AT LAST - BRUNCH COMES TO BRUM

The Stirrer's blog for Monday

18-09-2006

We used to read about it in all those fancy London papers and colour supplements. Well now it's time to celebrate as Birmingham develops it's very own “brunch belt” to rival the balti triangle.

Now when I say brunch, I don't just mean an unduly filling snack in the middle of the morning.

I'm talking about proper London or LA-style lazy Saturday and Sunday reading the papers and just hanging about in cool places kind of brunch - which may well involve an unduly filling snack in the middle of the morning.

Café and restaurant owners in this area have been incredibly slow to cotton on to the potential of this kind of meal, which is as much about ambience as food but we are finally getting there.

The brunch belt, not surprisingly is focussed on the middle-classutopias of Moseley and Kings Heath, although Leverton and Hall in Maryvale Road, Bournville can lay a decent claim too with organic fried breakfasts, good veggie options and a sumptuous range of cakes and croissants.

Moseley boasts The Cross - always reliable if a little pricey - while in Kings Heath, the Garden Organic Café in York Road offers decent competition if slightly ramshackle service.

The every epicentre of the brunch belt though is Poplar Road, Kings Heath home to a French place so notorious for its service the Stirrer hasn't yet ventured over its threshold; there's Gingers which looks appealing; and my particular fave - Café Organic, known to locals as the Peace Café.

There's a wonderful suntrap of a garden for those glorious autumn mornings - and afternoons - fair-trade tea and coffee, and a wonderful veggie Full English breakfast that I defy any meat-eater to refuse.

Best of all is the laid-back but friendly vibe of the place; it's a sandal wearing, lentil eaters paradise, but has none of the off-putting “right on” attitude that might imply.