Called Craft English Garden, it will be located alongside Craft Dining Rooms at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre (ICC) and will open early next year.
The space will have a bar and dining ponds as its central focal point and has been created ‘with nostalgia and childhood in mind’. It will have a botanical garden-inspired interior design featuring hanging planters, floral archways and a foliage wall.
Craft English Garden will serve traditional British dishes with a focus on afternoon tea and with the bar having a predominantly British drinks offer. As well as a drinks list featuring 32 different British gins and English botanical-based cocktails it will serve a wine menu comprising wines from little known vineyards across the UK, with bottles from Devon, Sussex, and Kent.
The launch is the first phase of a collaboration between Islam and Craft Dining Rooms owners Sam and Emma Morgan with the trio looking to bring British food and drink to a wider Birmingham audience.
As well as running Opheem, which he opened in Spring 2018, Islam oversees two further restaurants in Birmingham – Italian restaurant Legna, which opened at the tail-end of last year, and Argentine food restaurant Pulperia, which opened in September.
He was previously director at Lasan restaurant group.