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THE IVY CALLING
From 10am this very day, you can book a table at The Ivy Birmingham, which opens on Temple Row, April 11. But if you'd rather get inside before everyone's doing it, how's about tickets to the brasserie's launch night? Be sure to make as many excuses as possible to pass through Victoria Square until 6pm today. You're looking for a vintage green phone box — be the first to answer when it rings and two tickets to The Ivy's preview night are yours for the using. Or you might turn into Superman, but you probably won't.
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BACK TO (GIN) SCHOOL
Sleeping lions, falling off space hoppers, pass-the-parcel — it was a simpler time, a gloriously simpler time. And one you can recreate, with the addition of bottomless fizz. Yep, on Friday March 30, The Distillery is essentially hosting a kids' birthday party, complete with Party Rings, sausage rolls, boozy accouterment and no kids. Hopscotch 'N' Hooch has got a grown-up prize: a masterclass where the victor can make and bottle their own gin as part of The Distillery's gin school. On hosting, it's those genius fools from the performance quiz known only as Rafiki's Cuisine. Tickets are limited to 40. It's £25, including party food and one hundred and twenty whole minutes of unlimited prosecco-ing. No swapping round on the party bags, kids (we have no idea if there are party bags).
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EXPOSITION EXHIBITION
Try saying that 20 times over and your tongue will end up in a perfect Prusik knot. Or, more comfortably, head to Castle Fine Art in the ICC where they're currently exhibiting some of the most colourful and most important contemporary artists of today. Brummie's favourite, Temper, will be showing his latest collection: a real change of pace for the street art ace who learnt his trade on the walls of Wolverhampton. Expect nods to Dali, da Vinci and the golden ratio from him, but we're super taken by the Roy Lichtenstein-inspired works of Milanese artists, D13EGO (pictured). His “Badass Girl Collection” was born from a love of retro comics, street art techniques, elements of pop art and a good blast of irony. First created as a series of graffiti on the streets of London, it eventually found its way to canvas and galleries last year. On until April 15. More
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FILM PICK: ANNIHILATION
Alex Garland’s follow-up to Ex Machina was never going to be a workplace comedy, but it’s still heartening to see him respond to the earlier film’s success by doubling down on the brainy science fiction. Natalie Portman here leads an all-female team into the Shimmer — one of those forbidden zones sci-fi loves so much — that looks like somebody spilled a bottle of fairy liquid into a river, then sailed an oil tanker through it. What Portman and her team find in there is best left unsaid (let’s just stress that things don’t go well for her squad) before a closing movement leaves horror behind for more cerebral territory. As you’ve probably guessed, this is no shoot-em-up, and makes demands on its audience – but if beautifully shot, occasionally gross, and languorously paced explorations of a stylised and surrealistic world are your thing, this is the film for you.Times & trailer
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Venue: Salt, 8 Church Street Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6HB; Website
Choice: Carrots (£65 as part of eight-course menu) Chooser: Waitress
There are enough whispers about the food at Salt right now and its potential for a star, that we took to the train and made steam down to Stratford-upon-Avon. The dining room, staff and set-up personify lovely — the place is casual but still special and you can see everything chef Paul Foster is doing from his open kitchen at the top of the restaurant. In terms of food, there were some hits and some not-quite-hits. The monkfish and the cod were cooked adeptly — firm yet melty and with the right amount of flavour for their accompaniments, like an oyster emulsion. The carrots slow-cooked in chicken fat with crispy chicken skin were the best tasting versions of the vegetable ever to have passed our well-worked lips, and our waitress was clearly unsurprised to hear so when we fed back accordingly. Conversely, the wagyu was a big ol' let down, chewy and lacking in the sort of flavour you'd expect, and the salt-baked celeriac didn't have enough going on to keep us interested much past the first bite. Some super-duper wine, completely perfect bread and butter (we really like bread and butter) and a hard to achieve atmosphere made us glad we'd made the trip but in terms of consistency, and judging against its Birmingham competition, Salt is some way off a star. Add it to the watchlist.
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