The decor is beautiful, the service warm and the atmosphere congenial, but what happened to the food?
Eventually, much of London will run away and set up life an hour up the train track in Birmingham. I’m sure this thrills all Brummie readers. It’s something I think each time I pass through the gleaming, multipurpose colosseum that is Birmingham New Street Station, now featuring a John Lewis, a Mac cosmetics, a Mowgli, a Joe & The Juice and dozens of other shiny ways to spend.
Grand Central, the plaza is called officially, but unlike Elizabeth Smart’s character, I have no reason here to sit down and weep. There’s just a sense that something is afoot in this city. Yes, it may be a gigantic building site in places right now, teeming with bulldozers and hoardings saying, “Excuse us while we’re changing”, but the mood everywhere, particularly in restaurants, is growth.
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