Focus on Food
In addition to the extensive overhaul of guest rooms and public spaces, the hotel is also redefining its F&B offering, a topic general manager Shaun Parsons is very passionate about.
“What we are trying to do with the F&B here is bring an element of soul to the property.
The rooms are the heart but the F&B is the soul of any true, strong hotel regardless of its type — whether a resort or city hotel.
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“If you look at the food and beverage side, that’s probably where we are being more ambitious than anywhere else,” claims Parsons. “With rooms it is going to be tough to show enormous growth — the market is incredibly saturated with suppliers. With F&B, we are looking at major growth in the range of 15-20% — it’s where we really see our opportunity for significant revenues,” he reveals.
Executive chef Justin Galea, who joined the team just before the restaurants closed and has been working on perfecting each concept, has also created an ethos for each restaurant to ensure each outlet is different from the other.
“My input into these venues, and theirconcepts and cuisine is to set the rules and the ethos of the venue and then make sure that we stay true to them,” he asserts.
“For example, cool and funky isn’t something you find in the rules, but it has to be for the food in Wheat. Cafe Palmier has to be theatrical. Market Kitchen has to be cutting edge.
Amalfi is the opposite of all of them; it has to be true to its origin – Naples, Campania, Sorento, Capri. It’s the only restaurant I know that by name tells you exactly what it has to do.
And then Stratos, the revolving rooftop restaurant ... when I was told I had a rooftop revolving restaurant, it just made me think of something out of a Bond film. It’s chic, avant-garde, and the food has to reflect that,” he enthuses.
Having previously managed the Westin Dubai and Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Complex in Dubai, Parsons believes he has the experience to see what the hotel really needs in terms of its F&B offering.
“With the F&B that we’re developing, we’ve got everything covered. So ideally, as a guest, once you’ve checked in here you don’t have to leave because you’ve got everything at your doorstep.
And I think if we can develop some weekend F&B programmes, we can attract people to come here that might traditionally go to resort properties instead. If you have a really engaging F&B programme in place, people will stay with you if they know they can have a good time at the hotel,” says Parsons.
Deputy general manager Daniel van Der Heijden agrees, saying: “I think it’s all about what exists in the local market and the target audience. From a hotel side, our target audience is corporate travellers, but on the weekends, we also have the local crowd and leisure guests so there still has to be a variety of venues that caters to everyone. At the same time we are trying to do things a little differently and not just be the next restaurant on the street or in other hotels.”
Ultimately, it all comes down to the core of ‘unlocking the destination’ in innovative ways believes Parsons.
“Looking at what we’ve done previously and replicating that with this new product is not going to work. We need to deliver a lot more than what we did before because if we are delivering what we did before, we are going to get the same old results or possibly less because there’s so much happening. I’m looking at ways in which we can innovate, ways in which we can create new and engaging experiences for our guests to unlock the destination,” he concludes.
Stat attack
- 270 Number of rooms
- 400 Number of employees
- 40 Nationalities employed by the hotel
- 11 Number of restaurants at the hotel
- 8 Number of iPads available in the Le Meridien Hub
- 12,114 Number of Facebook fans
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