Premium Hotels Aim To Compete With Their Restaurants

When Manhattan East Suite Hotels opened The Benjamin three years ago, it was competing against New York's venerable Waldorf-Astoria and Inter-Continental Hotel The Barclay, as well as a trendy newcomer, the first W Hotel in New York, all nearby deluxe or upper upscale properties. One of the strategies The Benjamin used to gain visibility was to install a destination restaurant run by a celebrity chef—Larry Forgione's An American Place—on the hotel's ground floor.

As it happens, W Hotels, which is part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, has made the inclusion of a destination restaurant in each of its properties part of the brand standard. Chefs involved include Todd English and restaurant developers Drew Nieporent and Stephen Hanson.

The core Hilton Hotel brand of Hilton Hotels Corp. also has employed this strategy in its most recent New York property, the Hilton Times Square. Ironically, the celebrity chef at the Hilton's restaurant—named Above for its location on the hotel's lobby level, 25 stories above ground—is also Larry Forgione.

The Westin Hotels' Essex House has derived considerable mileage out of housing the restaurant of the chef who's probably the best known of all at the moment, Alain Ducasse.

While high-end restaurants in such a market as New York traditionally have been included in high-end hotels, it's only recently that they—and the star chefs associated with them—have been featured so prominently. In fact, the current scenario is a reversal of the typical pattern where the hotel would bring cache to the restaurant. Now, it's the other way around.

Furthermore, in many cases the arrangement between the chef and hotel goes beyond simply running the restaurant to include providing the room service and conference catering.

For corporate travel buyers, including hotels with destination restaurants in their New York hotel coverage is a plus, if the presence of the restaurant is an additional way of driving compliance. On the other hand, if a restaurant's popularity makes it hard for travelers to get a reservation, it can sour them on the restaurant and, by extension, the preferred hotel.

The trend can be seen in other gateway cities besides New York, but given New York's high-restaurant consciousness, the development is most pronounced here.

Given the present economic slowdown, coupled with the lingering effect of Sept. 11, the restaurant business in New York tends to be down across the board. However, as the economy—and discretionary spending—rebound, business is expected to return to prior levels.

Underlying the trend are three factors. First, business travelers heading to New York typically are well aware of the sophisticated and eclectic dining options available in the most expensive business travel city in the United States (BTN, Feb. 25). Second, celebrity chefs have become especially well-known in New York, the media capital of the world, through exposure in food magazines, cookbooks and cable television. And third, the intensely competitive New York market at the high-end of the lodging spectrum has made properties hungry for any distinction that separates them from the pack.

"Having a destination restaurant in the hotel was part of our thinking from the beginning," said John Moser, The Benjamin's general manager. "We knew that if we chose the right restaurant and chef, the style and level of service would end up defining the hotel. But if we made the wrong choice and there was a mismatch, the hotel would suffer."

Moser described the relationship between The Benjamin and Forgione as "more of a marriage than the normal business deal." The chef worked closely with the hotel's designers in creating An American Place's interiors. "Larry was especially involved with the kitchen design because it's actually on two floors and it was important to him that diners be able to see the food being prepared," Moser said. "This is in direct contrast to the past, when diners wanted to be seated as far away from the kitchen as possible."

As its name suggests, An American Place specializes in regional American cuisine. Cedar plank salmon is among Forgione's signature dishes. Another Manhattan East Suite hotel, The Surrey, includes Café Boulud, a high-end destination restaurant named for chef Daniel Boulud.

Meanwhile, when the Essex House announced it would open Ducasse's eponymous restaurant, it was considered a major coup in New York culinary circles. "Ducasse is so world-renowned for his stylish French cuisine that the restaurant has become a real lure for the hotel," said Sue Brush, vice president of brand operations in North America for Westin's parent, Starwood.

At W Hotels, "destination bars as well as restaurants are a way of adding assets to the hotels," said Guy Hensley, senior vice president of brand operations. "While they're all known to be trendy, this doesn't mean the food they serve is anything less than first-rate. To the contrary, the food is classic and there's a strong emphasis on service." W's restaurant partner in its latest New York hotel, W Times Square, is Stephen Hanson. The venue is called Blue Fin.

Since the celebrity chefs frequently provide room service and conference catering, business travelers can sample the cuisine without eating in the restaurant.

"Having a chef of Larry's caliber brings a new perspective to something like room service, which can so easily seem pro-forma," The Benjamin's Moser said. In the same way that a destination restaurant becomes a draw for the hotel, meeting planners are attracted to having interesting menus available at conference meal functions. "All other factors being equal, it can be a selling advantage for the hotel," Moser added.

When sampling the restaurant dishes, in fact, planners should keep banquet menus in mind. "Typically," Hensley said, anything on the restaurant menu at a W can be recreated for a banquet."