Spirited 2010 - Volume 1

Spring 2010 | Volume 1

World Class in a Glass

E.&J. GalloWinery: The Values Behind the Business

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Talking F&B with

Lynne zappone >> PAGE 2

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A meal isn’t a meal for Lynne Zappone unless it involves lots of sharing—both food and stories. Our series of F&B interviews with members of IHG’s leadership team continues in a conversation with the Senior Vice President, Americas Human Resources and Global Learning.

When you dine with Lynne Zappone, expect a highly interactive experience.

The Senior Vice President, Americas Human Resources and Global Learning, describes herself as an adventurous, curious eater who wants to know what everyone else is having. She loves food—especially Italian—and has been known to request a sample nibble or two of things on others’ plates that look interesting. For Lynne, eating is not a task but an experience that should engage all the senses. In a recent interview, we asked about her food and beverage likes and dislikes, including her standard morning mocha.

Feeding Body, Mind

&Soul

Makes a Good Meal Great,

says Lynne Zappone Any foodservice experience in your background?

“Yes. When I was in college in Florida, I was a hostess at a local restaurant. Then later, during my first year as a teacher, I worked as a waitress in—surprise, surprise—an Italian restaurant. I was great at the social part of the job, but not as good at the technical aspects of waiting tables. I developed terrific working relationships with the chefs and cooks in the back of the house. I learned quickly how important it is to have them on your side when things aren’t going well in the dining room.”

What does a great dining experience look like for you?

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“You’ve got to have the right combination of people, food and relaxed atmosphere. Whether it’s in someone’s home or in a restaurant, you want people to be comfortable. The goal is to have everyone feel that every part of them is being fed—conversation stimulates the mind, food enlivens the senses, wine enhances the tastes and flavors and the whole experience warms the soul, making it so good you don’t want to leave the table.

“Meals were like that for me, growing up. In my family, food was at the center of day-to-day life and of the culture. There were always lots of people at mealtime, and sitting around the table talking was essential—course after course, on through coffee and dessert, for hours. Even casual interactions with family and friends always involved food and conversation. People would pop in to have coffee, a snack and chat, so our family had to be prepared at all times—we always had to be sure we had enough on hand.”

What’s your favorite food?

“I love the ‘bookends’ of a meal. Up front, there’s antipasto—wonderful combinations of meat, cheese, olives and peppers with all kinds of different textures and tastes. Combine that with bread—mmm! I enjoy the variety, and always say I could make a meal just on the antipasto. Then at the other end of the dining experience…well, I love sweets, especially chocolate. If you start and end well, with lots of wine in between, you have a perfect meal.”

How about your favorite beverage?

“Every morning I have a decaf tall, non-fat, no-whip, one-pump mocha—except during the holidays. From December through Valentine’s Day, it’s a peppermint mocha, so that I have something a little special to associate with the season.

“At dinner, my preference is a good red wine, perhaps a Pinot Noir or Malbec, and lots of still water. When I’m in the mood for a cocktail, I’m all about the bubbles! My current favorite is Kir Royale, a refreshing champagne cocktail that I consider the lady-like version of a cold beer.”

Favorite restaurant?

“That’s a hard one—there are so many! One standout from a long time ago was a wonderful little neighborhood Italian restaurant near where I lived in L.A. They served unbelievable food—always very fresh. You had to bring your own wine or other alcoholic beverage from the liquor store next door.

Dining there felt like you were going to someone’s home—they always recognized you, and would say, ‘You have to try this tonight.’ I’m not sure it’s even there anymore.”

When you stay at an IHG property, what are your expectations regarding F&B? “I like being able to have a nice glass of wine with a meal, and we do have a good selection of wines available across our brands. I appreciate when the servers seem to genuinely care as much as I do about the dining experience I’m having, whether it’s the roomservice waiter, the banquet servers or the wait staff in the restaurant. It makes such a difference when they indicate they are passionate about the food and the experience they’re helping deliver.”

“I always appreciate when the servers seem to genuinely care as much as I do about the dining experience I’m having.”

Do you ever order room service?

“Yes, especially when I’m in London for meetings at Denham.

I appreciate that our room service menus include local dishes as well as international comfort foods such as burgers and chicken Caesar salads.”

Mineral water or tap?

“I prefer bottled still water—no fizzies. I don’t mind tap water if the quality is good.”

Any F&B “pet peeves?”

“I have a few. One, soup that’s cold (when it’s supposed to be hot). Another is white napkin fuzz all over my black trousers. And finally, I must admit I am the queen of special orders. So it’s frustrating when the wait person seems irritated by my requests. I know that special orders can be a challenge, but accommodating the diners’ preferences is important to delivering the guest experience.”

Do you cook at home, and if so, what’s your specialty?

“Yes, I do cook. My specialties are mostly Italian meals, but I also make a wicked beef tenderloin that has earned many compliments. I do love sweets, but I’m not as good at baking as I am at whipping things up in the kitchen—antipasto, pizzas and eggplant Parmesan.

“In my perfect cooking world, I would come home to pre-chopped, pre-measured ingredients placed in ramekins decorating the countertop, along with a glass of Pinot Noir…all waiting for the magic to begin.”

When you dine at an IHG hotel, what do you usually order?

“If there’s something local on the menu, I’ll usually try that. In London, where they have great Indian choices on our hotels’ menus, I always check out one of those. I often ask my server for recommendations or personal favorites as well. My standard fallback items are salads and grilled fish.

I really like having healthy options on our menus—it’s important to me.”

Any recent standout meals at an IHG property?

“We hold a lot of company events at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Perimeter Northwest, and they always do a really nice job. They take what could be a standard lunch buffet and turn it into something special for us—not just the display of the food, but the quality and uniqueness of the choices as well.”

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E.&J.GalloWinery: The Values Behind the Business In the depths of the Great Depression, two California brothers saw a tremendous opportunity as the repeal of Prohibition approached. With $5,000 borrowed from a relative, Ernest and Julio Gallo used willpower and hard work to create the E. & J. Gallo Winery in Modesto in 1933.

structure to be loaded onto trains headed for the Eastern markets. With no roadmap for what they were attempting—to develop a national presence for their brand—the brothers improvised throughout the early years, creating a market for wine while they created wines to serve the market.

The post-Prohibition competition was intense.

The brothers were competing against larger, more established companies, including 800-plus wine-producing entities in California alone.

They rented an old railroad shed in Modesto, rolling barrels of wine from the humble brick 4

Brothers in a family dynasty of winemaking, Ernest (left) and Julio sample a vintage from the cask in 1955.

Vision & Business Smarts Today E. & J. Gallo Winery is considered one of the great American business success stories of the 20th century. Through their winery, Ernest and Julio were instrumental in introducing American consumers to wine and creating the modern U.S. wine market. They were among the pioneers of wine advertising on television and launched a number of memorable wine advertising campaigns.

Among the many firsts the company introduced to the wine industry were brand management and modern merchandising; breakthrough quality initiatives such as long-term grower contracts for varietal grapes and grape research programs, and establishing a truly significant foreign sales and marketing force to export California wines overseas. Gallo also led the way in bringing new products to store shelves.

“The Gallo family believes family ownership allows them to invest freely in the future, to cultivate valuable relationships with their growers, suppliers and customers and to keep their focus on quality and value.”

Ken Free, Director of National Accounts - E.&J. Gallo Winery

Global Scope Ernest’s and Julio’s insistence on quality and value helped make Gallo the largest family-owned winery in the world, with seven individual wineries located strategically throughout California, using grapes from all the state’s premium winegrape-growing regions.

The company produces high quality wines representing top value in every category, offering more than 60 brands of wine as well as malt and spirit-based beverages. E. & J. Gallo is also the largest exporter of California wines, with its products available in more than 90 countries.

Gallo has been importing wines from premier wine growing countries since it began marketing Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio from Italy in 1996.

Today the company imports wines from Italy, South Africa, France, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Gallo headquarters—still in Modesto—now occupies several hundred acres and includes a world-class research center along with winemaking facilities and administrative offices.

A Family Business Gallo remains privately held and family-operated, and the ongoing mission of the Gallo family is to keep their winery operating as a family business and to continue to be a leader in the California and global wine industries.

“The Gallo family believes family ownership allows them to invest freely in the future, to cultivate valuable relationships with their growers, suppliers and customers and to keep their focus on quality and value,” says Ken Free, Gallo Director of National Accounts. “Today, led by President & CEO Joseph Gallo, 15 family members spanning three generations work in the winery, each standing foursquare behind the Gallo brand.”

Strategic Growth Over its 75-plus years, Gallo’s expansion has come through both organic growth and, more recently, acquisition. For the first 60 years, the company built its own brands from the ground up—such as the very successful MacMurray Ranch wine—preferring to invest in vineyards and equipment rather than buy established businesses.

In 2000 the strategy changed as Gallo undertook a carefully planned program of brand acquisitions, beginning with the Mirassou brand and the Louis M. Martini wineries in 2002. The company’s most recent acquisitions, both in 2007, were the Napa Valley classic William Hill Estate Winery and the national Canyon Road brand.

Gallo’s stewardship of William Hill—a new selection for the World Class Beverage Program in 2010—has enabled that brand to reassert itself among ultra-premium Napa wines. The first vintages of William Hill Estate wines to be crafted completely under Gallo control are reaching consumers this spring. Canyon Road, a long-time World Class Beverage Program selection, has also enjoyed renewed growth under Gallo.

The company also played a pivotal role in the 1990s in establishing Sonoma County as one of the premier wine-growing regions of the world. Here Gallo developed ways to “scale up” artisanal winemaking techniques to make better wines at better prices. The Gallo winery in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is designed for maximum flexibility in meeting the winemaker’s needs. “Most wineries are designed by engineers,” notes family winemaker Gina Gallo. “For this winery, the engineers had a supporting role. The winemakers described what we needed and the engineers helped us figure it out.”

An Eco-Friendly Approach Gallo is also a leader in sustainable farming and winemaking. The company’s commitment to the environment began as a philosophy of the founders, to preserve resources for future generations. In 2005, Gallo became the first U.S. winery to be certified under the Environmental Management systems of ISO14001, the worldwide standard for businesses of all types. The company also was a key driver in establishing the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices, as well as the recently adopted certification standards under that code.

Powerful Partnerships The E. & J. Gallo Winery dedication to excellence extends to relationships with its extensive supplier network, including on-premise establishments such as IHG hotels.

“Our strong relationships with groups like IHG have helped us build our business on a national basis,” Ken says. “We look for relationships where we have common values and common goals, and we like for those relationships to be long-term.”

Gallo Marketing Vice President Stephanie Gallo agrees. “Our go-tomarket strategies are reinforced through our successful relationships with ‘market-makers’ like IHG. Having our wines in front of their customers gives us a tremendous opportunity to grow the market overall.”

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HOTEL INDIGO SAN DIEGO Gaslamp Quarter Team Steps Up to the Plate in Both Kitchen and Bar

The assignment: implement the food and beverage program for the new, IHG-owned/ operated flagship Hotel Indigo in San Diego.

The property is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified— sustainable F&B practices are a must. The hotel is adjacent to downtown San Diego’s vibrant Gaslamp Quarter; be prepared for lots of competition. Finally, the hotel will pilot a new F&B platform tied to the Hotel Indigo brand’s upscale repositioning; expect considerable interest from IHG senior leaders, potential franchisees and investors.

Sound like a tall order? Not for Food & Beverage Director Derick Frederick and his team, who’ve made the Hotel Indigo San Diego Gaslamp Quarter an F&B winner right from its July 2009 opening.

The success, Derick says, is due to a perfect combination of superb location, unique and appealing Hotel Indigo brand features and his staff’s relaxed, but highly professional, can-do attitude.

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“We’ve received great feedback from both guests and the local community,” says Derick, who has been with the property since pre-opening, joining from a career primarily with Hilton. “From the beginning we’ve reached out to residents of the many nearby high-rise condos, and now they love us. The capture rate in our restaurant is over 100 percent.”

General Manager Chris Jones

Food & Beverage Director Derick Frederick

Green Machine The Hotel Indigo’s environmental pedigree includes an impressive list of firsts: it’s the first sustainably built hotel in San Diego, the city’s first to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and one of only 19 LEED-certified hotels in the U.S. It’s also IHG’s first LEEDcertified U.S. hotel.

Naturally, the F&B outlets also reflect a commitment to the environment.

Both the ninth-floor Phi Terrace and the Phi Bar and Bistro on the main level have operable floor-to-ceiling windows that provide natural light and ventilation. The Terrace—which offers spectacular views of downtown San Diego—features an herb garden that supplies ingredients for gourmet menu items in the Bistro. Back-of-the-house sustainability practices include an aggressive on-site recycling/composting program and energy-efficient appliances.

The ninth floor Phi Terrace overlooks downtown and PETCO Park, home of the San Diego Padres.

Customized Events The airy ninth-floor Phi Terrace—with its breathtaking vistas, serene reflecting pool and cozy firepits—serves double duty as both cocktail outlet and function space. Generally open to the public, it can also be reserved for special events, most often being used for chic cocktail parties with passed hors d’oeuvres. Local demand is growing, Derick says. “We’re creative in using all our public areas for events, functions and groups.

Using both the lobby and the ninth-floor terrace as additional function space allows us to host larger groups than we originally envisioned, and we’re able to really focus on each client. We can customize the menu and the space almost any way they want and do it within a budget.”

The Phi Bar and Bistro are a popular draw for area clientele as well as guests.

Refreshingly Local

Showcasing the Brand IHG’s big stake in the Hotel Indigo San Diego Gaslamp Quarter adds a second critical goal to the usual F&B profitability requirement—helping promote the brand to potential owners and franchisees. Daily site visits are common, and the showcasing often extends to special events.

The Phi Bistro’s corner setting and swing-back windows create an outdoors feel complementing its “casual gourmet” offerings, such as flatbread pizza and “quarter bite” burgers. Portions are somewhat smaller than usual, designed to encourage tapas-style sharing. The menu centers on fresh, seasonal and local fare—cheeses come from a shop a block away, the featured draft beer is a San Diego brew and produce is from an area farmers’ market.

The strong local emphasis reflects a new direction under way for Hotel Indigo focused on creating an upscale, neighborhood hotel experience.

After the recent 2010 ALIS (Americas Lodging Investment Summit) conference in San Diego, for example, the hotel hosted a five-course plated dinner with wine pairings for 90 investors and IHG senior leaders. The event was a success and gave Derick an even greater appreciation for his F&B team and the entire hotel staff. “It’s great to have a team you just don’t have to worry about,” he says. “And when the pressure’s on, the whole staff, including management, doesn’t hesitate to get into the trenches with us to help get the job done. That’s refreshing!”

“The new F&B approach for the Hotel Indigo brand is testing very well at the San Diego property,” says Dianna Stoffer, Brand Manager, Food & Beverage, for Hotel Indigo. “It pays off our goal: to provide the refreshingly local F&B experience of a great bar that also serves really good food.”

“I’m certainly proud of our team,” adds General Manager Chris Jones. “I also truly appreciate the collaborative working relationship we’ve developed with the various IHG departments that have participated in getting this hotel up and running. We’ve gone through the process and found success together, and it’s brought out the best in all of us.”

A Focus on Beverage That mission ups the ante in the beverage arena. Bar Manager and Mixologist Adriana Tietz keeps things fresh and simple in the Phi Bar, balancing classic cocktails with inventive specialty drinks. She has created an array of popular and appealing concoctions, such as the Sweet & Gintle (Plymouth Gin, sweet basil syrup, fresh lime) and the Sunset Cliff Margarita (Patrón Silver Tequila, prickly pear puree, Cointreau and sweet & sour). Promotions include the popular monthly Canine Cocktail hour (a Hotel Indigo brand tradition) on the Phi Terrace, where well-behaved fourlegged guests, with owners in tow, are welcomed.

Bar Manager & Mixologist Adriana Tietz

One of Adriana’s signature cocktails, the Twisted Manhattan.

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The Culinary Commandos are (from left): Vincent Cachot, Alex Feher, Didier Montarou, Christopher Culp, Joe Buentello and Peter Laufer.

Commandos

Break New Ground

& Cover Broad Territory At January Meeting The IHG Food & Beverage Commandos and Culinary Commandos started the new year off right in January with a highly productive, packed-agenda meeting held following the 2010 Cheers Beverage Conference in Miami (see the article on Page 10).

The two groups are comprised of carefully selected members of IHG’s company-owned/managed hotel and corporate F&B leadership body and serve as steering committees for the ongoing development and implementation of the World Class Beverage Program.

The F&B Commandos focus on broader Program issues and initiatives and the Culinary Commandos 8

address the full range of culinary matters. All members of both committees are also charged with providing hands-on support to the F&B teams and programs at hotels in North America across IHG’s four full-service brands—InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inn. The two-day gathering began with a meeting of the F&B Commandos, moved into a joint session with both groups and concluded with the first official meeting of the Culinary Commandos, who were tapped for their roles in late 2009.

Data, Technology & Operational Excellence Topping the agenda for the F&B Commandos was a presentation by Pamela Tweedell of iMi on the proposed 2010 World Class Beverage Program products and promotions, with the Commandos providing feedback and suggestions (see the article on Page 12).

Next, F&B consultant Ned Barker gave a series of presentations and updates on key World Class Beverage Program topics, beginning with the implementation status of Fintech, IHG’s new wine and spirits invoice processing system. Phase I of the rollout, to 26 U.S. hotels, is under way. Raw data from Fintech is integrated with software in the Bar$marts program to provide compliance reporting as well as pricing and trend analysis, by hotel, by beer/ wine/spirit, by supplier and by brand.

Next, the group heard a presentation on the exciting potential of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) beverage control systems. This hightech approach to controlling bar costs involves affixing transmitting devices to spirits bottle caps that send usage data to a web-based monitoring site. The RFID systems can provide data by spirit, recipe and bartender. The offering of one of the leading purveyors of these systems is currently being piloted in two IHG hotels.

The F&B Commandos then participated in a discussion of ideas for development of a standardized mini-bar program, targeted to become a component of the World Class Beverage Program by 2011. The F&B Commandos-only portion of the meeting concluded with a brief overview of results from a survey of all North American owned/managed properties. The study covered a range of questions on six topics: decaffeinated coffee, draught beer, cocktails, cooking wine, iced tea and menu disclaimers.

The Culinary Commandos joined the F&B Commandos for the last part of the Day One meeting, which began with a presentation on menu engineering, focusing on opportunities with catering and banquet menus. Next, a representative of InnerWorkings Printing, a new IHG vendor available as a resource to World Class Beverage Program hotels, described how their service consolidates projects locally to offer attractive pricing while maintaining high quality. The first day’s agenda concluded with a conference call with Americas President Jim Abrahamson.

Generating Ideas & Planning For Action Day Two of the combined Commandos session opened with feedback discussions on BarSmarts, led by World Class Beverage Program Sommelier Amy Currens. Presentations followed from representatives of Steritech and The Coca-Cola Company (including a Gold Peak Tea sampling), and from Paul Snyder, IHG Vice President of Operations-Portfolio, Americas, who provided an overview of IHG’s sustainability commitment and the many practices that can be easily incorporated into hotels’ F&B programs.

The two Commando groups then participated in roundtable discussions on best practices, the 2010 F&B Wheel, bartender education and training and criteria for a planned “Commando Medal” incentive/reward program for food and beverage associates, as well as number of other topics. Sub-committees were created for several key areas to pursue action items from these discussions. The Culinary Commandos then moved into a separate session, in which they discussed the purpose of the group and worked on plans for piloting a “liquid desserts” promotion to be introduced mid-year.

Both Commando groups will reconvene in July in conjunction with the Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans.

“Our Food & Beverage and Culinary Commandos continue to expand the breadth and level of their contributions to the World Class Beverage Program and to IHG food and beverage overall,” says Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage. “Their leadership is taking us in exciting new directions, helping our properties step up their role in delivering memorable experiences for our guests.”

Welcome New F&B Commandos!

Two new F&B leaders have been tapped to serve as members of the IHG Food & Beverage Commandos and joined the rest of the team at the January meeting. The new Commandos are: Danny Estevez, Director of Food & Beverage, InterContinental Houston. Danny got his start in the hospitality industry nearly 20 years ago at the InterContinental Miami. Since then he has held a number of positions with InterContinental Hotels, including Assistant Food & Beverage Manager in Manila and F&B Director at the San Juan property. Danny also served as Director of Restaurant at two stylish Miami South Beach hotspots, the Delano and Touch.

He was F&B Director at the InterContinental New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster and was part of the team that stayed at the property to safeguard it during the crisis. Danny was named to the Houston position in 2005.

Dianna Stoffer, Brand Manager, Food & Beverage, for Hotel Indigo. Dianna is responsible for creating training resources and support for opening hotels and for spearheading menu and restaurant design and concepts for Hotel Indigo. She works closely with the brand sales team to develop F&B opportunities for investors in premium locations. Her 25-plus years of experience include management positions with Cooker Bar & Grill, national and regional sales roles with the Wasserstrom Co., a leading restaurant equipment manufacturer, creating the position and serving as Corporate Chef for the Certified Angus Beef brand and serving as Director of Culinary for Atlanta-based COPPCO, a capital/management firm in the meat industry. Dianna is a Certified Food & Beverage Executive.

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2010 Cheers Beverage Excellence Awards:

SnoCone Cocktails Win Best Chain Signature Drink The only thing better than sipping a cool Sno Cone by the pool on a hot summer day would be if that Sno Cone were also a cocktail. That refreshing concept, coupled with clever execution, earned the Best Chain Signature Drink award for the World Class Beverage Program’s Sno Cone line-up in the 2010 Cheers Beverage Excellence Awards.

The prestigious awards were presented as part of the Cheers Beverage Conference 2010, held in Miami in January. Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage, accepted the honor on behalf of IHG and the World Class Beverage Program.

The cool Sno Cone cocktails featured both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of the refreshing summer favorite and were designed to drive poolside beverage sales at participating InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo locations in the U.S. and Canada. The World Class Beverage team joined with supplier partners The Coca-Cola Company, SKYY Spirits and Monin Gourmet Flavorings to create the drinks and the program introducing them. Promotional elements included brightly colored menus describing such delights as Loaded Grape and AppleLicious, along with a Sno Cone machine, a Monin starter kit, requisite cups and spoon straws, plus summer-themed merchandise such as T-shirts, hats and sunscreen.

The Cheers Beverage Excellence Awards are the adult beverage industry’s highest honors for beverage program operators, recognizing outstanding performance in 11 categories. The 2010 honor represents the third Cheers award for the World Class Beverage Program in the past four years. Previously IHG has earned awards for 2007 Best Chain Beverage Merchandising Program, for the “Picture Perfect Pleasures” promotion, and in 2009 took home the Best Chain Drink Program award for the unique and popular Astrology promotion.

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“We’re proud to add to the accomplishments of the World Class Beverage Program,” says Etcheberrigaray. “The industry accolades reconfirm that we are on-track to deliver beverage programs that contribute to creating Great Hotels Guests Love.”

Talking Trends Elsewhere at the Cheers conference, Etcheberrigaray also moderated a panel discussion on leveraging the hottest hotel beverage trends that featured several of the F&B world’s leading lights: Tom Voss, president of the Grand Del Mar Resort in San Diego, which operates the highly acclaimed Addison restaurant; Michael Bonadies, President and CEO of 21c Museum Hotels, and Claude Roussel, director of operations for China Grill Management, a multi-milliondollar business that operates 25 business units.

The subjects ranged from running a competitive and profitable beverage business in the post-recession, “new normal” economy to what’s hot in cocktails to the differences between beverage sales and profits in hotels versus freestanding lounges. Among the highlights: providing excellent value remains the watchword; a creative, entertaining and thought-provoking beverage program, coupled with leading-edge promotion, is essential; fresh ingredients, classic cocktails and rooftop bars are still the rage, and having a well-informed, highly trained bartending/service staff is critical to building both sales and customer loyalty.

The IHG Food & Beverage Commandos attended the Cheers conference in conjunction with their winter meeting (see article on Pages 8-9).

Vice President of Food & Beverage Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray moderates a panel on leveraging the hottest beverage trends.

When is a cookbook more than a cookbook? When it’s The InterContinental Kitchen and it’s working hard as a tool to create market visibility for IHG hotels. InterContinental properties from San Juan to Cleveland are using the cookbooks as the focal point of events, promotions and other marketing activities to shine the spotlight on their F&B prowess.

Published in celebration of the brand’s 60th anniversary, The InterContinental Kitchen is a beautiful, coffee-table-style book featuring 300-plus recipes created by executive chefs from InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in 60 countries. The lushly photographed offerings range from main courses and appetizers to desserts and cocktails.

The most successful promotional use of the books to date seems to be eventdriven. For example, at the InterContinental San Juan Resort & Casino, Food & Beverage Director Felix Mulero and Executive Chef Hector Campos invited the InterContinental Miami’s Executive Chef Alex Feher to assist their team in creating “A Culinary Trip Around the World” based on The InterContinental Kitchen. This special dinner in Puerto Rico was organized by the resort for the media attending the 2010 Caribbean Marketplace, the premier annual trade event of the Caribbean hospitality industry.

The San Juan property followed up this successful event with an ongoing Guest Chef-of-the-Month series featuring members of the Puerto Rico business community who, with considerable support from Chef Hector,

prepare recipes from the cookbook for about a dozen of the guest chef’s business clients.

At the InterContinental Miami, Chef Alex has led the F&B team in hosting a number of high-profile events built around the cookbook. Among them: an intimate reception for influential members of the Latin American travel media and an elaborate banquet for 300 representatives of the Caribbean tourism industry that featured individual stations showcasing various recipes from the book. An upcoming fundraiser for Haiti relief will also feature cookbook dishes as well as chef-autographed copies as silent auction items.

The catering department of the InterContinental Cleveland holds wine tastings/pairings for top customers and potential customers using the cookbook as both presentation “prop” and customer gift. At the 10-year anniversary gala this May for the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin in Texas, Executive Chef Patrick Newman and his team will set up food stations for their 800 guests featuring recipes from each of the five regions included in the cookbook. The InterContinental Toronto Centre packages the book with oven mitts and kitchen tools as a holiday gift for top clients, and the InterContinental Tampa often donates the book as a raffle item for community fundraisers.

“The cookbooks provide a perfect centerpiece for showcasing both the InterContinental brand and the talents of our culinary teams,” says Felix of the InterContinental San Juan.

The InterContinental Kitchen Helps Promote Hotels and the Brand

Order Now! Cookbook Quantities Are Limited and Going Fast Here are the fast facts on placing orders for The InterContinental Kitchen cookbooks, plus additional ideas for using them in your F&B marketing efforts: •C ost of books to hotels/IHG associates: $30.00 plus shipping.

•S uggested retail price/price on Amazon.com: $60.00 • Ideas for PR/promotion: –C reate culinary events built around recipes from the cookbook – Sell the books in the hotel gift shop – Feature/sell the books in the restaurant – Use as a VIP amenity –P air the book as a value-add with another item (such as your property’s signature drink) – F eature the cookbook in-room, inviting the guest to charge the book to the room and take it home as a memento.

To Place Your Order, Contact: Laura Hammer : 770.604.8283 or Laura.Hammer@ihg.com

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BEVERAGE BRIEFS Zeroing In On Sharpen A WinnerFocus for 2010 Changes World Class Beverage Program

Coca-Cola Aluminum Bottles Provide Cachet and Boost Revenues

A strategically tightened, thoughtfully enhanced World Class Beverage Program for 2010 was introduced to full-service company-owned/managed hotels in North America in February, with emphasis on promotion, education and the bottom line.

Heading the list of changes is a consolidated product list, developed with considerable input from the Food & Beverage Commandos regarding quality and category popularity in particular. The number of SKUs was reduced by a total of about 40 products across the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands. One new Sauvignon Blanc was added to the line-up for these three brands, and several wine products were added to the stilldeveloping Hotel Indigo offerings.

“Decreasing the number of mandatory brands and products gives the hotels some relief, cost-wise, in this environment and makes it easier to be compliant with the Program guidelines,” says Pamela Tweedell, Account Manager for iMi, the marketing agency that manages the World Class Beverage Program. “We also worked to keep the selections focused on our strongest Program partners.”

Enhanced training is also on the Program agenda for 2010, with beefed-up online as well as in-the-field offerings for bartenders to be announced for the second half of the year as a complement to the ongoing, mandatory TIPS server training.

Rounding out the new Program components is a promotional calendar structure that will be introduced mid-year. The World Class Beverage team is coordinating with all the Program partners to develop comprehensive seasonal, brand-appropriate promotions to help hotels keep their beverage offerings fresh and profitable.

“The goal of the 2010 Program is to deliver on each of the pillars of the iMi Better Beverage Business™ approach: quality brand selections with a high value perception, best average in-market pricing available, cutting-edge marketing and promotional tools and training and education support,” Pamela says. “We encourage each of the F&B leaders to make full compliance a priority this year and to take maximum advantage of the many tools and resources the World Class Beverage Program has to offer.”

Sleek, stylish, sexy and certainly one-of-a-kind—the new Coca-Cola aluminum bottles are proving a hit with IHG guests at the 40-plus properties where they’re currently being offered.

Limited availability is helping fuel demand. Introduced a little over a year ago, the chic bottles have been gradually rolled out to high-end venues— hotels, restaurants and nightclubs—in 15 top-tier U.S. markets. The bottles are available on-premise only and are not for sale in retail stores. Coke is providing the hot new packaging on its top four brands: Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke and Sprite.

“People always have a reaction to these bottles. They can’t stop talking about them and often take them home as a collectible,” says Sasha Davis, Senior National Account Executive for Coca-Cola North America. “The look and feel contribute to the overall premium beverage experience that upscale consumers tend to seek.”

The unique packaging carries a somewhat higher cost than standard cans, but easily commands a premium price, Sasha notes. The 8.5-ounce size also helps increase volume sold.

“The response from our guests has been phenomenal, and sales are up more than 10 percent,” says Spiro Frangos, Food & Beverage Director for the InterContinental Miami. “The aluminum bottles look bigger, better and cooler. We use them everywhere —for banquets and meeting breaks, in the Club lounge and in a display on our bar.”

F&B directors interested in adding the aluminum bottles to their line-up of Coca-Cola products should check with their local bottlers for availability and pricing.

Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray | Vice President of Food & Beverage Laura Hammer | Office Manager 3 Ravinia Drive, Suite 100 Atlanta, Georgia 30346 www.ihg.com

Pamela Tweedell | iMi Ann Wilson | Writer Silvermoss Partners | Design & Layout

+1 770 604 8283

www.ihgbeverage.com