Greater Manchester-based Dawnvale is proud to have played a significant role in supporting both award winning restaurateur Steve Pilling and Salford City College to create and install one of the UK’s ‘greenest’ and most advanced low-energy commercial training kitchens at the £1m Damson Restaurant overlooking the garden and piazza area of MediaCityUK. The 140-cover Damson Restaurant officially opened earlier this month to rave reviews and is already proving to be a hot-spot for food-lovers from across the North West and beyond. The kitchen meanwhile is providing students from FutureSkills, Salford City College’s £6m advanced skills centre, the opportunity to work for one of the North West’s top restaurant brands in a cutting edge commercial kitchen environment. The ground-breaking project (and vision of Graham Pennington, Deputy Chief Executive at Salford City College) has been in planning and build for over two years, although Dawnvale completed their remit in a 12-week period as agreed.
Working closely with Chef Simon Stanley, renowned restaurateur Steve Pilling and architect Don Hobson (Design Mac) – Neil Guest, Managing Director of Dawnvale set out to deliver leading-edge kitchen facilities featuring the latest sustainable and environmentally friendly technology. In addition to the commercial kitchen, Dawnvale also designed and fitted the new bar, marble floors, bespoke wine displays, a feature drop down ceiling with LED lighting as well as supplying a range of high quality furniture for the restaurant.
Dawnvale’s credentials and outstanding reputation in the hospitality sector span over 30 years. Other notable recent projects include TGI Fridays, Hawksmoor Restaurants and the Chaophraya Group. Renowned for design flair, collaborative working practices and value for money, Dawnvale designs, manufactures and fits bars, restaurants, hotel bedrooms, cinema rooms for some of the UK’s leading hospitality groups and independently owned restaurants and hotels. Neil and the team already had a long-standing relationship with Steve Pilling whose superlative credentials span some 15 years at the very highest level and whose restaurants include the multi-award winning Damson Restaurant in Heaton Moor and The Red Lion in High Lane.
Steve said,
“Salford City College should be congratulated for their vision, passion and hard work in ensuring the industry has not just a national centre of excellence for our young people, but actually one we can safely say aspires to be world-class.
My expertise in running, owning and developing high quality restaurants has, I trust, brought a new and personal dimension to the project. Working with Salford City College and Dawnvale to ensure the facilities and experience will surpass the expectations of students and the paying public has been exhilarating and inspirational.
This will be the perfect environment for students to truly learn and master their craft as well as gain knowledge on the increasingly important elements of running a sustainable and environmentally-friendly kitchen. It’s great news for young people with career aspirations, the North West hospitality sector and the industry as a whole. ”
Said Neil Guest,
“This is undoubtedly one of the most exciting projects Dawnvale has ever been involved in. Every single aspect of the design and build has been created using ‘next-generation’ thinking; we have pushed all the boundaries to harness the very best products available to meet our sustainable and low-energy approach.”
