376. Rabbit/RiverineRabbit.

 

  There’s no doubt that when it comes to promising new, if small, restaurants then Stirchley, not withstanding the Jewellery Quarter, is the place to seek them out at present. The latest is what was to be called Riverine Rabbit, but seems now to be plain Rabbit, located in the shopping area along the Pershore Road.

  And to be fair, you can’t blame ambitious young chefs and restaurateurs opening up in Stirchley where they will have a captive audience, heavily hipster, all living within a short walk of what is charmingly described as the High Street. The exterior of Riverine Rabbit is very Stirchley with a small name sign which is rather difficult to spot especially on a dark winter evening. Looking through the window, you can see it is pleasantly bijou, with a well planned interior. Lucy The Labrador and I visited the restaurant soon after it first opened. 

  Having correctly identified the right location, the dog and I walked into a a not over-brightly lit but smart-looking and warm dining area with just 18 seats running along the counter at which the diners sit. There was a pleasingly adequate space in which the dog could relax. There were two people behind the counter - Erin Valenzuala-Heeger, who by the way has a day job as a metallurgist at Birmingham University, and her wife Ash Heeger, the Chef.

  There’s an interesting background story to the couple. Ash was born in Transkei in South Africa and brought up in Capetown and ran the 70 seater restaurant - also The Riverine Rabbit - with her sister Mandy in that city until it was closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She came to Birmingham with Erin who works in the Midlands Industrial Ceramic Group at the University and worked at Carter’s of Moseley before Brad Carter decided that his restaurant should shift its location. The originally intended name of the new restaurant (and that of the former Capetown restaurant) derives from that of a species of rabbit (they might perhaps have used the Latin name Bunolagus monticularis, though to be fair it doesn’t really have hipster appeal when you think about it) which lives in the Karoo desert in Ash’s homeland  and the choice of name highlights Ash’s and Erin’s efforts to support sustainable farming practices. The Birmingham restaurant’s name seems to have been shortened, probably wisely, to plain and simple Rabbit, which has much more good down-to-Earth Brummie appeal even in a hipster zone such as Stirchley.

  As the first diner of the evening to arrive I was greeted most warmly and Lucy the Labrador no less so. After seating myself in my designated chair at the counter I was given a nice, warming, interestingly flavoured tea of South African origin and shown the drinks on offer which were brought around from Couch next door which seems to work very well for the customer while Rabbit is sans alcohol licence. I ordered a gimlet which was brought round very rapidly andas regards wine, pre-warnedI had brought a half bottle with me.

  The menu looked very exciting - small plates often with South African connections - and while Erin set about preparing my ordered dishes I dived into an excellent plate of fresh salty crisps with accompanying dip. The first dish was an excellent beef tartare with the meat marinated deliciously in rapeseed oil, smoked soy and fava bean miso. This was a generous portion of perfectly tender beef and was accompanied by wafer-sized pieces of nori which powerfully ushered in the flavour of the sea making this a rather clever surf and turf, if you like.

  Next I was served a gorgeous crab muffin; the tasty crab alive with the perfectly balanced citrus of pickled lemon and enhanced by a brown butter mayonnaise. Again this was a sizeable dish  the muffin adding considerable volume to it all and I might in retrospect have not also added fine hash browns served with spiced salt and ponzu mayonnaise to my order. On the other hand, who can resist a well cooked hash brown?

  I had not even then finished as I had ordered quite the most beautifully cooked pork belly I can remember ever having been served, the fat all melted away but all the flavour lying deep inside it from miso and gochujang, served on a triumphantly light and fluffy bao with charred hispi and cucumber. A very fine and delicious dish which, alas, I forgot to photograph, but shall return to when I next visit Rabbit in 3 or 4 weeks time. 

  Despite repletion having long set in, I allowed myself the sole dessert on the menu which was a soothing miso banana cream with the added flavour of crumbled speculoos, otherwise known as biscoff - a Belgian spiced gingerbread biscuit - along with coconut and the sweetness of ‘sprinkles. This was very good and different from most desserts which are often.

  As the minutes passed the denizens of Stirchley gradually came in and took their places at the counter and placed their orders. One irritating young woman, accompanied by lighting equipment and a doubtless expensive phone-camera, oblivious to all the other diners, obsessionally filmed the explanation of each dish given to her and her dining companion by Erin as she served them. I assume she is some sort of ‘influencer’. No matter, it was lovely to sit at the counter chatting with Erin and Ash and enjoying their food. The dog was content to lie back, rather in the way I’m afraid, but causing no trouble and being fussed by some of the diners who, naturally as dog owners do, first enquired about her age and then told me all about their dogs. By the end of my couple of hours in Rabbit, I felt as though I had been visiting and dining at someone’s home rather than having been seated in a restaurant.

  This is a great restaurant and possibly already the most important new restaurant in Birmingham to open in 2024. The opening of Carter’s in Colmore Row of course is of great importance but it is a reopening so I feel justified in giving that accolade, for the present at least, to Rabbit (though you may argue, if you must, that technically Rabbit is also a reopening given its predecessor in Capetown but I would say that that was not the same thing at all).