Spirited 2007 - Volume 2

Spring 2007 | Volume 3

Talking F&B with Lew Fader A successful dining experience must be memorable and offer “the complete package” to pass muster with Lew Fader. >> PAGE 2

World Class Beverage Program Wins Cheers Best Chain Beverage Merchandising Program Award A merchandising concept featuring rich, colorful “snapshots” of delicious-looking drinks captured a top 2007 Cheers award for IHG.

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THINKING OUTSIDE

THE SHAKER

F&B Leadership Summit Focuses on Innovation

A Winning Hand

Co-F&B Director Leslie Jordan

The Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach Oceanfront Resort is leveraging America’s passion for poker to pack the house on a regular basis.

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F&B Should be Unexpected, a treat for all five senses,

fader believes

Lew Fader looks for delightful surprises when he dines out, and works to weave that sense of uniqueness and adventure into the F&B experience in his role as Vice President of Operations for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in North America. Lew shared his thoughts about the joys and challenges of F&B in a recent interview.

Any foodservice experience in your background?

“Yes. My first job was as a dishwasher in a Hot Shoppes restaurant off I-95 when I was 16. I liked the business, and later worked for five summers at a country club resort in Rehoboth Beach, Del., as a busboy, waiter, headwaiter, tennis pro and golf starter. Then while I was in graduate school at Cornell, concentrating in F&B, I ran a nightclub and was a food and beverage teaching assistant. The turning point came when I interviewed with InterContinental Hotels, right out of grad school. The recruiter pointed out that I wasn’t born into the F&B tradition like so many students in Europe, and maybe my future would be brighter on the rooms side of the business—so my career was launched.

I interned for InterContinental in Geneva, London and Paris, to learn how the best rooms operations are run, then came back to a full-time job at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. My early experiences have given me a real appreciation for the F&B side of our business, and for the investment we need to make to successfully interpret hundreds of years of cultures, flavors and styles of international cuisine for American tastes and interests.”

What does a great dining experience look like for you?

“It has to be memorable and present me with something I haven’t seen before.

Lots of places offer food that’s fantastic, but the experience is dry and forgettable.

It’s important to blend in personality, even if it’s a pizza place. There are lots of opportunities to make one piece stand out—from the arrival and décor to an enjoyable wait staff who give you another draft beer before you even ask. The little extra things blow you away and really put that restaurant in your mind.”

What’s your favorite food?

Favorite restaurant?

“I like spicy food with strong flavors, from any culture—Thai, Chinese and spicy Italian dishes that I can enjoy with a big red wine. I’m also a fan of the osso bucco slow-cooking process that takes an ordinary piece of veal or other meat and simmers it for hours into a dish with the most wonderful flavors.”

“For a while we lived in Lake Forest, a suburb north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. It had a picturesque little center of town and there was an Italian restaurant—I don’t even remember the name—close to our house where my wife and I were regulars. It was a great place to go at the end of a tough week. All the waiters recognized us, and we had one favorite—he wasn’t even Italian—who was flamboyant, outspoken and fun. We never ordered; he knew our tastes and just put together wine and dishes he thought we would like. We always walked out smiling.

I enjoyed every dollar I spent in that restaurant. We haven’t quite found that same experience yet in Atlanta, though we do have a couple of neighborhood favorites.”

How about your favorite beverage?

“I don’t drink much alcohol, but when I do, I like wine and beer. I love Labatt beer—it’s refreshing and easy to drink. With wine, I like lots of body, flavor and aftertaste. I prefer the hearty reds, such as California Cabernets or Shiraz, Zinfandel and Barolo. However, I’m learning more about white wine and enjoy light, crispy ones like Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc. They’re a nice lowalcohol substitute for beer before a meal on a hot day.”

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“Now,

we are striving to create F&B

themes that are creative and sexy, with personality. I love it when our outlets find a perfect niche, as with Au Pied de Cochon and the XO Bar in Atlanta or Miel and RumBa in Boston.

The idea is to leave the guest thinking,

‘ This place is so different—I ’ ve learned something from my experience here.’”

When you stay at an IHG property, what are your expectations regarding F&B? “F&B is changing for the InterContinental Hotels brand. Prior to five years ago, we simply offered good restaurants in our hotels. They filled a niche, but weren’t unique. Now, we are striving to create F&B themes that are creative and sexy, with personality. I love it when our outlets find a perfect niche, as with Au Pied de Cochon and the XO Bar in Atlanta or Miel and RumBa in Boston. The idea is to leave the guest thinking, ‘This place is so different—I’ve learned something from my experience here.’ We want to provide the feel of an independent restaurant—very different from the feel of the hotel and banquet rooms. We want them to turn a corner and have the uniqueness of our restaurants and bars hit like a ton of bricks.”

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

“I eat anything and everything, so I generally follow the recommendation of the house. I’ll ask what’s the best thing on the menu or go with the chef ’s or waiter’s suggestion—I don’t necessarily order the day’s special. I’d rather order something the waiter is passionate about. If nothing is offered, I’ll ask what’s popular and sells particularly well.”

Any recent standout meals at an IHG property?

“Miel, the restaurant at the new InterContinental Boston, is still ramping up, but I’ve had several experiences there that were really good. They serve clam chowder plated over a piece of warmed slate, to keep the heat in the bowl, for example. General Manager Tim Kerwin and F&B Director Helen Douglas put the emphasis on unique interpretations and consistently strong style, presentation, taste and quality. They are always doing something surprising, and continually getting better.”

Mineral water or tap?

“I like tap water, and I try to drink as much of it as I can. We have a filtration system at home and sometimes I drink mineral water, but usually it’s over a glass of ice made with tap water.”

Any F&B “pet peeves?”

“Restaurants that don’t get it—that don’t offer patrons the complete package. The experience should be a treat for all five senses and the elements—service, food, ambience—all need to line up. When one piece is ignored, it bothers me, and it can even be funny. We dined in a restaurant in Milan last week that had the worst arrival and greeting—handled by the owner, who is an accountant—and the best wait staff. The waiters were exceptional—they walked with a skip in their step and were out to make sure patrons enjoyed themselves, while the owner was grousing at the host stand and turning customers away. The contrast was really amusing. At the end of the evening, it’s always the complete package you walk away from the dining experience with.”

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

“When we were first married, my wife didn’t know how to cook, so I taught her the basics. She’s since overlapped me and we’ve redesigned our kitchen around cooking. I still cook, to a limited extent—mostly barbecuing, the typical guy thing. We have an infrared barbecue that gets up to 1800 degrees, and that’s fun for me. It’s really nice to sit outside and have a beer while I watch the meat cook. In fact, we’re thinking of introducing that concept at the InterContinental Montelucia that’s under construction outside Scottsdale. The staff could roll a Weber grill to the patio outside a suite, and the guy could grill dinner while he and his wife watch the sunset over Camelback Mountain.”

Do you ever order room service?

“Very infrequently. When I’m traveling, I spend most of my time with the hotel’s GM or other members of the executive team, so there are not many nights when I sit in my room. I don’t even order breakfast—well, maybe a pot of coffee if I’m having a meeting in my room—because I know how much trouble it is to get orders up to the rooms when things are busy.”

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THE World Class Beverage Program’s

Picture Perfect Pleasures Drink Promotion Takes Top Cheers Merchandising Honors The unique “Polaroid” look of IHG’s “Picture Perfect Pleasures” drink promotion not only generated a lot of trade media buzz and incremental beverage revenue, it also brought the World Class Beverage Program a Cheers “Best Chain Beverage Merchandising Program Award.”

The prestigious 2007 Cheers Awards for Beverage Excellence were presented during the annual Cheers Beverage Conference January 29-30 in New Orleans. The awards, which are among the industry’s highest honors for beverage program operators, were given out in 11 categories, ranging from Best Chain Wine Program and Best Chain Beverage Menu to Best Hotel Beverage Program. René van Camp, Corporate Beverage Director, the Americas, accepted the merchandising award on behalf of IHG. The winning promotion, which ran from August to October of 2006, featured four cocktails made with either Gran Centenario Tequila or Campari: the Gran Peach Margarita, Campari Orange Sparkler,

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Campari Cooler and the Gran Paloma, a drink containing the tequila along with honey, grapefruit juice and a good bit of lime.

While the beverages themselves were a hit, it was the creative promotional presentation that brought home the award. The display consisted of a metal stand with five adjustable arms. Clips on the end of each arm held Polaroid-style images of the various drinks, along with what looks like a hand-written description.

The idea was born from a brainstorming session involving René, Pamela Tweedell and Sherri Nadeau of iMi, the beverage marketing agency that manages IHG’s World Class Beverage Program, and Wendy Dunlap, Southeast National Accounts Manager for SKYY Spirits.

“It was a true team effort—we all collaborated and decided the ‘Polaroid’ look was different and eye-catching,” René says. “We created the promotion for the Crowne Plaza brand, but it was so

SPOTLIGHT PROPERTY

Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach Harnesses the Power of Poker to Drive Incremental F&B Revenue The challenge: create an off-season, on-site promotion that

generates substantial incremental food and beverage revenue for a hotel in a highly competitive Florida resort location.

The solution: Presto Chango! Transform the hotel’s lounge and

banquet area into a red-hot competitive poker venue.

That summarizes the magic the F&B team at the Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach Oceanfront Resort has worked in its Commander’s Club lounge over the past year and a half.

The property hosts weekly poker tournaments, sponsored and organized by Final Table Tour, that draw as many as 80 players each Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening.

Quarterly finals pull in about 1,500 participants, filling several of the hotel’s banquet rooms. Players win points, not cash, with a top prize of $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker at stake. The organizing company provides poker tables, cards, chips and professional dealers, and the hotel rounds out the casino atmosphere with cocktail waitresses providing at-the-table F&B offerings.

And the results? F&B revenue alone jumps more than $18,000 during the four-day quarterly tournaments and the weekend games generate an incremental $9,000+ during the nontournament months. The success of the events has generated local and industry media coverage and caught the attention of Budweiser and Brown Forman, who have come onboard as sponsors.

Drawing Regulars

successful that we extended it to the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo brands as well. Altogether, more than 100 hotels participated.”

“We were looking for a low-cost way to create revenue where there was none—in our bar, in the off-season,” says Leslie Jordan, who serves as the hotel’s banquet manager and shares food-and-beverage director responsibilities with Executive Chef Rick Poirier. “I saw an ad from Final Table Tour in the local paper about a year and a half ago, followed up and negotiated a deal to host the tournaments.”

Though the popularity of tequila, especially in the U.S., boosted sales of the two cocktails containing that spirit to the No. 1 and No. 2 sales positions, the drinks containing Campari—a less well-known and slightly bitter-tasting spirit—also created “a lot of buzz, a vibe, as people started to talk about the drinks,” René notes.

“That was very positive for us.”

Marsha Keenoy, Director of Fine Dining for Diageo, presented the Cheers award for “Best Chain Beverage Merchandising Program” to René van Camp.

Diageo sponsored this award in the annual competition.

On weekends, the hotel’s Commander’s Club lounge takes on the atmosphere of a high-stakes casino.

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Americas

FooD & Beverage

Shaking things up: Master mixologist Francesco Lafranconi conducted a workshop on beverage trends.

Leadership Summit 2007

Makes Mixing Magic

“ Our goal was to challenge the status quo, and in doing that, to come up with new ideas and innovations that will enhance the guest’s food and beverage experience in our hotels. ”

The overriding theme was both simple and complex: you’ve got to mix things up—cultures, languages, brands, opinions, ideas—and shake things up to make a difference.

The first-ever Americas Food & Beverage Leadership Summit did just that, bringing together 135 HMG food and beverage directors from 22 countries throughout the region for four days of inspiration and innovation. The InterContinental Boston hosted the January 31-February 2 event, which would not have been possible without the help of The Coca-Cola Company.

“Our goal was to challenge the status quo, and in doing that, to come up with new ideas and innovations that will enhance the guest’s food and beverage experience in our hotels,” says Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, Vice President, Food & Beverage, The Americas.

Keynoting the event was Steve Farber, author of two popular books on inspiration and wiping out executive burnout: The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership and The Radical Edge: Stoke Your Business, Amp Your Life, and Change the World. Farber’s remarks focused on cultivating and developing “extreme leadership” in the business community.

Among the other highlights were an innovation panel and presentations from Stephen Barth, founder and President of Hospitalitylawyer.com, inspirational speaker Paul Snyder and Danny Strickland, Chief Innovation Officer for The Coca-Cola Company.

On the cover: F&B directors from throughout the Americas joined company leaders in Boston for the inaugural F&B Leadership Summit.

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Workshops covered such topics as reinventing coffee and drink trends, and the agenda included a tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery, as well as a conversation with legendary entrepreneur and brewery founder Jim Koch.

SPOTLIGHT PROPERTY (CONTINUED) Weekly play is promoted primarily via e-mail blasts to a list of regular players, supplemented by ads in local publications. Leslie is considering expanding into daytime poker offerings during the week, targeting both locals and cruise ship passengers.

Though the conference was designed for hotels across all brands in the Americas, the scope was expanded to encompass a more global view through the attendance and participation of Gerd Koidl, Vice President of Food & Beverage, Asia Pacific, and Seth Lewis, who represented food and beverage in EMEA. The event culminated with an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding F&B performers for each brand (see list below), as well as a number of special recognition honors.

“We were pleased with the success of the Leadership Summit and the excellent positive feedback we received,” Etcheberrigaray says. “We’ll definitely be repeating the event in 2008.”

Outstanding F&B Performers The following hotels and their F&B directors were recognized at the Americas Food & Beverage Leadership Summit. A number of special honors also were bestowed on hotels and individuals for their contributions to IHG’s F&B initiative in the Americas.

Holiday Inn Guest Satisfaction: Holiday Inn Toronto Yorkdale — Louie Papadakos Profit: Holiday Inn Select Orlando Intl Airport — Ron Campbell Profit Improvement: Holiday Inn Gwinnett, GA — Dale Kennerson Overcoming Adversity: Holiday Inn Hazlett, NJ — Tony Taveras Innovation (Tie): H oliday Inn Riverwalk, San Antonio — Tim Reed Holiday Inn San Salvador — Wellington dos Santos

Crowne Plaza Guest Satisfaction: Crowne Plaza San Francisco Union Square — Juan Bueno Profit: Crowne Plaza Managua — Arya Motalebi Profit Improvement: C rowne Plaza Sao Paulo — Francisco Garcia (Regional Vice President of Operations, Brazil, accepting for Angel Ojea) Overcoming Adversity: Crowne Plaza Times Square — Steve Kunz Innovation: Crowne Plaza Sao Paulo — Angel Ojea

InterContinental Guest Satisfaction: InterContinental Willard, Washington, DC — Greg Van Riet Profit: InterContinental V Centenario, Santo Domingo — Otto Lopez Vergara Profit Improvement: InterContinental Toronto City Centre — Scott Strickland Overcoming Adversity: InterContinental Buckhead — Bixente Pery Innovation: InterContinental Mark Hopkins, San Francisco — Sean Olmstead

Special Recognition Teamwork Award: Holiday Inn Toronto Yorkdale and Holiday Inn Select Toronto Airport — Louie Papadakos and Jason Stoner Best Combined Profit and Profit Improvement: Holiday Inn Parque Anhembi, Sao Paulo — Leandro Abraao Best Combined Profit and Profit Improvement: Crowne Plaza Hilton Head — David Long Outstanding Performance: InterContinental Presidente Mexico City — Thane Kulman Profit: Real InterContinental Managua — Eduardo Hererra (GM)

“We have an arrangement with Carnival Cruises to provide their passengers a day at the beach at our property,” Leslie explains. “They get the use of our pool and beach and a 10 percent discount in all our F&B outlets. The day poker games would provide an option for spouses who aren’t interested in the beach or shopping during the Cocoa Beach port-of-call.”

Co-F&B Director and Executive Chef Rick Poirier.

The hotel also has woven the poker games into its active community outreach agenda, hosting “Make A Wish Sundays,” when a portion of the proceeds from play is donated to the Make A Wish Foundation.

Space Shuttle Viewing Though originally designed as an off-season business-builder, the poker games have become a year-round fixture, adding to the hotel’s array of F&B and entertainment options during the busy spring/summer season that begins in late February.

The hotel’s Captain’s Grille serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Mambo’s beachside restaurant and bar features a spacious and popular two-story deck that provides a superior vantage point (at $10 per person) for viewing space shuttle launches from the nearby Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

The property’s 27-acre campus includes 13,500 square feet of function space inside and 10,000 outside, making it a hot spot for local, regional and national event business, including reunions, weddings and corporate retreats.

Functioning As A Family Despite its great beach and extensive facilities, the Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach stands out because of its service, Leslie says.

“We are all about the guests, and offer the best food and best service in the area,” she notes with pride. The close-knit staff, headed by General Manager Shay Baranowski, includes many long-time employees—Leslie herself began as a hostess in the restaurant more than six years ago, working her way up to coF&B director in May of last year.

The hotel extends its sense of family to the community as well, and the property’s local involvement won it “Business of the Year” honors in Cocoa Beach in both 2004 and 2005. The bond among the team also helped keep things together during the four months the hotel was closed for repairs in the wake of Hurricanes Frances and Jean.

“It’s different from any other place I’ve worked,” Leslie says.

“All the managers work—everyone is hands-on and nobody sits behind a desk. That approach keeps us all motivated.”

Outstanding Business Partner: Coca Cola North America — Brian Sappington Outstanding Business Partner: IHG Corporate office — David Hock Impact: IHG Corporate office — René van Camp

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beverage briefs F&B Team Members from Four IHG Hotels Win MIXIE Awards Michael Bennett, banquet bar captain at the InterContinental Cleveland, took top honors in the 2006 MIXIE Awards Cocktail Competition, sponsored by Hotel F&B magazine. Michael’s Tucson Wildfire cocktail recipe won one of two $1,000 Tabasco® Brand Grand Prizes in the third annual national cocktail competition exclusively for hotels, resorts and casinos.

Honorable mention in the Tabasco contest went to Gia Boccieri, formerly Assistant Manager at the InterContinental Cleveland, for her Texas Mojito.

In the GranGala® Triple Orange Liqueur contest, representatives from two IHG hotels won Assistant F&B Director Gabriel Constantin (left) and F&B Director Michael Cooper (right) congratulate $250 3rd Place prizes.

Michael Bennett, banquet bar captain and creator Joy Thompson, of the winning Tucson Wildfire cocktail.

Assistant Restaurant Manager at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk in San Antonio was recognized for her Grand Dreamtini and Carol Ticer, formerly a bartender at the Holiday Inn Select Memphis East, won for the Beale Street Bomber.

A total of 23 North American hotel companies and casino hotels entered 126 cocktail recipes in the 2006 MIXIE Awards Hotel Cocktail Competition, with a goal of creating fun drinks any bartender could prepare. Entries were allowed to be a remake of a signature hotel drink or an entirely new concoction. Each drink had to call for only one of the participating spirits brands or mixers—specifically, Tabasco Brand sauces or GranGala Triple Orange Liqueur in the 2006 competition.

Drink recipes that made the finals were prepared by professional bartenders who had not entered the contests, and judging was based on taste, broad-based appeal and ease of preparation. The competition for the 2007 MIXIE Awards opens August 15.

Check out the MIXIE-Award-winning cocktail recipes in the online version of Spirited on the World Class Beverage Program Web site: www.ihgbeverage.com.

3 Ravina Drive Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30346 www.ihgbeverage.com

Winery Co-Founder Ernest Gallo Helped Introduce America To Wine The American wine industry lost one of its pioneers and principal innovators when Ernest Gallo passed away March 6 at the age of 97. He and his brother Julio, who died in 1993, founded E&J Gallo Winery in California’s Central Valley in 1933, shortly after the repeal of Prohibition, and built their family-owned business into one of the great American business successes of the twentieth century.

Along the way, the Gallo brothers were instrumental in introducing U.S. consumers to wine, creating the modern American wine market and putting California wine—and Sonoma County in particular—on the world map of wine growing and winemaking.

Today E&J Gallo Winery employs more than 4,600 people and sells products throughout the United States and in more than 90 other countries, making it one of the largest winemaking operations in the world. The company’s portfolio of brands includes a host of bestsellers, including Burlwood, Livingston Cellars, Turning Leaf, Redwood Creek, Ecco Domani, Black Swan, Indigo Hills and Mirassou. Gallo also offers Tott’s and André sparkling wine as well as E&J brandy and liqueurs.

Ernest’s son Joseph now serves as the company’s chief executive Ernest Gallo (1909-2007) and his officer, and many second- and brother Julio were among the chief third-generation family members are builders of the modern American involved in its operation. winemaking industry.

Ernest and Julio Gallo were responsible for a host of innovations and firsts in the U.S. wine industry, among them: establishing their own national sales force, and later, a truly significant foreign sales and marketing force to export California wines overseas, introducing brand management and modern merchandising, and advertising wine on television. They also introduced quality initiatives such as long-term grower contracts for varietal grapes and major grape research programs, and pioneered bringing new products to store shelves.

Ernest Gallo served as a father figure and mentor to generations of employees over the years, according to company information. He received countless honors and recognitions for his contributions throughout his career, including the James Beard Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

He always remained true to the company’s primary mission—to provide consumers with consistently high-quality wine at the best possible price—and believed the company’s future to be “brighter than ever,” according to son Joseph.