A 100-year-old landmark Birmingham hotel abandoned for the past decade will reopen tomorrow as a Nigerian restaurant called Empress. The former Dogpool Hotel in Stirchley has been revived by husband-and-wife team Olusegun Akande and Oyetola Isla, who aim to showcase the richness of their national cuisine. Olusegun says: “We saw potential in this historic site […]
Former MasterChef: the Professionals winner and leading Midlands chef Stuart Deeley launches a new restaurant next week at Mallory Court country house hotel outside Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. Birmingham-bred Stu, who won MasterChef in 2019, worked at Mallory Court early in his career after studying at Halesowen College. He has had roles at some of […]
Peripatetic wild food restaurant Native has closed after less than a year at its latest location, the Netherwood Estate on the Worcestershire-Herefordshire border, following a failure in its extraction system that “broke the camel’s back“. Chef Ivan Tisdall-Downes (pictured) and his business partner Imogen Davis launched the zero-waste, foraging-based project in 2012, winning widespread acclaim […]
Chef David Taylor is to double his footprint at Hampton Manor luxury hotel near Birmingham with the opening next week of restaurant Kynd, following his success with Grace & Savour on the same Warwickshire estate. Grace & Savour opened three years ago, quickly establishing itself as a Midlands powerhouse and rising to number 30 on […]
Chef-restaurateur Andreas Antona has put his landmark Birmingham restaurant Simpsons on the market to mark his retirement after half a century in the industry. Simpsons, set in a Georgian house in leafy Edgbaston, is for sale at £850,000. Andreas, now 67, founded the restaurant 31 years ago, setting a new standard for dining in the […]
Glynn Purnell has announced the shock closure of his high-achieving Birmingham restaurant Purnells – number two in the Harden’s 100 list of Britain’s best restaurants as recently as 2022. Known as ‘the Yummy Brummie’, Glynn pitched his flagship in the business quarter very much as a culinary expression of his native city. He had given no […]
Nottingham dining institution World Service has announced its closure after almost a quarter of a century. It will shut its distinctive red door for the last time on Saturday 3 August – the 24th anniversary of its opening. Set in 17th-century Newdigate House, which it shares with the Nottingham Club, World Service has been on top […]
Nottingham chef Louisa Ellis, a past winner of MasterChef: The Professionals, has launched a ‘food and event-focused’ project in a former Methodist church in the city. Destination 105, in Lady Bay’s Trent Boulevard, does not operate as a conventional restaurant. Instead, it hosts one-off ‘dining experiences’ ranging from tasting menus, three-course menus and Sunday dinners […]
A South African-inspired restaurant serving ambitious cuisine at accessible prices has opened in the south Birmingham suburb of Stirchley. Riverine Rabbit, set in a low-key shopping parade on Pershore Road, is named after an endangered species that lives in South Africa’s Karoo Desert – signifying chef Ash Valenzuela-Heeger’s commitment to supporting sustainable farming practices. Ash trained […]
Brad Carter has closed his highly regarded Birmingham restaurant Carters of Moseley and will reopen it at a new site early next year. The restaurant is currently operating as a summer residency in a greenhouse belong to specialist grower Westlands UK, in the Vale of Evesham. Brad has confirmed that the residency will be extended […]
