Dining room at Outlier , Kimpton Hotel Monaco , Seattle
OUTLIER , KIMPTON HOTEL MONACO , SEATTLE When the management team at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco decided to change the focus of their signature restaurant , Outlier , from globally inspired small plates to a modern burger , beer and milkshake bar , they never actually closed the restaurant down .
“ It was really challenging to operate a restaurant while changing ,” says Benjamin Davidson , director of food and beverage . “ There was a lot of logistics involved , and we started pairing down the old menu and introducing the whole new menu . It wasn ’ t shut the lights one day and then reopen . We morphed . It was like a giant , soft opening .”
Davidson says they didn ’ t have to change the name , but they definitely needed to change the concept . “ COVID really gave us an opportunity to evaluate the business and get a sense of where things were going or not going ,” he says . “ We noticed that there was this big , gaping hole in the market for this concept . There was this really identifiable gap for burgers and milkshakes . Any good research would show that there ’ s a real opportunity within this genre , and this was there for someone to jump in and do it .”
While a burger restaurant sounds easy , it isn ’ t . “ The challenge of this concept is it ’ s surprisingly technical to make really good burgers and milkshakes ,” Davidson says . “ There ’ s a lot that goes into making them and making them really well .”
Since Outlier isn ’ t open every day , they used the days the restaurant was off to change things . Since the restaurant already had a great working kitchen , they didn ’ t need to remodel it or tear out any equipment . But they did need to bring in new milkshake machines and cotton candy machines .
The team executed new logos , new signage , and new branding , and they brought in some new artwork and small decor changes . “ The challenge with any rolling menu change is that you have a tough window to execute well ,” Davidson says . “ We spent a lot of time really strategizing how to pull this off without driving our staff crazy or being really confusing for our established base of really strong regulars .”
The change took about four months , and the new restaurant was “ about 95 percent there ” in September , with new artwork set to arrive soon to complete the concept . “ It was having a realistic timeline and following it ,” Davidson says . “ It was being strategic in how we employed our staff . For us , it was being really thoughtful .”
Though it is a modern burger bar , the menu has really clear pathways for vegans or for people who don ’ t want burgers . Davidson says they kept a handful of items from the old menu – “ things that worked with the new concept that we had the equipment and facilities to execute .” Davidson says it ’ s important for hoteliers to really know their own market and to look for gaps . “ You have to know where there are opportunities within your market ,” Davidson says .
With its new concept , Outlier is drawing in more families and a new customer base that hadn ’ t been in the hotel before . “ We ’ re still early in this process , so I don ’ t have tons of data . But what we ’ re seeing is that we ’ re bringing in a new customer base , and there are people in the restaurant we probably wouldn ’ t have been able to access before ,” Davidson says . “ It ’ s been working really well for us . One of the surprises is that the hotel gets a lot of families , and we ’ re capturing that business in a way we hadn ’ t done before .”
Cheese-stuffed chorizo burger at Outlier
Milkshakes at Outlier
Nov / Dec 2022 hotelsmag . com 81