503. Levain And Cherry and The Den, Stirchley

The Good Food Guide, after its revival following the withdrawal of support for it by Waitrose, seems to want to be all things to all men (and women and all other genders that we may or may not know about) and is a little confusing. In a dining out guide (I prefer that term to Food Guide) I really want to discover where to go to eat a good meal in pleasant surroundings on comfortable furniture with good service. Presently the Good Food Guide is not necessarily directing one to eat somewhere which fulfills all of those reasonable criteria. Of course it is titled ‘Good Food Guide’ rather than ‘Good Meal Guide’ and so, one may deduce that as long as the food is ‘good’ at the recommended establishment then the guide has carried out its stated goal. It’s all a little iffy if you ask me, and I can see that no-one is asking me, but still I feel that the Good Food Guide is losing its way.

I was a little alarmed this weekend by a new addition, not surprisingly located in Bristol, to the Guide which takes the form of a “tiny trailer kitchen on an inner city farm [which is] an idiosyncratic delight” and is described as, “Possibly Bristol’s best kept secret….reached by an overgrown, graffiti-strewn lane with the trains rattling by…a green oasis if ever there was one”. Only in Bristol, I think. And if anyone’s tempted to walk down the over-grown, graffiti-strewn land then the “tiny trailer kitchen” is called Chez Candice (Modern European Cafe rated Good). The Good Food Guide appears to be trying to be madder than ever. I really did have to check it wasn’t April Fool’s Day.

However I have to thank its editor for recommending an establishment where one indeed can get good food though not a true meal and certainly not dinner and that food being of a very limited range - in short - a French bakery for which I see no reason why the term patisserie should not be used. This was an eating establishment - I remind you, recommended by The Good Food Guide - where I have only one course to report on and that being a single pastry and eaten outside in the fresh air (well, as fresh as the air along the Pershore Road in Stirchley can be).

The patisserie is Levain and Cherry, the second shop opened by Pascal Bishop, born in Paris of Birmingham mother and French father. He opened his first shop/cafe on Kings Heath High Street at the age of 40 in 2020 having eschewed a course on baking that he was enrolled on as a young man and then travelling internationally to learn his craft. The hipsters of Kings Heath fell over themselves to buy his products and there were half hour or more-long queues to obtain some Levain and Cherry bread or pastry. Bishop expanded his business recently in 2025 by opening the Stirchley branch where once again the local hipsters and others could indulge themselves in good quality boulangerie and patisserie though there were no tables inside the establishment only tables and chairs under an awning which is very nice given the good weather we’ve been having though the traffic noise can be a little hard to bear.

The business’ name (Levain) derives from the type of sourdough starter used to leaven bread and ‘Cherry’ alludes to the coffee cherry, the coffee fruit from which the coffee beans are obtained. Bishop obtains his flour from France near from a mill near Paris. Pastry eaters or coffee suppers may sit outside under the awning with their dogs and I took my pup along with me to share the experience and a tiny portion of my chosen edible.

And my chosen edible was, it has to be said, remarkably delicious - a ‘fruit brioche’ which took the form of a delightful, large crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside pastry encircling a well, filled with perfectly sweet custard and a soft half peach looking like a golden island rising from the centre of a lake. The coffee was very pleasant but the pastry stole the show, so much so that both the dog returned the following day to have another bite of the (Levain and) cherry and indulge quite joyously in the great pleasure of the fruit brioche once more. I also bought two remarkably toothsome large canales to take home with me and wished I had bought four at least as well as a savoury circular, confusingly non-crescent shaped croissant filed with, I think, chunks of blood pudding and a fried egg which was not entirely to my taste (photographs at the bottom of this piece).

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛.

So, returning to Stirchley the next day, and finding the establishment to be dog friendly, I dropped into The Den on Pershore Road at the heart of the suburb, for breakfast. This was a large establishment with indoor seats and garden seating. Treats and water were available for the dog. I found the service to be pleasant and helpful. I opted for a brunch from the menu and found the prospect offered by the (home-made) corned beef hash with accompaniments to be very enticing. The corned beef was very good though I did not particularly like the spicing of it. The generous amount of crispy potato hash was delicious and certainly did what it said on the menu - that is - it was indeed gorgeously crispy but the rest of it did seem something of a dog’s breakfast (though of course it was a brunch), there being all sorts of elements to it - silver skin onions, fried egg (nicely done), good ‘house’ baked beans, carrot which really did not seem to have a part to play, pickled sliced onion and other elements. The hot-cold combination really did not work for me and this might best be described as ‘interesting’ and a lesson in not going over the top when creating something different.