Since dusty travelers and local townspeople gathered at communal tavern tables for family style meals hoteliers have provided sustenance with two thoughts in mind…improve their reputation and encourage repeat business. The goals haven’t changed but the methods have, and now all types of hotels are revamping their food and beverage program by adding signature restaurants and hiring celebrity chefs to kick it up a notch.
   Top tier hotels have always focused on providing a first class dining experience and in the past four to five years many others are following suit. Branded hotel dining dates back to the late 50s and early 60s when freestanding restaurants like Contiki Ports and Trader Vic’s affiliated themselves with Sheraton and Hilton respectively and the celebrity chef connection builds on that.
   Joe McInerney, President and CEO of The American Hotel and Lodging Association recognizes, “It’s a change in hotels’ attitude towards food and beverage. Hoteliers figured if they could provide good food and beverage they were okay; many thought they were doing the right thing but customers didn’t think so.” Chalk it up to changing dining attitudes and expectations due to a proliferation of great restaurants. McInerney noted that Vegas started the trend and that all the big hotels there have celebrity chef dining rooms though he recognizes that restaurant expansion at many boutique hotels is as good as any celebrity restaurants, pointing to the just-opened Urbana at Kimpton’s Hotel Palomar in DC and the 18 year success of 44, the signature restaurant feeding guests at New York’s independent hotel, The Royalton.
   Boutique, independent and large chain hotels race to remain competitive and keep diners on property, grabbing a higher customer wallet share. Hotel restaurants, duly noted for their dull cuisine, had to do something to erase the stigma of mediocrity; hence, the appeal of partnering with celebrity chefs.
   Michelin starred Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his partner Phil Suarez recently joined with Starwood to create upscale restaurants around the world and they will bring the New York based Spice Market concept and yet-to-be-developed concept restaurants to the various Starwood brands. Starwood Chief Executive Officer, Steven J. Heyer, comments, “The hotel industry has commoditized hotel dining to the point that most restaurants are so unremarkable they’re simply an option of last resort. We see a wonderful opportunity to dramatically re-imagine hotel dining and provide customers an unforgettable, theatrical experience.”
   According to Chef Michael Mina, who recently opened SeaBlue, A Michael Mina Restaurant, at Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, a hotel’s restaurant experience is as important as a celebrity chef’s. He remarks, “Guests want to stay in hotels they want to eat at and chefs bring in diners to great real estate that’s underutilized and get it filled. Chefs go in and help with design ensuring a better success rate of getting a good designer who will create a room people are comfortable in and want to return. Mina acknowledges the benefits of having a showcase restaurant, “You’re teaming up with a viable partner, like MGM for example, who know so much about construction and build outs so you don’t have to worry about plumbing, etc. and [that sort of thing] doesn’t distract from the creative side of getting the restaurant up and running. The infrastructure is already in place for purchasing, receiving and hiring and with a hotel the restaurant has built in business, lots of times you are part of the hotel’s marketing.”
   Marketing is important but the truth is in the pudding. Maurice Wooden, Executive VP of Food & Beverage for Wynn Resorts believes, “We’re in the fulfillment business.” Exceeding expectations is the way to satisfy one-time guests and build local clientele. Chef Kerry Simon, the chef who recently opened SIMON LA at the Sofitel in Los Angeles and owns Simon kitchen + bar in Las Vegas notes, “I always strive to create a restaurant people can dine in every night of the week if they wish. “
   Wooden offers a final thought on the hotel celebrity chef partnership that began with Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant at Caesars in the 1990s, “Hotel owners know it’s a great marriage.”

Courtesy of Hotel Interactive. www.hotelinteractive.com.