[Tex/LaTex] change color of pgfplot bar plot

Question

I want to plot two bar plots next to each other. This works without a problem. However both use the first color defined in a pre or selfdefined colorseries. I tried to modify the color manually in the plot, but the color and fill definitions have no effect:

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots, pgfplotstable}

\begin{document}

\pgfplotstableread[header=false, col sep=comma]{ 
1, first item
5, second item
}\datatable

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[        
    ,xbar
    ,bar width=2ex, y=3ex
    ,enlarge y limits={abs=0.75}
    ,ytick={data} % (\empty,data,{coordinate list})
    ,yticklabels from table={\datatable}{1}
  ]
  \addplot table [
    ,red!20!black,fill=red!80!white,
    y expr=-\coordindex, % Use negative coordinate index as y coordinate
    x index=0 % Use first column as x coordinate
  ] {\datatable};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

The plot is still in the default blue.

Answer 1

Using the color specification in the optional argument of \addplot (instead of table) seems to work:

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots, pgfplotstable}

\begin{document}

\pgfplotstableread[header=false, col sep=comma]{ 
1, first item
5, second item
}\datatable

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[        
    ,xbar
    ,bar width=2ex, y=3ex
    ,enlarge y limits={abs=0.75}
    ,ytick={data} % (\empty,data,{coordinate list})
    ,yticklabels from table={\datatable}{1}
  ]
  \addplot[red!20!black,fill=red!80!white] table [
    y expr=-\coordindex, % Use negative coordinate index as y coordinate
    x index=0 % Use first column as x coordinate
  ] {\datatable};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}