Original Patty Men in Digbeth, Birmingham, known as OPM in short, make one thing and one thing well, burgers. Oh, and chips, of course it does chips. There are people in this world that believe happiness is a simple equation solved by honest, proper burgers, and we’re sure Original Patty Men fall amongst these people.
All its beef burgers, which is almost all of its burgers, are made from aged longhorn beef patties. Longhorn beef is from the oldest cattle breed in the United Kingdom, originally bred to be reliable and relaxed creatures, which is remarkably appropriate, as the meat is now being used by Original Patty Men to make a reliable burger in a relaxing atmosphere.
The Cheezy-E burger represents the most classic burger on the menu, consisting of the aforementioned patty, American cheese, lettuce, white onion, thick-cut pickle and Boss Man sauce. You’d be forgiven for thinking this meant that OPM are purists, sticking only to what ‘burgers should be like’, and while it does appear to have a philosophy on burgers, there are no indications that the restaurant is afraid to experiment.
Focus is also placed onto chips. Burgers and chips are a love story as old as time, but if burgers are Helen of Troy, chips are Paris… often neglected in our thoughts. This isn’t the case at OPM, where four options of fries are offered with great attention to detail and amount of ingredients are included. The fries really are an equal partner here.
The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, only walk-ins, but it does its best to get you seated as quickly as possible. If this is longer than is comfortable, it offers a ‘digital queue’ system, so you can take a seat at the bar next door, Kilder (which is under the same ownership). As Original Patty Men is located in Digbeth, it is almost essential by law for it to be a cool place that serves interesting food, and that is just what it is. A restaurant worth experiencing.