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Perch Bakery  is a beautiful new cafe in Birmingham that serves speciality coffee, creative brunch dishes and exquisite pastries. I indulged in all three of these when I paid a visit to Perch en route to Wolverhampton on Saturday and I was very impressed. I heard about Perch from Eleanor at  Saint Nine , who is always a great source of Brum tips. The bakery is the second location from the team behind the acclaimed  Early Bird Bakery  in Kings Heath, which I haven't yet managed to visit. Perch is located on the ground floor of Citadel, a grand Victorian building on Corporation Street, which is now home to various office and retail spaces. It was a sunny day and when I arrived, just before noon, the tall windows of the shopfront were reflecting the historic, redbrick buildings opposite. Inside, it's a rather more modern affair. The large, L-shaped marble counter occupies much of the space, with the display of pastries (more about those later) at one end,...

“Oh, that’s where we got our wedding rings,” my mum said when I told her which Birmingham neighbourhood I’d visited on Saturday. That made a lot of sense given that it was the Jewellery Quarter but these days you’re as likely to find coffee rings as wedding rings — especially if you drop into Quarter Horse’s new espresso bar . I first came across Quarter Horse through their sadly now-defunct coffee shop on Oxford’s Cowley Road . Since then, I’ve been able to visit their Bristol Street café  while passing through Brum en route to matches at Molineux. Last year was their 10th anniversary and the new espresso bar — which is also now the home to their roastery — was the perfect way to celebrate. The Jewellery Quarter is about 15 minutes' walk north-west of New Street station — you could also take the  Metro , which I did to continue my journey on to Wolverhampton. As its name suggests, the area has a proud industrial heritage dating back centuries and it still retains a lot of it...

Regular readers will know that my family hail from the Black Country. And I've been spending even more time in Wolverhampton over the past two years since  Wolves tickets became easier to obtain. When I've needed a coffee stop, I have tended to break my journey in Birmingham, visiting spots like Tilt , Quarter Horse  and Faculty . Well, perhaps Wolverhampton speciality coffee shops are like buses because two of them have now come along in quick succession. Medicine Bakery I haven't been to the original Medicine Bakery & Kitchen in Codsall, just outside Wolverhampton, but have stopped by their New Street café in Birmingham for a takeaway coffee a couple of times. And it was thanks to fellow coffee blogger Brian  that I found out about their new spot in central Wolverhampton, which opened in May. (For more details about the  New Street  and  Codsall  locations, check out Brian's blog.) My next challenge was getting to Wolverhampton from London early...

My speciality-coffee-shop-hopping continues to turn up connections — unintentionally — this week, and today's post is about my return visit to  Quarter Horse Coffee  on Bristol Street. Meanwhile, if you follow me on Instagram , you may have seen that I stopped by  Peloton Espresso in the weekend before — which occupies the former site of Quarter Horse's now-defunct Oxford cafe, which I visited many times. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I was in Birmingham again briefly on Sunday ahead of another Wolves match (we lost again, 0-1 to Spurs, this time, although played very well and were even fun to watch; I know you didn't ask). I only had an hour before I had to be at New Street station, but luckily, I knew the way because I visited Quarter Horse on the same day as Faculty , when I was in town for a conference almost two years ago. My fellow panellist we go for a drink before our train, and I countered with a coffee suggestion. Very fine was the Mexican single-origin c...

While back in the West Midlands earlier this month, I was able to visit a second speciality coffee shop in Birmingham before catching my train home. And like Tilt , Faculty  is based in a historic arcade close to New Street station. I have  visited Faculty before: appropriately enough, I was on my way to speak on a conference panel at the University of Birmingham way back in those crazy beforetimes (AKA November 2019). Somehow, though, I never ended up writing up my visit (I blame an incredibly hectic time at work and my trip to Seville ). In these pandemic times, nothing ever stays the same for long in any case, so I've included a couple of photos from my first trip to Faculty as well as some more recent ones. The Piccadilly Arcade dates to 1910 and is rather lovely with its grand facade and ceiling murals. Faculty is located near the Stephenson Street end, which is directly opposite the shiniest part of New Street station. Proximity to the station was a key factor in my f...