Shangri-La at the Shard and Simon Rogan's restaurant at Claridge's launch today
Two of the London's biggest hospitality openings of the year will welcome their first guests today.
The opening of the 202-bedroom Shangri-La hotel at the Shard is one of the most anticipated hotel openings of 2014, while Fera at Claridge's will mark the most ambitious restaurant launch to-date for Simon Rogan, current holder of Catey Awards for both Chef of the Year and Restaurateur of the Year.
While guests will initially be attracted by the views from the £90m hotel - stretching up to 35 miles in every direction - general manager Darren Gearing said that it will the Shangri-La's focus on service which will bring guests back for a second visit. It will be only the third hotel in Europe for the Hong Kong-based company, following openings in Paris and Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the £3m, 94-seat Fera at Claridge's will join the Rogan portfolio which includes the two-Michelin-star L'Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria and the French restaurant at the Midland hotel, Manchester.
The restaurant will be operated under a 10-year management contract, with a five-year break clause.
Both Rogan and Thomas Kochs, general manager, are expecting the hotel to make a splash on the both the domestic and global stage.
Kochs said of Rogan: The time is absolutely right for him. He has many years' experience and has an incredible standing within the UK, but you feel that there is so much more to come. In some ways his journey is only just beginning. I am very happy that he will now have an international platform."
For full report and pictures from inside the Shangri-La hotel, see this week's Caterer and Hotelkeeper, on 9 May.
Shangri-La hotel to open at The Shard on 6 May >>
Simon Rogan: Fera at Claridge's >>