It looks like Coventry's old fire station has found a new lease of life! A new bar, Escape, has opened it in the building along with MYO, a new restaurant offering a real mix of food - all freshly cooked.
Might try it out this weekend!
MYO and Escape
It looks like Coventry's old fire station has found a new lease of life! A new bar, Escape, has opened it in the building along with MYO, a new restaurant offering a real mix of food - all freshly cooked.
Might try it out this weekend!
I like the clever name.
I must visit coventry again soon, it sounds like a city on the change.
It is. I first came to Coventry as a student in 1989, and it's improved hugely in recent years - if you wanted a decent meal back then, you had no chance - about 2 or 3 restaurants, few decent bars... Now you've got Thai, Lebanese, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Italian, Malaysian, and places like Prague, Dogma, etc.Originally Posted by Will
I like the clever name.
I must visit coventry again soon, it sounds like a city on the change.
Still needs a lot of improvement to bring it in line with other cities of similar size, but the amount of up and coming development is huge - including things like Belgrade Plaza, Park Court, Swanswell, etc.
As odd as this may sound, this thread has attracted more guests via a search engine enquiry, than any other keyword!
This MYO place must be doing something right to have so many people interested in finding out more.
As odd as this may sound, this thread has attracted more guests via a search engine enquiry, than any other keyword!
This MYO place must be doing something right to have so many people interested in finding out more.
It's been highly publicized due to its location in the city's old fire station, and it's also run by Rois Ali, who owns the Rupali restaurant in Tile Hill - a very well known Indian restaurant that's won a few awards in its time.
Is the firestation an old building leofric, I'm not familiar with it. Nice that it's been put to good use and yes I agree Coventry is on the up, it's a lot better than it used to be, but I feel that the midlands area is on the up, although some towns choose not to take advantage, but thats another topic.
Freshly cooked is a thing I like and well worth waiting for.
Madhatter
I think it dates to 1900 - so it was prob in use during the blitz... It's been decked out very stylishly. It's next to the bus station - well worth a look if you're there. It's a nice red brick effort with a little tower on it.
I think Coventry may be up on the up even moreso this year - there're a few large developments currently being touted at a huge propertly market... With the backing of some serious names in the property business. More jobs, I hope!
MYO is an appalling dining experience. It hasn't lived up to its hype at all.
There is a mandatory 10% service charge ( at a self service buffet) we had to queue for ages, the staff speak bad broken english at best, which consequently meant that on not one occasion did the drinks order arrive correctly. It was full of loud rude people.The deserts consisted of SALTED fruit segments as the chocolate fountain was out of order. Delicious.
I begrudge sitting in there for an hour let alone paying for the privilage. A truely 3rd class performance, even the main investor doesn't eat there and who can blame him.
I went the week it opened, and had none of those problems - although I didn't pay the bill. I always get the service charge removed and don't leave a tip if they've added one.
The food when we went was good, and the staff all spoke English - and it wasn't full of "loud rude people".
Having said that, I'm not overly keen to go back again. I prefer a menu based restaurant. I'm not keen on these "buffet" style restaurants much, and found the mix of dishes in MYO to be a bit odd. Give me Aqua, Gallery or Earlsdon Cottage over MYO.
Iwas so disappointed when I heard that the old Fire station was going to be yet another restaurant.
Iwas hoping that it would be used as an area for exclusive and individual shops and boutiques- maybe 'crafty' places that 'normal ' people could afford to rent. There is nowhere like that in Coventry.
In places like Leicester and Banbury these kind of places add to the interest of a town.
Ithink that was the idea at first ,and the council let it out--little units, about the right size but in their great wisdom they weren't at all selective, instead very greedy and allowed it to be filled with market tat. Not even nice tat either- just stalls with people selling banks of toilet rolls and bin bags and the like. Not quite a new Coventry image!.
I wonder what planet these councellors live on, where forethought and imagination does not exist.
So, in view of my thoughts above, this restuarant has to be a good thing.
I think I remember the firestation in use but it may be my imagination
My mum used to tell us that the tower was for the firemen to climb up so that they could slide down, when there was a fire.
Last edited by cathidaw; 16-03-2007 at 11:54 PM. Reason: spelling
They were supposed to be doing something like this around Palmer Lane/Burges, but I don't think there's any market for it.
The trouble is, Coventry has a very low retail footprint. There is wealth in the city, but the people with that wealth deserted the city centre years ago - people don't like it. It's ugly and awkward, and places like Leamington are practically next door and are fare nicer environments. Furthermore, Coventry consists of a bunch of dead ends and has no pedestrian footfall, which is why there is nothing on the streets outside the precinct - the ringroad has pretty much destroyed the flow of pedestrian traffic into the city centre.
I doubt Coventry will ever have the same retail scene as Leicester, Nottingham, and even small places like Leamington.
The new developments like Friargate and Belgrade Plaza will bring a lot of big chain bars/restaurants in, but nothing small and independent.
Now that I do not believe. Coventry may be ugly but that won't stop it turning around becoming something unique.
Shopping in what is basically an open air shopping centre with trees plants and music is quite a nice experience. What puts me off is that Coventry centre seems to attract a lot of young scruffy yobs for some reason, more than the other cities do.
Anyway, we are creating a town of unique individual shops here in Atherstone, another two book sellers have opened up recently, we have shops selling gifts, ornaments, coffees from around the world, antique shops, collectables shops cafe's restaurants, but hardly any major chain store. Atherstone has far more shops than any other with it's population, more events, more character.
Rather than try to mix all that in with chain stores coventry should sellect an area and stick to what it set out to do.
Madhatter
As I said before , Coventry needs small exclusive and interesting little shops.
When Palmer Lane was 'tried out'with small units and a cafe some years ago I had a friend who had a hand-made jewellery stall there, another who sold hand painted silk goods,and there were a few other unusual stalls.
It was a good place and handy for people to wander in when getting off the bus or just walking by.They did a good trade there but the council needed it- so made it difficult in all sorts of ways -rent increases , new petty rules and regulations, making access awkward-and many other things--so what happened? just what 'they' wanted -traders moved and 'they' said nobody wants this kind of thing so we'll close it and they did.
That is exactly what happened to the old fire station.and I feel angry about it.It could have been a centre for the arts or something.
Coventry will never be as Birmingham or Leicester is -nor should it try.
Do we really want large so called upmarket empires here? with a few stuggling small shops, struggling because the customers -that were to be, have walked around these larger empiresfor so long , are too worn out to look at these .All they want is to get to the car park and home ,
Cant wait to see what happens when Ikea is open
I'l probably find Bedworth quite enticing
The rents in the city centre are very high, and many chains can't afford it - have you seen how many stores have closed down recently? Smaller traders have _no chance_ of success, and most of them have closed down.
Outside the precinct, the streets do NOT attract trade as they have low footfall and this means low business and NO passing trade. Shops struggle to survive in places like Spon Street. Furthermore, these streets have no road access either, or very limited road access, so there is no passing motor trade.
A lot of people don't shop in Coventry - and it's proving very difficult to bring them in, especially when most of the stores are closing and being replaced with bargain discount stores.
There are some independents - the Alma Deli, for example, and stuff in City Arcade, but most of these places seem to close after a while.
Setting aside areas rarely works - these things tend to happen organically.
Last edited by Leofric; 18-03-2007 at 08:51 PM.
I don't recall "Palmer Lane" ever being used for market traders. When was that? I've been here since 1989. Ever since I've been in Coventry, the big complaint has been high rents and lack of trade for anything slightly expensive or upmarket - I soon found it it's because a lot of Coventrians just go elsewhere as they don't like the City Centre.
HI,
aCTUALLY THE ENTRANCE TO THIS LITTLE 'ARCADE OF SHOPS WAS OPPOSITE the poster shop of COVENTRY THEATRE.
There was a big black and white pub almost next door to the right of it. Customers could walk through to the back of the arcade and come out in Palmer Lane. To the right was what was left of the river Sherbourne in the city, and an entry or alley through to the Burges
Halfway through this arcade was a cafe where I often took my children for some of the best bacon sandwiches in Coventry even tho'there was hardly room to sit.
Funnily enough the place did not smell of cooking.
I've was in Coventry for a long time-was a nurse at Gulson Hospital. We were poor and knew all the cheap places to eat on days off.
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