Meeting...Experimental Group

Joali Being

From cocktail bars to standalone restaurants to luxury hotels, the founders of Paris-born hospitality brand Experimental Group discuss their journey of discovery and where is next on the list.

Words: Guy Dittrich • Portrait Photography: Addie Chinn

The restaurant of Hôtel des Grands Boulevards is a cosy oasis of calm at the heart of a historic building completed just before the French Revolution. Set well back from a busy Parisian street, light floods the glasscovered courtyard, bringing life to a veritable jungle of plants. The open kitchen reveals an apprentice chef trimming a huge pile of green asparagus for the evening’s dinner. High above and wrapping around this scene is the roof terrace bar. And bars have always been important to the operators of the hotel, Experimental Group, which began in 2007 with the opening of Experimental Cocktail Club in Le Marais area of the French capital. Pierre-Charles Cros – one of the four partners of the group – sits opposite, sipping a morning coffee whilst we finish breakfast.

We meet to discuss the latest chapter in this remarkable story of hospitality from the heart. Cros exudes the bonhomie and joie de vivre of someone who loves entertaining. Along with two childhood friends of a similar disposition, they would organise parties and one of their first ventures saw them make a profit from a New Year’s Eve event. Some time down the line, this grew to become Experimental Cocktail Club, and now Experimental Group.

The initial threesome of Cros, Olivier Bon and Romée de Goriainoff all ended up at university in Montreal studying management, fashion and finance respectively. Finding time to make the journey south, they became increasingly enamoured with the New York bar scene. When they finally met again in Paris and saw around them a rather dull cocktail offering, they took the chance to reinvent things. And so came the Experimental Cocktail Club in Le Marais.

Grand Pigalle Hôtel in Paris (top) and Il Palazzo Experimental in Venice (bottom) feature interiors by Dorothee Meilichzon, whose bold colours, patterns and shapes are applied with a subdued modernity

More Parisian cocktail bars followed and in 2010, joined by a fourth partner, Xavier Padovani, they opened in London’s Chinatown. The discreet entrance on Gerrard Street leads upstairs to a suitably moody space with interior details that talk of the speakeasy. But it was the cocktails that were the focus. “We quickly realised that in London, people love – really love – to drink,” laughs Cros. This meant putting drinks out as fast as possible, and so with a true start-up mentality they developed cocktails that could be knocked out quickly.

The four partners are all multi-taskers. A deliberate decision that means each of them has a good overview of the whole picture, and the ability to deal with a variety of tasks helps tremendously when covering different territories. Nevertheless, there is some degree of specialisation between the quartet, with Cros and De Goriainoff having a finance focus whilst Bon and Padovani look after marketing. Bon also has an eye on interiors, Padovani on spirits, and De Goriainoff on wine and coffee.

Whilst the driver had always been cocktails, standalone restaurants soon followed. And then came hotels, which were seen as the pinnacle. With everything under one roof, the rewards are higher, notes De Goriainoff. “We probably have 50% revenue from F&B and 50% from hotels,” he explains. “Hotels are more profitable than F&B. A higher margin on the rooms, lower margin on food and somewhere in-between on drinks. So all in all, a good blend.”

The group’s first property, Grand Pigalle Hôtel in Paris opened in 2015. An ability to read neighbourhoods with an up-and-coming status has served them in good stead. And it was a dream start. An underloved building with great bones brought back to its former beauty. “Extremely Parisian,” enthuses Cros of this corner structure with iron balustrades and original mouldings. He extols the virtues of its size, “not too big, not too small”. And the crowd liked it, with many of the hospitality codes developed there still present today.

The Grand Pigalle Hôtel, like the majority of the group’s properties, features interiors crafted by the hand of Dorothée Meilichzon. Hers is a style of bold colours, patterns and shapes, applied with a subdued modernity that still allows the character of the existing building, its history and neighbourhood to shine. See terracotta, brass accents, highlights of petrol blue and upcycled furniture amongst modern pieces. A lightness of touch that is feminine but not unassuming. Cros likens her approach to the knitting of various elements together to create a harmonious whole.

“We have a fantastic relationship and we are very lucky because she is so talented,” he explains, emphasising how the strong relationship allows for more open dialogue. Cros also points out that Meilizchon’s other clients and experience bring new inspiration to each project. Asked for her view, Meilizchon responds: “Experimental Group and myself are long-time friends, we have travelled a lot together, share the same vision on hospitality and admire the same hotels. We have many common values yet want to evolve and push the boundaries.”

Though Meilichzon is the main design collaborator, she brought in Cristina Celestino to help at Il Palazzo Experimental in Venice. Milanese architect Fabrizio Casiraghi meanwhile was tasked with Experimental Châlet Verbier, introducing a fresh take on the wood and stone staples of Alpine interiors to deliver something more minimalist Mid-Century with gentle curves, brass lamps and contrasting colours – white and dark blue bathrooms, for instance.

The choice of name for the business, experimental, is fitting. For theirs is a very hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves, we-canlearn-it approach. Moreover, it describes the sense of curiosity and discovery that every journey should have. A journey that sees me tracking down Cros in Florence; he was in Biarritz the day before. Is he looking for a property? “It’s a holiday,” he replies but quickly adds that there are always places to investigate.

Being in Florence is typical of the group’s successful road of discovery, led largely by instinct and partly by following its crowd. The approach has seen further ventures in New York, London, Ibiza and Menorca. The Experimental Beach on the southern shore of Ibiza, across the salt flats of Las Salinas, came about when the partners noted a lack of real cocktail bars on the erstwhile party island. So they opened one on the beach, decorating it with a marooned boat and fairy lights. A simply beautiful venue that hosted a dinner as part of Sleepover 2019, one of Sleeper Media’s intimate networking events.

From its genesis as a cocktail bar, the business has organically grown to become a fully-fledged hospitality group. And this success has recently allowed the company to raise significant capital to fund its further expansion. By late 2021, the partners announced the generation of some €350 million from private real estate funds, managed by one of the world’s largest investors, Canadian-based Brookfield. The investment will allow Experimental to buy hotels outright, becoming both owner and operator. Brookfield holds a majority stake in the new real estate business and a minority stake in the operations.

Experimental Group’s successful road of discovery has led to ventures in New York, London, Ibiza and Menorca (below)

The funds are already in motion with the initial expansion focused on Europe – a playground the partners know and feel is still ripe with opportunity. Cowley Manor, a luxury rural hotel set in the bucolic surroundings of the Cotswolds to the west of London, was acquired in May 2022. Marking the group’s first UK venture outside of the capital, the hotel will continue to trade with a phased refurbishment to introduce a further four room types. In Biarritz, the coastal town in southwest France, two neighbouring properties have also been acquired; the 72-room, Belle Époque-style Hôtel Régina & Spa and adjacent Hôtel Le Garage, a 27-key boutique hotel. “We have been looking to open in the area for years and are excited to give them a new lease of life,” says Bon. In Ibiza, the grand Montesol Experimental will join the group’s Sabbaba Montesol restaurant. All are currently trading and will be rebranded as Experimental in spring 2023. Queried whether such expansion risks spreading resources, including creative design, Cros quickly counters with reference to three successful openings in new locations in 2018 and 2019 – Menorca Experimental with 43 guestrooms, nine private villas and a spa; Experimental Châlet in Verbier and Il Palazzo Experimental in the Dorsoduro quarter of Venice. And there is more to come. The Roadhouse, a former latenight music venue in London’s buzzing Covent Garden – just a stone’s throw from the group’s Henrietta Hotel – has been acquired and is set to re-open as Stereo in late 2022. Finally comes Experimental Châlet St Moritz expected to launch in winter 2023.

The raising of funds during the pandemic shows firstly the belief of the founders in the bounce back of the hotel market, and secondly their understanding of the timing to capture the upside of the recovery. Cros refers to continuing the approach of both surprising guests with new escapades and new locations whilst also being the reassuring provider of Experimental’s renowned experience. Before he leaves Hôtel des Grands Boulevards and our breakfast meeting, Cros takes a moment to discuss with his team the rearrangement and clipping of the plants he has noticed encroaching the banquette we are sitting on. With his feet very much on the ground and an eye for every detail, he personifies the energy and attitude of Experimental Group.