A Birmingham-based bar group has opened its latest venue in the north of the city.

Town & Country Inns, which runs Mechu and Après in the Jewellery Quarter among others, has opened its second Fleet Street Kitchen in Mere Green.

It joins the original bar which opened in Birmingham's Fleet Street three years ago and forms part of wider expansion plans by the group announced last year after it secured fresh investment.

The Mere Green restaurant is housed in the former Après bar which closed in June and, like its parent, has been created by interior designer Matt Rawlinson, aiming to replicate the original venue's look.

The menu by chef Steve Wakeman offers meat and fish dishes, with rare-breed steaks cooked over Argentinian charcoal.

Mark Jones, managing director of Town & Country Inns, said: "It was probably our third birthday that inspired us to start rolling out the brand.

"The venture in Mere Green represents the launch of a programme of works and venues that will take us initially to Leamington Spa and Lichfield and thereafter to the rest of the UK.

"The brand and the offer really work, at every level - for our staff as well as our customers.

"Fleet Street Kitchen Mere Green simply demonstrates for me the virtue of what we believed three years ago."