Cast aside any other criteria, because the way to spot a local is to watch for someone navigating their city by landmarks that no longer exist.
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"You can't miss it," they will say in Canberra. "It's just on that corner where Fletcher Jones used to be." Or some other marker that is no longer found in the present day. It'll be near Swains or Young's or Impact Records; up where BBC Hardware used to be or by that cinema they knocked down. You know the place.
Locals resist change and are suspicious of things that are new. It makes trying something different a difficult - and brave - exercise.
I invited a friend to dinner in the usual Canberra fashion. "Yes, it's on the corner. You know the place. The old bank building that used to be Uni Pub. Yep, the one that became Zoo," I say. "You can't miss it."
The first thing we observe upon arriving at Alia Bar is that the last time we were in the building together it was about 2 o'clock in the morning and we were consuming rapid-fire rounds of gin and tonics. If you could call it gin.
![Lamb gyros at Alia Bar. Picture by Keegan Carroll Lamb gyros at Alia Bar. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/dc952a4a-615c-4e28-8aca-656f44cf454d.jpg/r0_322_5000_3144_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
We find ourselves in surroundings pitched at adults, not students intent on flushing their wages away on booze. That throws us off just a little. You know the place. It's just changed completely.
It is a quiet week night and we are escorted to a marble table of considerable circumference. We pitch ourselves to one side of it, sitting more side by side than across. The interior is sleek and modern but exudes more beige than personality.
The menu is divided into small plates and large, and all mostly suit sharing. A handful of starters and sides are on offer, too. The four dishes we order are set to appear at roughly the same time. With only two other tables in for dinner, we are not fighting for the kitchen's attention.
The spanakopita ($19) is a solid first showing. Spinach, feta and filo pastry is one of those perfect combinations. The trick is in the preparation. Alia's effort is not too oily and the pastry maintains its lightness.
![Spanakopita. Picture by Keegan Carroll Spanakopita. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/a21b10e6-043e-4a2e-bc2c-f16811dfddb0.jpg/r0_222_5000_3044_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The baked feta wrapped in filo pastry, served with honey and pistachio crumbs ($17) skimps a little on the feta. Again, the pastry is excellent and the sweetness of the honey extends the dynamic range of the salty cheese flavour, but overall it is a dish that lands slightly flat. I must note, too, we had to enquire with the staff about the whereabouts of the filo-wrapped feta. They were quick to rectify the mistake, but it was an oversight on such a quiet service.
Pumpkin is a vegetable with significant potential, but it needs its hand held. It's an extroverted ingredient that benefits from conversation with other flavoursome things. Alia's roasted pumpkin ($20), from the large plate selection, leaves the pumpkin to be a matinee idol when really it needed an ensemble cast. The lentils, pepita and lemon yoghurt are, at best, supporting characters. As the only vegetarian large plate, I'd hoped for something bolder and more ambitious.
![Alia Bar venue manager Jay Chung, left, with owner Jamaal Bakri. Picture by Keegan Carroll Alia Bar venue manager Jay Chung, left, with owner Jamaal Bakri. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/167e9778-4af7-440c-bf25-0a5fc93e6f49.jpg/r0_197_5000_3013_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
But the lamb gyros ($19) brought us back to safe territory. Tender lamb and hand-cut chips combined in a wonderfully fluffy piece of pita bread. Tomato, onion, oregano and cucumber rounded off a salad that was neither distracting nor disappointing. My only quibble was that the chips were a tad soggy under the juices flowing richly from the lamb. A minor point I won't dwell on.
While all this is happening, we have a couple of glasses each of the Thymiopoulos ATMA 2020 ($16 a glass). It's a fresh, fruity red that is easy to drink but nothing to write home about. You can get it in Europe for 12 euros a bottle. We selected it because it's the only Greek red on offer. The wine menu is sparse (half a dozen reds and half a dozen whites), but considerably more attention has gone into the cocktail offering.
![Inside Alia Bar, which is on the corner of London Circuit and University Avenue. Picture by Keegan Carroll Inside Alia Bar, which is on the corner of London Circuit and University Avenue. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/0d453e12-5782-43d2-9415-e2dd9df0ce51.jpg/r0_333_5000_3155_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Dessert is what gives me hope for the joint. We both pick the baklava cheesecake ($19), which is sharp and decadent and inventive. Why wouldn't the rest of the menu be like this? A cheesecake formed onto a base of baklava with filo pastry extending up around the sides showed Alia's potential. I'd come in for a cocktail and one of these, reminiscing about the times I drank too many vodka raspberries upstairs when the building was under entirely different management. Reminiscing but not regretting the passage of time. There is a difference.
I want the baklava cheesecake equivalent for the mains, large and small. People have got to get to this place in the city and deal with parking and traffic and headaches. Show them it can be more than a neighbourhood Greek restaurant, where you'd expect laminated menus and hand-written but nearly illegible specials boards but find a bit of marble and upholstered chairs splashed around instead.
![Alia Bar's baklava cheesecake. Picture by Keegan Carroll Alia Bar's baklava cheesecake. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/14959e7d-f5d9-413b-9d31-19e3e97c2ae2.jpg/r0_256_5000_3078_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The building, by the way, is heritage registered. An excellent example from an architect who knocked together nearly a dozen banks in his time. Compared to Frank Lloyd Wright; think of Fallingwater as you look at the facade. I'll be able to have remembrances of nights out past as long as I'm around.
It's a chance, then, for Alia to be a landmark the locals navigate by. No threats to the building. But I fear the old-bank-branch-turned-student-pub will comfortably outlive, in the capital's psychogeography, this attempt to bring hospitality to the north side of the corner of London Circuit and University Avenue.
Alia Bar
Address: 17 London Circuit, Canberra City
Phone: 0434 588 443
Website: aliabar.com.au
Hours: Tuesday to Wednesday, 5.30pm to 10pm; Thursday to Saturday, lunch from 11.30am to 3.30pm and dinner from 5.30pm to 11pm.
Noise: No problem
Dietary: An array of options