Day 2 Eastside Café: Junction of Coventry Street and Meriden Street
Repaired the puncture last night, cycled in from Hall Green up a deserted Stratford Rd with a hint of rain in the air to the Eastside Café in the very heart of Digbeth, to join my intrepid colleagues all of whom managed to arrive before 7.30!!
Like many of the cafes in the Digbeth area the Eastside was formerly a pub called the Dolphin. In the late years of the nineteenth and early years of the last century almost every street corner in Digbeth could boast a pub. These made good money on the prodigious lunch time thirst of the metal bashers of the area and at night from the denizens of the dark courtyards and alleys where many of the new arrivals to the City lived.
I was welcomed by Dil and Jay-no sign of Matt (still in bed?) with a cup of steaming tea, the cafe has the homeliness of a front room, welsh dresser with a tea service on its shelves, big farm house refectory tables and a full range of papers, what other cafe has the Birmingham Post as well as the Sun?
I had veggie bubble and squeak breakfast, free range egg, tomatoes and mushrooms on a bed of freshly made bubble and squeak, pure heaven.
The carnivores indulged themselves with the excellent small breakfast, again free range eggs, bacon and sausage black pud with beans or tomatoes a really good set up for the day. The toast just has to be mentioned no sliced white here! Hefty chunks of locally produced crusty white and granary bread stuff that you can really get your teeth into.
Where-ever possible Dil tries to purchase her food locally, at the end of our feast she produced a plate of croissant for us to try, made that morning just on the other side of the middle way. They will certainly be a valued addition to the menu. Even though it is not breakfast I just feel compelled to describe to you the wonders of the Baked Potato I consumed at Eastside last week. An enormous spud, crisply baked, filled with mature cheese and creamy coleslaw, the best I have eaten in my 54 years.
There really is no excuse all of Brum should be eating at Eastside Cafe at least once a week.
I went with the budget breakfast (more for my poor waistline than my wallet), but I got to have some fun with it all the same. As well as being careful to source good, locally sourced produce Eastside Cafe also stock some pretty amazing coffee from Monmouth Coffee Company, who apparently insist the beans are changed for new every five weeks to keep it quality fresh. So next time you’re waiting in Digbeth Coach Station and fancy a coffee, take the time to nip accross the road to get it if you can. Tomorrow is Bordesley Street Diner at the bright and early 7.30am. If the big breakfasts don’t kill me, these early mornings will.
Beautiful morning, cold with a hint of frost, set out to cycle from home to our first breakfast cafe, Salters on Bradford Street. Bottom of the road got a puncture and had to go back home and pick up the car.
Arrived at 7.15 to a warm welcome from Daz and Jason, with a piping hot cup of tea. The others arrived from 7.30 onwards and by eight there were six of us.
Breakfasts in Digbeth are on a massive scale, and the full version can often involve consuming two eggs two sausages, three rashers of bacon, tomatoes beans hash browns fried bread and toast washed down with very large mugs of tea. OK if you are working on a building site, but if you are a pen pusher like me the sure route to bye- pass surgery by the end of the week.
The half breakfast at Salters did not disappoint, for me the veggie breakfast consisted of a well fried egg, veggie sausage hash brown with lashings of beans and tomatoes and accompanied by a mountain of toast. My carnivorous pals commented on the wonder of the black pudding and the very excellent bacon.
The second mug of tea was a welcome end to the feast, the conversation then degenerated into musings on the wonders of white pudding and the complete absence from Birmingham of the delectable Irish delicacy Crubeens-jellied pigs trotters. I’ve looked on the web and there isn’t a veggies version!
Onto Eastside Cafe tomorrow (Tuesday)
It seems we have the redevelopment of Five Ways to thank for Salters being in Digbeth – the owners were forced out of their home in Auchinleck Square and chose the unit in Bradford Street as one of the handful of places available with an A3 license, which are like gold dust thanks to Birmingham City Council.
Richard’s right when he says the black pudding and bacon were amazing. And here’s why:
Could local blogs save local businesses? – Asks Pete Ashton at ASH-10. This caught my attention not only for saying nice things about Digbeth is Good (doesn’t hurt, mind) but because it uses cafe’s as a prime example of the type of business that can be helped by blogs. There are a hell of a lot of these in Digbeth. So come Eastside Cafe, Salters, Rooty’s, etc. Get to it!
Now I’ve got my new Flip I’ve been looking for things to film on it. Local historians Richard Trengrouse and Ben Waddington have been true gents and come to the rescue – both offering me their extra special tours of the area.
I’m meeting Richard Trengrouse at the Eastside Cafe at 8.30am this Saturday, from where we’ll set off after a hearty breakfast.
Ben Waddington’s tour starts from The Old Cown Pub at midday on Sunday 21 December – a great escape from the pre-Christmas madness!
Both tours should take no more than 1-2 hours. Please feel free to come and join us. If you can’t make it, watch this space for the Flip filmage instead!
