Food & beverage
continued to close – there are now fewer reasons for thirsty guests to stick to the hotel lobby. Operators, however, are clearly not insensitive to these changes. Aware of the deep heritage of many hotel bars, hotels are nonetheless refreshing what an evening at the bar involves. And mindful of living in a health-conscious age, one change involves the introduction of more non-alcoholic beverages. That’s shadowed by a more fundamental shift in tone. Where serious boozers like Casey Stengel may have been happy with low lights and strong whisky, gentler, more inclusive atmospheres are increasingly being normalised, accompanied by the usual assortment of pop-ups and sustainability efforts. Collectively, these shifts represent an essential change in what hotel bars can be – even if the old favourites are unlikely to ever disappear.
Bar to success
Few people have as much experience in hospitality as Scott Gingerich. A self-proclaimed “lifer” in the sector, he began his career as a busser back in 1990, and since then has done everything from running F&B operations at the Salt Lake City Olympics to managing Michelin- starred restaurants in Manhattan. In 2015, Gingerich made the jump to hotel hospitality, and now works as the Americas VP of restaurants and bars for IHG Luxury and Lifestyle. To put it differently, this is someone worth listening to – and right from the off, he’s eager to puncture one of the most basic clichés around hotel drinking holes. “Firstly, to be clear, we don’t consider our bars ‘hotel bars’ like we don’t consider our restaurants ‘hotel restaurants’ – as we have always gone to great lengths to create and operate restaurants and bars that stand on their own and are known as great entities unto themselves.” Nor is Gingerich, now based in Florida, the only executive to make a similar claim. As Adam Crocini, senior vice-president and global head of food and beverage brands at Hilton, puts it, hotel bars are “pivotal to the brand” across his employer’s 7,000-odd properties. And certainly, it’s hard to disagree with these claims if you take even a cursory look at some of the most famous hotel bars the world over. From the Connaught Bar in London, all dark wood and grand furnishings, to the hip vibe at Jigger and Pony, the ever-popular haunt at the Amara Singapore, the best hotel drinking spots still have the power to conjure an instant sense of place, showing a site at its most attractive and showcasing its history in a glass. Yet, with all their heritage, research like the 2010 Zagat survey sharply demonstrates the pressure hotel bars are under. Gingerich expresses this point in typically vivid terms, accepting that fewer of today’s guests would “tolerate the terribly mixed cocktail made by a grumpy bartender in a soulless lobby bar”. Beyond
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
the general leap in competition, Gingerich suggests that the pandemic is to blame as well. With a post- lockdown craze for social drinking, he notes that it’s recently been challenging to secure good bartenders, especially, perhaps, given cocktail recipes are now far more sophisticated than they were 40 years ago. Once again, moreover, the statistics seem to support this argument. US hospitality is still around two million workers short according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, while a joint survey by UKHospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association found that UK hospitality may have lost out on £21bn of revenue – in part due to a lack of qualified staff.
Something to celebrate
What can operators do to bolster the position of hotel bars? In the first place, it’s obvious that both IHG and Hilton are working hard to secure the most inventive bartenders in the business. Crocini, to give one example, highlights a range of recent hires at his employer, from Michele Montauti at the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok to Ana Martinez, the “tequila master” at
Above: A sweeter spirit cocktail at the Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead.
Below: Offering a change in atmosphere from the classic dimly-lit hotel bars of old can draw in new custom, like the Sky Shed at the Kimpton Armory Hotel.
Opposite page: Spirits and sun often make an undeniable combination, like at the Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana.
33
Hilton; IHG
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
