PA Life Club members had a pleasure of visiting Birmingham on April 25th and 26th to experience the hospitality at the city’s latest addition of fantastic event spaces. The FAM Trip to The Eastside Rooms and the overnight stay at the venue’s 4* Aloft Birmingham Eastside was one of the the highlights of our event calendar so far in 2024. Discovering great out venues and putting service, menus and accommodation to test, is very much part of a well-informed PA’s and EA’s job today…
Most of us travelled from London by train, a short one hours and a fifteen minutes on a fast service from Euston to Birmingham New Street station. Eastside Rooms is conveniently locates in the city centre, a nice 20 minute stroll if you prefer to walk and take in some of the inner City sights.
We arrived just ahead of the 6pm drinks reception at the WXYZ Bar, hosted by the venue’s Marketing Lead, Tanita Gill, Vicky Howe, Business Development Manager and Leanne Bladen, Director of Sales and Marketing. A meet and greet whilst sipping delicious cocktails is always a very nice way to get acquainted and the venue team were wonderful hosts. With the help of the friendly and attentive bar staff we had a great start to the evening which moved on to a show-around of the event spaces.
PA Life Club’s FAM Trip enjoyed a show-around of the state-of-the-art Eastside Rooms
As a newly built venue, everything is in pristine condition, with stylish furnishings and finishes to complement the light and airy design. There are also coffee stations in each space and it’s worth mentioning the excellent soundproofing. It’s safe to say that your meeting or conference won’t need to listed to the wedding disco taking place next door.
The biggest meeting space, the Affinity Suite is a vast space of 880 m2 and can hold up to 1200 attendees in theatre style. We also saw other meeting spaces and boardrooms such as the impressive Ashtead Suite. The venue has 23 contemporary event spaces to choose from, spanning over three floors, and can cater for all your meeting, event and conference needs.
Art class and dinner at the Belmont Suite
After the tour it was time to head back to the ground floor’s Belmont Suite for dinner, or so we thought. Instead, we were in for a lovely surprise. The back of the room was set up for an art class, with easels, paints and brushes waiting for artists to take their seats. That was us as Ambience Arts Events were there to guide us through a painting class. Our subject was hanging lemons – very apt as you’ll find out later. We loved the challenge and it was interesting to see how we all interpreted the same subject and instructions so differently. The art class made a great and very relaxing session – I’d highly recommend as a team workshop or a break-out session for events.
After we posed with your master pieces in front of the vibrant Bougainville flower backdrop and tree decorations is was time to sit down to enjoy our three-course feast.
The team had worked hard to create a Mediterranean setting for us, complete with gorgeous flower trees at the entrance to the room. The long dining table, seating all 20 guests and the hosts was underneath a pergola structure, with stunning hanging lemon tree branches and vines to add to the authentic look.
The fantastic onsite chef and catering team had prepared an exquisite culinary delight for us. For starters we enjoyed baked crottin of goats cheese, macerated apricots, honey served with focaccia crisps. The choice of mains was impressive too. I loved the herb encrusted 2 bone rack of lamb, minted pea puree, purple asparagus, boulangerie potato and red currant jus. On the menu was also a grilled Seabass with lemon caper sauce, roasted potatoes, and sauteed spinach. And a vegan choice of roasted vegetable and halloumi tower with sauce.
The desserts were too inviting to forego, the lemon meringue with raspberry sorbet and lime gremolata was super tasty. Equally delicious, according to those opting for the vegan choice was the lemon and soy posset with raspberry crumble textures.
Despite the very substantial feast, we still found energy and and a little room for a quick after dinner drink at the bar before calling the lift to take us up to our bedrooms.
Staying in ALoft – a Marriott Hotel
The venue links straight into the 195-bedroom ALoft Birmingham, perfect for events where overnight stay is needed. The bedrooms are spacious, with floor to ceiling windows with views over the city, and super comfortable beds. The most impressive aspect was the absolute silence though – no waking up to the showers and banging of doors of the early risers here. The bathrooms were very nice too, great shower and even your own Nespresso machine!
You can read more about The Eastside Rooms state-of-the-art event facilities.
