It’s all about opening before Christmas for bars and restaurants in Bristol at the moment. Look at The Ox, Small Bar and Bottelino’s, all new choices for food and drink in the last few weeks.
The latest opening is Aviator in Chandos Road in Redland, not just welcoming paying customers when the paint is still dry but with the small one-room bar still with holes in the ceiling and protruding wires.
What used to be The Potted Parrot is almost unrecognisable.
Sticking with the tenuous aviation theme, a bit of a wing makes up part of the bar and there are black and white photos of female pilots dotted around the walls.
The beer selection here is heavily swayed towards lager – a change from the proliferation of real ale bars in the city centre.
There are currently 15 hand pulls with space for two more, although only nine are currently on.
Draft selections include Krusovice from the Czech Republic and Shipyard American Pale Ale, brewed in Wolverhampton for the brewery in Maine on the east coast of the USA.
Bottled beers come from across Europe, from Innis Gunn Original from Scotland to the German Schneider Weiss, and there are a few Bristol Beer Factory selections as well.
On Friday night, the food on offer was packets of pretzels open on the bar, not quite up to the standard of Wilks on the other side of the road or the Kensington Arms just around the corner.
With the standard of bars in Bristol rising considerably these last 12 months, it’s a shame that the final bar to open this year hasn’t taken off. Despite its name, Aviator barely even leaves the ground.
Aviator, 2b Chandos Road, Redland, Bristol, BS6 6PE
0117 329 2500
A bit of a mean spirited review, no? It has been open for about 48 hours. As you pointed out, the renovation is not even finished. So, of course it hasn’t taken off yet, it’s still taxiing on the runway. Bad form, Bristol Culture.
If a bar opens its doors to the public, why shouldn’t it be written about? If it’s not ready to open yet, then why accept people’s money? I hope that Aviator is a success. Despite this review, I still look forward to paying a visit.
Come on BC. Review it when it’s open. Shocking to knock it this early!!!
I should declare an interest here as someone who knows some of the people involved and is an interested bystander. But to me this seems a pretty poor and unnecessarily negative review. If you want to make the point they opened too early fair enough, but that’s only valid if you go back and correct the record as soon as it’s open properly. And as for the food – what is the point of criticising them for the fact their food isn’t up to “the standard of Wilks on the other side of the road”? Would you ever expect that, from any bar? That seems a particularly cheap point to make.