Grace + James
SOURDOUGH… THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD
It could well be the last day of summer and as it’s had the decency to fall on a Saturday, I’m taking full advantage and promised my daughter lunch, even though I should be at work. We’re running through the possibilities and as it’s later than planned, it needs to be local.
We also want to eat outside. Having knocked the pubs off the options, suddenly there doesn’t appear to be quite the riches of possibility I’d initially imagined… it just seems to leave Poli … oh, hang on, that’s alright. Let’s go to Poli.
Just ten minutes later we’re there, but it’s almost 3 o’clock and it’s shut. Bugger.
However, despite having overlooked that we’d be on the shady side of the street, there’s Grace + James less than a feather’s throw away and it’s warm enough that there’s a smattering of customers on the bench tables outside. More importantly it looks open.
We head in and it only takes a glance at the simple menu of just a handful of variations on bread, cheese and charcuterie for us to decide in an instant that we’re here to stay. We’re bloody hungry too.
Georgie suggests some habas fritas (salted, fried Broad Beans) – that’s fine by me, not least as it sounds like they could even be one of your ‘five a day’. For the main event, she picks the burrata, oil, lemon and chilli served with sourdough. We’re sharing which is great for me, given I’m with a vegetarian and the Chianti salami with pickles would not only be all for me, but I reckon with the burrata, it’ll be like an Italian marriage, ordained at the Vatican by the Pope himself. We also order more sourdough, with oil and balsamic too.
The sourdough has a damn near perfect-blistered crust and the dough is so wonderfully aerated and spongy you could enjoy a blissful night’s sleep on it. With the likes of Peel and Stone, Medicine and Loaf etc. it’s only what I’ve now come to expect in Birmingham, but it’s still a pleasure every single time. And don’t even get me started on toasted sourdough.
If you look back five years or so, it’s only a wonder why we used to put up with the bread we used to have to put up with back then. When Parisians were rioting over the lack of bread in Revolutionary France, Marie Antoinette was alleged to have said ‘Let them cake’. And we all know how that ended.
I share their pain (sorry). We should have been rioting too!
Add some cheese or some meat to great bread and you really do have all you need for a fine lunch by any standard. Now add sunshine and al fresco dining and if I close my eyes I could be anywhere it Italy… but I’m not. I’m just off Kings Heath High Street and that’s about as far away from Italy as anyone can possibly be. But here on this little patch of York Road, there’s Grace + James and Poli and that’s pretty ‘Italian’ on the most important things in life... food and drink. Even if they can’t always provide the sunshine, nor ever the vista.
It’s no surprise that the people behind Grace + James are also behind Poli. When it comes to the food, the principles are exactly the same. There’s nothing complicated at either place… just great quality ingredients brought together with minimum fuss. The only surprise really is that I’m so late to the party, although in my defence I have previously enjoyed more than a glass or two of wine here, albeit without the food. Grace + James also functions as a deli and wine shop and it’s a thoughtfully curated selection of wines that can be bought to take away or enjoyed there for an additional corkage of just £7.
Ordinarily, with this kind of fare I’d fully go with red wine, but the hangover is lingering like an autumn morning mist, so I choose the Kernel Pale Ale Simcoe. Within a couple of sips, the mist starts to lift. Georgie has a Dandelion & Burdock and with those drinks the bill comes in at £24.25
The only surprise is that the food took ages given there will have only been some slicing, drizzling and gathering of cutlery and plates to bring it all together. Thankfully we’ve had the Habas Fritas which has detained our hanger. Later on, two ladies join us at our table and they’re similarly perplexed at how long their food order takes – remarking it’s probably a ploy to get them to drink more wine. But there’s nothing wrong with that in my book.
As for the food itself, the burrata perfectly encapsulates the last throes of summer, sat in its drizzle of lemon and oil and dressed with finely chopped chilli and accompanied by a thick slice of sourdough. On cutting into the burrata, its delicately sweet, creamy centre oozes out. It’s so perfectly spreadable, it’s as if it had been in training for this part on our lunch table all its life.
The salami is the smaller, slightly wetter variety that comes fairly thickly sliced and it has a slightly sweet tang with its hint of spiciness. The small pile of cornichons that accompany it provide the perfect contrast of both crunch and tartness. They also become the lunch table battleground between the carnivore and vegetarian, although I had the decency to give up the last one. This is only fair considering how much of the Burrata I’d enjoyed.
When the food arrived, it looked like we’d completely over ordered on the sourdough but, by the end, the Burrata juices had combined exquisitely with the lemon and oil for the most delicious mopping up finale.
Having thoroughly enjoyed our late summer lunch, I left in quite a bubble, which unfortunately lasted just 60 seconds or so. Exactly at the point, we turned onto Kings Heath High Street.
RECOMMENDED
23 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7SA
www.graceandjames.xyz
Photo © Grace+James - used with kind permission
