Book now – Kaye Winwood’s Backward Running Dinner Party
‘Life is uncertain, eat the pudding first’. Following the devastatingly surreal and delicious success of Breakfast of Champions comes food provocateur Kaye Winwood & chef Chris Hughes’ latest creation. The dinner party in homage to the Jim Crace book The Devil’s Larder for Birmingham Literature Festival’s 20th anniversary. A £99 ticket includes five exquisite courses and a flight of drinks, all inspired by Jim Crace’s unforgettably sensual stories weaving delicious fictions and adventurous flavours throughout this wildly creative afternoon. The author will also read from his book at the event. Extremely limited tickets will be available from 4 August, via the festival’s website www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

Bank Holiday Bottomless Bingo at the Button Factory
It’s glamorous, it’s glittery, its booze is bottomless and it sounds wildly inappropriate for the day of rest – good job there’s another one the day after. Offering up fizz and fun in unlimited quantities, expect two hours of raucously competitive bingo to flow as joyously freely as the Prosecco and beer. As Alan Partridge would say: ‘full house’.
Sun 27 Aug, 2pm – 4pm, The Button Factory, 25 Frederick St Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B1 3HH. £25 (£10 without alcohol) www.skiddle.com

Get tickets: Gin Festival Birmingham
Get ready for a weekend ginterval – the Gin Festival is back. Boasting over 100 different gins, including some exclusive to the festival and some that are brand new, this is paradise for gin-lovers. If you want to learn more about gin rather than just sampling, there will also be gin masterclasses and you can meet gin distillers in person. With a cocktail bar as well, everything gin is covered. With live music and lots of delicious food on offer too, gin is not the only attraction – make a weekend of it. (Sairah Rehman).
Fri 1 Sep – Sun 3 Sep at The Custard Factory Market Hall, Birmingham www.ginfestival.com

Cafe Colette opening night/Digbeth Dining Club Birthday on Fri 18 Aug on Lower Trinity Street next to Digbeth Dining Club’s home, Spotlight. The Art Deco bar will offer prohibition cocktails alongside live jazz and a summer garden, which will serve as additional seating for Digbeth Dining Club. The bar will open Fridays-Mondays. Watch this space for more. www.facebook.com

Street Food & Cinema goings-on continue outdoors at Regency wharf throughout August including Withnail & I Vs Original Patty Men and The Big Lebowski. See details and get free tickets here.

Our preview of Birmingham’s Big Fat Burger Festival at No.21 Digbeth on Sat 26 Aug is here.

Eat Vietnam Pop-up at Loaf
An alternative take on Vietnamese banh mi, (bread stuffed with various delights) comes Loaf’s vesion: ‘Bun Me’, featuring Pho spiced braised ox cheek, Cha ca chien (fried fish patties), Five spice, hoisin tofu with sesame and aubergine and various Vietnamese salads, all served with authentic Nuoc Cham, spicy dipping sauce. When we feasted on Thai salad here recently, we queued for an age in the rain then nearly dropped the bikes we’d pedalled in on it was so damn authentically tasty. Very casual eat-in (limited seats) or take away. Get there early and join the inevitable (but worth it) queue.
Thu 17 Aug, 6pm – 9pm at Loaf Bakery & Cookery School, 1421 Pershore Road, Stirchley, B30 2JL Birmingham eat vietnam birmingham loaf

Cast an artistic eye over your dinner at Stryx on Fri 4 Aug where ceramic artist Emilie Atkinson will being playing host at Cauliflower Couscous for Digbeth First Friday, looking at contemporary attitudes towards food, whilst also further exploring the themes of value, need, desire and control. See more here.

Intergalactic Whisky Tasting at The Think Tank
Whisky under the light of the moon – this (inter)stellar evening takes place at the new immersive Museum of the Moon exhibition at the Think Tank with a scale replica of the moon from the artist Luke Jerram and accompanying sounds from the BAFTA and Ivor Novello winning composer Dan Jones. An amazing line up of whiskies and a world renown whisky expert will make for a magical night. For more details on the exhibition which runs until Aug 20, see our arts round-up here.
Sat 5 Aug, 5.30pm – 7pm & 8pm – 9:30pm at Think Tank, Millennium Point, Curzon St, Birmingham B4 7XG. Tickets start at £30 www.eventbrite.co.uk

Birmingham Gin Festival at Birmingham Town Hall
For the lover of all things gin and juniper-infused comes a joyous to the point of potentially ruinous event at The Town Hall featuring 120 different gins from around the globe. Gin worshippers will receive a gin bible, bag, glass and explore a variety of cocktails and workshops throughout. There’ll be live entertainment and take-away delights too.
Sat 12 Aug at Birmingham Town Hall, Victoria Square, Birmingham B3 3DQ. 12pm – 5pm or 6pm – 11pm. £13.50 www.fatsoma.com

Hot Sauce at The Church Inn
Spice is the variety of life at this free family-friendly celebration of hot heads and sauce addicts. The Church Inn’s hottest pop-up returns with a rooftop Sudanese BBQ to boot this year so let’s hope the sun wants to compete too. The competition is open to everyone and will consist of 2 categories with 3 prizes on offer (yep, it’s that serious). Be amazed by the inflammable tastebuds and unflappable prowess of the competitors while enjoying sounds from the Leftfoot DJs and plenty of imaginative drinks to put the fire out. Pip’s Hot Sauce will be on hand to fan the flames.
Sun Aug 13 at The Church Inn, 22 Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, B18 6AQ. Tel: 0121 448 3866
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