Mr Egg
22 Hurst Street
Birmingham B5 4BN

My colleague Mr Tweets has had an especially busy morning fielding comments and contributions from early supporters of our project.

One happy outcome of these tweetings is confirmation of the existence (eggsistence?*) of Mr Egg in Birmingham. Our thanks to Mr AceJet170 and Mr EustonDoYouCopy for the recommendation.

Mr Egg has expressly (eggspressly?*) not aimed for conventional ideas of sophistication in its branding, the colour scheme placing it firmly at the accessible end of the market. This brand positioning is confirmed by their reported strapline: “Eat like a king for only a pound”. Further exchanges (eggschanges?*) on Twitter suggest that prices have since risen to £1.50 and beyond.

Mr Egg also serves chicken, which has doubtless given rise to many opportunities for the obvious joke.

A Google search on Mr Egg yields results that may cause concern to regulars (reggulars?*) – including a report in the Birmingham Mail that the establishment was shut down by health inspectors for a brief period in 2009:

BIRMINGHAM’S iconic “greasy spoon” cafe Mr Egg has been temporarily shut down on health grounds, it emerged today.

Environmental health inspectors slapped the famous takeaway with an emergency probation notice amid concerns of food contamination, cockroaches and mouse activity.

The move comes just days after 13 people were injured after being sprayed with a substance, thought to be undiluted vinegar, in a late-night disturbance at the city centre cafe on Sunday.

One man was later charged with assault, although this was later amended to a vinegar! (NB: Mr Tweets, please tweet this joke!!)

On a much more positive note, the report later reminds us that:

Mr Egg has twice been named among the Greatest Greasy Spoons in Britain, first in a national survey in 2003 and then the following year in a poll by Morgan Stanley credit card where it was voted a favourite for a fry-up.

My own research reveals that Mr Egg has been featured on the excellent (eggscellent?*) EggsBaconChipsandBeans blog, managed by Mr Russell Davies. The blog post, written in 2005, confirms that the special offer had by then been revised to “Eat like a Queen for £3”. Mr Davies also notes the presence of a large cloth egg stapled to the ceiling.

* No: existence, expressly, exchanges, regulars, excellent