Stirchley landmark returns to life with new African restaurant

Local TV

The former Dogpool Hotel in Stirchley is being brought back into use as Empress, a Nigerian fine-dining restaurant. The project combines heritage reuse with new investment and raises questions about how the area’s changing high street will be shaped by developments like this.

Transcript

00:00what the jalof is happening in Sturgeley right now as we speak there are new owners I've heard

00:09in the dog pool hotel this amazing building has been vacant for over 10 years and finally

00:15something tells me there's something spicy going on inside come on I did say that there's spices in

00:26this building and oh my god the smell is incredible I can't wait to find out a little bit more about the

00:33empress but what I want to know is what motivated them to come into this 1920s building that had

00:38been empty for such a wrong time so it's very iconic has a lot of history and stories behind it

00:47and it sits well within a demograph of just various communities people of different

00:59descent you have the Africans you have the Asians you have the Caucasian it's just a very very wide

01:06range of community of people and then we believe that our cuisine our business both the restaurants

01:13and the grocery store would very well serve this community from this building and that's why we

01:18chose it it's absolutely amazing right here at the empress restaurant in Sturgeley with this premium

01:25dining for all West Africans and everyone in the community to come and enjoy and talking about fine

01:30dining we do have here a lovely model from Birmingham Angela yeah did I get it yeah no you got it right

01:36Angela how are you finding the evening so far it's been wonderful the building itself is beautiful the

01:42vibes I think because there's such a huge Nigerian community and just a lot of West African community

01:49the food shouldn't really be that much of a surprise to you I feel like and if you love spice this is

01:55where you want to be it sounds like you've had a great time and I think whether you like jollof

02:00smoky jollof okra pepe soup and not only has this hotel maintained its integrity in terms of the

02:08historical landmark that it is it's also bringing in a lot of flavor into the community

02:13like I said from where up from 20 years ago it's Sturgeley has changed a lot

02:22fashion road isn't what it used to be it's a lot more vibrant there are a lot more young people there's

02:27a lot of energy it's very diverse you know so it's good and I think it fits well with what's happening in

02:33this environment it's kind of becoming your new um customer factory typing right in the start you

02:40know a lot of young people a lot of different cultures and I think it blends in well and kind

02:47of unites in a different kind of way provide the different atmosphere different vibes yeah so I

02:53think everyone will be very excited about what's happening

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