Palm Paradise
The buzzword at the regional hub could well be ‘palm’ at the moment, as the team gears up to launch Fairmont Palm Jumeirah under the leadership of general manager, Martin Van Kan.
The hotel, which will feature 381 guest rooms and suites, a pool, beach and spa, and seven bars and restaurants, looks set to be the brand’s flagship in the region — and Van Kan’s excitement at the prospect is palpable.
One element of the vast offering he is particularly confident about is the food and beverage, something Fairmont’s other UAE hotels are already renowned for.
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“Food and beverage at the Palm is going to be where we hopefully are going to be opening the hotel in great style and for the foreseeable future F&B will be our bread and butter — we will be owning that community as best as we possibly can,” asserts Van Kan, even suggesting that Fairmont The Palm’s brunch could “topple” Fairmont Dubai’s Spectrum on One “off its number one brunch spot”.
“Fairmont’s name in the city in very many respects came out of F&B and one of the big things 10 years ago was its position in brunch and that really helped elevate the F&B status here,” says Van Kan.
“There’s no reason why we can’t use that as a platform from which we can all move to greater places. There are some great opportunities and the restaurants that we have are new offerings to the market in that area in which we play,” he says of The Palm.
“They are an unthinkable or unmissable part of the community,” says Fries of Fairmont Dubai’s restaurants. “Being really part of the local community and a place where people meet and socialise and so on.
“And that will be a very similar scenario at The Palm project. And that is part of our philosophy and drive — that you really build the success of the hotels on the relationship and success within the local community,” he adds.
Van Kan says they “deliberated for a long time” over whether to develop all the F&B in-house or to work with brands, just as Fairmont Bab Al Bahr brought in the Frankie’s and Marco Pierre White steakhouse brands in partnership with Rmal Hospitality.
Ultimately, they decided to go it alone. “The marketed/branded restaurants segment in Dubai is obviously very mature, so [there’s some space for] coming back to grassroots and creating them yourselves using the talents that you’re able to resource into creative or concept designs within your outlets,” says Van Kan.
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