Tucked away in a corner of the Crowne Complex, Avila Coffee is attracting growing interest among Adelaide’s travellers and coffee connoisseurs, living up to its namesake, Spanish for “desired”.
Opening late last year, it hasn’t taken long for owner Talia Wyman to gain a regular following among the local business crowd and travellers alike. Having worked in hospitality for the last seven years, Talia has brought her love of both the social and artisanal aspects of coffee to Avila’s colourful and warm environment.
Noting that Adelaide cafés most often adopt a modern décor, Talia wanted to borrow from the country’s larger cities’ more eclectic-style.
“Melbourne and Sydney cafés have this rough and raw feel to them, I really like that,” she says. “So when I came in here I wanted to ‘boutique’ it up and give it more of that specialty coffee kind of feel.”
Talia says that carrying the Campos brand has been a great boost in both showing the public that they carry high quality coffee, and following through with the specialty promise of oustanding tasting coffee.
“I knew we needed something a bit more special here to get people’s attention. I had tried Campos in Sydney and heard great things about them,” she says. “We needed a stand out name to get people walking in the door.”
As far as ensuring that the talent behind the machine could treat the coffee accordingly, Talia relied on recommendations to put experienced baristas in place. With just a few specialty cafés in the city, she looked for local baristas who were well versed in this scene. The staff were sent interstate to Campos for special training.
“The relationships between a brand and a café is very important,” she says. “You need to be on the same general path. You need to set out what your standard is and be quick and prompt in maintaining that standard.”
The spanish name translates into a Mediterranean and European influenced menu with French pastries and sweets made by a local Frenchman. The café offers an all-day breakfast, as well as a selection of foccacias and salads for the lunch-time crowd. Avila’s Spanish name will soon be reflected in the menu, as Talia is awaiting a liquor license which will see the venue open up in the evenings for tapas, wine and cocktails.