THE team at a Worcester restaurant are toasting themselves with champagne after walking off with a top award in the Cateys awards - the catering industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

Brandon Weston, who owns The Glasshouse Restaurant in Church Street with chef Calum MacCrimmon, said the pair spent a nail-biting few minutes before their restaurant was declared the winner at a glittering ceremony held at the Grosvenor House in London.

The restaurant, which was only opened three years ago, has won the Best Independent Marketing Campaign Award - the only honours in the national awards which are judged by the industry itself.

"This is the ultimate accolade for us," said Brandon, who was celebrating the eighth anniversary of his wedding to wife Joanne on the same day.

"It was just like the Oscars ceremony and was held in the jklhdgkljhjklGreat Room where they hold the Bafta Awards. My heart was pounding and then everybody started clapping but I still didn't realise they had called out my name. Then I thought: 'Crikey, that's me.'

"The highlight was being presented with a magnificent bronze statue by ITN newsreader Mary Nightingale."

Brandon says he and Callum hope to enter two more categories next year and although nobody has ever won an award twice, they are determined to break the record.

"We continually strive to do better and want diners to come and sample our restaurant, which isn't exclusive, isn't expensive and hasn't got a dress code," he said.

The winning marketing campaign promoted the restaurant as imaginative and trend-setting, while ensuring the menu remained populist. The result was a higher lunchtime spend per head.

The restaurant has also created the Glasshouse Business Lunch Club, which entitles cardholders to 10 per cent off their lunch bills.

Brandon also introduced a new slogan: "Hidden in the heart of the city - waiting to be discovered."

The Glasshouse has been rewarded under the AA's rosette scheme and is rated in the Michelin guide to the top UK restaurants.