561. Sæl Opens At Last.

 

  It doesn’t seem to me that anyone has really put two and two together and come up with the four that recognises that Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter is really the place for food dudes to hang out, to use what is now probably prehistoric terminology though the term ‘food dude’ is brand new because I just came up with it.

 ‘JQ food dudes’ have within walking distance two Michelin-starred Opheem, one Michelin-starred The Wilderness, Michelin-listed Albatross Death Cult, Michelin-listed Folium, Kaye Winwood’s unique GULP, Vieni, Txiketio, and now Jonny Mills has finally opened his 8 cover restaurant, Sæl, much anticipated by local food dudes, in the Goodsyard after many delays. Food dudes, generally older than you might expect in this cool inner city suburb, have been flooding there as the restaurant breathes its first breaths; even Stu Deeley, Head Chef of The Warwick at Mallory Court was there the other day as he so reported on Instagram. 

  So, it seems that the two plus two of the question, “Where is the dining out capital of the West Midlands region?” arrives at the correct answer of four in the form not of Lichfield nor Cheltenham nor Malvern nor Ludlow but The Jewellery Quarter, which for food at least seems to be to Birmingham what The Vatican City is to Rome. 

  Having occasionally hung out with some of the old food dudes over the past couple of years or so, usually as a result of coincidental encounters, I was alerted to the intense interest they were experiencing in anticipating the opening of Sæl and of the delays Jonny Mills was suffering in getting his 8 seater restaurant opened to the public. Over the passing months, I have dined at two or three of the pop ups Mills has staged in venues in Stirchley and noted that he has acquired an elite food dude fandom (some of whom had made donations to a crowd funding effort to fund the new restaurant) who are enraptured by his cooking. Mills finally achieved his goal of creating his own food in his very own dining establishment when Sæl opened its doors to diners on 12 August 2026. Naturally it was necessary to go to the Birmingham Vatican at an early stage and see, from the diners’ points of view, if the wait had been worthwhile. And so it came to pass.

Jonny Mills at one of his pop ups in Stirchley

  Though I have visited The Goodsyard, the large complex nextdoor to the Jewellery Quarter railway station, a number of times, it took me some time to decide where precisely Sæl is located and I discovered an area of the Goodsyard of which I had previously been unaware. Most of the units surrounding it were empty and awaiting someone to open a business in them. I felt I would not like to be there on a wet, cold, dark night. However, there was some solace, the cocktail and wine bar, Passing Fancies, was already open around the corner from Sæl and made the area a little more welcoming with some of its customers sitting outside in the pleasant late summer evening air.

  Arriving early before any of the other diners, I was seated very comfortably at the smart counter along which were spaced 8 stools and greeted warmly by Asher Beardsmore who works with Jonny Mills in the role of sommelier/mixologist having previously gained experience at Couch in Stirchley as well as Opheem and Tropea - a fine local curriculum vitae. Asher asked about the current well-being of Lucy the Labrador who, I was pleased to inform him, was in good health and served me a glass of sparkling wine which was apt given that this was the restaurant’s first evening of service following the short soft opening last week. The atmosphere was soon brought to life when, to my surprise, a couple of my old friends crossed the threshold to take their places and all seemed set with a fair wind for a fine evening which, as it turns out, is precisely what we all experienced.

  The first item to be served was a tasty beetroot croustade with crème fraiche and a ‘hot sauce’, the hot meaning spicy rather than having a raised temperature. This started the ball rolling and was followed up by one of Jonny Mills’ signature miniature scones made from JQ flour (no, as Mills pointed out, JQ does not stand for ‘Jewellery Quarter’), nicely textured and served with his own, delicious cultured butter made from Grovewood Farm cream (the farm is just a short distance from where I live) and a lovely whipped chicken liver and smoked mushroom parfait.

  Then on to a remarkable dish which used sweet leeks in aerated Hollandaise and roasted Maris Piper and Charlotte potatoes to create a green hill top rising above a snowy field and walnut chutney to add flavour. Then a brilliant thinly spiced scallop ceviche - gorgeous, as wonderful a scallop dish as one may wish to be served - delightfully textured with hazelnut.

  Next a fabulous dish of exquisite cured trout with the spicy, gingery hit of magnolia which also brought cardomon with it and the full flavour of tomato. And so to the main - supremely well-cooked, gorgeously tender and flavoursome lamb matched with alliums and elderflower.

  Dessert was alive with novelty with an artichoke-flavoured crème brûlée with the discernible taste of tonka - very clever - and finally a dessert using very pleasingly, a fruit I have not seen all summer - the welcome sight (and taste) of gooseberry with a yoghurt and the honeyed vanillaness of meadowsweet. Quite, quite gorgeous.

  So very, very good was my experience at Sæl that I returned the following week while it was still possible to get a reservation there and ate the same dishes and enjoyed them just as much as on my first visit. It may have taken a long time and Sæl’s eventual arrival had involved a lot of patience and anguish for Jonny Mills, but he has established Sæl as one of the very best restaurants in Birmingham in just a matter of days. Clever, original and delicious British/European fine food remains out there for us all to enjoy even if some of the old masters have moved on although happily, great young chefs like Jonny Mills are stepping up to take up the baton of fine dining here in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

20 August and 27 August 2026

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

473. Folium.

 

  These are difficult times for the hospitality industry. Starmer’s government’s taxation measures have made things even worse.

   The previous Conservative governments had been more helpful to hospitality businesses than those who ran them chose to accept. In particular, when Chancellor of the Exchequer and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rishi Sunak had introduced a scheme - furlough - whereby the government paid 80% of a worker’s salary and this greatly enabled businesses to retain their staff during the periods of lockdown thus avoiding mass unemployment and a vast number of businesses collapsing. After the lockdowns he furthmore reduced Value added tax for hospitality businesses for a twelve month period and also introduced an ‘Eat out to help out scheme’ whereby the government subsided the price of  meals when eaten out at restaurants and other dining establishments, all to stimulate the post COVID hospitality industry’s trade. 

  Nevertheless when the government necessarily returned the rate of Value added tax to its prepandemic level, many in the hospitality industry were enraged and felt the maintenance of the lower rate would continue to stimulate their businesses in the face of additional problems which included the rise in energy and commodity prices caused by the war in Ukraine. The Conservative government maintained the higher rate and many in the hospitality industry thought that by voting for a Labour government in the general election held on 4 July 2024 they would get a government more sympathetic to their plight and their wishes.

  They were to be sorely disappointed. Not only did the new Labour government maintain the VAT rate but in a budget delivered on 30 October 2024, the new Labour chancellor of the exchequer, Reeves, announced painful new measures which would add severe added crippling burdens to those trying to run businesses, including restaurateurs. 

  Far from favouring hospitality businesses, Reeves was hell bound on squeezing them through a mangle. Reeves’ measures included raising employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2%, taking it to 15% and lowering the threshold at which it was to be paid from £9100 per annum to £5000 pa (this clearly affected the numbers of staff members restaurant owners could employ thus threatening unemployment in the industry), reduction of the business rates relief for hospitality businesses from 75% to 40% (thus increasing business costs) and raising the minimum wage from £11.41 per hour to £12.21 which again affected the costs of employing staff).

  As these changes only came into effect from 1 April, the potentially calamitous outcomes of Reeves’ budget are yet to unravel themselves and those hospitality industry figures who thought that voting Labour would be a good thing may well experience the same sort of buyer’s remorse as a diner in one of their restaurants who is served something on a tasting menu that they don’t want but which they’re paying for anyway.

  But that is only one side of the coin for potential customers who might be thinking of coming to eat at restaurants may be held back by a simmering cost of living crisis which has manifested itself under the Labour regime. Energy costs are exorbitant and raised artificially because of government measures attached to its green agenda. Transport costs, postal charges, water rates and inflation have all soared since Labour came to power and the result is that only those public sector employees to whom it has given enormous pay rises (junior doctors and train drivers to prevent them striking as well as members of Parliament of course) may be in a position to consider eating out at expensive restaurants. In short, the hospitality industry is tottering on the brink and disaster is just round the corner.

  On 27 April 2023, the then Mayor of the West Midlands, the much admired Andy Street, appointed Alex Claridge, Chef Patron of the Wilderness, to be his Nighttime Economy Advisor in a bid to have an expert in hospitality supporting the local industry in the region and advising the Mayor on how this support could be given. Claridge fitted perfectly into this role and it was particularly useful for the dining out industry to be represented at such a high regional level. Claridge tried to steer clear of party politics though he was not shy to let it be known that Sunak’s Conservative government needed to do more to support hospitality. The government was largely unresponsive to this after its years of going out of its way to see the industry through the COVID-19 crisis. 

  Street lost the Mayoral election to the Labour candidate, Parker, on 2 May 2024 and the Conservative government was heavily defeated by Labour in the general election of 4 July 2024. Those in the hospitality industry who had believed these changes of regime would lead to them receiving a more sympathetic and generous approach to their problems were soon disappraised of this illusion as the new Chancellor, Reeves, delivered her first budget which included the measures noted above and the new West Midlands Mayor revealed himself to be ineffectual and inconsequential. The region’s hospitality industry it seemed, had willingly, even enthusiastically, jumped out of the frying pan into the fire and had now to face the consequences. It has to be noted however that some of the leading chefs in the city had shown their keen support for Andy Street in the run up to the Mayoral election and not everyone in the dining out industry had any enthusiasm for a Labour government.

  And now April 2025 has arrived and the consequences of Reeves’ budget will begin to reveal themselves. Who will survive and who will go under? Or will things turn out to be not quite as bad as one would logically predict? Alex Claridge tweeted on X on 4 April 2025, “Previous Mayoral advisor on hospitality ….” Which was a somewhat opaque phrasing which can be interpreted either as he was the previous advisor or he was the advisor of the previous mayor while still occupying the post under the present Mayor, Parker. There has certainly been no resignation publicised as far as I can see but it is noteworthy that the rest of the tweet says, ”… Labour have created the worst possible environment for all the named uses below and de facto gone to war with the industries they claim to support. The dangerous net inflation of costs to create jobs means opening later is moot”. This was a response to a tweet by the Labour Deputy prime minister, Rayner, saying, “Our pubs, restaurants & live music venues are the beating heart of our cultural life, so it’s vital they’re given every chance to survive and thrive.That’s why new trial powers for London will back the capital’s pubs and clubs - boosting the nighttime economy and driving growth”. 

  Two days later, on 6 April, Alex Claridge again commented on another tweet put out by a government department featuring a video of Rayner’s comments on the nighttime economy industry and the rather underwhelming measures she was taking with the simple message, “Gaslighters”.

  Claridge had long recognised the dangers to his industry which had arisen in the previous five years and not hesitated to speak about them and now he appeared unimpressed by what the new government was doing to help it survive. Is he right to be as worried as he is?

  One of my most favourite restaurants in the city is Ben Tesh’s Folium - it could be the nicest place in Birmingham to relax and eat remarkably delightful food prepared meticulously to look beautiful and to taste perfectly delicious. On 9 April 2025, a tweet was posted saying, “A slow week this week. We would appreciate your support, as always. Thursday - Saturday dinner Friday/Saturday lunch”. Apart from the reason that Folium is such an excellent place to dine, it seemed right that I should also go there to give Ben Tesh and Lucy Hanson my support and so off I trooped to the Jewellery Quarter a couple of days later. 

  It was a bright, sunny mid-spring day,quite warm, and I was happy to walk through the doors again to be warmly greeted by Lucy and seated comfortably but I was sorry to see, and hear that I was to be the only diner that lunchtime though things were looking better that evening. I have reported on my visits several times before and having only recently visited there and the menu being unchanged from that visit, I shall not repeat myself except to say that this was another very fine meal with every dish completely unimpeachable. 

  I chose the shorter tasting menu if only because experience tells me that my digestive tract now has its limitations but I did add in the selection of cheeses which included Baron Bigod and accompanied by a crab apple jelly, home cooked crackers and a slice of Folium’s own delicious fruit bread. Such pleasures.

  As the only diner, I had the opportunity to talk to Lucy and we exchanged little items of news that we had come across since my last visit. This was very pleasant. I learned, among other things, that Aktar Islam is said to be opening a second restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter and there’s a bit of a buzz about chef Jonny Mills’ plans to open his eight-seater Sael in the GoodsYard next to the tram station in the Jewellery Quarter in the autumn. The front of house will be led by Asher Beardsmore who has worked previously at Couch in Stirchley and at Opheem where he was junior sommelier and most recently as bar manager at the Michelin Bib Gourmanded Tropea in Harborne.

Jonny Mills, his Sael is due to open at the Goods Yard in the Jewellery Quarter in the autumn.

Asher Beardsmore, soon to be in charge of front of house at Sael.

   I departed from Folium back into the bright afternoon knowing how much I had enjoyed myself and looking forward to another visit when Ben Tesh may have brought or two new dishes as I am now rather familiar with the splendid dishes he has been serving. I thought about the gloomy situation for restaurants at the moment and hoped all the great dining establishments in this city will keep going through these hard times despite what Reeves and Starmer are throwing at them at the moment. 

  As I walked through St Paul’s Square heading for Newhall Street I stopped to watch a very handsome song thrush indulging in obtaining his preferred form of fine dining - a luscious worm lurking in the soil beneath him. I wished him good luck, took a photo and moved on.

Folium rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

11 April 2025.