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Two new restaurants have officially opened under one roof.
These are Mr White’s English Chophouse and Wheeler’s Fish and Chips at the Dover Marina Hotel.
This makes it the first hotel in the world to have two restaurants under the backing of celebrity chef Marco Pierre White in one place.
They were unveiled at the Waterloo Crescent hotel on Thursday evening by Dover MP Charlie Elphicke.
He welcomed the four-star hotel’s transformation and said the new restaurants would be a major boost to the town and the district.
The Chophouse is only the third to be opened in the country, following the launch of the brand in London and Manchester earlier this year.
Kanagaratnam Rajaseelan is managing director at the Best Western Plus Dover Marina Hotel & Spa
He said: “We are absolutely delighted that Marco has shown such faith in the hotel by allowing us to showcase his brand.
"We want this hotel to contribute to the economic wellbeing of the area.
“Dover has a great deal of potential as the leading hotel in the town and we are determined to play our part, too, in raising awareness of Dover and what it has to offer for businesses, visitors and investors.
“We are proud of what we have created here.
"We believe that our partnership with Marco and his Black & White Hospitality company will not just be good for the hotel but will also help to make Dover a destination for people who enjoy great food.”
The 84-cover restaurant will serve a range of fresh, high quality meat cuts alongside traditional home-grown classics such as goats’ cheese and beetroot salad, chateaubriand, roast rump of lamb and fish pie.
Hotel general manager Suresh Abbas paid tribute to “the team at Black & White Hospitality who have provided the training and the support to get the hotel team to the stage we are at today”.
He also thanked his staff for their “dedication and hard work.”
The large crowd of well wishers included David Foley, chief executive of Dover District Chamber of Commerce.
He said he “very much welcomed the continuing investment in the hotel, which is making Dover even more attractive to visitors, residents and businesses”.
His view was echoed by Port of Dover community director Neil Wiggins, who said it was “great to see a high quality restaurant such as Mr White’s English Chophouse opening in Dover.”
Other guests included Dover mayor Sue Jones: Brandie Deignan, managing director of Black & White Hospitality: Rob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Great Britain: Dover District Council vice-chairman David Hannent, and Barbara Buczek, Port of Dover director of corporate development and operations.