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Week of Breakfasts #5: Sbragia’s on Fazeley St

Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: citizensheep, citizenshipfoundation, michaelgrimes, richardtrengrouse, sbragia's

Here’s Richard Trengrouse’s account of the last day of our Week of Breakfasts on Friday:

Day Five: Sbragia’s Cafe and Sandwich Bar: Fazeley Street
As I had to wear a suit today, came in by train. If I get it right I can be in town from home in fifteen minutes.  It’s always an enjoyable journey and views from the train as it passes over the Rea Valley Viaduct are fantastic, it gives you an almost ariel view of Digbeth looking down on amazing variety of roofs and still a lot of chimneys.

Alighted at Moor Street Birmingham’s Edwardian Gem, it’s hard to believe that only ten years ago the abysmal Rail Track were talking of knocking it down and set off down Fazeley Street.

To be quite honest Sbragia’s was a bit of a flyer, I didn’t even know what the cafe was called until yesterday and only had noticed a door with sign outside when I was cycling down that way a couple of weeks ago. To be quite honest I had been for an excellent curry the last night and had been rather dreading the fifth breakfast of the week.

Sbragia’s opens at about 8.00 am so there was an extra half hours lie in, and Nicky, Pat and Michelle were all there right on time accompanied by a admirable fellow from the Citizenship Foundation, whose name I have forgotten, sorry put it down to approaching senility.

It was Michael Grimes, aka Citizensheep.

Sbragia’s is a gem. We were made feel welcome from the moment we stepped inside the door, customer service, attentive without being over the top. We were able to effectively design our own breakfasts. Pat asked for poached eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms and I followed suit, Nicky had the egg and bacon bun and the bloke from the Citizenship Foundation had the full breakfast. Help I cannot remember what Michelle had but she liked it. There was a choice of breads, brown, granary and white all of which were of very good quality.

Pat and my poached eggs were done to a turn and served on very hot plates, the mushrooms and tomatoes were also piping hot. Perhaps one of the criticisms of the week is that very often the plates were not hot enough and the food goes cold before you finish eating, particularly if you are like me and like the sound of your own voice!!

Nicky’s bacon and egg bap was awesome; the bap was huge and wonderfully fresh with lashings of bacon freshly cooked. While daunted, true to form she did manage to eat it all.

The bloke from the Citizenship Foundation’s full English contained all the usual ingredients that we have grown to expect from the Digbeth breakfast and was well presented benefiting from the very hot plate.

Most of Sbragia’s trade is take away, but their eating area, called ‘The Lounge’ is wonderfully idiosyncratic, there is some very interesting ‘Sex Pistols’ memorabilia on the walls. Including a print of a certain Mr Rotten, now better known for selling butter, and a huge sofa, which will be great to sink into while drinking tea and eating toast next week.

Thanks to Becky, Emma and Noleen for making us so welcome and the offer of the free cup of tea, which we had to refuse as we had already been so well fed and watered! We all agreed that we would be back

Are there any conclusions to draw from our week of breakfasts, certainly that great English institution is alive and exceptionally well in Digbeth. All are good solid transport cafes which give great value for money in a friendly homely atmosphere. Eastside Cafe is very much a crossover between the traditional transport cafe and the environmentally conscious local sourced food movement and in doing that is unique in Birmingham and I expect in the Midlands.

Would I do it again? I think once or twice a week will suffice in future, although with all the cycling I have actually lost weight over the week!!!

Hmmm…would I do a Week of Breakfasts again?  I’m really not sure.  I loved it, I met some great people and the breakfasts were gorgeous – I’ll never be stuck for a hangover cure around here.  But I’m not exactly a morning person and eating such a full meal at the start of each day is a bit of a shock to the system.  So what’s next?  Week of Pubs?  Week of Art Galleries?  Week of Empty Building Sites?  Comment if you think of one, and I’ll see what I can do!

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