To Coyne A Phrase

Tasting notes

I POPPED in to see Phil Innes, the impressive young entrepreneur behind Loki Wines in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade.

His business – described as Birmingham’s first high-tech wine tasting house- seems to be going great guns judging by the number of people in there on a Friday lunchtime.

The idea is to get people to try before they buy.  Customers need a fully loaded top-up card which when inserted into the region’s only Enomatics – argon preservation machines which keep wine fresh for up to four weeks – will dispense a sample of wine.

It’s a concept that works really well and young Innes has big ambitions for the business which could include a second outlet and an expansion of his – already popular – corporate offering.

Of course Loki is only as good as the wines it offers and I can report from my extensive research that there are some absolute corkers to be sampled.

DO SAY:  I’ve got a tenner to spend, can you recommend a full-bodied red?

DON’T SAY:  Do you sell Lambrusco?

Local heroes

I MET up with Adam Logie and Omar Budeiri from Birmingham telecoms business ROAR for lunch.

I found that if I held my head between my hands and squeezed it helped me to concentrate and I could just about understand what they were saying about VOIP and cloud.

Then again I am the man who watches Dr Who with his six year old daughter and gets her to explain the plot to him.

ROAR is competing in an extremely competitive market – with some success it should be said – but despite this the chaps said that they almost always use local suppliers.

I’ve always been in favour of this sort of approach. Of course you can’t go too far with it because protectionism is ultimately self-defeating but a little favouritism towards local product and suppliers wouldn’t go amiss.

But how do you know when something is local or not?

We are constantly hearing at export events about how the ‘Made in Britain’ tag is a great selling point for products.

Isn’t it time we started introducing the Made in Birmingham/The Black Country/Coventry etc label on products to denote both provenance and a guarantee of excellence?

Eating disorder

LESS than excellent unfortunately was the Colmore Bar & Grill in Birmingham, which I visited one lunchtime earlier in the week.

This place seems to me a real lost opportunity. The service is well below average – we sat there for 20 minutes without anyone asking us if we would like a drink – and the food offering is basic to say the least.

My colleague’s fish finger sandwich – done so well as a retro classic in venues such as Metro – turned out to be fish goujons served on two slices of sliced white bread.

Elsewhere the menu rarely strays away from burgers and pizzas while there are no real ales or local beers or ciders on tap.

And to top it all the music is so loud you can’t hear yourself think.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the lack of attention to detail, the place was virtually empty.

Compare this if you will to The Queen’s Head in Bromsgrove, the latest pub to be revitalised as part of the Lovely Pub group’s portfolio.

The service was impeccable, the menu was extensive and interesting, the food tasted great and there are local beers on tap. When I visited on a Monday lunchtime it was very busy.

As the man said when he rushed in to NASA HQ to find out why take-off had been delayed, “come on lads, it’s not rocket science.”

Have a great weekend.