Italian job as pub is relaunched as hotel

This is the first look inside a new £1 million hotel and restaurant being built in West Bromwich.

The former Five Ways pub, in Seagar Street, is being transformed into the Hare and Five Hounds Hotel and Bellagio Italian restaurant.

Owners today revealed the venue would open on Wednesday, March 31.

Work is nearing completion on the building with a solid oak wooden bar with red leather trim in place, while a mural on the restaurant wall shows the scene of Lake Bellagio, after which the restaurant is named.

The hotel has 14 rooms, with flat screen televisions and mosaic-floored en-suite bathrooms, and will be available priced from £29 a night.

The wooden floored restaurant has large red leather seating booths, while customers opting for a drink or a snack can dine in the bar area on a stool or relax on the black leather sofa or chairs.

Business partner Paolo Recina, who is running the establishment with Stewart Bowen and Fred Bartram, said they hoped the new venture would create a good quality destination offering competitive prices.

Married father-of-two Mr Recina, aged 50, lives in Linden Road, Bournville and hails from Milan."The work is getting on very well, we've given it a very strong push."

Customers can choose a fish of the day from the menu and meals include prawns with garlic, chilli and tomato with cream, scallops in white wine with asparagus, spaghetti with shellfish, garlic, chill and parsley, as well as risotto, steak, pizza and lamb.

Prices for starters range between £5.90 and £7.40, while mains range from £6.95 for a pizza to £15.95 for steak.An original estimated £350,000 budget for the project "went out the window" and the final bill will be closer to £1m,

Mr Recina said."We didn't want to do it very basic, we wanted to put a bit of luxury in it," he added.

The restaurant will seat 110 diners and the whole development will create around 20 jobs.

The owners have also been granted a 24-hour alcohol and entertainment licence.To book, call 0121 500 2818.0