Vintage in Birmingham!

Here is a tasty version of an article I wrote for last week's Redbrick Newspaper... Enjoy!

 

Last Saturday saw the launch of “Birmingham’s Newest Independent Fashion, Home and Arts Fair”;  

Retro Brum.

Held, fittingly, at the Custard Factory’s Space 2 in Digbeth, the fair was jam-packed with treasures old and new; from antique watches and granddad jumpers to scrabble-letter rings and hand-made greeting cards!

The Custards Cream Stall... see http://thecustardscreambirmingham.blogspot.com/

 The quid entry fee was worth it for the atmosphere alone; haggling with the traders, grooving whilst browsing and mooching on the battered sofas eating caramel shortbread was made über-fun by the sexual tracks spun by the Tantrums. Saturday afternoon well spent I'd say!

DJ + full sleeve = YES

A quaint vintage tea room took over the bar area selling delicious cakes and nibbles on kitsch chinaware, and some stalls were dedicated wholly to cupcakes, tray-bakes and other heavenly treats! My company and I headed to Yumm just round the corner instead for their scrummy mezzalunas (like a calzone/panini/pasty!?) and spicy wedges. Sorted out our hangovers a treat!

 

NOM!

 Two low-key catwalk shows were held, styled by Bad Apple and Ove-ra Monkeys, which were short but sweet and featured ‘real-life’ models (none of this Size-Zero malarkey). Folks from The Vintage Salon were offering retro pin-up hair and make-up over in Zellig, and you could even get beautiful henna tattoos done. 

There were over 40 stalls selling titbits old and new, from well-loved leather bags from Tea Cup Kitsch right up to new but vintage-inspired tees from Daisy Chain Clothing. Do not despair if you missed it- the fair will be on 1^st and 3^rd Saturday of every month from 11am! There’s also a vintage market on 25^th June at Stan’s Cafe in the Jewellery Quarter, and weekend car boots like ‘Bar Boot Sale’ at the Hare and Hounds from 1pm Saturdays or the city-centre Sunday morning one, which are often dotted with vintage finds. Don’t forget the vintage stalls in and around the rag markets, plus there’s vintage to be found in a garage-y warehouse shop near Sing Fat Ltd Chinese supermarket- if you can find it!

The Custard Factory is also home to Urban Village and Frock On Vintage, and of course there’s the iconic vintage warehouse COW on Digbeth High Street, so why not make your trip to the fair into a thorough vintage shopping experience. 

Urban Village

More Urban Village

COW has a sister shop near Urban Outfitters in the city centre too, and the Urban Renewal (Men here and women here) section at UO stocks one-off treads made from vintage, surplus and pre-loved materials. Also check out Top Banana in Kings Heath, Yo Yo in the city centre, the vintage section on the top floor of Oasis, and keep an eye out for Forgotten Vintage’s next hanging-rail vintage market!

COW in Digbeth

You can check out this article in it's original format at Redbrick Online right here...

Birmingham's Best Bits... On The LASH!

Here is Chapter 2 of the Birmingham Gospel According to Me: Where to go Out on The LASH!

Disclaimer: It must be noted that these suggestions are coming from a student, with limited funds, who is able and more than willing to go out during the week when normal people go to work. Do not expect an all-encompassing view of Birmingham's night life, as I am by no means knowledgeable enough to give it!

Having said that, there are a few MUST-GO-TO places in Bham, my favourite places being The Rainbow (cool place, cool people), Snobs (Indie, Messy, FUN,), Mechu (dress up a bit, still get smashed, it also serves food), and the infamous Fab'n'Fresh on Saturdays at my SU: The Guild.
 
If you fancied a whole week on the LASH, here is a suggested diary:

• Monday- Bambu or Loaded at Gatecrasher.
• Tuesday- Naked Lunch at The Rainbow (if it's on), or Stupid Tuesdays (which seems to switch venues constantly, anyone know where it is now?)
• Wednesday- Full Moon Party at the HMV Institute (see an earlier review here) or Snobs
  
• Thursday- Minted at Mechu, or DV8, or Jam House.
• Friday- Propaganda at The 02 or Anarchy at Subway City.
• Saturday- Fab'n'Fresh at the Bham Uni Guild of Students, or Snobs, possibly followed by Subside.
• Sunday- sleep it off!

Bambu; not to shabby!

So considering what kind of night you're after:
If you want to get your rock on, then you want the quirky Flapper and Firkin, followed by the fortnightly Anarchy at Subway City on Fridays (£10 entry, 10 free drinks!), Subculture Saturdays at the 02 Academy, and alternative/rock bar Subside (open 'til 6am!). A new club is opening next weekend, ran by Subculture, called Vudu; Fridays are set to be the new Ramshackle, and Saturdays will be full of Indie/Rock tunes too.

Gatecrasher, admittedly on a busy night!

If you want Indie, then Snobs is always a winner and the Sunflower Lounge often has cool bands playing downstairs for pre-drinks. Also it's decisions decisions for Indie on Fridays: you can choose from Propaganda at the O2, Supersonic Vague at Gatecrasher, or Subway City's other fortnightly night; Resurrection.

A band playing downstairs at The Sunflower Lounge

 For cheesy, it's gotta be Flares, Reflex or the gay clubs; DV8 and Nightingales. If you want to get your rave on, wait for a proper event to come to (what's left of) the Custard Factory, or Godskitchen at Air, or Raveology held at places like the Rainbow. 

Standard queue at DV8...

For 'nice drinks' rather than 'drunk clubbing', try the many bars at The Mailbox (Penny Blacks, Pitcher and Piano, Bar Room Bar etc), or the bars in the Arcadian complex near China Town (Sobar, Poppyred, Arca Bar, Mono Bar etc).

Also don't be afraid to think outside the box a little; the Yarbird jazz club is awesome, and the Jam House is a cocktail-tastic proper-dancing bar owned by Jools Holland which is pretty swingin' and always seems to have live music on. Also check out the Island Bar for it's cocktails, the Gothic-inspired Bacchus bar beneath the Burlington Arcade, and the achingly-cool Victoria, which also holds quirky events like 'A Crafty Beer' (knit and drink- win win!).

I'm yet to explore the evening delights of nearby Moseley and Kings Heath or the Jewelery Quarter bars, but I hear that these are the places to be, and so must try them out before I leave Birmingham!

One final note on going out in Brum- avoid Broad Street at weekends unless absolutely necessary. The reasons for this needn't be listed, just take my advice.Yes, it's were Gatecrasher resides and some of the bars along it's sick-blood-and-lager strewn length are passable, but only people who don't know Birmingham very well, or who are laddish balding men/crazy almost-menopausal women enjoy Broad Street at weekends, unless you're doing Carnage; the awesome charity pub crawl (sounds oxymoronic but it's true!)

"A typical Sturday Night on Broad Street" from the Daily Mail

I also wouldn't particularly recommend Air in Digbeth, Oceana is an acquired taste but you may love a cheeky bit of Vodbull on Thursdays, and Risa must be saved for when it's absolutely necessary.

If you want to look for 'What's On' in terms of club nights and special events like silent discos, comedy nights and roller discos, these are the best sites I've found; WOIB (What's On In Brum), Live Brum, Visit Birmingham, Itchy, Don't Stay In, Birmingham Theatre Guide and also the Birmingham Mail website.

The End

Student Fashion Blog Review

Want to see me pretending to model for a review I did for the Student Fashion Blog? Click here!

I road-tested some clothing from Get The Label.com, and paraded them around my Birmingham house for photographer Emmanuel (idrawwithlight).

 
I have had the pleasure of working with Emmanuel before on this shoot and review... where I got my geek on wearing J!NX T-shirts in our Uni Library!

Birmingham's Best Bits... Where to EAT!

So I've lived here for three years now and I think it's time I shared some pearls of wisdom about this fabulous city- where to eat and drink, what to see, where to shop and all manner or little things like that.

This first post will be on FOOD- I hope you're hungry!

So aside from Selly Sausage's 'what-it-says-on-the-tin' big breakfasts and awesome omelettes (with beans and 2 slices of toast!), Birmingham has some great eateries, and here are a few of my favourites:

I went to a new little cafe/eatery called Arco Lounge in the achingly middle-class suburb of Harborne at the weekend, next door to Cafe Nero up near Waitrose, which was just FABULOUS. It's part of the 'Lounge' chain but the only real give-away is the range of printed menus. Everything else from the home-made cakes and tray bakes to the big jugs of water and help-yourself glasses, magazine and newspaper stacks and huge blackboard with the menu written on feel very 'nice-one-off-little-cafe'. I like.

Apparently, (says the website) this one seats 80, and there's another one in Kings Heath which is huge (130 seats inside 40 outside, if the weather holds!). Better than a gastro-pub and the menu is varied enough to be a crowd-pleaser but also interesting and saliva-inducing.

I ordered tapas, (3 bowls for £7.95) they have a great selection for meat-eaters and veggies alike. I LOVED my cream-cheese stuffed mini peppers, honey-glazed 5 spice shredded pork and goats-cheese topped roasted sweet potato, which came with sliced ciabatta to get dippy with.

My brunch buddy had a scrummy-looking poached eggs with hollandaise sauce and crispy bacon on English muffins, and a good ol' bacon sarnie on doorstop bread. Yes, that's two meals for one person, but it hits the spot for brunch, right?

The previous night I had tapas at Bar Estilo in the Mailbox (this was a very tapas-y weekend), which was also delicious. Potato Bravas, salmon quesadillas, minted lamb kofte and sweet potato mash were spot on, but the stars of the show were the delicious duck and chorizo wraps and the spicy chicken thighs.

Also at the Mailbox is a very nice Cafe Rouge, where I would recommend the Confit de Canard; duck with dauphinoise potatoes, and also the huge bread and dip starters to share, though my boss would say it's all about the Croque Monsieur if you're feeling indulgent. In my opinion the deserts are better than the mains I've tried though- Crème Brûlée, Tarte Tatin and the melting chocolate torte are all rich and divine!
 

The mailbox is full of similar places to eat; GBK, Nando's, Pizza Express, Strada, Zizzi's, all nice and I wouldn't turn down a meal at any of them but nothing a-mazing in my humble opinion.

Although part of a chain itself, Jamie's Italian is gorgeous, as I've already said earlier in this blog. It's not too pretentious for pretentious-sounding Italian food, and surprisingly good value for money. You can see my review of it here, but long story short: go there!

Now I must turn to my all-time love; sushi. The many times I have been for all-you-can-eat sushi at Woktastic have been phenomenal- and not only for the variety of mini dishes offered (from sushi to noodles, salads, calamari, wontons, spring rolls and even deserts). I also love for the novelty value of getting it off a conveyor belt and the other non-sushi Japanese treats it offers (like the-world's-most-filling-bowl of Ramen, right Dean?). Also, the value for money is great- £10.99 for all-you-can-eat (I always seem to rinse this unlimited amount and leave with a huge rice belly, see fig.3).

Yes those were all my empty bowls. And what?

Also amazing for Japanese food is Mount Fuji, attached to the Bullring so super close for while you are shopping! Their eel and scallop sushi is to die for, as is their chicken teriyaki... NOM! The thing I love the most about this place though are the bento boxes where everything comes in it's little box section within a bigger box; great for those who sometimes seem to have OCD, and it feels kind of like tapas- always a winner!

Next on my agenda is this Vietnamese restaurant which does Pho Bo, or beef noodle soup, which I fell in love with in Vietnam and would like to relive the experience!

Woman making Pho Bo in Saigon

"It's 3am, we need Pho Bo"

Thoroughly addicted to Pho Bo by the time we reached Hanoi!

I also want to try out buffet restaurant Ming Moon (they have a chocolate fountain, and it's all you can eat, why wouldn't I want to go there), and Lasan; the Indian that won "Best Local Restaurant" in one series of The F Word, and is one of the "Healthiest Restaurants" 2009 as judged by Men's Health. I'd also like to eat at the vegan and veggie Warehouse cafe in Digbeth, try the teas at Cha Cha Cha tea lounge near House of Fraser, and (on my good friend's recommendation), Chez Jules. Oh, and Purnell's Michelin starred eatery. One can dream!

The Weird and the Wonderful...

Just some things that have amused me while I've procrastinated this week...

Needs no explanation, 'tis fabulous

Been doing some proof reading work recently, things like this = annoying

Those of you familiar with Aestheticism and Wilde's 'Decay of Lying' will chortle...

This article on Mashable.com on awesome uses of Facebook's new photo layout...

 

Also worth a shout out is this post on the Student Fashion Blog about 'Dickheads'... (scroll to the bottom and watch the YouTube clip- hilarious when you realise you've been seeing them everywhere, especially in Birmingham hanging around COW, Urban Outfitters and the Rainbow...)

Jamie Oliver's New Restaurant... NOM!

On Friday I sampled the delights of Birmingham's new Jamie's Italian near the Bullring, and MY MY was it wonderful!

If the restaurant is busy (which it invariably is) then on arrival you get a nifty little pager to let you know when there is a table ready for you. The staff were really friendly and fun, dressed in dark jeans, white shirts and ties with cowboy-esque pocket belts that actually looked pretty cool!

The decor was almost All Saints-y in it's industrial feel, but mixed with elements that would be at home in a European Deli, like dry cured meats and salamis hanging above the food prep area, and huge jars of chillies, capers and olives next to rows of crusty bread loaves.

 

There was even a fresh pasta station where you could watch the chefs press and cut it to make your meals with- no out-of-the-packet fusilli in sight!

For starters we had an English Wild Boar Salami Artisan Meat Board (basically fancy salami but v. nice and tasty), and huge iced olives with sun dried tomato and black olive tapenade and shards of crispy 'music' bread.

The mains were their pièce de résistance; I had one of their specials; the most AMAZING slow-roasted (15 hours!) pork rolled with pan gratata, pine nuts, raisins and herbs, that had been basted in a sweet wine and came in a rustic pot served with roasties and rocket. It was uber tender and delicious, perfectly dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil- by far the best pork I've ever tasted.

My companion had half a marinated grilled pheasant with crispy fried liver and sage, salad and bread sauce smeared on the chopping-board type platter it came on. It was gorgeous, but my pork just pipped it to the post!

Having the world's most ridiculous sweet tooth, I had to have their ultimate warm chocolate, raspberry and Amaretto brownie with lush vanilla ice-cream. It was more like a rich, satisfying muffin than a brownie, but it definately hit the spot!

For 2 starters, 2 mains, a beer, a glass of wine and a desert the bill was around £45 not including service charge or tip, so for the standard of the food we got and the experience as a whole I reckon it's well worth it.

On asking our waitress if Jamie comes often though, she said he hasn't visited yet! Well, he's missing out!

Check out their usual menu on their website here.

Review of Brum's new HMV Institute...

Holla!

Here's my review of Birmingham's premier new music venue; the HMV Institute, on the Birmingham University newspaper's website Rebrick Online...