Craft Dining Rooms, a new British restaurant, is to open on 15 July at Birmingham’s International Conference Centre (ICC).
Celebrating British culinary craft, Craft Dining Rooms will shine a light on British artisan producers with a menu that brings together the best produce from across the UK.
The new opening marks the debut restaurant from the Craft Dining Group, a new restaurant group founded by Birmingham-based entrepreneurs Sam and Emma Morgan who will be working alongside some of the best British culinary talent for a number of restaurant openings across the city to be announced later this year.
Following a seven figure investment, the pair will be opening the doors to the new restaurant at Birmingham’s ICC, a timely announcement that coincides with numerous regeneration projects currently happening in the city centre.
Sam Morgan said, “We’re thrilled to be opening Craft Dining Rooms in the heart of the Birmingham and at an incredibly exciting time of growth and change for the city.
'Our Craft restaurants will represent many traditions of British culinary history and whilst all unique, all will showcase and focus on the artisan producers that make British food what it is. We’re delighted to be bringing our British concepts to the burgeoning Birmingham restaurant scene.”
For Craft Dining Rooms, the Morgan's have partnered with Nick Evans who will lead the kitchen as Executive Chef. He has built a career in some of UK’s best hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants such as Harvey’s in Bristol and recently at Northcote Hall where he worked closely with Lisa Goodwin-Allen.
Evans said, “Launching Craft Dining Rooms is a chance to work with the incredible range of produce that can be found on our shores, using the fields, farms and surrounding seas of the British coast as our larder and paying homage to some classic British dishes.”
Birmingham native Tom Wells, an award-winning chef whose previous employers include Tom Aitkens and Australian chef Luke Mangan, joins the group as Chef Director.
The 150-cover dining room will comprise a main dining room, central bar and two private dining rooms, available to rent for private hire with guests able to work alongside the kitchen team to create a bespoke menu for their event.
The menu will have seasonality at its heart with a focus on simplicity and quality of ingredients. Lunch service will feature a stripped-back menu that concentrates on British-inspired sharing plates whilst at dinner, beef wellington with Wiltshire truffle, roasted sea trout with Isle of Wight tomatoes and Cornish day boat turbot will all take their place on the menu alongside a host of a selection of British cheeses.
Sundays will focus on familial dining and traditional sharing-style Sunday roasts with British cuts carved tableside and taking pride of place at the heart of the dining table. Guests will be able to choose from slow roasted Blythburgh pork belly, Cotswold chicken, Irish rump cap beef and Cornish lamb.
Weaving its way round the restaurant will be a drinks trolley from which guests can enjoy cocktails made from a range of British gins, vodkas and spirits, shaken and stirred table side.
The team has been working closely with British winemakers, sourcing wines for a predominantly British wine list, including bottles from Astley Vineyard, just twenty-five miles from the restaurant.