475. Easter Sunday Lunch At Simpsons.

 

  It was a nice treat to be invited by friends to join them at Simpsons for lunch on Easter Sunday to celebrate the birthday of one of them, And what a glorious spring day it was. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, everyone looked relaxed and full of the spirit of Easter. It was good to see that many of the diners, especially the older ones, were dressed to dine in a smart place where the food was fine and for something a bit special. If the restaurant can make the effort then the diners should too.

  I arrived somewhat earlier than my friends and was warmly greeted, within the parameters that one would expect from such an august establishment, and was soon indulging myself in a white port and tonic and ordering a bottle of Hundred Hills (an Oxfordshire winery east of Didcot) Preamble No 2 which my friends and I were pleased to drink with our canapé’s brought to us in the lounge prior to moving to the main restaurant. I enjoyed the English sparkling wine very much - crisp and refreshing without the strong acidity so often encountered in some of these products.

  The canapés, as always, were delicious - a lovely, crispy cod fritter and a delicious and equally crispy tartlet filled with fine beef tartare and garnished very prettily. A charmingly relaxed way to kick off a meal in good company. Then to the restaurant for the main event.

  There was the usual bread and butter course to start. This sounds all very routine but the bread there is so lovely that there is nothing routine about it. The brioche with duxelle was crispy and the sourdough toothsome and the wild garlic butter on this occasion was pleasingly restrained in flavour.

  We had chosen the three course Sunday lunch which experience told me was quite adequate to fill the stomach on the Sabbath and perhaps stimulate a little snooze (otherwise known in Italian, as my friends told me, to general mirth, as a pisolino, the word learnt from their Italian son-in-law, a scientist with a passion for making the perfect pizza).

  I chose the admirable Chalk Stream trout starter which was meaty though perhaps may have benefitted from a little more punchiness in its flavour. The really stand out ingredients in the dish which somewhat put the fish in the shade were the gorgeously sweet Isle of Wight tomatoes which would have been a very memorable starter in their own right.The basil, seed and olive dressing fully chimed in unison with the heritage tomatoes and much pleasure was derived from them.  One of my fellow dinners chose the scallop dish and found it to be cooked entirely to his liking.

  For my main I chose Blythborough pork (from St Margaret’s Farm, Mells, Halesworth in Suffolk, not all that far away from where my paternal ancestors lived for about 1350 years from about 550 AD to 1984 when they trooped off to Birmingham via a short sojourn in London where they ran a pub). The pork was as tender as butter but for my taste perhaps a little more seasoning might have raised it even higher. The roast potatoes were immaculate and the celeriac gel and apple sauce proved to be nice accompaniments with the vegetables all finely cooked - the hispi cabbage was spot on, the carrots had just the right texture and the cauliflower was also nicely cooked though, as I have previously written, I should love a dish of cauliflower sans cheese sauce just the once to be able to fully relish the full unique flavour of that noble vegetable. Will any chef ever be brave enough to present a dish of cauliflower exalted by being allowed to stand there nude and fully revealed and as bold as brass? 

  My hostess chose the butter poached cod and expressed no regrets.

  My hosts thoroughly enjoyed their passion fruit soufflés which I had experienced previously. Each soufflé that comes out of that kitchen is magnificent to behold and a wonder of Birmingham gastronomy. There was a nice touch when Steve Locklin, the restaurant manager who has been with Simpsons since August 2024, having previously carried out the same role in Lunar in Stoke on Trent when Niall Keating had been Executive Chef there (and where I had previously come across him) and also had been in a senior role at Hoar Cross Hall and before that at Liam Dillon’s The Boat in Lichfield, added an edible ‘Happy Birthday” decoration to the birthday boy’s soufflé. For my dessert I had the chocolate mille feuille which was splendidly crispy with pleasingly unaggressively flavoured chocolate cream.

  The final act - the petit fours - came in the form of an enjoyable chocolate cracknell, an extraordinarily sharp blackcurrant pate de fruit and a lovely little madeleine which was bringer of great joy.

  My host was given a very nice souvenir of his birthday lunch in the form of a birthday card with a picture of the restaurant from the garden and nicely signed by staff members. As a collector of menus and the ilk I couldn’t help feeling just that little it jealous.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

20 April 2025. 

205. Purnell’s, Lunar,Upstairs.

  As we know the hospitality industry suffered badly during the COVID-19 pandemic though there’s little doubt that a number of government measures saved many businesses which would have otherwise gone to the wall. But eventually business appeared to have returned to normal. Then the omicron variant originating in South Africa, more rapidly spreading it appeared than the then dominant delta subtype which had spread out from India, turned up. Right into early December the hospitality industry seemed to be holding up and diners were turning up happily to their favourite restaurants - there was quite a wait for reservation dates at some favourite establishments - and then Professor Christopher Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical adviser to the government, spoke out about the potential dangers of the new variant and almost overnight restaurants experienced large numbers of reservation cancellations and the vital pre-Christmas trade took a spectacular hit.

  The situation was not helped by large numbers of restaurant workers actually contracting the condition and their employers being unable to staff their restaurants adequately. Thus on 21 December Purnell’s announced that it would be closing early pre-Christmas saying, “Due to current circumstances we don’t have enough staff required to provide the high standard of service that we consistently deliver at Purnell’s”. Clearly this represented a significant financial loss for the restaurant but as the restaurant was planning to close for its Christmas break on 23 December in any case, one supposes that matters could have been even worse.

 

  By 23 December early studies of the effects of the omicron variant were suggesting that it may very well cause a less clinically severe illness than the variants which had gone before and it was becoming reasonable to hope that the renewed threat to the hospitality industry might be short-lived and not as severe as the doom-laden professor was suggesting it might be.

   It was reported on 18 December that the Stoke-on-Trent native, Niall Keating, Executive chef at the Michelin starred Whateley Manor in Wiltshire, will leave his job at the end of December presumably to concentrate on his new restaurant, Lunar, which opened in November in the World of Wedgwood visitor attraction at Barlaston as well as other projects. It is excellent to find another accomplished West Midlands chef returning to his roots and further adding to the gastronomic wonders in the region. Which reminds me that I must get up to Stoke in the new year to visit Lunar.

  Posted on the Michelin Guide Twitter account today (23 December) is a reference to a Michelin inspector’s visit to Upstairs by Tom Shepherd in Lichfield (see Blogs 188 and 194) which is the second time in a period of a few weeks (last reported 12 November 2021 - see Blog 193). I have the feeling that the West Midlands may well have a new starred restaurant when the 2022 Guide is published and rightly so.