I learn today, via the ‘Full to the Brum’ website that Cherry Red’s, that fabulously unpretentious cafe in Kings Heath, the one with the really well-cooked halloumi –  is to close.

It’s a great piece which interviews the owner, who explains why she’s moving on, and that the joint is up for sale.

I just thought I’d take this opportunity to relate an amusing anecdote from Cherry Red’s, back in I think December. I was having my veggie breakfast there, a lone woman at the table next to me, and a couple of people at another table. The couple were talking about the German market, or some German sausage, or other meat product, advertised on the wall and suggested checking it out. The lone woman rose to her feet, and said, in a friendly and helpful way, “I’m German and I can tell you that stuff – it isn’t really very German at all”. The other woman replied, perfectly deadpan and I think quite seriously and without a trace of irony, “Well it’s German enough for us”.

I must say that was the funniest thing I’d heard since at least mid-October, and well worth remembering and passing on.