, or something frozen. Try your luck at shuffleboard. Stay for one, leave after three, or don’t leave at all.
Just don’t expect it to be quiet.
Because this pony kicks!
Visit Wild Pony Saloon
