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Hotel management company, Valor Hospitality Partners, has established a dedicated food and beverage team, to deliver new hotel dining concepts that rival high street options.
A team of industry experts and innovators will be led by Euan McGlashan, Valor co-founder and managing partner, and will oversee the entire F&B process, from restaurant design and branding to menu curation and staff training.
Leigh Allan will join McGlashan as global director of F&B. Allan brings extensive knowledge and experience of the industry, having worked for establishments including Claridges, The Savoy and The Dorchester.
Matt Gray will act as global culinary director. Gray has previously worked at the Inverlochy Castle Hotel in Scotland, leading the hotel to a Michelin Star, which it held for nine years.
The F&B team has already delivered the Store Street Exchange and Store Street Craft Bar at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester, a breakfast through to dinner venue which celebrates the heritage and history of its location.
In Leeds, the team completely transformed the DoubleTree by Hilton’s restaurant, creating The Lock Kitchen & Bar, a waterside venue that draws on the area’s maritime heritage.
McGlashan said: “After watching guests leave their hotels to eat in high street restaurants, we knew that we could improve our offering to encourage them to stay and to entice people to come in from the street to eat. We want to create dining options that genuinely compete with the high street offering in every aspect, from design and atmosphere, to food quality.”
He added: “With the venues we’ve delivered globally so far, we’ve already seen a huge return on investment. On one Saturday night at the Store Street Exchange, the restaurant took 120 covers, around 85% of which were guests from outside the hotel. We are delighted to be welcoming locals into the hotel restaurants but also to be providing our guests with the opportunity to leave their room, go downstairs and walk straight into a great restaurant.
“We are still a young team, but already we’re ahead of the curve and we are achieving something quite unprecedented in the hotel sector.”
