Kiwis

55 St Mary Street, Cardiff [map]

You may remember that we last paid Kiwis a visit in July. Back then, it was still in its original home at the wrong end of Wyndham Arcade.

But look at it now in its new location that straddles both the arcade and St Mary Street. Hasn't it scrubbed up well?

These days it's all big TV screens, glass lampshades, pale wood, shiny beer taps and Asahi, although you can buy Carling for £2 a pint, which is more in keeping with the Kiwis of old.

The clientele doesn't seem to have changed at all though. Which does make you wonder if they're just so pissed they haven't even noticed that the gaff has moved.

The Photographer (today played by British character actor Tom Wilkinson) is accosted by this chap (as himself), who insists on having his photo taken for the blog. We're happy to oblige.

We take a pew down the far end, opposite the disabled toilet (the main loos are downstairs). Turns out there's a bloke who's been locked in it by his prankster mates. A member of the bar staff eventually has to come and rescue him. Never a dull moment.

Indeed, although there's been a shift both geographically and aesthetically, Kiwis still has a sense of rough-edged charm. Despite its best efforts, it remains eminently unfashionable - always the sign of a good booze parlour, if you ask us.

Kiwis

21-23 Wyndham Arcade, Cardiff [map]


Of all the enclosed shopping spaces in Cardiff, Wyndham Arcade is surely the most peculiar.

This Edwardian corridor between St Mary Street and Mill Lane accommodates a Christian bookshop, an army surplus outlet, a tobacconists, an inline skating store and - what we're really interested in here - an extraordinary little inner-city boozer called Kiwis.


Despite having a decidedly ramshackle-looking facade - their idea of an embellishment is taping an A4 print-out of the bar's name over the door - inside it has all the trappings of a regular pub, alcopops and all.

Although how many bottles of WKD they ever shift remains to be seen.


It's a weekday afternoon (this is the same day we visit Walkabout) but there's a steady flow of customers.

Your instinct is to think that Kiwis isn't the most salubrious of joints - after all, the one concession to exoticism is a string of Jägermeister bunting along the top of the bar.

But you wouldn't catch someone wearing a sports coat to visit a branch of O'Neill's, would you?


Plenty of nattering and drinking going on, plus more suit-jacket action. We're warming to the place already.


We take a pew at a low table through an archway, from where we're afforded this view.

Difficult to tell whether that bloke at the opposite end of the bar is in the process of getting up or falling down. Perhaps it's both.


Tantalisingly, just to the right of where we're sitting is this locked gated door.

On the other side, it's just an extension of the main bar area but apparently it's transformed into a late-night club at weekends. Verily, the mind boggles.