A luxury hotel in Solihull is celebrating its first AA rosette for culinary excellence – and is already aiming to achieve two in 2015!

The Bar8 Brasserie at Hogarths Hotel & Restaurant in Four Ashes Road, Dorridge, has gained the national accolade under the direction of head chef Alex Alexandrov.

An inspector from the nationally renowned scheme visited the restaurant to judge everything from the standard of the service and food to its cleanliness.

Steven Quick, general manager at Hogarths Hotel & Restaurant, said gaining an AA rosette for culinary excellence was a tremendous achievement.

“We are extremely proud of all the staff because it is a collective effort to have secured an AA rosette,” he said.

“This was one of our aims at the start of the year so we are very pleased to have been successful.

“It is testimony to the dedication, hard work and commitment of everyone from the kitchen staff to the waiters and waitresses and it needed a significant contribution from each member of staff in a huge team effort.

“We take great pride in sourcing our food locally whether that is eggs, beef or pork because we know we are using the freshest possible ingredients and we are supporting local businesses.

“Bar8 Brasserie has been refurbished to a high standard with the interior and lighting highlighting the care we take in everything we do at Hogarths.

“Our owners Helena and Andy Hogarth are committed to continuing to raise standards in every aspect of the hotel so having achieved one rosette, we are now working towards gaining two rosettes.

“Staff training is also continuing towards gaining the AA's red-stars – there are only 150 hotels in the UK and Republic of Ireland to have the accolade so we would be among the elite if we were to achieve this.

“It takes between 18 months to two years to be in a position to ask an AA inspector to come along to judge whether a hotel is worthy of achieving red-stars so there is still a great deal of work to be done.

“In the meantime, we are committed to providing high levels of customer service in every area of the hotel and we look forward to receiving our AA rosette plate to hang in a prominent place for our visitors and staff to see.”

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