GINGERMAN restaurants have been filling the stomachs of Sussex foodies for almost two decades and now top chef Ben McKellar wants to tuck them in too.

The Ginger Pig in Hove is to take its first paying hotel guests tomorrow [Friday] following a half a million pound restoration of the upper floors of the Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant.

Mr McKellar said moving into hotel hospitality was something he and his wife and business partner Pamela McKellar had always wanted to do claiming it was the ultimate in hospitality.

The former City College student said if successful, further Gingerman hotels could appear around the city.

Work on converting dilapidated rooms above the restaurant in Hove Street has taken around a year and new guests will find 11 boutique double rooms with either an oversized shower or stand-alone bath tub.

Rooms, costing between £80 and £160 per night, will be equipped with a luxury Royal Warrant Hypnos mattress, Cowshed bathroom products, Nespresso-style coffee machines and handcrafted miniature Ginger cocktails stocked in the minibar.

The chance to enjoy the restaurant group’s twist on breakfast, including a full English, baked eggs and a ham hock hash, will be open to all and not just hotel guests.

Mr McKellar said: “It is something we have always wanted to do, we have just been waiting for the right time and so we decided that we would do it this year.

“We have had the upstairs room at the Pig which have been in a bad state for years.

“They were very much 50s style rooms, horrible little rooms and with a toilet at the end of the corridor, and we have transformed them into 11 boutique rooms, all with en-suite, over two floors.

“We have had a lot of interest locally but the challenge is to get that interest nationally and internationally because the people coming to stay will be from outside Brighton and Hove.

“There is not really scope at the other Gingers for accommodation but we very much want to go down the hotel route if we can make a success of this.

“It is the ultimate hospitality.

“When you get someone in for dinner, you have them for two or three hours, but if somebody is staying you can have them for 24, 48 or 72 hours.

“It is the great challenge for somebody in the hospitality business.”

For more information visit thegingerpigpub.com.