Blunos to open new venture

Former two-Michelin-starred chef Martin Blunos is to be head chef at a new restaurant at the Royal Crescent Hotel in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>

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Blunos: opens in January

The 34-seat restaurant, to be called Martin Blunos at the Royal Crescent, will be a stand-alone business in the basement of the hotel, which is owned by the Von Essen Group. The news come a year after Blunos's Bath restaurant, Blinis, a joint venture with ChaseHotels, closed after 12 months of trading. Blunos won the Michelin stars at his former Lettonie restaurant in Bristol. The new venture is due to open in January 2004.