J U LY 2 0 1 7
NEWSLETTER
noblehousehotels.com | 425.827.8737 | 600 6th Street South Kirkland, WA
ARGONAUT HOTEL While the hotel geared up for the busy season, the Blue Mermaid restaurant took on the task of a renovation. Through the challenges of moving the restaurant out into the expansive Argonaut lobby, modifying the menu and the entire culinary team working together in the banquet line area, everyone maintained a positive attitude and hung in there! We were thankful for the team’s patience as they re-launched the new and improved Blue Mermaid on Memorial Day Weekend. With an exciting new menu to match the new look and feel of the restaurant, we invite everyone to come check them out! Both Hotel Zoe and the Argonaut joined forces on March 22nd for their quarterly community project with Project Homeless Connect. Project Homeless Connect excels in connecting the most vulnerable San Franciscans to vital resources throughout the city. At their one-stop shop events and in their office every day, they link participants to difficult-to-obtain services including medical, dental and vision care, and employment assistance. By mobilizing city and community agencies, as well as thousands of volunteers, they are able to ensure that participants receive holistic care in a dignified setting. It was an incredibly moving experience for all and they look forward to doing it again!
HOTEL ZOE After a 16 million dollar re-imagination, Hotel Zoe (formerly the Tuscan) has officially opened its doors as the newest luxury boutique hotel in San Francisco. Located in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf, Hotel Zoe has emerged as San Francisco’s newest haven for the adventurer at heart. Hotel Zoe’s design is inspired by high end luxury yachts you might find cruising through exotic Mediterranean ports. The sophisticated and luxurious design is brought to life with high end finishes, light colors with wood finishes, enhanced meeting space, an additional bar, and our hotel muse, Zoe, which was sculpted in our newly designed outdoor courtyard. She stands 24 feet tall and is an Instagram worthy photo. The Tuscan/Hotel Zoe team has worked countless hours to ensure our guests have been well taken care of during the six months of renovation and reconstruction. Their positive attitudes and excitement for the new product have been exceptional. They look forward launching their living room programing, activations and whimsical elements as they continue their launch schedule. They could not have done this without the dedication of their team!
GATEWAY CANYONS If you ever get a chance to visit Gateway Canyons in Colorado, you’ll be blown away by its natural beauty and landscaping. During one of my recent trips, I got to meet all of the landscaping team members and tell them personally how great the resort looked! I could not believe that 7 people working only 4 days a week are able to accomplish this huge task around the resort! But, what blows me away is their professionalism and customer service skills. Yep, the landscaping team excels in customer service! They greet every guest they see by nodding, smiling or waving while sitting on their mowers and they turn off their blowers and mowers when guests are nearby. For such a large resort stretched out over 6,000 acres, this is an impression department! Congratulations and we are very proud of your team!
CHRIS MCSEVNEY Sous Chef
“My introduction to the kitchen happened at the age of sixteen. It all started when I left school and started as a dishwasher in a small coaching hotel in the highlands of Scotland. Soon after my first season, I was asked to move up to Commis Chef and that was the start of my professional journey into the world of catering and food service. From there I built my skill set in various kitchens and expanded my diversity of culinary opportunities working in six different countries, including Scotland, England, Spain, Ireland, British Virgin Islands, and most recent the U.S.A. Being a Sous Chef at Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa has been my first role in the United States and I look forward to the opportunities it will present in furthering my career as being a Chef.” What do you enjoy most about working in the kitchen? “I enjoy the daily challenges of kitchen life; no day is ever the same. I also enjoy the camaraderie aspect of the associates in the kitchen as we spend a lot of time together. It’s important we all get along.”
TETON MOUNTAIN LODGE & HOTEL TERRA In the last couple of weeks the teams at Teton Mountain Lodge and Hotel Terra have welcomed students from 5 different countries: Turkey, Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Macedonia, and China! With over 70 new J1 students between the two hotels, the core team had lots of work to do to welcome their new team members, so celebrating with pancakes always works! The pancake welcome breakfast has become a regular celebration at the hotels. The team recognized their June Employees of the Month - Jennifer Raker, who works in Housekeeping, won for Hotel Terra; and Karen McLeod, who works in the Spa, won for Teton Mountain Lodge. They also recognized two employees, Tom Foley and Matt Howard, who are celebrating 10 years with the company.
LITTLE PALM ISLAND This is the “Department of First Impressions� at Little Palm Island! The marine department keeps the boats running smoothly through the blue waters of the Keys on its way to the island. Our boat captains and mates assist our guests on and off the boats and get to interact with each guest during the short 15 minute trip to the island. You can tell by the professional images, they take their jobs very seriously and get rave reviews from our guests. Marine Crew (Left to Right) Marine Operations Manager: Captain Willie Bailey, Captain Greg Dowling, Captain Thomas Ashley, Mechanic John Mucci, Dive Instructor Aaron Lyons, First Mate Edmund Siwek, Captain Hugh Heim, First Mate James Steffen, Mechanic Skyler Doreste, Captain Dan Mangold. The housekeeping team looks great! (I bet you are wishing you could work under the palm trees, huh?) Our shore station team is where it all begins for the arrival of our guests. They are a super team of associates!
RIVER TERRACE INN River Terrace Inn celebrated the opening of its new restaurant “ALBA� last month. The associates had a great time mixing up custom cocktails and serving some fabulous new menu items created by the culinary team. They hosted about 70 people at the opening party and the team is very busy and enjoying a full service restaurant over-looking the Napa River!
PORTOFINO HOTEL & MARINA A S S O C I AT E S P O T L I G H T Chef Leandro Bongarra
Before joining the Noble House Resorts, Leo was leading the kitchen as an Executive Chef of the Sunset Tower Hotel; named recently one of the 100 best hotels in the world. It is the favored accommodations in Los Angeles for elite clientele, and a regular host of small and large A-list events. As the Executive Chef he oversaw the hotel’s 230-seat restaurant and all dining outlets (i.e. room service and events). The recent awards season in Los Angeles afforded him the opportunity to cater the official after parties of the Golden Globes, Academy Awards and The Grammys. He has participated in kitchens serving from one to one thousand people. In addition to restaurant experience, early in his career he was the Personal Chef for George Marciano, founder of Guess Jeans. He was later one-half of an esteemed catering company, cooking for such clients as Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah. His food was favorably reviewed by the Los Angeles Times while employed as the Chef de Cuisine at Stefan´s at L.A. Farm with the “Top Chef” show season 5 finalist Stefan Ricther . During this period he also co-created the main course for a James Beard Foundation benefit dinner. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, of Russian and Italian decent, Leo studied Culinary Arts first at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, CA and furthered his education at Scuola di Cuccina in Roma, Italy. His culinary passion came to flourish after his professional soccer career ended with some major knee injuries. He supplemented his education with research tours in Germany, Finland, Holland, Spain and France where he studied their traditional culinary methods. Additionally, he is fluent in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and English.
HILTON SAN DIEGO RESORT & SPA The team at the Hilton lost two of their very long term associates this year, team member Pedro Aguilar and Becky Baker. Both associates worked at the resort for 30+ years! Our condolences to each of their families. They will be missed around the resort. The team at the Hilton had a summer kick off carnival! Summer is the busiest season at the resort, so they wanted to start it off with a party to get all the team members excited. The carnival had games that everyone could participle in such as tug of war, water balloon toss and a game of who could make the bed the best in a short amount of time. Those who played the games were given tickets that were drawn for a chance to win time in the “Money Cube�. They also had a salsa contest which Leticia Mendoza (a member of their housekeeping team) won.
LAPLAYA BEACH & GOLF RESORT Please join me in congratulating Georgiana and Abbey as they have won the Tiki Tag Team Championships’ for Quarter 2! These ladies embody all 9 Noble House Core Values in all that they do in taking care of our guests, members, and fellow team members. Their hard work, dedication, fantastic attitudes and bright smiles have been setting the tone in the Tiki Bar for the last Quarter! Our guests have taken notice as these two ladies have appeared on multiple Trip Advisor and Comment card comments. Thanks to the effort of these two individuals, the Tiki Bar has stayed on top of the F&B division at LaPlaya... sorry Baleen.
KONA KAI RESORT & SPA New and exciting things are going on at the Kona Kai. Welcome to the Kona Kai new Bell Person staff where they offer full valet service! They now have 14 Bellman that offer our guests extended service with all of the Noble House Core Values. Soon a new pool and 41 new rooms! The entire team needs to be recognized for holding it together during their construction phases – 3+ years of some type of construction! Thanks KKR team!
LaPlaya hosted its first annual talent show on May 31st. Participant were: Nikola Vukovic, Corey Neilson-Winner, Adriano Pagnotta, Doris Ochoa, TJ Savidge. The winner gets a paid performance over Labor Day weekend! Congratulations to Corey!
WINE TRAIN led-out’ Train have recently ‘rol The team at the Wine te and ple com is tion renova the new 1013 car! The same excitement the ng nci erie exp the associates are as the guests!
PELICAN BEACH RESORT PELICAN SPOTLIGHT Mitch Blaylock
We are featuring Mitch Blaylock. He joined OCEAN2000 Restaurant in October 2016 as a Server. Most recently Mitch has been promoted to Lead Server/Trainer for OCEAN2000. Mitch also was our January 2017 Shining Star Award Recipient. Prior to joining the Pelican Family, Mitch was in acting and costarring with Betty White in the movie “Lost Valentine” playing the role of “Officer Harris”. His professional screen name is Mitch Grant. Another is from “Pirates of the Caribbean” in which Mitch played a British Naval Officer, one of Captain Barbossa’s guys, in Pirates 1, 2, 3 & 4. Other movies include “Catch Me If You Can” (the photographer at Leo Decaprio’s engagement party) scenes with Tom Hanks, Leonardo DeCaprio, and Martin Sheen directed by Steven Spielberg. “Reign Over Me” with Adam Sandler, also “Anger Management” with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. “Old School”, “War of the Worlds”, “Terminal” (2nd movie with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg), “Transformers”, “Sponge Bob Square Pants: The Movie”. Tv shows to include most recently “Justified”, “Will and Grace”, “ER”, “Boston Public”, “Heroes”. The joke in LA is “oh, you’re an actor, where do you wait tables?”.....did not have a waiter job the entire 15 years in Hollywood/ Show Business. Mitch is so happy to back in the spotlight, not of Hollywood, but of being a server
at The Pelican Grand Beach Resort for Noble House and leading a “normal”, happy life, among an awesome family of people at the Pelican in South Florida. Mitch traded coasts, traded beaches, and couldn’t be happier about the change. “Never will say I won’t get back into film and TV, but for now and the coming future, Noble House is my home”. Mitch has been in the restaurant business since age 13, (30 years) first job was a dishwasher in his hometown of Solon Springs, Wisconsin, population 596, worked in resorts in Phoenix, Arizona, St. John US Virgin Islands, 3 summers at Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park Montana, and 6 summers on an island in Lake Superior called Madeline Island near his hometown. Mitch recently visited Ocean Key Resort and Little Palm Island in the Keys and his goal is to visit all of Noble House properties within 2 years!
On Red Nose Day 05/25/17, Pelican Grand raised $50 in one day by selling Red Noses to staff and hotel guests! The team also recognized their Shining Stars! Congratulations to all nominations and of course the winners! The team is rocking it on the beach! PEL-I-CANS!
BAYLOCK
OCEAN KEY RESORT & SPA NOBLE GEM 1ST QUARTER Abigail Skibinski Mixologist at Hot Tin Roof
“My vote is for Abigail Skibinski. Since starting here at Ocean Key as a HTR bartender; any task, any job, any shift, Abbie has been there with a super attitude and never a complaint. Her contributions servicing our guests and leading by example to her peers, she has quickly become an invaluable member of our department. Abbie is our current MVP for sure”. - Rodger Levering, Director of Food & Beverage. The OKR Boutique has just finished renovations! The makeover is just beautiful, like our Area Retail Director, Brooke Brockner, shown here with her very glamorous Boutique Sales Associate, Beata Chodyna. Open Enrollment for Benefits happened fast and furious this year at Ocean Key! HR Coordinator, Christy Ourada, is seen here going over our new benefits with the Front Office Manager, Tony Mendez. Thank you Christy for making this year’s Open Enrollment Process such a success!
EDGEWATER FOOD & BEVERAGE Kaleena Bliss
From Kaleena: I knew from a very young age that I was going to be a Chef. I spent the last 14 years working towards that goal through both education and restaurants. I spent 4 years at the CIA in NY and graduated with a Bachelors in restaurant management. I am a Washington native. Most of my cooking career has been throughout the Pacific Northwest. I was a line cook at Canlis in 2006. After school, went back to Portland, OR to work in a French Bistro Fenouil for 2 years, then kitchen supervisor at the Hilton. I moved to Bainbridge for a Sous Chef job at The Four Swallows (upscale Italian), then moved to Seattle. I was Chef de Cuisine at Mistral Kitchen for 2.5 years downtown, now Chef de Cuisine at Six Seven. I have a deep-seeded interest and love for Italian cuisine. I spent a month in Italy in 2008 on a professional food and wine study, cooking with Italian grandmothers and touring vineyards, farms, charcuterie and cheese manufacturers. My interests outside of work are still food and beverage. I like trying out new restaurants and bars, tasting new foods, staying inspired and looking for memorable experiences. I’m a huge fan of the Oregon Coast and the ocean in general. I would love to move out there later in life.
Things that are important to me about my management or cooking style: Going back to simplicity. Starting with quality ingredients that are responsibly sourced, where little manipulation is needed to make a dish stand out. The food should always be beautiful, but more importantly, the ingredients need to work together and the flavors of the plate as a whole must taste great. Also, maintaining the idea of a strong work ethic and good attitudes in those around me in the kitchen. To help cooks remember that the successes of this industry today were paved years before them by Chefs and cooks who pushed their hard work and dedication to the limits. To not take that for granted in a day and age where it is easier to and more socially acceptable to have a career as a cook or a chef.
MISO GLAZED BLACK COD WITH FERMENTED CUCUMBER Marinate black cod filets in miso glaze for minimum 8 hours, preferably 24 hours prior to serving. Heat non-stick saute pan over high heat until very hot, add a light vegetable oil, season filets very lightly with salt and pepper, and sear until caramelized and beginning to char. Flip filets over, brush with more glaze, and finish in a 400 oven. To finish the top of the fish, brush with glaze one more time and either finish under broiler or with a blowtorch. Garnish with sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds, and some fermented cucumbers which have been tossed with sliced radish, celery heart, shaved golden beet, shaved fennel – shaved summer vegetables to your liking. Additional garnishes for this dish could be shiitake or maitake mushroom, seared cabbage, steamed jasmine rice, and roasted eggplant.
MISO GLAZE MIRIN 1 Cup Sake 1 Cup Sugar 1.5 Cup White Miso – 1# Combine mirin, sake, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Whisk in miso until fully combined and smooth. Cool completely.
FERMENTED CUCUMBER Cucumber, English Fish Sauce Kimchi Base Black Bean Garlic Sauce Garlic, Chopped Ginger, Chopped Green Onion, Sliced Red Pepper Flake Salt Sugar Water
2 Ea 1 Tsp 1 Tsp 1.5 oz 1 Tsp 1 Tsp .5 Bunch .5 Tsp 1 Tsp 1 Tsp 1/3 Cup
Split cucumber in half lengthwise, deseed, and slice on a bias. In a medium mixing bowl, toss all ingredients with cucumbers, using hands with good pressure to get sauce into the cucumber flesh. Place in an tupperware/cambro with a layer of plastic wrap over the top, then a weighted plate on top to keep the cucumbers submerged, another plastic wrap over the very top of the container, then the snap-on lid. Leave this at room temperature for 48 hours, then transfer to a new, clean container and refrigerate.
KIRKLAND COMPANY OFFICE KIRKLAND
Congratulations to Pat and Diane Colee on the recent celebration of their 50th Wedding anniversary! What a great looking couple! As most of you know, both Donna Repp, our long time Noble House office administration assistant (17 years) and Mike Benecke, President (30 years) have recently retired from Noble House. Although, Mike has tried to sneak out, he remains a valued member of the Board of Directors! And‌...a few pictures from the 2017 annual Kirkland Whirlyball tournament! The creative and design team took in a baseball game to re-charge! The team consists of Scott, Meagan, Hass, Edith, Xengyeng and Erin.
A NOTE FROM JAZ Without a doubt, I know that each of us show up every day with the intentions of enjoying the day. We want to enjoy time with the guests and then sometimes, things go crazy! How do we handle ‘the crazy day’? First, you are not alone in experiencing a ‘crazy day’! We all have them, but we have to remind ourselves that our guests must never feel that ‘crazy day’. The expressions on our faces (we lose the Smile!), we pass by the guests without speaking (Speak First and Last!) and we give internal problems as excuses as to why things happen. I know how difficult it can be each day to stay strong through construction projects, busted pipes, systems that go down and guests that are not satisfied. But, we are strong and we care! As a team we can get through anything. Use the training that is outlined by your department and practice those customer service skills each day. One other thing... remember to breath! Taking a deep breath before we react adds oxygen to our system and it may help with the decision on how we handle each situation. Remember, the guests are not mad at you, they are upset about the situation! It’s all in our Core Values! Be safe….Jaz
noblehousehotels.com | 425.827.8737 | 600 6th Street South Kirkland, WA