BLACK Country restaurant bosses have apologised after notices on their websites inviting people to mark Remembrance Sunday by dining out at their eateries were slammed as being in bad taste.

A notice on Brockmoor-based Italian restaurant IL Michelangelo’s website states: "Here at IL Michelangelo Brockmoor we firmly believe that no one should ever be forgotten.

“This is a day to spend with your family and to remember how lucky we are.

“Our amazing team will be serving some fantastic dishes and it would be our pleasure for you to spend such a special day with us."

Stourbridge News:

An identical notice was also spotted on the website of the Koyla Kitchen bar, grill and steakhouse in Thorns Road, Quarry Bank, and goes on to say: "We are currently taking bookings for Sunday 12th November."

Stourbridge News:

Shocked Brierley Hill resident Tim Lee couldn’t believe what he was reading when he saw the notices and branded them “crass, insensitive and inappropriate”.

He said: “I came across them when I was Googling to check the arrangements for the Brierley Hill Remembrance Sunday parade at the war memorial.

“Exploiting a day when ceremonies across the country remember and honour the war dead, for the purposes of selling restaurant meals, really does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

“I'd suggest these restaurants withdraw their online advertising immediately, make a public apology, and consider a substantial contribution to the Royal British Legion.”

As soon as the News approached the restaurants for comment – the bosses of both eateries, however, issued immediate, whole-hearted apologies.

Stourbridge News:

Owner of IL Michelangelo, Leo Gallani, said: “We are really sorry - we haven’t meant it in the way that people have taken it. I’ll have a word with our marketing team. We’ll make sure we’ll take it off.

“If people have taken it in the wrong way – we are happy to take it off and apologise.”

He said the business makes a donation every year to the Royal British Legion and he added: “I would not want to do anything to disappoint anybody.”

Stourbridge News:

Jatinder Singh, owner and manager at Koyla Kitchen, said he hadn’t authorised the website notice and added: “I totally apologise if it’s caused any offence to anyone. It must be people I use for the website. I need to find out why this has happened. I will get it taken off the website. I shall deal with this personally.”

Brierley Hill councillor Rachel Harris confirmed she had received a complaint from a resident about it and said: ”There’s nothing that says people can’t market their business in the way they are but in this case it’s unfortunate and it’s inappropriate.”

Historian and local radio broadcaster Dr Paul Collins, whose grandfather fought in the horrific Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, said: “I don’t think it’s an occasion that should be exploited in any way for commercial purposes. It’s about remembering – not just the people that were lost but because we should never do that again.

“It’s really not something you should use to advertise a meal; it’s just inappropriate.”

People wishing to commemorate the fallen on Remembrance Sunday are invited to attend Brierley Hill’s service of Remembrance.

Veterans and councillors will gather at 10.30am at Church Hill for a procession to the town’s war memorial where a one-minute silence will be held at 11am followed by a short service, ahead of a service at St Michael’s Church at 11.15am.