Changes are afoot…
Robert-Jan Woltering reveals two more F&B outlets will be added to Fairmont the Palm. An in-house concept will open just outside its all-day diner this summer.
In addition, a third-party concept is currently in negotiation for the property.
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Within Fairmont Dubai, Catch Dubai and Bistrot Bagatelle sit where Spectrum on One used to be located. The Spectrum brunch is now found at Fairmont Ajman. We ask whether Fairmont Dubai will re-introduce anything in the now empty ‘brunch’ space. All Woltering says is that something new will be created to cater more to families, perhaps in the area which houses Pronto and Café Sushi.
Raffles Dubai will not be tweaked too much; only the bar and the all-day dining restaurant are being considered for an upgrade.
Fairmont Fujairah, which Woltering hopes will open by the end of 2016, will have “brand new” concepts, numbering four or five.
He says outsourcing in F&B is beneficial: “It puts us back on our feet. Maybe as hotelier-restaurateurs, and I mean in the generic sense outside FRHI, maybe we’ve been too arrogant and too easy about our food and beverage products. What you need to do as a hotelier to really make a great restaurant is to think a concept through from A to Z. I believe this is something we have forgotten worldwide — you open restaurants and think they’re going to run. You need to make your restaurants for the outside customer. You do not make a restaurant for your hotel guest.”
He continues: “It’s interesting to have third party operators because it gets you into balance and to have that balance between your own restaurants and third parties is great, because it keeps you awake. It gets the profitability into balance and it gives you interesting concepts.”
He concludes on the matter: “Where you have to be careful as an operator is that you do not outsource everything, because then you outsource your know-how.”
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