Last Thursday Cockle Bay’s Black Bird café kicked off their weekly Reggae night. Unfortunately the venue failed to deliver. The surroundings lacked atmosphere – Black Bird’s large layout would have benefited from being blocked off or confined to create a cosy and intimate viewing area in front of the band. Instead we stared at the huge expanse of row upon row of empty tables.
While the food was quite nice (we had a great steak and an average risotto), it was expensive, and the same went for the wine list. For a venue that appeared to be aiming to appeal to Sydney’s youth, a costly menu such as this one seemed strange. If one is paying $30 for a meal it is expected to be fabulous, but sadly this wasn’t the case. Black Bird’s décor was far from warm and homely, it’s uniform and rather garish black and yellow synthetic seat covers seemed to be in line with Sydney’s past large, bland and rather sterile bar culture, a scene which I was hoping the city had moved on from.
The one saving grace was however, the music. All of the musicians who graced the stage were incredibly talented, we adored Budi Bone’s (X-Factor) Bob Marley renditions, which brought a tear to the eye. Later Michael Duchensce (The Voice) and his band performed a flawless performance which showed off the musicians supreme skills. It was such a shame the venue was not close to full, nor arranged in a manner to create a suitable viewing platform for these artists. Their talent called for a more thought out venue. Will I be back to eat at Black Bird? No. But I will certainly be keeping my eye out for Budi Bone’s and Michael Duchensce’s next performance.
