£3m rooftop restaurant closes its doors for good Erratic trade means hotel shuts Japanese dining destination
A£3 million restaurant which sits atop of one of Birmingham’s most recognisable hotels has shut for good due to lack of demand throughout the week.
Rofuto, in the Park Regis Hotel at Five Ways, closed this week with the loss of 12 of its 18 staff. Six workers have been offered alternative positions.
The impressive 120-seat Japanese restaurant, which opened in April 2016 and offered 360-degree views of the city, will now be turned into a conference space.
The Park Regis hotel was formerly the 1960s Auchinleck House before its transformation.
A Park Regis Hotel statement said: “Following a period of consultation with staff, it has been decided that the Rofuto restaurant will close.
“Of the 18 staff affected by chang- es, six have accepted alternative positions within the hotel, with the remainder either being made redundant or choosing to take up alterna- tive positions outside the business. There is a high demand in the city for meetings and conferencing, so it is likely that the space will be repurposed to work alongside the popular facilities we already have.”
Park Regis blamed “inconsistency in the market and fluctuation at the start of the week” for the closure.
A further Facebook statement added: “For just short of two years, we’ve been shaking up Birmingham’s culinary scene but unfortunately today sees last orders for Rofuto as we close our doors for the final time.
“A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has dined, drank and danced on the 16th floor with us... we’ve loved hosting you and showcasing the best Pan-Asian food around.”
The news comes just weeks after it was announced that the hotel had entered a consultation period over the future of the restaurant.
Park Regis said previously: “The rooftop restaurant has proved tremendously popular later in the week and at weekends, whilst busy periods earlier in the week have tended only to come from less frequent private and corporate bookings, rather than from individual groups of diners.
“Inconsistency and fluctuation in trade at the start of the week makes planning difficult, so hotel managers are looking to change the way that the restaurant operates within the context of the whole business, and its dining and conferencing offer.”
Inconsistency and fluctuation in trade at the start of the week makes planning difficult bookings Park Regis