Over the past few years the trend for quality street food across the UK has rocketed.  Birmingham has long held its own in the street food steaks with events like Digbeth diner, Brum Yum Yum’s lunch market at The Square, and various farmers markets becoming a weekly feature of the city centre and many of the suburbs (notably Moseley farmer’s market).

Recently we’ve had curries from Canoodle, brilliantly dirty burgers from The Meatshack, burgers on a Krispy Kreme doughnut from Original Patty Man, Mexican from Habanero, toasted sandwiches from Jaberwocky, and for afters waffles from the Bournville waffle company.  The most recent entrant to the Brummy Street Food scene though is a father and son team, Mike and Tim, in their portable pizza wagon – Bare Bones Pizza. The name “Bare Bones” relates to the ingredients being natural and organic.

After Mike sampled the delights of street food on a Thai holiday, and Tim returned from a
year living in Vietnam where he’d often eat on the streets, a chance reading of an article about the UK’s street food scene spawned an idea to set up shop in the midlands.  Mike had already built a career in catering from working aboard the QE2 and then in some more landlocked institutions, so it seemed a natural step to go it solo.

So pizza!  A local company, Dingley Dell Ovens in Kidderminster, provided the wood burning pizza oven, and a Citroen van was converted and fitted out fit for any dough slinger.

On a stormy August day we popped along and tried some of their crispy pizzas.  I tried the “Fishbones”, which has black olives and anchovies.  In Italy I ate more pizza than I care to remember, and I can say that these guys know what they’re cooking.  A super thin base was served crisp and a tiny bit charred with a light tomato puree, salty anchovies and strong olives.  Delicious.  We also had the “Bonefide” meat pizza with Pepperoni, N’Duja spicy Italian sausage, and Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese.  Again, the base was crisp, and the ingredients tasty.

This Wednesday 20th August ’14, they’ll be at the Birmingham Victoria Square Fine Food market – so if you’re around go and get a super lunch for around £6.

Not only was the food super, unlike so many new businesses we interact with, the guys were really on the ball.  They’re looking to cater small private parties, functions, festivals, corporate days and all food related events, so give them a shout if you fancy a slice at your next birthday bash.

You can see the schedule of events they’re attending here, or go to their website for further information: http://barebonespizza.co.uk/

Good luck guys, although if you keep churning out that food, so professionally, you won’t need it!