Ruprai Food & Wines

This place is rammed to the rafters with everything your local convenience store could ever want or need. As mentioned it isn’t the cheapest, but it’s got everything and is open all the time. Well, obviously that’s not quite true, but it’s always open when I’ve needed it.
From pain killers, to toilet roll and alcohol to tomatoes-​it has it all. I use it mainly as a snack stop for crisps and chocolate these days when I can’t be bothered to make it all the way up to the high street.
The guys are always friendly. We used to live opposite and although there are loads of deliveries and people coming and going we never had any hassle at all. Sometimes it was just nice to pop in for a chat as much as anything.
It’s neatened up recently but is still a great place to stock up on those essentials you’ve run out of.
There’s usually space to park on Westfield Road but watch out for Friday lunchtimes. Also, as a past resident, I’d just like to say that it used to annoy me enormously when people would park in front of our drive, meaning we couldn’t get out. Little rant over…

Immortalised by a credit on an Ocean Colour Scene album, Ruprai Food & Wines is an Kings Heath institution. When the band were between record labels, OCS singer Simon Fowler would pop round the corner from Westfield Road to Ruprai for liquid-​based inspiration.
The ‘food’ is before the ‘wine’ in the title, but the ordering of the words is merely an attempt at glossing over what people mainly come it for. Its the wine. Or generally speaking, booze. And what a glorious stock of the stuff they have.
At the very low end you have cider that has possibly never seen an apple in its life. At the high end are premium spirits like absinthes, (3 varieties nonetheless), and my favourite bourbon, (some say the only bourbon) Maker’s Mark. And inbetween, a range of wines of all shades, varieties, and vintages between £3.99 to around the fifteen quid mark.
On the day I bought a bottle of Hardy’s Shiraz 1998 for £4.99. At £4 cheaper than anywhere else this is typical of savings to me made at Ruprai.

This was an independent family-​run business for many years and was known locally as Ruprai, and Mr Rurpai was a regular fixture in the shop. About 2 years ago it had a re-​fit and became a Nisa supermarket. It’s still independently run, as far as I can tell but is not the ramshackle operation it once was, and as such a lot of the charm has gone out if it. You can now longer barter over the price of a crate of ale, for example!
Having said that this is a useful local store selling wines, beers and soft drinks and a range of ‘supermarket’ goods such as cleaning products, tinned foods and a small selection of fresh fruit and veg.
As you would expect it’s not as cheap as a supermarket, but this is the price you pay for local convenience and late opening times. The other thing that is worth paying for is not having to go anywhere near the often very busy and annoying Kings Heath High Street. The staff are friendly and you get genuine service with a smile. They also accept cards, so, once again, you are saved a trip to the High Street and the nearest cash machine.