As the end of 2023 hurtles towards me, I am frantically typing up the 13th edition of my annual specialty coffee and food awards, in which I share my favourite coffee shops, eateries, bars and individual dishes from among those I visited for the first time in 2023 — in London and on my travels around the world.
Welcome to my guide to spending a perfect caffeinated weekend in Birmingham. My family is from the West Midlands but I didn't spend a lot of time in Brum growing up. I've been remedying this in recent years — often when en route to Wolverhampton Wanders matches. On these stops, I prioritise specialty coffee and food (in that order) but a long weekend in Brum a few months ago inspired me to create this itinerary. Read on for industrial heritage, quirky museums and plenty of great places for food and coffee — and there's a map and downloadable one-page cheatsheet at the end!
Perch Bakery is a beautiful new cafe in Birmingham that serves specialty coffee, creative brunch dishes and exquisite pastries. I indulged in all three of these when I paid a visit to Perch en route to Wolverhampton on Saturday and I was very impressed.
Welcome to the 11th edition of my annual speciality coffee and food awards, where I am highlighting some of my favourites from the coffee shops and eateries that I visited for the first time this year. For obvious reasons, I travelled much less than normal this year, although I did manage a holiday in Malta in September, as well as city breaks in Porto, Edinburgh and Canterbury, and regular visits to Oxford, Wolverhampton and Birmingham. As such, just like last year, I've rejigged the regions covered in each category so that I can showcase as many of the places I've loved closer to home and further afield. As the pandemic continues to disrupt life as we knew it, it's more important than ever to support the hospitality industry — respecting all local guidelines that may be in place, of course.
If you're keen to read more of my speciality coffee recommendations, you may find my London coffee guide to be a useful starting point; there are currently more than 150 coffee shops featured. For coffee suggestions both in London and the wider world, you can find all of my posts here. And you can read all of my food-related blog posts here.
Coffee
1. Best new London coffee shop
It's no coincidence that my favourite new London coffee shop of 2020 and of 2021 are both places where I found a sense of connection and community in these COVID times — as well as excellent coffee, of course. In fact, it was from Laith at Saint Nine that I first heard about Nostos Coffee, a wonderful neighbourhood coffee shop near Battersea Park. At Nostos, they pride themselves on serving coffee you can't have anywhere else and indeed, they always have a well-curated selection of coffees from different roasters, expertly brewed as espresso-based drinks or as a pourover. You'll also get a very warm welcome from Edison and Anna.
UPDATE: Sadly, as of August 2023, Quarter Horse's Bristol Street location has closed permanently. But you can still visit their espresso bar and roastery in the Jewellery Quarter.
My specialty-coffee-shop-hopping continues to turn up surprise connections and today's post is about my return visit to Quarter Horse Coffee on Bristol Street. The connection is that, as you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram, I stopped by Peloton Espresso the weekend before — which itself occupies the former site of Quarter Horse's now-defunct Oxford cafe, which I visited many times.
[Update July 2025: Sadly, Tilt has now closed permanently; a great loss to the Brum specialty coffee scene.]
En route to Molineux Stadium to watch Wolves play a friendly against Spanish team Celta de Vigo last weekend, I broke my journey in Birmingham. I had to leave home very early during a torrential downpour and was in dire need of more coffee by the time I got to Moor Street station. Luckily, I knew exactly where to go: Tilt, a speciality coffee shop, craft beer bar and pinballeria in Birmingham's historic City Arcade, which my fellow coffee blogger Brian recently wrote about again on the Coffee Spot.
