BANK RESTAURANT…FRED GROVE…

THESTIRRER'S BRUMMIE BLOG ON FRIDAY

11-08-2006

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch? Rubbish.

I've just had an excellent one courtesy of what we journalists call a “contact” and all I had to do was unselfishly give him a few ideas that he can turn into a money-spinning film festival.

Hmmmm…ever get the feeling you've been had?

Even if I have, I can report that Bank restaurant in Brindley Place is still in fine fettle.

As one of the first generation of smart restaurants in the “new” Birmingham it's established a reputation among the professional set as a good place to do business.

Upmarket but unfussy, classy but not too expensive…the sort of eaterie we hadn't really seen in Brum until the mid-90's.

Some mates of mine who dine out regularly on expense accounts told me recently it had “gone off” - mainly because the menu doesn't change often enough.

Maybe that's a problem if you're eating out two or three times a week, but I have to say that on my infrequent visits there, it's never let me down.

For the record, I enjoyed two dishes that I've never tasted before - curried crab fish cakes with a luscious mint sauce, followed a sweet and spicy red onion linguine.

It's not cheap, but my two courses from the fixed price lunch menu came in at £12.50 - the price of a couple of cinema tickets - and the quality was as high as ever; if anyone wants to invite me again - feel free. With the emphasis on free.

Later, I popped over to see Fred Grove, the star of our "Wrong Said Fred" campaign valiantly trying to keep his home in "Eastside" in the face of a compulsory purchase order.

Fred is a great old character, who still enjoys a weekly singsong with a barbershop group, and he's cultivated some amazing fruit trees on the canal towpath by his house - apples and plums as well as rhubarb.

Later this month valuers from Birmingham Council will be going thereto estimate a value, but his property is unique, and as there is no real market for a house in the middle of redevelopment zone, he's not optimistic of getting a fair “market” price.

In any event, it won't make any difference - he's determined to stay however much he's offered.

Good luck to him we say.

Tell you what Fred -win that victory, and when youdo we'll toast it with a glass of champagne somewhere posh like Bank.

This time, I promise, the free lunch will be on me.