I usually arrive at Adam’s just in time to be guided through to my table rather than early to allow myself to relax preprandially in the comfortable chairs in the small, smart bar area. On this particular evening, the first of three that Adam’s’ special 10th anniversary dinner was being served, I did indeed turn up some minutes before my reservation time and was delighted to be able to relax in the bar, a glass of Monkey 47 and tonic in my hand, with a little bowl of fabulously delicious sticky, sweet, smoked walnuts by the other hand which was constantly diving into the bowl to grab one of its contents. What a perfect way to start a special evening.
Adam’s therefore had opened, first as a small but rather chic pop-up in Bennett’s Hill - small but due to a trompe l’oeil cleverly positioned at the rear of the establishment seemingly a lot larger - in late April 2013. It was soon the attention of national newspaper critics who for once summoned up the fortitude to tear themselves away from London and to bring themselves to Birmingham and one such useful human being, Maria O’Loughlin of The Guardian, graced our city with her presence around June or July 2013, not long after Adam’s opened and about 6 weeks or so before I visited the restaurant for the first time in August of that year.
O’Loughlin, a fish out of water in the former industrial provinces as opposed to the grubby, malodorous streets and overpriced dining establishments of the capital, was somewhat unpleasant about Adam Stokes’ new venture- “Some restaurants”, she wrote, “are all about the diner, the sole purpose to send you back into your life feeling well-fed and well disposed to the world. But some appear to be far more about the chef, each tortured dish screeching,”Look at me, Lord Snotty Mr Michelin, look at me!”
She wrote unkindly, “If you asked even the hardest-core restaurant fan to create their fantasy dining destination, it’s doubtful that they’d come up with Adam Stokes and his wife Natasha’s new place: a former sandwich shop tricked out in chilly grieve, faux marble, the blank stare of bullseye mirrors and a massive slab of trompe l’oeil”. Well I liked it at the time at any rate.
Surprisingly, given the general air of negativity of her review, O’Loughlin conceded, “ … many of his dishes are glorious, technically assured while still being the kind of stuff you want to ram down your neck” though she did write that, “But it’s not all foie and trotters: some dishes don’t come off, due to what should be rooky errors. Wildly over-salted buckwheat, for instance, mars delicate, saffroned brill.And while using the Gentleman’s relish with first-rate lamb is a clever idea - lamb and anchovies are a classic combo, after all - you should again steer clear of that salt cellar”.
To be fair to the downbeat O’Loughlin, when I visited Adam’s shortly after her, and having not read her review, I recorded, “somehow the orange-flavoured buckwheat did not seem to allow full justice to be done to the fish and the buckwheat for me at least was just a little over seasoned” (I tend towards litotes it appears while O’Loughlin was more a hyperbole sort of girl). There does appear at times for there be a tendency for salt to run rampant - I was almost as grumpy as O’Loughlin was when I visited Adam’s in its new home in Waterloo Street in September 2017 and recorded that a chicken main course had two elements which were “too salty” but there have been no such problems on my various visits since then and there were certainly no such problems during the 10th anniversary dinner.
The meal was made up of six courses plus amuses gueles and bread. The ‘snacks’ were all equally delightful - first the Adam’s classic beetroot and goat’s cheese meringue - bringing with it the right amount of salt with sweetness, then perfectly crispy fish skin paired with crab and sweet apple - again a perfect balance of salt and sweet coupled with the pleasures of crab and then, roast chicken dinner, another Adam’s signature - a crispy chicken ball bursting with the potent flavour of chicken, quite salty but robust and delicious (this dated right back to 2013 - O’Loughlin was particularly sour about it, “And some of it is just a bit silly, what appears to be tiny chicken croquettes burst robust but tepid stock into your gob, like a Brit xiao long bao …” well I love them and they can burst into my “gob” anytime they like. There were generous amounts of fine bread - a still-warm cheesy scone and sourdough served with a wonderfully smoky beef fat and a wispy mound of delicious butter.
Then came the first starter. I thoroughly enjoyed the dish of brown shrimps with a Béarnaise mayonnaise and puffed wheat giving a pleasing texture to it all. Then perfectly cooked veal sweetbreads, happily creamy inside with texture provided by thinly sliced raw cauliflower, black pudding, hen of the woods, air dried ham and lovely bursts of sweetness provided by raisins. This dish was one of those recommended by the Michelin Guide 2017 edition in its reference to Adam’s that year.
The Orkney scallops were nicely cooked and served with perfectly robustly flavoured smoked eel in batter - both a surprise and a perfect accompaniment - and with it all was the sweet-sour hit of grapefruit. A lovely dish. So, too, was the main of nicely flavoured and nicely cooked Ston Easton lamb with Gentleman’s relish flavoured stuffing - the relish did not impinge in any way on the discernible taste of the sweet lamb (contrary to the review of O’Loughlin back in 2013 when this dish was first presented to the public, “And while using Gentleman’s relish with first rate lamb is a clever idea - lamb and anchovies are a classic combo after all- if you try it you should again steer clear of that salt cellar” [since when has a salt cellar be at hand in Adam’s?]). Clearly the passage of time has rendered O’Loughlin’s comments irrelevant as the dish was perfectly seasoned.
There was finally the pleasure of three delightful petits fours and the dinner was presented with a signed ‘birthday card’ and a nice copy of the celebration menu. A memorable event allowing chef, restaurant staff and diner to revisit notable dishes of the past. The sour Ms O’Loughlin had written back in 2013, “Stokes comes across as a lovely and - such a cheffy word, this - passionate chap [so patronising and typical of London newspaper critics at the time as we were to observe the following year when the self-admiring Giles Coren labelled Birmingham diners as one eyes]. As is the current Noma-style fashion, he delivers the occasional dish to the table himself, a trope that just makes me think “Needy”. And “Who’s manning the stove?” …. do I really want to take part in what amounts to an extended audition for Michelin and the big time? With matching wines, our meal delivers a dizzyingly Mayfair-style bill. For that loot I’d like my meal to be gaffe-free. And a bit more about me”.
Fortunately, this unpleasant Guardian agent appears to have plucked up the courage to visit Birmingham at the time of its gastronomic awakening not at all frequently and we are not surprised to read how she wanted everything to be about her. Of course she was right that Adam’s was on track for a Michelin star - the fast track in fact - within months of opening, rather sooner than O’Loughlin expected I think as she wrote about an “extended audition for Michelin”. It appeared from this piece in fact that the sour elements of her review were probably more related to being sent to Birmingham than anything else; she wrote, “Britain’s second city seems to get its knickers in a twist about Michelin far more than London does: Stokes’ pre-publicity bangs on about his one starred past and the febrile possibility that he might bring a fourth star to the city. …. “. All very unnecessary.
But the city’s diners ignored the ramblings of O’Loughlin and Adam’s caught the Birmingham gastronomes’ attention and it took off in a big way which led to the tenth anniversary dinner which I so enjoyed the other evening. As for O’Loughlin, the world of the London elite seemed to enjoy her nasty, ascerbic comments about restaurants and she moved from being restaurant critic of The Guardian to that of The Times. I read neither. She departed her Times job in late 2022. Missed by people who like that sort of thing, I’m sure.
As a footnote, I read that Adam’s had taken on a new Head Chef, Rikku O’Donnchu, in February 2023 as a replacement for James Goodyear who had become Head Chef at Evelyn’s Table in London and I was rather hoping that this most recent visit to the restaurant would be an opportunity to see what the new Head Chef was sending out of the kitchen, I was therefore quite surprised when I was told that he was no longer with Adam’s having stayed there only about a month - the arrangement had not really worked out. O’Donnchu had most recently worked South Africa and before that in America and I had been surprised to read about his appointment. I was not shocked therefore to hear that he had turned out not to be the man for the job. In the meantime, Adam Stokes had taken up again a greater role in the kitchen which seemed quite appropriate as we were celebrating his dishes with the special dinner menu. More recently I was speaking to a notable figure in the Birmingham dining scene and he told me that it was proving very difficult to recruit senior chefs at present. Interesting times for diners out.
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