Appetisers

Together Again

As part of a brand-wide refresh, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts has revealed further details of its new F&B concept set to roll-out across all 446 properties worldwide.

Drawing on its roots as a community hub, the new approach creates a holistic experience with spaces to connect, where guests feel comfortable whether working, dining, meeting or relaxing. “Our overarching design vision is based around the art of gathering,” explains Brittney Hepler, Senior Design Manager with Marriott’s Global Design Strategies team. Speaking via video conference, she continues: “It is an art form to create spaces that really welcome guests and support meaningful experiences; within our spaces, guest and locals should feel a connected sense of belonging, both physically and emotionally.”

A focal point of the lobby, the F&B concept – known as Coffee Bar Bar – is a central pillar of the new vision. Part bar, part coffee bar, part market, it is designed to transition seamlessly from day to night, with dining and imbibing options that are locally-sourced and customisable to accommodate all tastes and time schedules. “This is the heartbeat of our public space, and it’s what really makes our communal energy thrive,” continues Helper. “It is a scalable concept with multiple components for casual interactions throughout the day.”

The additional components can be selected by individual owners from a kit of parts and include The Studios – flexible gathering spaces that are enclosed in glass so that guests can meet in privacy while benefitting from the energy of the lobby – and The Community Table, a workspace with integrated lighting and wireless charging stations that invites guests to work or dine as a group, or alone together.

The new vision can now be seen at properties in Tel Aviv, Dubai, Denver and Guangzhou with regional nuances in the cuisine and design details. “This is a pivotal moment for Sheraton as we see hotel owners embracing the new vision and bringing it to life for the first time,” concludes Amanda Nichols, Senior Director and Global Brand Leader. “Over the past 80 years, Sheraton has always offered guests the timehonoured assurance of a welcoming community. We’re proud to have built on this legacy in the new concept, creating an environment where guests can enjoy all the familiar comforts of the Sheraton brand, but with fresh, contemporary updates.”

Designing Destinations

André Fu offers a preview of his new project for Four Seasons, designed to Chef Daniel Calvert’s culinary vision.

As Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi gears up for its grand opening, interior architect André Fu has revealed the design concept for its hotly anticipated dining destinations, releasing a hand-drawn sketch of the elegant spaces.

In keeping with the hotel’s boutique offer, the culinary journey promises to be an intimate, engaging and deeply personalised affair. “The mindset here is very different from a typical hotel restaurant,” explains Fu, noting the ‘hidden gem’ feel evoked by an array of distinct seating areas, each carefully curated with signature touches. Effervescent colours flow into sculpturally fluid silhouettes, setting a tone that is contemporary yet relaxed – “a quiet elegance that’s designed to welcome, not overwhelm,” says Fu. The designer has employed subtle Japanese detailing such as eucalyptus wood and Zen garden motifs as well as local artisan-made mud paint to evoke a poetic sense of place.

The destination comprises two distinct venues: Sézanne, a French fine-dining restaurant, and Maison Marunouchi, a lively French bistro – both overseen by Michelin-starred chef Daniel Calvert. Originally from the UK, Calvert has centred his vision for Sézanne around dynamic, technique-driven French cuisine. With a focus on updating classic recipes, dishes are crafted with a light touch and plated with flawless precision; “Everything on the plate is there for a reason,” remarks the chef. Over at Maison Marunouchi, Calvert and his team will serve up fresh interpretations of bistro fare against views of Marunouchi and Tokyo Station.

“What sets apart our upcoming dining destination is that every single element builds towards Chef Daniel’s vision as realised by André Fu,” explains General Manager Charles Fisher. “Not just the ingredients and menus but also the layout, the décor, the style of service – even the uniforms. All the pieces of the puzzle fit together seamlessly. We can’t wait for our guests to experience the result of this exceptionally collaborative process.”

The Art of Bread

A new bakery by Slow and Frederik Bille Brahe aims to refresh Berlin’s bread culture.

Claus Sendlinger has already had a significant impact on the world of hospitality through the Design Hotels collective he founded in 1993, and now he’s set to bring his expertise to the world of dining with the launch of a bakery.

A collaboration between Slow – Sendlinger’s new hospitality and lifestyle venture – and Danish chef and restaurateur Frederik Bille Brahe, Sofi occupies a restored brick factory in Berlin’s Mitte district, and sets out to recover the true flavours of ancient grain through its commitment to honest, low-intervention craft baking. “I always dreamed of opening a space in Berlin,” says Brahe, whose Copenhagen restaurants include Café Atelier September, Apollo Kantine & Bar and Kafeteria in the National Gallery of Denmark. “When I met Claus in Copenhagen, we quickly connected through our shared vision for a different kind of hospitality. We are hoping to add something special to the Berlin food scene, and we want to be a part of a bread movement that rights some of the wrongs of industrialisation by honouring an ancient craft and paying tribute to the soil and its farmers.”

Sourcing grains from small organic farmers across Northern Europe, Sofi’s bakers work to preserve the original flavours, from the wild, piquant tang of Emmer to squishy champagne rye. Besides three rotating bread varieties – a box-fermented, mixed-wheat Berliner loaf, a rotating daily loaf and a Danish-inflected Rugbrød – Sofi offers a selection of cakes, cookies and pastries. The bakery has been designed by Danish architects Mathias Mentze and Alexander Vedel Ottensten in collaboration with Dreimeta, and aims to be a community hub and supplier to a selection of local restaurants.

“Working with Frederik is an ideal collaboration,” says Serdar Kutucu, CEO of Slow, which has a number of new hotel projects in the works. “We are thrilled to apply some of the insights of the Slow movement – the emphasis on craft, origin, materials, process – to the art of bread baking.”

© Hans Meijer / Courtesy of Design Hotels

Raise the Roof

Unexpected locations, limited-edition menus and chef residencies are just some of the elements that make for a one-of-a-kind dining experience synonymous with culinary pop-ups. And it’s not just diners who find the concept so alluring, but operators too; pop-ups allow for a new kind of creativity and the freedom to try something new without the long-term commitment associated with permanent restaurants.

Hotels across the globe are capitalising on the trend by inviting chefs to create unique culinary experiences for their guests. The latest to get in on the act is Grupo Habita’s Círculo Mexicano, a Design Hotels member in Mexico City. Building on its mission to be a neighbourhood cultural haven, the property has unveiled plans for ONA Le Toit, a month-long pop-up held in collaboration with ONA. First launched by Luca Pronzato in 2019, ONA is a culinary movement offering a new platform for young gastronomy talents to express their creativity and further their development.

Running on the rooftop from 16 April to 16 May 2021, the pop-up has 20 covers plus a private chef’s table and will serve both lunch and dinner. Designed by Ambrosi & Etchegaray, the restaurant and bar are an extension of the hotel’s overarching theme and feature funiture by La Metropolitana, an interdisciplinary design studio founded in Mexico City.

In the kitchen, Pronzato has selected Chef Romain Tischenko – of Le Galopin and La Cave à Michel fame – to create an exploration of Mexico’s rich food culture. Drawing on his experience at ONA’s pop-up in Lisbon last year, Tischenko has crafted a six-course tasting menu marrying French technique with ingredients sourced from across Mexico. “A temporal project like this is ideal for the creative nature of a chef – it allows you the freedom to keep experimenting,” says Tischenko. “I’m coming in with no fixed ideas about what I want to create and will let the discovery guide the process.”

An Epicurean Journey

With four dining destinations, a Michelin star and a growing collection of rare whiskies, Adare Manor has established itself as one of Ireland’s leading culinary landmarks. Now, the country house hotel – which reopened in 2017 following a major renovation – has published a book to tell the tale of its success. Written by Turtle Bunbury, An Epicurean Journey is a feast of stories and recipes celebrating the talents of the chefs, bakers, chocolatiers and pastry-makers who are constantly nurturing and developing their creative flair. It also shines the spotlight on the quality produce used across the resort, sourced from artisan farms, gardens, orchards and coastal waters across Ireland, which the head chefs visited on a 3,000km road trip to find the best ingredients the country has to offer. Beautifully illustrated with quality photography of the dining venues and its dishes, the 176page hardback book features sommelier recommendations and a look at the cellar; it explores behind the scenes and to the hotel’s beehives; and it showcases the tableware that plays a key role in the presentation of each dish. Recipe highlights include Dooncastle Oyster Teriyaki featuring produce from the west coast; Dexter Beef sourced from a herd that roams Killenure Castle in Co Tiperary; and classic soda bread perfected by the hotel’s own bakers.

As demand for takeaway and delivery surges, the dark kitchen model provides hotels with an opportunity to evolve its F&B strategy.

Over the past year, with hotel restaurant and bars forced to shutter as a consequence of the pandemic, operators have become adept at repurposing their spaces. Front-of-house, properties have been turned into housing, hospitals and pop-up offices, while dormant kitchen facilities have embraced a new disruptive force – the dark kitchen.

Otherwise known as ghost or cloud kitchens, dark kitchens are defined as cooking facilities that produce food for delivery and takeaway only. App-driven businesses such as Deliveroo and Just Eat have been quick to adopt the model, establishing professional-grade kitchens in prefabricated structures such as shipping containers and renting them out to food outlets.

An Airbnb for the restaurant industry, the model allows multiple brands to operate under one roof, with drivers ready and waiting to deliver freshly cooked meals at a moment’s notice.

Creating an opportunity for hospitality brands to grow without the overheads and constraints of a bricks-and-mortar offering, the model is also becoming popular amongst entrepreneurs who are as hesitant about launching physical dining spaces in the current climate. In 2020 alone, 20,000 new restaurants joined the Deliveroo platform and 2,000 of the brands available on the app do not exist in the physical space. Moreover, the ghost kitchen model fuelling these services is predicted to be worth US$1 trillion in the next ten years according to Euromonitor, and is proving to be extremely lucrative within the hotel sector.

While the concept is not entirely new, as illustrated by Butler Hospitality, who in 2016 began streamlining in-room dining by channelling F&B concepts for multiple hotels through a single kitchen facility, the model could bring together hotels and outside food operators on a larger scale by providing the option of leasing out redundant kitchen space or overhaul existing dining concepts.

In the US, Sam Nazarian, founder of hospitality company SBE, has launched C3 (Creating Culinary Communities), a portfolio of dark kitchens, culinary brands and lifestyle food halls. The concept already has 200 digital kitchens and eight restaurant brands attached to its name including Umami Burger, Krispy Rice and Bazaar. In January, Nazarian announced that C3 would be joining forces with Graduate Hotels to operate delivery-focused food halls inside the group’s properties. By mid-2021, C3 will have taken over foodservice operations in six sites, which will see

existing kitchens replaced with multi-branded digital kitchens housing up to six food brands.

Meanwhile, Hyatt has launched its Hyatt Loves Local initiative, a programme offering kitchen space to local businesses that have struggled as a consequence of the pandemic. Over 60 properties have taken part including Hyatt Regency in Dubai, which provided kitchen facilities to a local confectionary business, and Hyatt HanaMaui Resort, which welcomed vendors from a local farmers market and provided preparation and refrigerator space.

Whether hotels will continue to foster these partnerships or jump head first into the booming delivery and dark kitchen market going forward, remains to be seen. However, seeing F&B through a non-restaurant lens could make it more accessible to passing trade, while underutilised spaces within hotels, such as food preparation areas, could represent a rare opportunity for profitability at a time when the sector continues to deal with the fallout from the pandemic.

Lights Out