In May this year, The InterContinental Dubai Marina celebrated one year since its opening and F&B manager Julien Coron says the best is yet to come. Coron, who previously worked with Michelin-starred chef Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai and London as his sommelier, has been focused on constantly improving the offer to guests.
Coron highlights every outlet as having a success story of its own. Accents, for example, he says, has been getting positive comments on the likes of TripAdvisor, along with the brunch showing high numbers, often getting fully booked. The Ynot wine bar is capitalising on offering “great wines at affordable prices” — something Coron is keen on — and nearly 30 wines by the glass. Coron notes that he uses the Coravin system at Marina Social rather than Ynot due to the premium wine list at the Jason Atherton restaurant.
Coron is planning to switch up the focus on craft beers and cocktails at Ynot based on feedback from consumers. He’s extremely focused on getting to know the perspective of his guests, and reflects this with changes to his offering — for example, Ynot’s previous ‘Corkathon’ brunch was replaced with the after-brunch offer, The Stock Exchange, based on comments from customers.
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Ginter, he says, took flight without excessive marketing. “As it is a gin speciality bar, it was a success and [gin] is getting very trendy. As a sommelier, I want to learn more about gin because every gin is so different. You can create a story around it and guests really like it. Ginter’s images are actually popular on Instagram,” Coron reports.
Similarly, Marina Social, with its celeb chef association, is doing well, especially with the British expat community, he reports.
For the hotel, F&B is extremely important. While he doesn’t commit to numbers, Coron says the hotel has a “very high F&B budget”. And he admits there’s always the challenge of new restaurants opening in and around the area. But, he notes: “I can win by consistency. It’s about food quality, and good value is what people are looking for nowadays.”
Next on his list of things to do is the poolside bar, which he hopes to rejuvenate. In addition, he reveals that he wants to create a business hub for people to use at the hotel. “That will be in Ynot, [my idea is to] open it up from the morning to create a business hub. We’ve done some research — there is potential.”
Coron is brimming with ideas, and he says: “My brain never stops! We need to look at opportunities. We have been open for one year, and the future is ahead.
“We are always doing surveys of our guests, asking them ‘what do you like, what do you want to see?’ We are very receptive to suggestions and to comments — bad or good. It’s a learning process. Not listening to feedback or to guests or what the competition is doing is not clever.”
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