Italian restaurants in Britain often walk a tightrope between authenticity and crowd-pleasing mediocrity, usually falling into the latter with the grace of a dropped meatball. Vieni, a scrappy Sicilian spot in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, not only stays on the rope but does a little jig while signing payroll and ordering loo paper.

Chef and founder Angelina Adamo’s Instagram bio reads, “Bite off more than you can chew and learn how to fucking chew” - a battle cry for anyone in hospitality, where the waters are choppy and multitasking is mandatory. One hand forms arancini, the other handles payroll. That’s not a metaphor; that’s just Tuesday.

Vieni sits about a mile from the Bull Ring, but it’s a million miles from the vast, impersonal pleasure machines like Albert’s Schloss or Big Mamma’s La Bellezza that have colonised Birmingham city centre. Those places have their charm, sure - a giant Rosa’s serving pad thai, a Tattu with its plastic purple flower ceiling - they make people happy. But Vieni makes a different kind of happiness: the kind you can’t pipe in, the kind that comes from a happy hubbub and a chef who tells you to chew harder.