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Flatpack Festival runs from April 13 to 22.
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COCKTAILS AND (CREEPY) DREAMS
"Life comes at you pretty fast," said Ferris Bueller. "If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." But that's why we're here. Here, for example, to tell you that the Jekyll & Hyde have sneaky-sneaked a new cocktail menu between their most Victorian of walls and we've gone headlong into it. Sweet Gin Music is the J&H's version of one of our all-time favourite cocktails; the Clover Club. Wary of sweet drinks (this comes with candy floss syrup) we asked them to go easy on the sugars and what came back was a moreish slurp that was smoother than a cashmere George Clooney. It's pictured above with a freeze-dried raspberry crumb, but left of that was a real gem. Our first blast on the lime-topped Kissed By Fire was forgettable, but the deeper we got the more we liked it. A blend of Wray & Nephew Blanco and Koko Kanu, it creeps up on you like a shape-shifting monster waiting in the darkness of your hallway, the breath on his slimy tongue making the hairs on your neck stand up. But you know, in a good way. We had to decline the lemon meringuey looking thing in case the Uber driver refused to pick us up. Please go and drink it and report back.
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FILM: GHOST STORIES
Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson made their names collaborating with the League of Gentlemen, so their taste isn’t in doubt. Despite that, the film of their hit play (which they also direct), feels oddly like a gamble. Can a stage show based around three very loosely linked spooky tales, enlivened by on-stage scare effects the Victorians would have been familiar with, work on the big screen? Turns out it can! As with the stage production, the middle story about a late-night drive gone wrong is a bit silly, but the opener, with Paul Whitehouse as a nightwatchman, and the Martin Freeman-fronted closer are both genuinely terrifying, and things are drawn together at the end with a macabre showmanship which is theatrical in the best way. One thing: why on Earth didn’t this come out at Halloween? Times & trailer
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ELITE ESCAPING
We're cynical bastards. And between us and the 17,000 of you, the prospect of a quick post-work escape room wasn't filling us with joy. But then we'd never done it Escape Hunt style. The Rolls Royce of getting the hell outta things, think weight sensors, brain ticklers and the highest end props we've ever seen in this weird world. Completing The Fourth Samurai, it would be totally rubbish if we told you what happens inside, but we will admit to there being running, whooping, high-fives, a really embarrassing bit where our excellent games master had to correct our left and right, oh, and we got out. Not as quickly as the professional escape team known as SMS (yes, professional) who hold the record, but we had seven minutes to burn. It's £25pp, for two to six people. And it's brilliant. Book
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IVO BIG... GIG
If you've somehow failed to spot Ivo Graham on Mock the Week and/or Live at the Apollo, quite frankly, you don't watch enough TV. Or maybe you're one of those people we envy without quite understanding, and you don't have a TV? Either way, Graham's taking Educated Guess his Edinburgh Fringe smasher of a show on the road, destination Glee Club. Get eyes on him on May 4 before he leaps into the comedic stratosphere. Tickets are £12.
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LOGO LIFE
Can't quite believe the government is spending £45 billion on the military when they could be giving every penny to Dan Silverstone, to animate their crappy crown logo. Dan, of Brum-based Pica, had a little play with our 'B' (original designs by the equally ace Common Curiosity) and you'll start to see the results in our banner from time-to-time. He's good, no? Insta, Twitter
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Venue: Tom's Kitchen, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1RE; website
Choice: Mango Mousse (£8) Chooser: Jamie Moss (Manager)
It's spring menu launch season, which despite some excitable sounding press releases can result in as little as the token substitution of a 'gravy' for a 'jus', or maybe some new potatoes as a roastie alternative. Not so at Tom's Kitchen, where over 80% of the menu has changed. And before you lamb hotpot obsessives completely lose your minds, the ever-so-loved sharer remains safely, unchanged on the menu. But looking a the rest of the carte, think salt baked Heritage carrots (£8), poached Cornish plaice (£23) with the best-foraged sea vegetables available on the day and a new lamb dish with supremely sourced broad beans, peas and Lyonnaise potatoes. And the surprise winner of events given our usual penchant for lamb? The kitchen's mango mousse is bringing on summer all on its own. The thin layer of fruit on top is tart and flavour-filled, while the substantive mousse gets an injection of texture from the tapioca, those starchy little cassava grains that you'll find towards the bottom of the dish. The coconut sorbet acts as a wonderful refresher, ensuring this pud remains texturally and sensationally interesting right until the end.
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