Issue 197
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NAT' BURG' DA' - AS THE KIDS DEFINITELY AREN'T CALLING IT

In what at least some people somewhere are suggesting is the most pivotal day of the culinary calendar, National Burger Day is TODAY! Immediately change your lunch and dinner plans and get your chopsies round off-menu creations, and your wallet round discounts from places that pretty much never do discounts. It's a burger-off.
Meat Shack — special and 20% off
Added to their usual 5oz hunk of hand-smashed, grass-fed beef, our new favourite Friday spot has got Stornoway black pudding, dripping red Leicester cheese, candied bacon bits and Gochujang mayo, which it's totally okay to need to Google. The savoury, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment cuts through the richness of the meaty majesty. It should be £8.50, but Meat Shack's burgers are 20% off today. Burger cheers!
Anderson's — special
Eat in or takeaway at Anderson's on St Paul's Square, who do a sometimes overlooked mean lunchtime burger-shaped game. Risk It For A Brisket heavily involves a rare breed longhorn beef patty, in-house cured pastrami, cheddar cheese, beef tomato, pickle and sauerkraut in a brioche bun. For £8.95, get it from 12pm until 2.30pm. We insist.
Buffalo & Rye — free side or dessert
Buffalo & Rye's got a free side or dessert with each burger partaken in today. Insider tip: intro the buffalo brisket burger with smoked pulled beef and Emmental cheese (£8.50) to the Reuben Hash — crispy diced potatoes with home-smoked pastrami, onion and sauerkraut, topped with smoked cheddar. Usually £4.50, the side is free to you all day.
Nakira Bar & Grill — 20% off all burgers
Ostrich? Check. Alpaca? Check. Crocodile? Check. Nakira rose from the ashes of Lobster Peninsula and has brought an exotic meats game that we haven't seen elsewhere in the city. Crocodile (pictured) is the most popular order. Take 20% off the usual £11.95 price tag for which you'll also get chips, 'slaw and mayo or peri peri. Go peri peri.
Tom's Kitchen — 20% off all burgers
Proceed directly to the Mailbox and pick between veggie and meatie. The former a sweet potato and chickpea pattie, with sundried tomato mayo, aubergine and shiitake relish, you also get fries, French ones. The house burger at Tom's Kitchen comes with smoked Applewood cheddar, bacon, onion relish and triple cooked chips. Usually £16 and £17 respectively, take 20% off today with this voucher.
The Church — special burgers
Four specials are to be found at The Church for todaysies. Not a wrestling name but a real life burger, El Nacho Libre's the pick being as it's a jalapeno-stuffed beef patty smothered with guacamole, salsa and nacho cheese sauce. Surf'n'turf comes with cajun shrimp and crayfish dressing, while the Hawaiian is a chicken and pineapple affair. A beetroot patty with cheese and pickles completes proceedings. All £9.
OPM — special and 20% off
Chef Brad Carter, yep that Brad Carter, is adding his ever so special fermented pickle sauce for OPM's distinctly Bic Maccian offering, and the teams have jointly agreed the cheese game: Mayfield — a sweet and nutty British Swiss — and a layer of American. Double up, as pictured, to celebrate this most hallowed of days fully. And get 20% off all burgers, all day with this.

SUPERPRIX SUPER TEES


LOUDNESS! LOTS OF LOUDNESS! ENDLESS DEAFENING, BLOODY NOISE!! That's pretty much our scarred childhood memory of the Birmingham Superprix which was probably cool for everyone over the age of six. Everyone who had the mental capacity to understand that ear-splitting volume did not necessarily equate to certain death for all present. Still, 29 years worth of therapy later and we're so totally over it that we can wish the Superprix a happy 31st birthday, this very day. It ran on the August bank hol from 1986 to 1990 and, moderately interesting fact, only 11 of the 30 starters finished that final race. To celebrate the b-day Provide have teamed up with The Birmingham Superprix Film & Archive Project, to produce 5 new t-shirt designs, including screen printed reproductions of photographs from the races, remixed sponsor logos and a map of the race circuit which forms a very on-brand 'P' shape. There's hoodies and flags and whatnot. Prices start from 30 bob, bab.

FILM OF THE WEEK: DETROIT


With almost eerily precise timing, this uncompromising look at race in the US comes at a time when, 50 years after the events depicted, you could be forgiven frustration at how little things have changed. Set amid the 1967 Detroit riots, our focus is on the true-life incident at the Algiers Motel, where three young black men were murdered by police. After a place-setting first 45 minutes, this abuse is the centrepiece of the film, and will require strong stomachs – this is no date movie. Whether or not Detroit truly analyses the event, or is content to treat structural racism as a horror-movie villain, is a debate for another day, but this is punchy, urgent, timely filmmaking that you won’t forget. Times

GIN. NOW WITH ADDED BIRMINGHAM.


Birmingham Gin is officially a thing, a thing distilled in Langley's 150-year-old copper pot still, with coriander, angelica root, liquorice and orange peel. A thing we right proper like — and we're pretty much total gin tw*ts. And a thing you can try first at Bar Opus, through three B-Town inspired cocktails. All £6.50, we're team Brumtini — essentially a martini with grapefruit bitters and garnish game. But there's also a Midlands Mojito and a Brummie Mary involving sriracha sauce if you're less 'tini obsessed than we. Birmingham gin and tonics are also completely permitted. Or get a skylined bottle for keepsies exclusively from that Selfridges. It's £44.99 for a 70cl bottle and square gifting territory.
Venue: Laghi's Deli, 22-24 Islington Row, B15 1LD; Facebook
Choice: Tiramisu Espresso (£5.99); Chooser: Luca Laghi, Owner

It's Monday lunchtime. You head to an unassuming deli near Five Ways. You leave two hours, five wine-paired courses, and a lobster later. It's a living. And it's also all sorts of wonderful at Luca Laghi's deli-restaurant-cafe-wine bar, which boasts young chef, Maria Lagalante, who trained at Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli. Not that the team needs or employs fancy trickery — these are dishes that sing through their sourcing — with Luca knowing, and in a number of cases collab'ing, with the Italian suppliers he uses. The lobster spaghetti was dream-making, and but for being a special (only available when the lobster is at its best of course), would be the pick. Absolutely ask for a spoon to slurp up the simple sounding sauce of garlic, parsley, Italian cherry toms, lobstery goodness and Crudo EVOO. And sweet-toothed though we are not, get the tiramisu with Muscat de Beaumes de Venise. In a meal full of wine wonder, it's the nicest dessert wine we can remember trying. Maybe not the hugest of surprises when you learn that Luca helps select the vin for Milan's wine festival. Menu

HAWKER YARD'S HAVING A B-DAY


Built of shipping containers and scaffolding, Hawker Yard's one, and going for an understated four-day, Bank Holiday p-tay to mark it, with music, street food, shopping and performance. Choose from a hip-hop block party with Blak Twang (Friday, £5), a sneaker and urban vintage fair (Saturday), a rare appearance from New York’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Sunday, £10) or a Caribbean cookout on Monday from 12pm until 10pm. Best of luck.

CRANE WATCH


Our ads guy dressed up as a crane once. But this watercolour by Angela Dooley isn't inspired by that day, it's about offering a unique perspective on city life and construction projects, reflected in the plate glass of office buildings. And it's one of the pieces on display at Metropolis — a new exbo at the RBSA — of 98 works about city living. And it opens today. Expect Brum landmarks like Broad Street's Hall of Memory (pictured), as well as works depicting Venice to Hanoi. Just to keep you guessing. Until Sept 30.
  • The Indian Streatery opens on Saturday. Grabs those lunches and goes, or dine in for eveningness. They're big up into chaat, as are we
  • If you like shoes or handbags, and you like supporting local, you're going to want in on this sample sale
  • A silver medal in the British Roller Derby Championships is for Birmingham's getting on Saturday. Tickets are £8.50 (in adv) for entry to all three games, taking place at PlayFootball
  • On Bank Holiday Sunday, Flatpack: Assemble is showing a free screening of Shaun of the Dead in one of city's finest beer jardiniums — The New Inn. Take up your seats for 8.30pm
  • Gin, cheese and chocolate, in the same place, at the same time. We know we don't need to say anything else
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"Don't worry, I learned how to make plenty of drinks at bartending school. (Reading off an old recipe list) Gin and... tonic? Do they mix?" - Moe Szyslak, The Simpsons
WORDS: Katy Drohan, Andrew Lowry, Tom Cullen

I Choose Birmingham, 2 St Philips Place, Second Floor, Birmingham, B3 2RB

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