FSR October 2022

“If you’re just sitting around a sparsely populated hotel dining room, that’s just not going to have the same spirit,” says Robert Thompson, CEO of hospital ity company Angevin & Co. “ e locals make a hotel restaurant feel like a local restaurant, like the great restaurants you go to in your hometown.” GET THE WORD OUT Bringing in area residents often boils down to creating a location-specific din ing experience (more on that later), as well as getting the word out. “It’s our job to educate the [hotel] guests as well as the local guests so they know who we are and what we do and what we stand for,” Wardhaugh says. “Visibility is a huge thing; it’s letting peo ple know what you’re doing.” To this end, the Epicurean offers a variety of events including live musical performances, weekly yoga sessions with complimentary libations, and more. Its on-site culinary theater can also host 60 people for cooking demos or about 16 for hands-on classes. Another way for restaurants to reach beyond their four walls is to engage with the local community. CelebratedMinne apolis chef and restaurateur Daniel del Prado recently expanded into the other side of hospitality when he teamed up with the city’s historic Rand Tower to cre ate a trio of F&B concepts. Although del Prado owns and operates more than a half dozen independent restaurants, he says the hotel space brought its share of learning opportunities. At the same time, the Twin Cities has lately proved a chal lenging market for any new business. “I don’t know if there is any other city in the world as challenging as Minne apolis downtown right now. For sure, it will take some time to get back to where it was, but I have no doubt that it will. is city has always been resilient,” del Prado says. And likely the new restaurants—Bar Rufus, Blondette, and Miaou Miaou— will benefit from the chef ’s strong ties to the surrounding community and his established reputation.

1 HOTEL IN NASHVILLE

“Southern cuisine is historically known for being heavier, so it’s about how we

GO WITH THE DAYPART FLOW Among the more stark differences between a classic restaurant and one inside a hotel is the expectation of around-the-clock service with multiple options. As Wyatt points out, a guest arriving at noon might be ready for a beer and a meal rather than waiting until the 5 o’clock dinner bell. “You have guests coming and leaving 24/7, and that’s totally different from a restaurant on its own,” he says. “So [it's about] trying to navigate and see what makes sense from an activation and a revenue point of view. We don’t want to take these beautiful ingredients and keep them light and fresh and airy but something that people still recognize."

CHEF CHRIS CRARY

open two competing restaurants right next to each other in a hotel. You have to think through which one is going to service which hours, what clientele, what experience, and all of those are differ ent questions.” For example, Skyline Lodge, a 40-room property nestled in Highlands, North Carolina, has a dual operation to cover its

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