TROPEA, Harborne, Birmingham: “Supporting forward taking on the Italian tractor” – restaurant for restaurant – The Guardian

Ndo man could ever go wrong for the southwestern Birmingham for the Calabrian coast. In each Venn diagram indicating the common part between the two, there would be very little in this overlapping section in the middle. Or, more precisely, maybe there will only be one word: Tropeza.

This restaurant in Harborn, named after an Italian resort, has made a quiet name for himself for the last few years with his Salizà Amaretto Sours and Provolone Arancini to enjoy the sunset on a charming terrace. Yes, this particular sun terrace may ignore the movement along the Lordswood path, but let’s hope that some of the edges will be blurred after a round of bombing.

In his memoir, Richard is Grant writes about human need to find a “pocket of happiness” in every day – a phrase that comes to mind when I enter Tropeza at the end of last month. Suddenly I was out of all the cold and darkness and in a room with evenings I was challenging for gossip, deer Ragu Tagliatelle and BlackBerry Daiquiris. “We’ll only be left for a few plates,” I told Charles, hedging our collective bets.

TROPEA is not one of those Italian high-street restaurants with red velor chairs, spag-bol and breaded mushrooms of ala carte and in a frame portrait of Roberto Bagio in the loam. But then, nor is it one of those “fantastic Italians” where you get part of Squirre’s Tagliolini instead of Tropea is thinking forward on the Italian tractor. Chef Casiers PiSia PiSkowska is studying at the Birmingham University College, along with her now business partner, Ben Robinson-Yang, and together they created a welcoming place that bends strongly on art, modern Birmingham, complete with an elegant, naval front and inside , Bronze, warm, orange sunset and flattering soft lighting. Cool, but not too cool. This is a restaurant in which adventurous mothers and dads can treat their students with a large £ 20-20 children with Gorgonzola Dolce and Confit Red Onion, or where mixed groups can catch up semi-volatile over octopus and homemade red; There is also Aubergine Parmigiana and Tiramisu for dessert if you want something more recognizable “Brittalium”.

But Tropea is not in the least painful “big fish small pond”. The staff is absurdly friendly, which has helped to turn our original order into some very good, crunchy potato pickles, Arancino and a small part of Tagliolini in a complete, three -hour lunch. Our plans changed quickly after the big pumpkin of butter and the sage Aranchino appeared: it was a gold vision loaded with a grated provolon and fixed in its place by a puddle of cheese sauce from butter. Crispy, well -spiced, sophisticated.

Part of a rather tightly sliced ​​salt beef of salt probably did not need the thick, mayo -style sauce surrounded through it, but it was absorbed in the same thing. We returned to a firmer base with home pasta. TROPEA does not develop in its choice of pasta – there were only four that are offered, and two of them were gnocchi and frees – but the quality, not the quantity, is important here. The fresh, Al Dente Tagliolini with a local black winter truffle was a delight and came to a meaningful parmesan. Soft, hand -rolled gnocchi pillows avoid being a note by adding sweet red onion and scattering hazelnuts. Piurateska and her team manage a very good kitchen with a delightful menu, and Harborne is very lucky to have them.

From the pasta, we were walking, of course, with a few gaps in operation, to a whole roast partridge, from its pear tree and in red work sauce served on parmesan polenta with oil hunts. However, the heroic meal of lunch was three bronzed, slightly caramelized pumpkin plates Delica with a ricotta lifestyle that was precisely How to celebrate pumpkin. I felt wrong to send one of it back to the kitchen, so I took the last piece at home in a box and cut it on a salad for an evening breakfast.

The overall mood that the time for lunch was a little soothing, but I am told that more cocktails are drunk and disk music is turned in the evening. If this is not your thing, try lunch – and try tiramisu while you are, because it is a wonderful, generous, lump and easy enough for two.

And please don’t be a fool and don’t quarrel with the domestic canola. Oh, I know what these are, you will think – they are so often disappointed. But here they are great, crunchy, fried pipes stuffed with cream, salted caramel and chocolate sauce, and they are obscene. Yes, people can say that Birmingham lacks a little of La Dolce Vita, but there is a place in Harborne where the imaginary sun shines just so much.

• Tropese 27-33 Lordswood Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17, 0121-427 9777. Open Lunch Fri & Sat, lunch-15: 00; Dinner Tuesday, 5-11 pm (11.30 am five and Saturday). Of about 40 pounds chapter à la Carte, plus drinks and service