The Minerva Cafe was a real old family run business, it was run by John Fletcher and his brother Ernie Fletcher, together with their sister Lil, who communicated between the brothers who apparently didn't get on. So John worked at the front of the shop serving sausage and tomato sandwiches and 'tomato dips' and Ernie worked in the back kitchen where he cooked the bacon and made up the orders for the local factories to take out. 6 days a week it was a little 'goldmine'.
The interior fittings were all pre-war and they were never changed or upgraded, dark brown paint and tiny little booths to sit in, stools in the window where you could look out onto Digbeth and the Midland Red opposite, even the old one penny pin ball machine at the back of the cafe was a museum piece, it must have come from the 30's.
The cafe was started by Joe Fletcher the father of the family in the 30's and John and Ernie came into the business after war service.
The cafe closed when Smithfield Garage obtained the buildings to extend their premises to the corner of Oxford Street sometime in the late 70's I think.
I can still remember those sausage and tomato sandwiches, the sausage's were slow cooked in a little black metal cooker on the counter next to the hot water urn and had a taste that I dont think any sausage will ever have again and all for one and six, oh the memories!!!
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