F & B
Danny Bortnick , vice president of restaurant concept development at IHG ’ s Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants , and “ the harder it is to keep moving that thing forward and not have it come out vanilla on the other end .”
SHORT ATTENTION SPANS Cuisine – what ’ s more local than food ? – is a big factor when booking a destination . Food trends have shorter shelf lives , with foodies snapping up , and snapping pics of , the latest dish from the hottest chef at the newest
QUICKFIX restaurant . That means the 20-year life cycle of most hotel restaurants is now more like seven , says Bortnick , who says he generally prefers timeless to trendy . “ The more trendy places get the crowds that come in the beginning and are super excited and supportive until the next place opens .” The best restaurants evolve , finding ways to incorporate what people are interested in , he says . It doesn ’ t hurt to embrace trendy . “ Today , when we build a menu , we highlight four or five items , and we tell the chefs , do the Instagrammable moment ,” Heksch says . It also could mean specing a $ 200 chair over an $ 800 chair . “ Today we believe that every three years , you have to do something to the room to make it relevant ,” he says .
A bar or restaurant with a strong identity can pay dividends elsewhere . “ We have data on it – that if you build a restaurant or bar with a strong point of view , you actually can charge more for your room ,” Heksch says .
BACK TO EXPERIENCE A strong identity can
KING COLE BAR , ST . REGIS MEXICO CITY A 2017 refurbishment gave the bar new FF & E and a renovated outdoor terrace space , which shows off hotel views and capitalizes on the city ’ s energetic bar scene . It also updated its beverage program with a top mixologist and created a new gastro pub menu with interpretations of traditional Mexican appetizers for the 50 / 50 split of locals and hotel guests . During the one-year project , a seasonal speakeasy concept filled the void ; the hotel declined to offer revenue numbers or improvements .
ONE THING
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Last year , the Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda decided that its lobby space , Jasmine Lounge , was trying too hard – all-day dining , TVs tuned to sports channels , even a dance floor for live entertainment .
But the decision to tighten the concept cascaded into the 593-room resort ’ s 10 F & B outlets : Removing the TVs risked alienating sportscrazed locals and guests . That meant turning its Italian venue , Bacci , into Boundary Sports Bar and Grille .
But Italian cuisine was still a big draw on Bermuda ’ s southern shore . That led to turning the Newport Gastropub , a half-restaurant / halfbar , into Mediterra , for Mediterranean cuisine .
Some of the spaces being reconcepted hadn ’ t been refreshed since the early 2000s , says F & B Director Wouter Aarts , but once the decision was made , the transformation was fast : Jasmine Lounge closed in early September 2017 and re-opened two weeks later on a 24-hour construction schedule . Newport closed September 25 and opened as Mediterra on October 3 , the same day Bacci closed to make way for Boundary , which opened at the end of October . Aarts , who joined the hotel in July from stints at Marriott and Starwood in Asia , says renovations totaled about US $ 1 million .
A Texas smoker became the “ center of gravity ” at the sports bar . “ We definitely accommodate the recent trend into pub foods ,” Aarts says .
Bacci , which saw 25 % of business from local clientele , now sees 60 % at Boundary . Bacci ’ s previous split of food and beverages sales was about 65 / 35 , Aarts estimates . “ By reconcepting it to a bar , despite having a slightly lower check on food , we saw beverage sales increase exponentially . So now we are sitting at a split of 50 / 50 in terms of food versus beverage sales ,” he says . Small-plates Mediterra saw a 24 % increase in average spending , with an early tweak to add full-sized entrées .
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30 hotelsmag . com March 2018