The Luck of the Spanish

Well the old Black Harp has been restrung and now looks super swanky, with a Mediterranean flavour.

Avida is about a month old and is the new Mediterranean kid on the Featherston Johnston Crossroads. Its a welcome addition to the “pubbish” trio of bars – The Featherston, Leuven and the old Irish bar The Black Harp. The story goes that the owners “did not like the sort of clientele the Black Harp was attracting” and opted for a refresh. Of course that’s just part of the story.

As it stands, Avida is a cool spot, retaining the spaces from the old Irish but really opening it up. It’s lofty, verging on sophisticated, and sports splashes of eclectic Euro-cool (try a lineup of GHDs in the ladies room permanently ready to go). It’s got gilded mirrors, a beer bank that comes out of the roof (permit me my engineering fetish) and some nice touches in a clean, crisp style of decor. This is no lush plush padded boudoir, it is more minimalist and modern.

The food is very good. Expensive, but very good. They’ve been given four stars in the Sunday Star Times, which noted the cuisine and lauded it up. Make up your own mind, but the only thing which put me off was the price tag on the Patatas Bravas … $9.50 for a saucer (it’s tiny) of fried potatoes. Forgive me for being cynical, but unless those are Spanish potatoes in that espresso saucer, do us all a favour and ditch the Euro-prices.

Okay, that’s my little rant … and for balance they do a mega-lovely plate of good old standard fries for $8. Still pricey but that’s inflation for you.

Avida is classy and the staff know their stuff. The service is excellent, and they make an effort to make you feel at home. There’s a variety of spaces to enjoy, they do a mega drop-down screen for the footy, and there are cheap snacks on the bar … try the deep fried bread (with paprika?), it sounds ordinary, but it’s incredibly moreish.

You may shed a wee tear for the strings of the old Harp, but time marches on, progress must be made, and Avida is a cool addition to the Lambton quarter. It lifts the standard on the Featherston-Johnstone corner and will hopefully be about for a while.