February 2020 has been a month which people in the West Midlands might care to forget. Coronavirus is making the news abroad and a large area of Italy has been quarantined in the last couple of days. The virus hasn’t taken long to spread its tentacles out from the Far East to southern Europe and with an epidemic like this restaurant owners must be worrying that the virus will take root in our area in the foreseeable future. If people won’t go out or mix with strangers then giving up dining out for weeks or months is an obvious outcome. Who knows how badly this could affect our region’s burgeoning gastronomic trade.
And matters haven’t been helped by the floods that have affected several West Midlands counties - Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. I am off on a trip to Hereford in the near future and was looking forward to visiting the two
Good Food Guide 2020-recommended restaurants during my visit -
Madam And Adam on Bridge Street, far too close to the river Wye to have escaped the floods, and
The Bookshop, which seems to have escaped the watery devastation.
In Shropshire, the river Teme has also reeked havoc. A not surprising victim of the raging river was
CSONS At the Green Cafe which is situated at the water’s edge at Dinham Mill in front of the building which once housed the
Michelin-starred
Mr Underhill’s. The usually lovely riverside location of
The Green Cafe had doubtless played a significant part in the former restaurant’s securing of a
Bib Gourmand but it is clearly problematical when the incessant rain turns the river into a raging torrent. CSONS At the Green Cafe announced that it had had to close due to flooding on its
Facebook page on 16 February but was able to announce that it was able to reopen a couple of days later.
The river was also very heavy in October 2019 and was close to flooding The Green Cafe but did not reach the height recently achieved in early February:-
Given these apparent effects of global warming it is timely that the Michelin Guide Great Britain And Ireland 2021 will have a new award included in it to reward a restaurant’s contribution to sustainable gastronomy. The award is symbolised by a green clover and was introduced in the French Michelin Guide 2020 a month ago. Fifty French dining establishments received the award for their environmental practices.
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